Reports say Savon has quit

Boxing: Cuban press reports yesterday said that Felix Savon had retired.

The heavyweight won his third consecutive Olympic gold medal at Sydney, but at the age of 33 it was unlikely that even he could go on to Athens and win a fourth.

Had it not been for Cuba's boycott of the 1988 Seoul Games Savon might have surpassed Teofilo Stevenson's hat-trick of Olympic titles.

Savon won the first of six world titles in 1986.

His record stands at 358 victories with only 17 defeats.

In 1998 he relinquished the chance of defending his world title when he defaulted from the final in protest at a disputed decision that went against a Cuban team-mate earlier.

That decision handed the title to Michael Bennet of the US, who Savon pulverised to win his Olympic crown in Sydney.

He dismissed professional boxing as "dirty", and refused numerous multi-million dollar offers to join its ranks.

Cycling: Spanish cyclist Joseba Beloki has claimed his former team Festina involved itself in irregular financial transactions. Beloki left for the ONCE team due to what he said was a "lack of transparency" at his former outfit.

Beloki's revelations could lead to a legal investigation into Festina just three years after they were expelled from the Tour de France for systematic drug-taking.

??????????//an McCague has claimed that there have been instances of inaccurate reportage of GAA affairs at national level and he has asked the media to simply tell the truth and be accurate.

Speaking at the presentation of awards at the West Limerick GAA Board dinner, he said that the GAA had stood accused of many things of which they were not guilty. McCague further claimed that the local media were much more accurate and gave it to their readers as they saw it.

He had bypassed what he described as the prestigious Ballygowan Sports Awards to be with his own people in the GAA.

Meanwhile, numerous tributes were paid to Liam Creavin, who stepped down as secretary and treasurer of the Meath County Board after 45 years in the positions.

At the board's convention in Navan yesterday, chairman Fintan Ginnity remarked that Creavin took up the position in 1956, the year Ronnie Delany won a gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics, Russia invaded Hungary and the Suez crisis occurred. Creavin was appointed as an honorary president of the board and his successor as secretary is Barney Allen.

Meath officers: chairman - F Ginnity; vice-chairman - B Dempsey; secretary/ registrar - B Allen; assistant secretary and PRO - B Cummins; treasurer - C Gannon; assistant treasurer - C Creavin; development officer - P Fox; youth officer - F Flynn; coaching officer - B Carberry; Irish language officer - C Joyce; Central Council representative - P O'Neill; Leinster Council representatives - M O'Brien, P Kelly.

Cricket: Australia stretched their winning streak in Test cricket to 15 matches on Saturday in Sydney when they completed a 5-0 series whitewash of West Indies, winning the final Test by six wickets.