• Professor Xavier Bigard, Medical Director at the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), will draft regulations preventing any rider who has used tramadol or corticosteroids from starting a race, confirmed a UCI statement. Research by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found that use of both substances – corticosteroids are prohibited in competition and Tramadol features on the 2019 Monitoring Programme – is prevalent in cycling.

• England’s Rugby Football League (RFL) was forced to issue a statement defending the integrity of the 30 September Hull Kingston Rovers vs. Widnes Vikings fixture, due to allegations that Widnes would financially benefit from losing. The RFL’s Super8 structure, which will be abandoned at the end of this season, involves the four clubs finishing at the bottom of the Super League entering a play-off with the top four teams in the Championship to determine who will be promoted and relegated. Widnes had already been confirmed as relegated, so were due the full parachute payment as the club relegated from the Super League. Had they won, Hull KR would also have been relegated and would have shared the parachute payment. Hull KR won the game 30-0. 

• Research by the Mouvement Pour Un Cyclisme Credible (MPCC) has revealed 380 cases of doping, fraud or corruption in sport during the past year, six of which concerned cycling. The MPCC said that the six cases are linked to ongoing procedures concerning suspected doping – three in Europe and three in Latin America, none of which involve a World Tour, female, or mountain bike rider.

• The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has reportedly warned the International Cricket Council (ICC) that it will intervene unless the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) allows the country’s national anti-doping agency (NADA India) to conduct tests on cricketers. WADA sent the ICC a letter in July and has yet to receive a reply, reports AFP.

• Spanish weightlifter Marcos Ruiz Velasco is free to compete after his B sample was accidentally destroyed, reports InsideTheGames. Ruiz Velasco was provisionally suspended in June after returning an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for testosterone.

• The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) have confirmed that Adam Hunter has had his results disqualified due to competing whilst serving a period of ineligibility. Hunter was sanctioned with a two year ban in October 2016 after testing positive for multiple substances, a statement confirmed.