Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Monday's ANZ Premiership match between the Pulse and Stars in Auckland has been postponed due to Covid-19 cases in the Pulse camp.

The ANZ Premiership will confirm a new date for the fixture in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the Steel have announced a venue change for two home games this season with their round 3 fixture against the Stars in Dunedin on 27 March and round 6 clash with the Mystics in Queenstown on 17 April to now be played in Invercargill.

Steel chief executive Lana Winders said the focus was on limiting travel commitments where practicable.

"We have to protect our safe bubble which has been established here in Invercargill where our team is based," she said.

"Dunedin has Covid rushing through it and the reality is it's just too risky."

This season was scheduled to be the ANZ Premiership's Queenstown debut.

World Athletics to ensure gender equality

World Athletics is marking International Women's Day with a new series of pledges aimed at increasing female participation on the field of play but also among coaches, officials and administrators up to the highest level.

Among the pledges announced by the governing body under the banner #WeGrowAthletics are plans to ensure gender equality in remuneration, gather "inspirational stories" from women athletes and ensure member federations have safeguarding policies in place by 2023.

Athletics has already taken steps to change some long-ingrained biases in the sport and will finish this year's world championships hosted by Eugene in the United States with the women's 4x400m relay instead of the traditional men's version.

Since his election in 2015 WA President Sebastian Coe has overseen something of a revolution in terms of female representation in the governance of the sport, which is committed to a 50-50 balance in its rule-making Council by 2027.

On the field of play, Coe said WA recognises the need to create more female role models and that it is continually working to deal with the problem that affects almost all sport - participants leaving in their late teens, particularly on the female side.

-Reuters

Former international wrestler to chair Warriors board

Former Commonwealth Games silver medal-winning wrestler Ken Reinsfield has been appointed the new chairman of the New Zealand Warriors' board.

Reinsfield,64, who comes into the role for the departed former chairman Rob Croot, had a role with the Warriors as wrestling coach under previous head coaches Tony Kemp and Ivan Cleary.

He also managed and trained New Zealand heavyweight boxing champion Shane Cameron during his professional career and has promoted professional boxing in New Zealand and Australia.

Spurs too good for Toffees

Harry Kane scored twice as Tottenham Hotspur thrashed struggling Everton 5-0 in their Premier League game in London.

Michael Keane's calamitous own goal began the rout in the 14th minute and Son Heung-min made it 2-0 before Kane grabbed his first of the evening to make it 3-0 at the interval.

Halftime substitute Sergio Reguilon made it 4-0 with his first touch of the game and Kane's sumptuous volley completed a thoroughly miserable trip to the capital for Everton.

Tottenham have now scored nine goals without reply in their last two league games and are level on 45 points with sixth placed West Ham United having played two games less.

Everton's seventh loss in eight league games left them one place and one point above the bottom three and manager Frank Lampard faces a big task to ensure top-flight survival.

Meanwhile Nottingham Forest came from behind to beat Huddersfield Town 2-1 and set up a home FA Cup quarter-final against Liverpool.

-Reuters

Kiwis to compete in Boat Race

Three New Zealand rowers will take part in next month's famous Boat Race between Cambridge and Oxford Universities on the Thames.

Grace Prendergast and Ruby Tew will team up in the Cambridge women's crew while James Hunter is in the Cambridge men's crew.

Prendergast is a four time world champion and won gold in the pair and silver in the eight at last year's Tokyo Olympics.

Tew has raced in numerous world championships and Olympics.

Hunter is a multiple world championship medalist.

Cambridge has won the last four editions of the women's race.

While Cambridge has has also won the last three men's races.

Imola to stay on F1 circuit

Italy's Imola circuit will continue to host Formula One until 2025.

The track returned to the calendar in 2020, for the first time since 2006, as Formula One sought to fill gaps left by other races cancelling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It retained its place in the 2021 and 2022 world championships.

Italy has two races, with Monza hosting the Italian Grand Prix and Imola's round now named after the surrounding Emilia-Romagna region.

The race at Imola was previously known as the San Marino Grand Prix and the circuit was where Brazil's triple world champion Ayrton Senna suffered a fatal accident in 1994.

-Reuters

Breakers well beaten

The Breakers have suffered their 12th loss of the season to remain firmly rooted to the bottom of the Australian NBL ladder.

The Breakers have gone down 92-74 to the Brisbane Bullets in Hobart.

