Olympics: The Greek government insisted yesterday all stadiums for the 2004 summer Olympics would be built on time as they put out tenders for construction projects worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
Just 48 hours before the arrival of an International Olympic Committee co-ordination committee, the government detailed plans for the construction of five key venues for the games.
The venues will cost a total 131.4 billion drachmas (£305 million) and would be fully operational by the end of 2003, sports under-secretary Giorgos Floridis said. Five major venues still need to be constructed.
The most expensive will be the Olympics equestrian centre and race course, to be built near the new Athens airport in Spata. The 30,000-capacity Pagritio Stadium on the southern island of Crete will host soccer matches.
Two other projects announced for bidding are the weightlifting centre to be built in Piraeus and the indoor stadium in Athens. The other outstanding project is the main press centre.
Boxing: Lennox Lewis' proposed world heavyweight title defence against Hasim Rahman on April 21st in South Africa is still to be finalised, the challenger's promoter said yesterday.
Lewis' manager Frank Maloney arrived in the country last week to negotiate a deal, but South African promoter Rodney Berman said that plans for the fight were not finalised.
A successful defence by Lewis would pave the way for a money-spinning $100 million bout against Mike Tyson later in the year.
Tennis: While his Irish Davis Cup team-mates John Doran and Conor Niland had to come through the qualifying rounds, Peter Clarke has been rewarded for back-to-back final appearances with the top-seed spot for the third weeks' series of matches on the Australian Unity Circuit in Sydney.
But there is a doubt about Clarke's fitness because of a shoulder injury picked up in last week's final in Gosford. Should Conor Niland win his first match in the main draw he will earn his first ATP senior points.
Cricket: India's federal police have no immediate plans to question Australian batsman Mark Waugh - or any foreign player - as part of their investigations into the match-fixing scandal.
"We are not investigating any foreign player," a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official, who did not want to be named, told Reuters yesterday.
Waugh is due to arrive in India tomorrow along with the Australian team for a series of one-day and test matches.
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