Sports digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Klitschko vows revenge on Chisora

BOXING:Vitali Klitschko has vowed to take revenge on Dereck Chisora after being slapped on the face by the WBC heavyweight title challenger "like a woman".

Londoner Chisora caught an unsuspecting Klitschko as the two posed for traditional head-to-head photographs after their weigh-in for tonight’s title fight in Munich.

Champion Klitschko (40) did not retaliate as the two men were pulled apart. But the Ukrainian has vowed to punish the Briton at the Olympiahalle tonight.

“I’ll be hitting him back tomorrow, in the ring,” he warned. “He’s not all there. Dereck is full of nervousness and I feel he is afraid, otherwise he would not have jumped back like he did. He hit me not like a boxer but like a woman, with an open hand. If he wants to fight properly, he must do that with his fists.”

No dream return for Ponting

CRICKET:Ricky Ponting's return to the Australia captaincy ended in a crushing eight-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka following a rain-affected one-day international in Sydney.

Sri Lanka secured their first win of the Commonwealth Bank Series in emphatic style as they first bowled Australia out for 158 before making light work of a revised chase.

Ponting’s opposite number Mahela Jayawardene led the way with 61, from 66 balls, while Kumar Sangakkara became the third Sri Lankan to post 10,000 ODI runs as Sri Lanka got home with a massive 101 balls to spare.

It meant defeat for Ponting who, in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke, took over the captaincy for the first time since standing down after last year’s World Cup.

The veteran endured a miserable day, adding just two to a poor series with the bat so far.

O'Sullivan plays his Trump card

SNOOKER:Ronnie O'Sullivan continued his revival by overcoming Judd Trump for the first time in four meetings to reach the semi-finals of the Welsh Open in Newport.

O’Sullivan triumphed 5-3 against UK Championship winner Trump as he followed on from his success in the German Masters earlier in the month.

The other afternoon clash was also a close affair with Shaun Murphy edging out Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen 5-4.

Treacherous conditions may put back fourth leg

SAILING: A final decision whether or not to vary the start of the fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from China to New Zealand will be taken tomorrow after the latest weather data analysis last night forecast winds of up to 60 knots for the first three days, writes Dave Branigan.

Yesterday saw Spain’s Telefonica team complete a last-minute swap of the spare rigging after locating an unspecified fault in the system.

Iker Martinez’s team barely has half a leg of a points advantage despite winning the last three legs of the race.

Winds gusting to hurricane force for the last few days are thought to have created nasty conditions already for the course that heads towards Manila before heading east and the route down to the Philippines and then to Auckland.

All six skippers were tight-lipped yesterday regarding their chance of out-smarting the mostly all-Spanish crew.

In turn, Chris Nicholson’s Camper, currently lying in second place overall is poised ready to pounce, while Franck Cammas’s French team in third represent the fleet leaders, and in the coming hazardous leg will need to continue their winning form to depose the leaders.

Ironically, it was this same stretch of water three years ago that left most of the fleet with serious equipment problems through damage in the same weather that is predicted for tomorrow.

Britain set a new sprint record

CYCLING:Britain, spearheaded by Victoria Pendleton, broke the world record in the women's team sprint as they beat Australia to win gold at the London track in the World Cup series yesterday.

Pendleton and Jessica Varnish gave a packed capacity of 6,000 roaring fans a taster of what to expect at the velodrome when it hosts the Olympic cycling events later this year by slashing 0.074 off the previous record set by the Australian world champions earlier on Friday. Britain crossed the line in 32.754 seconds.

Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch had lowered their own world record by clocking 32.828 in the qualifying session and a repeat of the Aussie performance looked likely after the first of two 250-metre laps. Britain were 0.232 down when Varnish gave way for Pendleton to deliver, and the Olympic champion did just that by riding the final lap in 13.962. “I cant explain how good it feels to have the world record. Australia had it and now weve got it back,” she said.

Rankin and Johnston back in frame

CRICKET: Ireland coach Phil Simmons is expected to bring back opening bowlers Boyd Rankin and Trent Johnston into his side for the first of two World Cup qualifiers against Kenya in Mombasa today, writes Emmet Riordan.

The experienced duo missed out on the Intercontinental Cup victory over the African side last weekend, where spinners Albert van der Merwe and George Dockrell took all 20 wickets as Ireland won inside two days.

The home side are looking for a more seamer-friendly track for the two games, which will suit Rankin and Johnston, who were both rested as they built back up towards full fitness after injury.

Ireland have won their four opening games in the competition, against Namibia and Canada at home, and top the table on eight points alongside Scotland. The top two teams at the end of competition will qualify for the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.