LONDON, Sept. 10--Justin Langer mixed lavish strokes with a little luck as Australia, chasing England’s first-innings total of 373, closed a truncated second day of the fifth Ashes test on 112 without loss, Reuters said.
Australia’s hopes of exploiting their strong position, however, were thwarted by bad light and rain which wiped out the final session.
Langer, on 75 not out, and Matthew Hayden, on 32, accepted the light when the players came back out after tea.
To the frustration of a packed Oval and the Australians, who need to win the final match of the series to retain the Ashes, the teams never returned to the field, with 37 overs remaining.
England lead the series 2-1. Australia have won the last eight series, dating back to 1989.
Langer and Hayden’s stand was their best of the series, dwarfing their previous high of 58 runs in the first innings at Old Trafford.
England’s Ashley Giles said the Australian decision not to bat on had been “a bit of a surprise.
Earlier, Shane Warne took the last English wicket to complete a six-wicket haul costing 122 runs.
The leg spinner has taken 34 wickets for the series, equaling his best previous Ashes return.
Langer normally plays the part of dour Australian anchorman, crabbing about in his crease while the broad-chested Matthew Hayden swings as boldly as a lumberjack with his favorite axe.
On Friday, it was Langer wielding the axe, and never more so than when he faced Giles’s first over.
The left-arm spinner’s second ball sailed into the stands, soon followed by his fourth.
He then exploited a Flintoff misfield to scamper two runs and reach his half-century.
By the close Langer had hit eight fours and two sixes, though he required two slices of luck.
On 26, he cut hard at Matthew Hoggard. The ball would have hit Andrew Strauss around the midriff but the gully fielder seemed to lose sight of the ball and it whistled past him.
On 53, Langer edged medium-pacer Paul Collingwood’s eighth delivery high to first slip where Marcus Trescothick spilled a hard chance one-handed.
Hayden, meanwhile, averaging just 22.50 during the series compared to a career mark of more than 51, replaced trademark drives with studied defense.
By the close he had faced 96 balls, just nine less than his partner.
England had added 54 runs to their overnight score of 319 for seven in bright sunshine.
Giles made 32 and last man Steve Harmison pulled and hoiked four boundaries, three of them in a row off Brett Lee, in his unbeaten 20.
Lee broke through with the ninth ball of the day when Geraint Jones, England’s last batsman of note, was bowled for 25.

US Tyson Gay (l) competes the 200m race with compatriots Wallace Spearmon (c) and Justin Gatlin during the IAAF World Athletics Final at the Louis II Stadium in Monaco, Friday. (AFP Photo)

MONACO, Sept. 10--World 200 meters champion Justin Gatlin was relegated to fourth place on the opening day of the two-day world athletics final on Friday after his teammate Tyson Gay clocked 19.96 seconds into a strong headwind, Reuters said.
Gatlin, the Olympic 100 gold medalist, became only the second man after fellow-American Maurice Greene to win the 100-200 double at last month’s Helsinki world championships.
Gay, who was fourth at the worlds behind teammates Wallace Spearmon and 2003 world champion John Capel, led Jamaican Christopher Williams and Spearmon across the line on Friday.
There was also an upset in the women’s 5,000 where Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, who is expected to win the women’s athlete of the year award, was beaten into second after a frenzied sprint finish with team mate Meseret Defar, who was second in Helsinki.
Dibaba won the world long and short course cross country titles in France this year before becoming the first woman to win a 5,000-10,000 global double at the world championships.
Olympic 200 champion Veronica Campbell won the women’s 100 by one-hundredth of a second from France’s Christine Arron.
Campbell, who took the 100 silver in Helsinki in front of Arron, clocked 10.92. Arron’s time of 10.93 was her season’s best.
Olympic 1,500 silver medalist Bernard Lagat, who was unable to compete in Helsinki while he completes a change of nationality from Kenya to the US, produced a searing final lap to win the men’s 3,000 in seven minutes 38.00 seconds in front of Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge.
Ethiopian-born Maryam Yusuf Jamal, who now competes for Bahrain, started her finishing sprint with 600 meters to go in the women’s 1,500, and held on to win in front of Russia’s world champion Tatyana Tomashova.
Docus Inzikuru, Uganda’s first world champion, raced away from her opponents after one kilometer to win the women’s 3,000 meters steeplechase in 9:21.80. The event was introduced in Helsinki for the first time at a major championship.
The season ended unhappily for American Olympic and world 400 meters champion Jeremy Wariner, who appeared to have his race under control when he slowed in the straight and hobbled across the line in last place clutching his right thigh.

