World Rugby announced Wednesday "the draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan will be held in the country in May 2017, the first time it will be conducted outside Britain or Ireland." The draw "will be made based on the World Rugby Rankings two years before the showpiece event, unlike for the 2015 World Cup in England when the draw was made three years before the tournament, in order to give teams an extra year to move up the standings and earn a better seeding" (KYODO, 5/12).
GOOD BEHAVIOR: World Rugby welcomed Georgia, Romania and the U.S. to an expanded Council. With a new governance model paving the way for wider representation on World Rugby’s Council, the three unions take their place having successfully achieved all of the required good governance criteria (World Rugby).
LEAGUE BRIEFS ...
North Korean runners Ra Hyon-ho and Ri Kwang-bom allegedly cut the Mangyongdae Prize Pyongyang Marathon North Korea course "in order to hit the 2016 Olympic qualifying times for Rio de Janeiro on April 10." Hyon-ho and Kwang-bom ran 2:15:45 and 2:16:25, respectively, "which falls under the 2:19:00 Olympic qualifying standard set by the IAAF." The course-cutting "was noticed by the manager and his son working at a water station along the course's 35-kilometer marker as the North Korean runners somehow managed to pass several African runners ahead of them before the finish." The African runners "complained to their agent after the results showed two North Korean runners that had never passed them" (SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, 5/11).
MoneyGram "launched a new cricketing concept" in Saudi Arabia through its MoneyGram Cricket Ke Badshah tournament. MoneyGram "will take the game into the labor camps across the kingdom with the launch of the tournament in Riyadh on Friday." MoneyGram "will work with the labor camps of BACS, Al Seif and Saudi Oger on this CSR initiative to help develop cricket in the central region" (ARAB NEWS, 5/12).
