Basketball: Joyner-Kersee all the Rage in America

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who won gold medals in athletics at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games, is to play in the new all-women's American League with the Richmond Rage.

The 34-year-old Joyner-Kersee, who won the heptathlon in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics and the long jump in 1988, played basketball while at the University of California.

Joyner-Kersee is an admirer of the Rage point guard, Dawn Staley, a member of the gold-medal winning US Olympic basketball team in Atlanta, where Joyner-Kersee won a bronze medal in the long jump.

London Towers' Neville Austin misses their opening European Cup game against Verona in Italy tonight, after spraining an ankle in last weekend's opening game of the season. The Manchester Giants have signed Makeba Perry, the 24-year-old Texan who has played in Portugal, Sweden and Spain.