Tiote tribute

Former Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has paid tribute to Cheick Tiote after the 30-year-old Ivory Coast midfielder died of a suspected heart attack while training with his Chinese club Beijing Enterprises. Tiote had only moved to China in February after ending a seven-year stay with Newcastle. “I’m devastated to hear the news about my former player and friend Cheick Tiote,” Pardew said in a statement. “Cheick was a wonderful presence around the dressing room and his performances on the field often defied belief.”

Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers says an operation on a worsening heart issue has been successful. The 18-year-old, who won gold in the 100m freestyle in Rio last year, decided to miss next month’s world championships in Budapest to treat his supraventricular tachycardia – a recurrent rapid heartbeat that is normally not lifethreatening. Chalmers previously said he would set his long-term sights on qualifying for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

A computer glitch means New Zealander Lydia Ko has kept her world No.1 ranking. Ko missed the ShopRite LPGA Classic in New Jersey and it was announced Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn had gone to the top of the rankings, but the LPGA Tour phoned them after the tournament to set the record straight, with Ko 0.01 points ahead of Jutanugarn, Reuters reported. “When official rankings were run we discovered a bug in the projection tool,” the LPGA said.