National Sports

TORONTO — Canada's women's basketball team is a legitimate medal contender at the World Cup that tips off on Saturday.

TORONTO — Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje skated in a show last season in Astana, Kazakhstan, and on the flight home and for days afterward the Canadian ice dancers couldn't get a particular song out of their heads.

Karl Fix, a Regina rugby supporter, has withdrawn his financial contribution to the Canadian under-20 team out of concern over Rugby Canada's handling of its current labour dispute with the Canadian sevens players.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The cases are strikingly similar: Two talented young women were stabbed to death by male strangers while doing athletic activities alone in normally safe parts of Iowa.

MOSCOW — Should Russia be reinstated without publicly admitting wrongdoing for its state-sponsored doping scheme? That question has caused ferocious infighting at the World Anti-Doping Agency, the watchdog body tasked with stopping any repeat of the

TORONTO — Josh Lawrence had a plan laid out — play junior-A hockey as a 16-year-old, then go to the NCAA in 2020. It didn't take him very long to change his mind, though, once he saw what the Saint John Sea Dogs had envisioned for him instead.

LUCAN, Ont. — Guy Boucher was impressed with Alex Formenton's speed at this time last year. The Ottawa Senators head coach went a couple giants steps further in assessing what he's seen so far from the rookie winger at his second NHL training camp.

Johnny Football is back as a CFL starter. Johnny Manziel will be under centre — again — Friday night when the Montreal Alouettes visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

PYONGYANG, Korea, Democratic People's Republic Of — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a statement Wednesday that the countries planned to jointly bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics.

VANCOUVER — Ty Rattie says the Edmonton Oilers want to start their season strong, even if there are no points at stake.