Liberec, Czech Republic  - Xu Wenlong of China and Morgan Smyth of the United States won cross-country qualifying races and Frenchwoman Coline Mattel had the longest ski-jump as the Nordic skiing world championships were set to get underway.

The women's 10km cross-country ski race and the Nordic combined mass start event kick off the championships on Thursday.

The domestic cricket bans on Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, Humayun Farhat, Riaz Afridi, Arshad Khan and Taufiq Umar has been suspended.

In a major relief to these players, the Sindh High Court on Monday has allowed them to play in the domestic matches in Pakistan.

With this, the Court, has so far cleared the names of 17 players in total in the local tournaments.

Oslo/Stockholm  - Norwegian cross-country ski star Marit Bjoergen and her Swedish rival Charlotte Kalla were considering not competing in the 10-kilometre classic event on Thursday at the world championships in the Czech resort of Liberec.

Bjoergen, 28, told broadcaster NRK on Tuesday that she had recovered from a stomach infection that she came down with over the weekend and on Wednesday would decide definitely if she would compete in the event.

Rome - Struggling Serie A side Torino took home one point from Lazio Saturday, holding the Rome side to a 1-1 draw after taking a first-half lead.

Ignazio Abate, an international defender with Italy's youth team, livened up a dull first half at 36 minutes, drilling a smashing drive into the lower-left corner after seizing a short clearance from Ousmane Dabo.

The Rome hosts saw a first chance go begging at 44 minutes as defender Sebastiano Siviglia had his close-range shot blocked by goalkeeper Matteo Sereni with the tip of his boot.

Oberstdorf - Finland's Olli Harri on Saturday ended Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer's run of six World Cup wins in a row with a hill record jump of 225.5 metres.

The 24-year-old, who became the first non-Austrian to win a ski jump World Cup event this season, added a second jump of 216m on the large hill in Oberstdorf for a total of
435,8 points.

Second place went to Norway's Anders Jacobsen with 428,6 points from leaps of 218m and 212.5m, while his compatriot Johan Evensen took third place with jumps of
211.5m and 223.5m for a total of 426,5 points.