Fiji climbed to the top of the standings in the World Rugby Sevens Series after winning the London Sevens for the second year running.

They beat Australia 43-7 at Twickenham to go two points clear of the USA, who beat France 31-14 in the bronze final.

The final leg is next week in Paris but the top four sides - and direct Olympic qualifiers - are already assured.

Despite losing both games on Sunday, South Africa will join Fiji, the USA and New Zealand at Tokyo 2020.

England still had a small chance of catching 'the Blitzboks' but were beaten 24-19 by Samoa in the Challenge Trophy quarter-finals. The hosts then beat Spain (40-21) before losing to Japan (29-14) in the 13th-place play-off.

England can still reach Tokyo 2020 via a European qualifying tournament in July.

Wales beat Japan 17-0 in the Challenge Trophy quarter-finals to ease their relegation fears while Scotland overcame Kenya (29-21) and Wales (33-7) to reach the Challenge Trophy final, where they lost 26-17 to Samoa.

Ireland upset the hosts on Saturday by beating them in Pool C and despite losing 33-24 to Fiji in Sunday's Cup quarter-finals, they beat Canada (33-14) before losing to New Zealand (35-14) in the fifth-place play-off.

WILMETTE, Ill. — There is a familiar refrain that sports and politics should not mix.

Many feel strongly that government should stay out of the sports business and allow fans to enjoy the field of play without the outside distractions of everyday life.

However, maintaining a firewall between the two ignores reality. At the state and local level, sports may depend on government assistance. This may include subsidies, tax breaks, infrastructure improvements and first-responder staffing support.

At the federal level, leagues receive antitrust exemptions, favorable tax rulings and workplace regulations.

The motorsports industry is active in creating a positive approach on a wide range of issues that may impact the business and the sport.

Recently, the National Motorsports Coalition hosted a reception in Washington, D.C., to focus on matters that impact various stakeholders in the racing industry.

Held in conjunction with the Congressional Motorsports Caucus, the coalition serves as an informal bipartisan group of members dedicated to celebrating motorsports of all varieties and understanding racing’s impact on American culture and the economy.

There are more than 40 members representing districts across the country and they are working toward a common goal. The co-chairs are Florida Rep. Bill Posey and California Rep. Mike Thompson.

The gathering featured a discussion with leaders from IMSA, IndyCar, NASCAR, NHRA, SCCA, SMI, USAC and others. George Silbermann, president of the Automobile Competition Committee of the United States, provided highlights of the industry.

Several notable drivers attended, including Mario Andretti, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Steve Torrence, Clay Millican, Trent Hindman, Tommy Milner, Tracey Gardiner and Samantha Tan.

Legislation was introduced for the Motorsports Fairness and Permanency Act, which makes permanent the seven-year cost recovery for motorsports entertainment complexes, giving these facilities the tax certainty needed to make long-term investments in safer racing environments.

This law has been introduced and passed before only to expire. Making this aspect of the tax code permanent is the goal.

If this law passes, it will help family-owned race tracks across the nation improve the driver and fan experience, create jobs and enhance safety features.

The RPM (Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports) Act support efforts are underway to make it legal under federal law to modify the emissions system of a motor vehicle that is converted for racing use.

Individual states are also establishing bills to supporting racing in their areas. North Carolina, Indiana, Florida, New York and other states have laws favorable to motorsports.

South Carolina created a racing study commission to look at how the state can encourage all forms of racing present in the state. It will also examine important economic and civil value that additional motorsports can provide, along with aiding and incentivizing construction of motorsports complexes.

West Virginia created a motorsports committee that is tasked with aiding the development of racing events and facilities throughout the state. The committee will seek opportunities to promote economic growth and manufacturing jobs related to motorsports.

Hawaii has a resolution supporting the construction of a race track on the island of Oahu, which would serve as a gathering place for local racers and fans. Creating a venue would increase tourism and provide a legal alternative to street racing.

The combination of racing and politics may not be desired by race fans. However, it is important to support efforts to maintain the legality and heritage of this important economic engine.

INDIANAPOLIS – Simon Pagenaud survived a late-race duel with Alexander Rossi to win the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 Sunday afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Pagenaud and Rossi were engaged in a late-race war, with the pair exchanging the lead half a five times in the last 13 laps before Pagenaud made the race-winning pass entering turn three with two laps left.

“It’s hard to believe right now, it’s been such an intense race,” said Pagenaud, who led a race-high 116 laps from the pole.

Rossi had just taken the lead from Pagenaud, who won the IndyCar Grand Prix earlier this month, on lap 178 when the final caution flag of the race waved for a crash involving Sebastian Bourdais, Graham Rahal, Zach Veach, Charlie Kimball and Felix Rosenqvist.

