Sports Digest

A round-up of other sports news in brief

Todt hints at Schumacher involvement in his regime

MOTOR SPORT: New FIA president Jean Todt has paved the way for close friend Michael Schumacher to enjoy a role within his new regime.

After 16 years of Max Mosley rule, Todt is now the most powerful man in motor sport following a landslide election victory over Ari Vatanen.

Todt won by 135 votes to 49, with 12 abstentions or invalid votes.

It was a crushing defeat for Vatanen, who at one stage threatened legal action for the the apparent impropriety he felt was going on behind the scenes on behalf of former Ferrari principal Todt, who had Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone among his allies.

Although Todt’s team are now in place, Schumacher’s ambassadorial role may be expanded. “He is like a son. There has always been a place for him next to me and there still will be,” said Todt.

Fota have welcomed Todt’s appointment but have wasted no time in expressing how they want to see Todt perform as president in contrast to Mosley.

Armstrong to miss Giro for California

CYCLING: Lance Armstrong is expected to miss next May’s Giro d’Italia after announcing he will race in the Tour of California.

“I’ve decided to ride the Tour of California in 2010,” the American said.

The Tour of California starts on May 16th while the Giro, the world’s second-biggest stage race, begins on May 8th in Amsterdam.

The full route for next year’s Giro will be announced today.

Armstrong raced this year’s Giro for the first time as part of his comeback after three-and-a-half years in retirement.

He ended up 12th before going on to finish third in the Tour de France, which he had won previously won seven times.

Armstrong, who raced for Astana this year, has set up the new RadioShack team for next season.

Loeb attacks to take four of six

MOTOR SPORT: Sebastien Loeb made the perfect start to his bid to secure his sixth straight World Rally Championship title by winning four of yesterday’s six stages to lead by 5.3 seconds after day one of the Rally of Britain.

The Frenchman trails title rival Mikko Hirvonen by just a single point in the championship standings and has to finish ahead of the Finn in the season finale to retain his crown.

The Frenchman reached the halfway point of yesterday’s action with an advantage of 8.9 seconds over Hirvonen after a clean sweep of stage wins.

Ford driver Hirvonen, bidding to win his first title, cut the lead to just four seconds with a stunning display on stage four, the second run through Hafren. He and Loeb then shared the final two stages of the day.

Petter Solberg lies third for the Citroen Junior just 1.1 second ahead of Dani Sordo.

Moylette out of championship 

BOXING: Ray Moylette, the reigning AIBA World Youth lightweight champion, bowed out of the National Under 21 Championships in Dublin last night following a shock semi-final reversal to Belfast’s Paddy Gallagher.

In one of the biggest upsets of the Championships so far, Moylette, ranked 21st in the world in the official AIBA senior rankings, lost 3-1 to Ulster man in a hard hitting light welterweight decider.

In the opening bout of the evening, Ceire Smith stopped the brave challenge of Sarah Jane McLaughlin in the first round.

Defending middleweight champion Stephen O’Reilly booked his ticket into the 75kg final following an impressive, hard punching 13-3 decision over John Tighe. Jamie Long lost out to Ruairi Dalton, while Chris Phelan out gunned Gary Molly 5-2 in a tactical 51kg duel. Bantamweight Danny Coughlan beat Anthony O’Brien 6-0 and featherweight John Meli beat Mark Morris.

Jankovic out of Kremlin Cup

TENNIS: Champion Jelena Jankovic was dumped out of the Kremlin Cup quarter-finals by Alisa Kleybanova 6-4 6-3 yesterday, a day after clinching the last remaining spot in next week’s WTA championships in Doha.

The Serbian second seed ended her stay in Moscow by double- faulting twice on the last two points to gift-wrap the win to the unseeded Russian after 85 minutes.

World number nine Jankovic also lost to 27th-ranked Kleybanova in Toronto in August in their only previous meeting.

Top seed Vera Zvonareva was thrashed by world number 126 Tsvetana Pironkova 6-0 6-2 in the second round, while Poland’s third seed Agnieszka Radwanska lost to Russia’s Maria Kirilenko in the first round.

In the men’s, third-seed Russian Mikhail Youzhny had a straight sets win over Sergiy Stakhovsky and will now face Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin. Serbian Janko Tipsarevic was too strong for American Robby Ginepri.

Button looking at his options

MOTOR SPORT: Brawn GP have been warned to sort out Jenson Button’s contract soon or risk losing the new Formula One world champion.

The news comes amidst speculation Button could form an all-British dream team with Lewis Hamilton at McLaren next year. The 29-year-old, who was crowned champion in Brazil last Sunday, is yet to sign a new deal with Brawn for 2010 as it is understood he and the team are at odds over his salary.