Best of the Rest

The much travelled cross-code superstar Sonny Bill Williams is set for a return to Top 14 big guns Toulon according to reports Monday in L’Equipe.

The French sports daily claimed that Williams’ agent Khoder Nasser met Toulon bankroller and mastermind owner Mourad Boudjella ten days ago to seal a deal.

Williams, currently at Waikato Chiefs of Hamilton New Zealand, refused an offer to join another French club Racing 92 while Nasser also reportedly touted the player to Montpellier, who declined the opportunity.

Toulon previously enjoyed Williams’ services when he switched from Rugby League with Australia’s Bulldogs to join Tana Umaga’s side on the French south coast in 2008.

Now 30-years-old the two-time Rugby World Cup winner, the report suggests, is lining up a short term contract with Toulon as he wished to play the Rio Olympics Rugby 7’s tournament, where New Zealand are favourites to win gold.

He is named in New Zealand’s squad for this week’s Hoing Kong Sevens after shaking off a knee injury that sidelined him for two tournaments.

Also a successful heavyweight boxer Williams has won national and world heavyweight titles and is a clean-living muslim convert and poster boy.

The All Blacks midfielder is also celebrated for having given his 2015 World Cup medal to a teenage boy in an act of compassion after the fan was tackled on the Twickenham turf by an over-zealous security official. (AFP)

Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda held back speedy competitors to win the Carlsbad 5000 race in 13 minutes, 24 seconds Sunday.

Wilson Too of Kenya was second in 13:29 and Debeli Gezmu of Ethiopia third in 13:38.

American Bernard Lagat, 41, was fourth in 13:38 and bettered his own world masters record.

Ethiopian Meseret Defar, a twotime Olympic gold medalist in the 5,000 meters and the top-seeded runner here, won the woman’s race in 15:02.

Kenya’s Caroline Kipkirui was second in 15:13 and Susan Kuijken of the Netherlands was third in 15:28. (AP)