After a lengthy red flag period for cleanup the field returned to racing, with Pagenaud immediately taking the lead away from Rossi entering turn one. Rossi returned the favor one lap later, but Pagenaud took the lead back again entering turn one with 11 laps left.

Rossi stayed in line behind Pagenaud for the next several laps, shadowing the Frenchman around the 2.5-mile speedway as they battled for the lead.

With three laps left Rossi made his move, using a big run on the outside down the frontstretch to take the lead away from Pagenaud into turn one. Pagenaud tried to get a run on Rossi entering turn one with two laps left, but couldn’t get close enough to make the move stick.

Down the backstretch Pagenaud got a run on Rossi and quickly bolted to the outside, pulling clear of Rossi as they raced into turn three.

Rossi stayed right on Pagenaud’s rear wing on the final lap, but Pagenaud did everything he could to hold Rossi back. Down the backstretch he swerved back and fourth across the track, breaking the draft so Rossi couldn’t get a run on him into turn three.

Coming out of turn four Rossi wasn’t close enough to get a run on Pagenaud coming to the checkered flag, allowing the Frenchman to cross the finish line and win the Indianapolis 500 for the first time.

“This is a dream come true,” said Pagenaud, who delivered Roger Penske his 18th victory in the Indianapolis 500. “I’m just speechless. This is just incredible. I never expected to be in this position, but I certainly was trying to make it as hard as I could.”

Rossi, who won the 100th Indianapolis 500 as a rookie, settled for a frustrating second.

“They did a great job. Obviously he was on pole and led the most laps, but I think we had the superior car,” Rossi said. “Just didn’t quite have enough at the end.”

Takuma Sato, Josef Newgarden and defending race winner Will Power completed the top-five.

MORE TO COME

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – With additional storms called for in the weather forecast, the Springfield Mile I originally scheduled for Sunday has been rescheduled for Aug. 31.

The rescheduled event will provide fans with an American Flat Track doubleheader on Labor Day weekend, as the 2019 Springfield Mile II will take place the following day on Sunday, Sept. 1.

All tickets purchased for this weekend’s event will be honored at the rescheduled event on Aug. 31.

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Marko Anttila helped lead Finland to its third world hockey title, scoring the tying and go-ahead goals in a 3-1 victory over Canada on Sunday.

Anttila tied it at 1 on a power play early in the second period, and the Finnish captain made it 2-1 early in the third. Harri Pesonen added an insurance goal with five minutes to play.

"It's awesome,'' Finland forward Toni Rajala said. "It's something that you know might only happen once in your life, but even before the game it felt great. I wasn't too nervous about it. I was enjoying it. The team played an awesome game again. We played together, played 60 minutes. Kevin [Lankinen] was awesome in the net. We were blocking shots. They were good today, but we were a little bit better. Three goals was enough.''

Kevin Lankinen made 42 saves for Finland, allowing only Shea Theodore's first-period goal.

"It's an amazing feeling,'' forward Jere Sallinen said. "I don't even know how we won. It's unbelievable. We're a pretty good hockey country. Maybe it's a miracle on ice, something like that. Going back to Helsinki is going to be amazing. I think there's a lot of people waiting there for us. Anttila -- he's a beauty.''

Matt Murray stopped 19 shots for a Canada roster that combined to score 357 goals in the 2018-19 NHL season. Finland's roster combined to score zero.

Canada took home its second silver medal in the past three years after winning back-to-back gold medals in 2015 and '16. Finland won gold in 1995 in Sweden and 2011 in Bratislava.

"It was a long tournament. A lot of fun, a lot of good guys,'' Canadian defenseman Damon Severson said. "I think we deserved a medal. We had some spells where maybe we didn't, but overall we played a really good tournament. It's unfortunate we got the wrong medal. Finland played a good game -- the only team to beat us in this tournament was them, twice, and they played some good hockey.''

Anttila also scored Saturday in Finland's 1-0 victory over Russia. The Finns knocked off two-time defending champion Sweden in the quarterfinals. Draft-eligible Kaapo Kakko led the team with six goals.

Earlier, Russia beat the Czech Republic 3-2 in a shootout for third place. Russia was outshot 50-30 through 70 minutes of play, including 10 minutes of sudden-death 3-on-3 overtime, then outscored the Czech Republic 2-0 in the shootout on goals from Ilya Kovalchuk and Nikita Gusev.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has defended the club's spending and accused La Liga president Javier Tebas of hypocrisy over allegations that they are distorting the transfer market.

The Premier League champions, who are under investigation from Uefa over a potential breach of Financial Fair Play rules, have spent more than £1 billion on players since they were bought by Sheikh Mansour in 2008.

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Speaking at the Financial Times' Business of Football summit on Tuesday, Tebas criticised the ownership models of City and French champions Paris Saint-Germain saying they caused an imbalance that is stretching football to its economic limits.

