Sports Digest/Athletics:David Gillick has been named as the European Athlete of the Month for February. The Dubliner won the award on the back of his highly impressive run at the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham, retaining his gold medal in the 400 metres, but also for the 45.91-second time he clocked in February, then the fastest in the world.
Gillick took to that race in Germany in his only competitive run of the month, and his 45.91 also earned him an Irish record - which he improved to 45.52 in Birmingham.
Brendan Hackett, chief executive of Athletics Ireland, was full of praise for Gillick's achievements: "David's performances have been excellent over recent weeks and months . . . He is an extremely talented individual and another success story for Irish athletics and I hope he will keep going from strength to strength."
Boxing:Former three-weight world champion Johnny Tapia is fighting for his life in an Albuquerque, USA, hospital after reportedly overdosing on cocaine. Tapia, whom a hospital spokesman described as being in "critical" condition, has a history of major drug problems. He supposedly retired two weeks ago after beating Evaristo Primero in what was billed as his final fight.
Tapia won five titles in three weight divisions, including, most recently, the IBF featherweight belt. But he is better known for his tumultuous life outside the ring, which he chronicled in his 2006 autobiography.
In it, he described how he had been declared clinically dead five times, on each occasion because of a drug overdose.
Recalling his career in 2004, he said, "Boxing has done a beautiful thing or me. It has saved my life."
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