NEW YORK, Sept. 10--Belgium’s Kim Clijsters earned another crack at claiming her first grand slam singles title by holding off tenacious top seed Maria Sharapova of Russia 6-2 6-7 6-3 on Friday to reach the US Open women’s final.
The fourth-seeded Clijsters, four times a grand slam runner-up, will meet 12th seed Mary Pierce in final, Reuters said.
Pierce earlier became the first Frenchwoman to reach the US Open final by overcoming sixth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva 3-6 6-2 6-2.
“It’s amazing,“ Clijsters said after clinching victory on her sixth match point when Sharapova dumped a forehand into the net.
Clijsters has climbed back up the tennis rankings after missing nearly a year following wrist surgery and falling as low as 134 in the world. The 22-year-old also had to fight back in Friday’s semifinal after failing to convert five match points against Sharapova in the second set.
Sharapova, who had an awful first set from the service line, refused to go
It was Clijsters’ fourth win without a defeat against Sharapova, including a straight-sets win over the Russian in the final in Miami earlier this year.
Clijsters, who lost in the 2003 US Open final to compatriot Justine Henin-Hardenne, has an added incentive in this Open final.

Japan's Hiroshi Izumi (l) and Greece's Ilias Iliadis compete in the 90kg class gold medal bout at the World Judo Championships in Cairo, Friday. (Reuters Photo)

CAIRO, Egypt,
Sept. 10--Hiroshi Izumi of Japan made up for his Olympic disappointment by claiming the world under-90kg title with a victory over Ilias Iliadis of Greece on Friday, Reuters said.
France’s Lucie Decosse also turned the tables on an Olympic champion on the second day of the world championships, beating Ayumi Tanimoto of Japan to win the women’s under-63kg division .
It was a great day for the Netherlands as Edith Bosch won the women’s under-70kg category and Guillaume Elmont triumphed in the men’s under-81kg.
Izumi reached the final in Athens last August but was defeated by Georgia’s Zurab Zviadauri with a stunning counter throw.
Iliadis, a Georgian who defected to Greece three years ago, is Zviadauri’s cousin and became the Olympic under-81kg champion in his adopted country last year.
He stepped up a weight this year and won the prestigious Tournoi de Paris in February but Izumi proved the better fighter in Cairo on Friday.
Iliadis took the fight to the Japanese, trying to pick him up with a leg-grab technique. But as he did so, he was countered backwards with an inner thigh sweep, ouchi-gari.
Iliadis’ coach was furious, believing his fighter had twisted enough to avoid the maximum ippon, or technical knockout score, given when a player is thrown flat on his back.
Tanimoto, meanwhile, looked set to add the world title to her Olympic crown from last year as she stormed into the final but came unstuck against Decosse.
The Frenchwoman has flattered to deceive since winning the world junior title in 2000 but she was a picture of calm authority in despatching Tanimoto with a running leg-grab, or kochiki-taioshi, for ippon.
Taking hold of Tanimoto’s leg and lapel, she drove her backwards before flipping her onto her back and somersaulting over the stricken body to complete the throw.
Bosch claimed her first world title with a hard fought victory over France’s surprise finalist Gevriese Emane.
The under-70kg category was thrown wide open in the first round when Olympic and double world champion Masae Ueno of Japan was eliminated by Slovenian Rasa Sraka, who was herself beaten by Emane in the semis.
Elmont, who does not even have a European championships medal to his name, defeated surprise finalist Abderaman Benamadi of Algeria with a dropping shoulder throw, seoi-nage, for the second Dutch gold of the day.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10--Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong was given major support in his fight against doping allegations on Friday by the International Cycling Union (UCI) and a Texas legal triumph, AFP said.
Capping a week that included his engagement to rock singer Sheryl Crow and hints at a possible 2006 return from retirement, Armstrong had his denials of taking performance-enhancing drugs strongly bolstered in separate findings.
A UCI statement said no action would be taken against Armstrong over claims by the French sports daily L’Equipe that his 1999 urine samples tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin).
Cycling’s world governing body found nothing that could be used as proof of wrongdoing by Armstrong and no reason to condemn him, wondering instead who leaked Armstrong’s identity and motivations for testing his sample.
“I’m pleased the UCI is investigating this entire matter thoroughly because any professional investigation will reveal that the allegations made by a French sports tabloid have no basis because I never used any performance enhancing drugs,“ Armstrong said in a statement.
“Im pleased that the UCI seems to be asking many of the right questions.“
Three days after World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound said it was “highly probable“ Armstrong was doping, the UCI said it regretted his comment and Armstrong attorney Bill Stapleton questioned if Pound should keep his job.
“His public pronouncements have been so inappropriate that those questions should be being asked right now,“ Stapleton said.
“If I were an athlete, I’d be concerned next time I give a sample if people like Dick Pound are jumping to conclusions and criticizing people publicly.“
Stapleton saw little purpose in more tests on the 1999 sample, saying, “Our confidence in any testing of those samples would be very low,“ and adding that if it was positive, “it has either been sabotaged or it is not his.“
Armstrong, who turns 34 on September 18, also won a summary judgement in a Texas court case that dismissed charges Armstrong defrauded and breached a contract with his former personal assistant, Mike Anderson.