"He talks about how we distorted the market? There is a hypocrisy in this statement that is ironic," Al Mubarak said. "Number one, let's look at the Spanish league, the time of breaking records on player acquisitions, I mean, who started that?

"Let's go back to the world records, Figo, Zidane. These huge jumps in these transfers, where did they happen? You know, the history, you have to look back at the history of La Liga, a league dominated by two clubs and Mr. Tebas should look back at the history of that league and how distortion that has happened throughout the ages.

"And then you look back at transfers. In the top ten transfers of all time, Manchester City has not a single player in that, not a single one."

Tebas, who has run Spain's top league for the past six years, singled out Qatari-owned PSG and Abu Dhabi-owned City claiming the sport is like a "plaything of a state".

Al Mubarak said: "I think there's something deeply wrong in bringing ethnicity into the conversation. This is just ugly. I think the way he is combining teams because of ethnicity. I find that very disturbing to be honest."

The city chairman also believes that Tebas is concerned about the potential dominance of English clubs in Europe with four Premier League sides qualifying for the Champions League and Europa League finals.

"Let's not forget this is the best league in the world and if you look at this season, there is no better testament to this statement where the two European competitions the Champions League and Europa Cup, the finals are being competed by English clubs," he added.

"That's a fact and that bothers a lot of people in many places. We have the best league in the world, we have the most commercial league in the world, the most successful clubs in the world, economically, commercially in terms of global presence, and that's why this attack is not just on Manchester City, it's against this league."

City, however, could face a potential Champions League ban after UEFA's investigation into allegations of financial fair play irregularities was passed onto the adjudicatory chamber.

The club said in a statement that they have "irrefutable evidence" shortlists after the announcement that they did not breach regulations. But it also faces separation investigations from the Football Association, Fifa and the Premier League.

"Am I uncomfortable? No. I respect regulatory bodies doing their job and any regulatory process that asks questions," Al Mubarak said.

"We have to professionally respond which is what we have done. We are dealing with each of these entities as per the process, we have clear answers.

"I believe, quite comfortably, if the process is going to be judged on facts then unquestionably we will prevail. If it's not about facts and it's about other things, then it is a different conversation. But I strongly hope that these regulatory bodies will ultimately make the decision based on facts."

MANCHESTER, England -- Sir Alex Ferguson has hinted that Manchester United should enlist former players to help run the club by praising the structure of German giants Bayern Munich.

United have spoken to former stars Rio Ferdinand and Darren Fletcher as part of executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward's planned shake up at Old Trafford that could include appointing a technical director to help manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, another ex-player, oversee recruitment.

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Bayern Munich, who have won the last seven Bundesliga titles, have had success by bringing back former players like Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in executive roles -- a policy Ferguson says he admires.

"They're a great club, It's a club run in the proper foundation of it," Ferguson told MUTV ahead of Bayern's visit to Old Trafford for the Treble reunion game on Sunday. "Former players who run it really -- Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge -- they run the club in the right way and they are always winning the league in Germany. They're a great club."

Ferguson was back on the Old Trafford touchline on Sunday as he oversaw his 1999 Treble winners beat Bayern Munich's legends 5-0.

Solskjaer, an early substitute for Andy Cole, got the first before David Beckham rounded off the scoring in the final minutes on the 20-year anniversary of United's Champions League triumph over the German side at Camp Nou. The game, which attracted 61,000 fans, raised £1.5 million for the Manchester United foundation.

Atalanta and Inter Milan secured their spots in next season's Champions League group stage, earning wins in a wild last day of the Serie A campaign.

Atalanta locked up third place by defeating Sassuolo 3-1, while Inter hanged on to a 2-1 win over Empoli for fourth place.

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Atalanta finished with 69 points, ahead of Inter Milan on their head-to-head record. It is the first time that Atalanta have secured Champions League play in club history.

"The Champions League for Atalanta is a goal that has never been conquered during the club's history and comes to us in a very honourable way. In my opinion, we will do well," said Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini. "The lads have been marvellous, extraordinary."

Inter needed a late goal from Radja Nainggolan to give them the win over a gallant Empoli, who were relegated.

"I expected a match like this," said Inter coach Luciano Spalletti, whose own future is still uncertain with media reports suggesting that the club want to replace him with former Juventus and Chelsea coach Antonio Conte.

"It was always going to be a night of suffering. We needed to put our hearts into this match and we did. I'm very unhappy to see Empoli in Serie B, I have a lot of friends there. They deserved to be saved. But we never gave up until the end."

Inter finish one point ahead of rivals AC Milan, who will settle for Europa League play despite a 3-2 win over SPAL.

Atalanta and Inter join league champions Juventus and runners-up Napoli in the Champions League next season.

AS Roma finish in sixth place and two points behind AC Milan, and will also compete in the Europa League. The Romans beat Parma 2-1 in captain Daniele De Rossi's farewell match.