Encouraging performance by Seymour

Cycling: Irish mountain bike champion Robin Seymour yesterday finished an encouraging 14th of 80 riders in his first race of the year, in Sestre Livante, Italy. Expecting a modest line-up in this first round of the Italian national points series, the Olympian instead found himself competing against

Olympic and world champion Miguel Martinez of France proved fastest, with Italians Marco Bui and Hubert Pallhuber next, but despite his lack of recent racing Seymour rode well to finish in the top fifteen. He intends focusing on world cup and American competition this season.

Squash: Derek Ryan, seeded three for the tournament, missed out on some badly needed ranking points at the Windy City Open in Chicago on Saturday when he was beaten in the quarter-finals by England's Stephen Meads.

Ryan, who fell to 34 in the world rankings last week, lost out after a marathon two hours, two minutes on court. After the Dubliner had battled back from a two set deficit to take the third, the seventh seed then closed out the match by taking the fourth 15-9.

TENNIS: Marat Safin may be wondering if he upset some tennis deity rather than beat the most successful player of all time when he bludgeoned Pete Sampras in the US Open six months ago.

After retiring with an injured back muscle in the Dubai Open final on Saturday, Safin still has not captured a title since the moment in New York when it seemed that the Russian was announcing himself as the American's long-term successor.

The 21-year-old still might be, however. After giving up against Juan Carlos Ferrero when trailing 6-2, 3-1, Safin could be forgiven for feeling that all this was retribution for having inflicted such indignity on so respected an elder.

ATHLETICS: Dieter Baumann's fight to compete while serving an international doping ban has led to an absurd situation according to IOC vice-president Thomas Bach. Former Olympic 5,000 metres champion Baumann, suspended after testing positive for nandrolone, won Germany's 3,000 metres indoor title after winning a court ruling entitling him to start.

"With all due respect for Dieter Baumann's fight for his athletics career and his reputation, this partial right to compete makes no sense in a sport which is guided by international rules," Bach wrote in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "That way national and international competitions can be driven into absurdity."

BOXING: Former titleholder Hector Camacho was arrested in New York on Saturday and charged with drug possession. Camacho (38), a former WBC lightweight and WBO welterweight champion, was one of 13 people arrested at a nightclub in Manhattan's East Harlem on drug charges in a sweep of the club by police.