Hill set for talks with Jordan

Damon Hill's Formula One future will be decided after a head-to-head with team chief Eddie Jordan today. The duo will meet for the first time since last Sunday's French Grand Prix, after which Hill said he might have raced for the last time.

The meeting will come as Holland's Jos Verstappen, Hill's probable replacement, continues testing at Silverstone ahead of the British Grand Prix on Sunday week.

Hill is still expected to quit after the meeting with Jordan - with an announcement that Verstappen will replace him following shortly after.

The dithering is threatening to make Hill's departure an undignified affair after a 106-race career which, quite apart from the 22 wins and 1996 world title, was marked with dignity. The delay is likely to be down to contractual negotiations with Eddie Jordan and the team's sponsors, who are thought keen for Hill to have a last hurrah in front of 100,000 British fans.

Cycling: In a new twist in the Richard Virenque cycling controversy the sport's world governing body, the UCI, have effectively ordered Tour de France organisers to perform an embarrassing U-turn and allow the banned rider to line up in Saturday's prologue.

Virenque was thrown out of the race by race director Jean-Marie Leblanc, who is determined to clean up the event's image after last year's drugs fiasco.

But in a statement the Tour de France committee said that with the deepest reservations it was bound by the UCI's decision, thus paving the way for the 1997 runner-up and four-times King of the Mountains to be reinstated.

Athletics: World sprint champion Marion Jones begins her campaign to win the biggest and toughest jackpot in athletics tonight when she runs the 200 metres in the opening meeting of the Golden League in Oslo.

Jones, who clinched the 200 title at last weekend's US national championships but finished a disappointing second in the long jump, shared the $1 million jackpot in the series last year.