Blood tests at Sydney Olympics

Athletics: Triathletes and cyclists using EPO, the banned performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin, face the prospect of being forced out of the Olympic Games on the start line because of new pre-competition blood tests to be introduced in Sydney next year.

It is the first time the International Olympic Committee has sanctioned the use of blood tests at the summer games and is designed to show it is serious about stamping out the widespread abuse of drugs in sport.

Normally drug tests are carried out after competition, and on urine, and athletes are subsequently disqualified if they are found to have a banned substance in their system. However, EPO is undetectable by current urine tests and can be discovered only by taking a blood sample.

EPO is dangerous because it can thicken the blood and cause heart attacks. Several cyclists from the Netherlands and Belgium have died from abusing it.

Technically the new blood tests are health checks - not drug tests - so a competitor will be stopped from taking part on medical grounds but will not face further sanctions. But anything above a certain level suggests the athlete may have taken EPO, which is used to boost the red blood cells which carry oxygen.

Earlier this year the 1998 Tour de France winner Marco Pantani was ejected from the Tour of Italy after failing a blood test.

Most sports federations do not believe current blood tests are accurate enough and are declining to introduce them.

Boxing: Mike Tyson will make his British debut on January 29th at the MEN Arena in Manchester.

Frank Warren's Sports Network organisation yesterday confirmed the date and venue for Tyson's first fight since his one-round no-contest with Orlin Norris in Las Vegas in October.

A spokesman for Sports Network, who will co-promote the fight with Dan Goossen's America Presents, said: "The MEN Arena is definite, the date is definite, Mike Tyson is definite."

Reigning British and Commonwealth champion Julius Francis is hot favourite to land the dubious privilege of facing Tyson, but the opponent will not be officially confirmed until a Press conference next Tuesday.

Francis has successfully defended his title three times this year, against Pele Reid, Danny Williams and Scott Welch.

The Woolwich fighter was beaten by Zeljko Mavrovic in a European title challenge in 1997 and lost in two rounds to reigning WBO champion Vitali Klitschko in April last year.

Williams is the other front-runner in the chase to pick up a lucrative pay-day against Tyson, who has not fought outside America since his shocking loss to James `Buster' Douglas in Tokyo in 1990.

Boxing: Ulsterman Mark Winters claims he is ready to blow apart the world title ambitions of Manchester's Ricky Hatton at the Everton Park Sports Centre tomorrow night.

Former British light-welterweight champion Winters challenges rising star Hatton for the WBO Intercontinental belt insisting that his edge in ring craft will be the decisive factor.

Hatton has built up a large following in Manchester with a succession of stoppage victories which has earned him the tag `Hit Man'.

But Winters said: "He's been hyped up but I believe on Saturday night that I will outbox him. Hatton likes to come forward - it's the only way he knows how to fight - and I intend to pick him off with my jab.

"I've only had three weeks' notice of the fight but it's a fight I've wanted for some time and I can't wait to cause an upset.

"I believe I'm getting back to my best, back to the way I was boxing before I lost my British title. I had a lot of personal problems but that is all behind me now."

Gaelic Games: For the first time in history the annual Feili competitions will be held north of Dublin when they are staged in Ulster next year. Feili 2000 will be held on June 22nd to 25th around the northern province with the semi-finals and finals in Belfast.

This was revealed yesterday at a press reception in Belfast attended by GAA president-elect Sean McCague, Ulster president Danny Murphy and Ulster Hurling development officer Seamus McGrattan.

"I have been 24 years as development officer and this is the greatest thing to happen in all that time," enthused McGrattan.

On the day of the finals - June 25th - 3,500 teenage competitors plus 18 bands will stage a parade from the St Paul's GAC Complex at Shaw's Road in west Belfast to Casement Park, a mile away.

Squash: The Irish Junior Squash Open gets under way at Leopardstown today with an entry of over 150 players, including 33 from South Africa and others from Australia, Holland, England, Scotland and Wales, most of whom will be competing in next week's Junior British Open. Galway's Niall Rooney, a recent winner at the Nordic Junior Open, and Aisling Blake of Sligo are the leading local contenders in the under-19 event while Carlow's Sam Olwill, a nephew of 10-times Irish champion Willie Hosey, is amongst the top seeds in the under-15 section.