The Australian Football League "celebrated its highest total second round in the game's history and singled out good fixturing, club sentiment and the quality of the games" for a '16 season opening expected to exceed more than 1 million spectators by the end of round three. AFL Commercial Operations & Branding Dir Darren Birch "singled out Essendon and Carlton supporters for showing up in numbers that far exceeded the AFL's expectations during their home games over the weekend." More than 352,000 fans attended the nine round-two games, "exceeding the previous best for the round (350,000) in 2013." A total of 713,000 supporters have "attended AFL games over the first two weeks of the 2016 season." The "biggest attendance of round two came on Friday night with more than 72,000 witnessing Collingwood's one-point victory over Richmond" (THE AGE, 4/4).
Drug Free Sports New Zealand announced that athletes in New Zealand have become "more vigilant about the medication and supplements they take in the wake of Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova's positive test." Sharapova tested positive for the banned substance meldonium, and said that she was "unaware that it had been banned" by WADA. DFSNZ CEO Graeme Steel said, "It is sad that a famous athlete has been caught out in this way, but the good outcome for us is that it has helped get our message across to athletes that they need to check all medications and supplements carefully" (REUTERS, 4/4).
England Netball players "will go full-time from June this year as part of a mission to reach the 2019 World Cup final." England Netball has been looking "at all parameters of the performance programme" with a view to closing the gap on Australia and New Zealand. Full-time training will begin on June 13 in Loughborough (BBC, 4/4).
