LEICESTER: Japan striker Shinji Okazaki has signed for English club Leicester and will become the seventh Japanese player to feature in the Premier League. The 29-year-old Okazaki joins from Mainz to end a stay of four-and-a-half years in German football, having also played for Stuttgart. Leicester announced the signing late on Friday and said Okazaki has agreed to a four-year deal, with the move subject to gaining a work permit and international clearance. The transfer fee was not disclosed. He is Japan's third-highest scorer with 43 goals in 93 games, and scored in both the 2010 and 2014 World Cup finals.

Beji disqualified

BAKU: European Games host Azerbaijan saw one of its athletes disqualified for doping on Saturday after testing positive for a banned substance. Chaltu Beji tested positive for osterine, a substance with similar effects to anabolic steroids, after winning the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase on June 21. The Ethiopian-born 18-year-old has been suspended from the games, and disqualified from the race, the European Olympic Committees said in a statement. The result does not affect the standings for the team athletics competition, which was won by Slovakia, with Azerbaijan coming fifth. Beji was not a medal winner at the games, since athletics only counted for a single gold medal as a team event.

Gay downs Bromell

EUGENE: US veteran Tyson Gay won the 100m at the US athletics championships on Friday in 9.87 seconds to book his first trip to the World Championships since 2009. Gay, 32 and trying to regain the sport's summit after a one-year drugs ban, triumphed in a battle of generations as he powered past Trayvon Bromell in the final 30 meters to relegate the 19-year-old to second in 9.96. Mike Rodgers was third in 9.97 to grab the final berth on offer for the August 22-30 World Championships in Beijing. The US will in fact field four 100m runners, with twice-banned Justin Gatlin owning a bye thanks to his 2014 Diamond League title. Gatlin, who owns the top times in the world this year at both 100m (9.74) and 200m (19.68), is focusing this week on the 200 in a bid to mount a double world challenge to Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt.

Mainz to sell Jara

BERLIN: Chilean defender Gonzalo Jara could be dumped by German club Mainz following the storm of controversy which followed his attempt to shove a finger into the backside of an opponent at the Copa America. Jara was the subject of widespread revulsion on social media after photos and camera footage clearly showed him jabbing a finger into the back of Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani's shorts during Wednesday's quarter-final, won 1-0 by Chile. The lurid provocation ultimately led to Cavani being sent off after the Paris St-Germain star flicked a retaliatory hand into Jara's face. Mainz boss Christian Heidel said the Bundesliga club was ready to sell the 29-year-old player. "He knows it -- if we receive an offer, he can leave," Heidel told Bild newspaper. Jara joined Mainz from English side Nottingham Forest last year but featured in just 17 games during the season.