World Championships Update - Gymnastics, Fencing, Rugby

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London 2017

Candidate City - IAAF World Championships

Rugby World Cup Semis

Rugby World Cup glory is close at hand for two teams.

Wales and France play in the first semifinal match Saturday in Auckland, New Zealand with the hosts taking on bitter rivals Australia on Sunday.

Both matchups will come with some intrigue. Wales has never played in a RWC final, and the French squad was marred with internal strife and lackluster performance in pool play.

The Wallabies and All Blacks, perennially two of the best rugby teams, are banged up after losing key players to injury. Australia has never lost to New Zealand in a RWC matchup. However, New Zealand has a 25-year winning streak against Australia at Eden Park, the match venue.

The weekend’s winning teams play in the Oct. 23 grand final with the losers meeting two days earlier to decide third place.

Gymnastics Worlds

USA is atop the medal tally at the artistic gymnastics world championships with only individual events left to go in Tokyo.

The team of Jordyn Wieber, Alexandra Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Gabrielle Douglas, Sabrina Vega and Alicia Sacramone took gold in Tuesday’s team final with Wieber winning the all-around title two days later.

In men’s action, the team results mirrored those from the Beijing Olympics with China in first, Japan in second and USA in third. The hosts shook up the all-around standings, however, with 2008 silver medalistKohei Uchimura earning top honors Friday and countryman Koji Yamamuro finishing third.

USA, China and Japan each have three medals heading into the final weekend, but only USA can boast two gold. Russia also has two silvers and Germany a single silver. No other country has reached the podium outside those five.

Finals in men’s floor, pommel horse and rings as well as women’s vault and uneven bars are scheduled for Saturday with men’s vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar as well as women’s balance beam and floor to follow Sunday.

Fencing Champs

Host country Italy is dominating this week’s fencing world championships in Catania.

Its athletes have eight total medals, four of them gold, compared to just three for South Korea and two apiece for China, Russia, Romania and USA.

Individual events are through at the Palaghiaccio ice hockey arena with only team finals in epee, foil and sabre to be contested over the weekend.

Because points obtained in individual events are multiplied by 2.5 and in team events are doubled, the competition marks a major qualification milestone on the road to London 2012.

Select action from Catania will be available for streaming live via FIE’s channel on YouTube.Written by Matthew Grayson and Ed Hula III.

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