Mark Calcavecchia of the US chips onto the sixth green during first round play at the Canadian Open Golf Tournament in Vancouver, British Columbia, Friday. (Reuters Photo)

VANCOUVER, Canada, Sept. 10--Mark Calcavecchia continued to set the pace at the Canadian Open carding a second round three-under 67 on Friday, but has defending champion Vijay Singh in hot pursuit.
Among the early starters, Calcavecchia took advantage of ideal scoring conditions at the Shaughnessy Golf Club to get to eight-under 132 and move five shots clear of the fieldÑthe largest lead after 36 holes on the US PGA Tour this season, Reuters said.
Lucas Glover, who had shared the overnight lead with Calcavecchia, battled his way to two-over 72 but it was still good enough to leave the 25-year-old American alone in second on 137, one stroke ahead of Paraguay’s Carlos Franco (70), Swedes Jesper Parnevik (72) and Mathias Gronberg (70) and Bob Heintz (70) and Jerry Kelly of the United States (66)--all at two-under 138.
The man Calcavecchia will have his eye on, however, will be the world number two Singh, who rebounded from an opening round 73 with a four-under 66 to lead a large group of seven players at one-under 139.
Calcavecchia, chasing his first win since 2001, got his day off to an unsteady start with a bogey at the par four first but recovered with four birdies on his outward nine, including three straight from the seventh.
The former British Open champion bogeyed the 16th but finished on a positive note with a birdie three at the last.
As winds picked up few of the later starters were able to match or better Calcavecchia’s effort.
One of those, however, was Singh who mixed six birdies with a pair of early bogeys to sign for the joint best round of the day.
Returning to action after missing last week’s Deutsche Bank Championship with a sore back, the smooth-swinging Fijian was back in his familiar rhythm and in a tie for eighth after starting the day in joint 71st.
There was little for Canadian golf fans to celebrate as Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters winner, stumbled to a five-over 75 missing the cut at the Canadian Open for the first time since 1999.
The tournament began with 16 Canadians trying to become the first homegrown winner of the national championship since Pat Fletcher in 1954 but only Stephen Ames survived the guillotine and will carry local hopes into the weekend.

NEW YORK, Sept. 10--The International Olympic Committee (IOC) may take another look at its decision to exclude softball from the 2012 London Olympic program, Reuters said.
At a future general session the IOC could say: “Hey, we want to have a second look at it,“ said president Jacques Rogge in an interview published in Friday’s issue of the Around the Rings publication.
“That’s possible.“
The IOC voted on July 8 to exclude baseball and softball from the Olympic program in 2012.
Softball failed by one vote to obtain the majority necessary to stay on the schedule, the IOC said last month.
US Olympic Committee (USOC) chairman Peter Ueberroth has called on the IOC to reconsider its decision.
Ueberroth said in a statement last month that the IOC voting figures “confirms what we had been told by many members of the IOC which is that the vote in Singapore was extremely close and there may have been confusion on the part of some voters.
“This also underscores our belief that the IOC, consistent with the spirit of fairness it has always shown, should reconsider this decision.“
Ueberroth said the USOC would continue to work to see that softball is reinstated in 2012.
“We cannot allow the Olympic dreams of women and girls worldwide to be put in jeopardy by a vote that was this close,“ he said.