GOLF

Royal Troon positioned to allow women members

Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland, the host of this year’s British Open, is set to end its male-only membership policy after more than three quarters of members in a survey backed allowing in women.

Troon said in a statement on Wednesday that its committee will propose at a July 1 meeting that its membership grants approval for females to join.

Royal Troon, formed in 1878, is sharing the responsibility of hosting next year’s British Open with The Ladies Golf Club in Troon that uses its facilities.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews decided in 2014 to open its membership to women after 260 years of male exclusivity.

But Muirfield was banned last month from hosting the British Open after its membership didn’t approve females joining.

ROAD RACING

BEACH TO BEACON: The Beach to Beacon is adding a mile race for Maine’s top high school runners, organizers announced Wednesday.

The event will be held at 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 5 in Fort Williams Park. It is open to Maine runners entering their sophomore, junior or senior seasons who met the following qualifying standards in the 2015-16 season: 5-minute mile or sub-17:30 in the 5K for boys; 6:15 mile or sub-20:30 5K for girls.

Applications will be accepted June 15-22 at www.beach2beacon.org.

The Beach to Beacon 10K is Saturday, Aug. 6.

TENNIS

QUEEN’S CLUB: Rafael Nadal has pulled out of the grass-court tournament that serves as a tuneup for Wimbledon, citing the left wrist injury that cut his French Open short.

OLYMPICS

IOC MEETINGS: Olympic leaders took action on two fronts Wednesday, ramping up efforts to keep drug cheats out of the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and recommending the inclusion of baseball-softball and four other sports for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

The IOC executive board, meeting in Switzerland, agreed to double its budget for pre-games drug testing to $500,000, to target athletes from Russia, Kenya and Mexico, and to extend retesting of stored doping samples to include medal winners from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Meantime, the board backed the proposed inclusion of baseball-softball, surfing, karate, sport climbing and skateboarding for Tokyo. Under new IOC rules, local organizers can propose the inclusion of at least one additional sport for their games.

The five sports – proposed for inclusion last year by Tokyo organizers – were presented as a package and will go to a vote of the full IOC at its session in Rio in August on the eve of the games.

AUTO RACING

SPRINT CUP: NASCAR suspended three crew chiefs for infractions at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Greg Biffle chief Brian Pattie was fined $50,000 and suspended for all the activities through June 15. Biffle also was docked 15 driver points because the Roush Fenway Racing Ford had a body design that was either not submitted to NASCAR for approval or did not comply with the approved body designs.

AJ Allmendinger crew chief Randall Burnett and Kurt Busch crew chief Tony Gibson were both fined $20,000 and suspended for this weekend’s race at Pocono for not having properly affixed lug nuts in Sunday’s event at Charlotte.