Sports Digest

HORSE RACING:John Oxx has dismissed reports that insurance issues will prevent Sea The Stars from lining up in next month's Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita.

But if Oxx had moved any nearer to making a decision over plans, the trainer was not giving it away yesterday while at the Tattersalls sales in Newmarket.

Before the first bid had even been made, he was forced to deny reports that Sea The Stars will now effectively be retired because his value as a stallion – estimated to be €60 million or more – could not be underwritten by an insurer. Describing the reports as “a cock and bull story” and “a great load of rubbish”, he said the horse was already insured by owner Christopher Tsui.

Julie Wood purchased the only horse ever sired by the late George Washington at Tattersalls for 320,000 guineas last night. She will go into training with Richard Hannon.

MOTOR SPORT:Poland's Robert Kubica will replace Spain's double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso at Renault next season, the team said yesterday.

No details were given about the length of the contract.

Kubica has driven for the BMW-Sauber team since 2006 while Alonso, one of the 24-year-old’s best friends in the paddock, is moving to Ferrari.

OLYMPIC GAMES:The New Zealand Olympic Committee (Nzoc) has threatened to sue a taekwondo athlete who plans to finance his 2012 London Games bid with the proceeds from a brothel.

Logan Campbell, whose participation in the Beijing Olympics cost him €75,000 (NZ$150,000) – most of which came from his parents – opened a brothel with a friend in Auckland earlier this year.

Campbell went public with the scheme in July and the 23-year-old said he hoped to raise €150,000 to alleviate any financial burden on his parents and to have more time to concentrate on training.

After remaining silent on the issue for three months, Nzoc had written a letter to Campbell demanding he cease linking the Olympics to his business or face legal action, the athlete told New Zealand television yesterday.

Owning and running brothels is legal in New Zealand.

TENNIS:A tired Maria Sharapova bowed out in the third round of the €5 million China Open yesterday, beaten 6-2 6-4 by China's Peng Shuai to the delight of the crowd at the Olympic tennis centre.

Second seed Novak Djokovic later claimed a place in the quarter-finals with a ruthless 6-3 6-0 demolition of fellow Serb Viktor Troicki.

Sharapova had to come from 5-2 down in the third set to win a three-hour match on Tuesday.

There was to be no way back against Peng, however, and the world number 53 converted her third match point to produce an upset for the second evening in a row after her second-round win over holder Jelena Jankovic.

CYCLING:The International Cycling Union (UCI) did not fully respect the testing procedures during this year's Tour de France and the fact that suspicious drugs were seized also casts doubts over the event, the French anti-doping chief has said.

“The way UCI organised the controls was not quite in accordance with the regulations,” French anti-doping agency (AFLD) president Pierre Bordry told a news conference.

“It does not mean that the Astana team were on drugs,” added Bordry.

AFLD suggested in its report on the 2009 Tour that the Astana team, including winner Alberto Contador and third-placed Lance Armstrong, were given preferential treatment during the race.

The UCI dismissed the accusations as groundless and Astana said they had always done what testers asked them.

However, they said the delay between the notification that a test would be conducted and the test itself was too long.

OLYMPIC GAMES:The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has secured a record, €2.6 billion broadcasting rights deals for the 2010-2012 Games, and expects to top that for 2014-2016, president Jacques Rogge said yesterday.

The figure represents an €800 million increase from the 2006-2008 two-Games package.

The broadcasting rights are the IOC’s biggest source of revenue, and Rogge told an IOC session in Copenhagen efforts were being made to maximise audiences on new platforms, including the Internet and mobile phones.

“Our television rights revenue is $3.8 billion for the period 2010-2012,” Rogge said of the deals already signed for the 2010 Vancouver winter Games and 2012 London summer Olympics.

He said deals worth €630 million were already agreed for the Sochi 2014 winter Games and the Rio de Janeiro 2016 summer Olympics.

The single biggest broadcasting contract worth several billion alone, with a US broadcaster, had yet to be negotiated.

The 2010-2012 deal with NBC brought in about €1.5 billion.

IOC officials said this week a deal with a US broadcaster should come in the coming months, depending on the improvement of the economic climate.

The IOC has also yet to conclude 2014-2016 Games deals for France, Britain and Germany.