Boxing: Campaigners yesterday lost their court battle to overturn British Home Secretary Jack Straw's decision to allow Mike Tyson into Britain for a boxing match.
The Glasgow-based Rape Crisis Centre was seeking a judicial review of Straw's granting of entry clearance to the convicted rapist for the bout in Scotland at Hampden Park against fellow American Lou Savarese on June 24th.
At the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Lord Clarke refused the centre's request that Straw's decision be overturned. Women's groups have widely opposed allowing the convicted rapist a visa for a second time, after his last leave to enter Britain was described by Straw as a "one-off".
A total of 60,000 people are expected to flock to Hampden for the bout, which is being billed as the biggest-ever fight in Britain, with at least 40,000 tickets already sold.
Cycling: Ireland's Ciaran Power is now virtually guaranteed to finish the second hardest race in cycling after he successfully negotiated yesterday's torturous 19th stage of the Tour of Italy. The 24-year-old, first-year professional, who battled against the time limit in Thursday's leg of the race, recovered sufficiently to finish 122nd on yesterday's stage covering 177 kilometres to the French town of Briancon. The stage was won by 32-year old Italian Paulo Lanfranchi, riding for the Mapei team, who crossed the line 50 seconds ahead of a resurgent Marco Pantani. Francesco Casagrande continues to lead the race from Pantani's team-mate Stefano Garzelli with just two stages remaining. Today the riders tackle a 32-kilometre individual time-trial to the summit of the Sestrieres climb, and tomorrow they slug it out in a concluding road race which finishes on the streets of Milan.
Cycling: After finishing third in the recent Fleche Charante Limosine, Mark Scanlon's streak of good form continued in Thursday's GP Delle Etupes race. The 1998 junior world champion sprinted home in second place, 10 seconds behind his CC Etupes team-mate Gael Perry. His next assignment is the Tour de Loire Atlantique from June 9th-11th after which the 19-year-old will dispute the Irish National Championship on the 25th.
Athletics: Mark Carroll will tonight attempt to achieve the 5,000 metre qualifying time for the Sydney Olympics. The recent European indoor gold medallist will run the distance at the Dedham Twilight meeting just outside Boston, Massachusetts. It will be the second track outing for Carroll this season after he broke the national 10,000m record in California last month. The plan, according to the Corkman, is to get the qualifying time out of the way as early as possible so that he can concentrate on the shorter distances in the build-up to Sydney.
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