They got off to a horror start with Brisbane scoring 12 of the game's first 13 points and while they fought their way back into the game, Brisbane went on a run of 18 points around half time.

Chasson Randle top scored with 20 points, while captain Tom Abercrombie marked his return from almost three months out with injury by playing 12 minutes and scoring one point and three rebounds.

The Breakers have four wins and 12 losses.

They play Adelaide on Saturday.

Duplantis soars higher

Sweden's Armand Duplantis has broken his own men's pole vault world record, soaring 6.19 metres on his third attempt at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting.

The 22-year-old improved on his own previous landmark performance by one centimetre.

Duplantis broke Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie's 6.16m world mark with a clearance of 6.17m in February 2020 and then broke that record again just a week later by another centimetre.

After making the new record leap, Duplantis jumped off the mat and pumped his fists in celebration. The Olympic and 2018 European pole vault champion will now be eager to complete his set of gold medals at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon in July.

He had made several attempts at the mark previously, including at the Tokyo Games in August, and said he thought he may have tried as many as 50 times prior.

"It's been a long time coming. I've never had a height that has given me that much trouble, so it's a very good feeling. It was really hard fought over these past two years. I'm really happy," Duplantis was quoted as saying by World Athletics.

-Reuters

Rawalpindi test heading for a draw

Australia came close to matching Pakistan's first innings total of 476-4 declared in the opening test as the run-feast in Rawalpindi appeared to be heading for a dull draw.

Wet outfield caused by overnight rain not only wiped out the entire morning session on day four but also effectively dashed prospects of victory by either side in Australia's first test in Pakistan in 24 years.

The touring side finished the penultimate day on 449-7, 27 runs behind, after four days of bat dominating ball on a flat track at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

Marnus Labuschagne made 90 and Steve Smith contributed 78 in a strong batting performance by the tourists.

Mitchell Starc was on 12 when bad light stopped play with skipper Pat Cummins on four at the other end.

-Reuters

Colapinto wins first surf title

Young Californian surfer Griffin Colapinto won his first World Championship Tour event, taking out Brazil's Filipe Toledo in the final of the Portugal pro in clean head-high waves.

Tatiana Weston-Webb turned the tables for Brazil in the women's division, triumphing over California's Lakey Peterson in the third event of the 10-stop world tour.

Weston-Webb was a standout throughout the competition, overcoming Hawaii's reigning world and Olympic champion Carissa Moore in their semi-final.

Having finished second in the world to Moore last year, Weston-Webb had struggled in the first two events of the year in her adopted homeland of Hawaii and needed a strong result ahead of the Australia leg that kicks off at Bells Beach next month.

Colapinto, 23, caught the biggest waves of the final and surfed powerfully on his backhand to take a slender lead into the final few minutes before the ocean went flat, denying Toledo an opportunity to battle back.

-Reuters

Thiem remains out

Former U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem has further delayed his return to action from a niggling wrist injury, saying he was pulling out of ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami to focus on the claycourt season.

Thiem, who has an excellent record on clay, has not played since suffering the injury at the 2021 Mallorca Open and the 28-year-old, who has slipped to 50th in the world rankings, was unable to defend his U.S. Open crown last year.

The Austrian had withdrawn from tournaments in Argentina, Brazil and Chile this year but had said he was hopeful of a return at Indian Wells, generally considered the most prestigious tournament outside the four grand slam events and where Thiem won the title in 2019.

The claycourt season starts in April.

-Reuters

Richards-Botham trophy unveiled

West Indies and England cricket greats Viv Richards and Ian Botham have unveiled the design of the Richards-Botham trophy, ahead of England's three-test series against West Indies.

The title honours West Indies batting great Richards, who scored more than 8,500 runs in a 121-test career, and England all-rounder Botham, who recorded more than 5,000 runs and took 383 wickets in 102 tests appearances.

"It has an ultra-modern design and consists of an upside-down cup, based on a Georgian rummer, with the joining sphere a cricket ball," Cricket West Indies said in a statement.

"One end is a rummer for drinking rum and the other a wine/ale goblet. The rummer has palm fronds and the ale cup has willow leaves.

The new trophy replaces the Wisden trophy, which was introduced in 1963 to commemorate the 100th edition of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, and is on display in the Marylebone Cricket Club Museum at Lord's.

The first test in Antigua begins tomorrow and will be followed by contests in Barbados and Grenada. The three-match series forms part of the ICC World Test Championship.

-Reuters