Schumacher is top sportsman

MOTOR SPORT: Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher was named Sportsman of the Year by the European Sports Writers' Union yesterday.

The German Ferrari driver won nine grand prixs on his way to his fourth world title in 2001.

Poland's world champion ski jumper Adam Malysz was second in the poll, while Austrian skier Hermann Maier was third.

Last season Maier won World Cup titles in every discipline he competed in - downhill, super-G and giant slalom, equalling Ingemar Stenmark's 1978/79 record of 13 wins in a single season.

The world champion gymnast Svetlana Khorkina took the Sportswoman of the Year prize.

Croat World Cup overall ski champion Jana Kostelic was second, while Ukraine's Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, who beat Marion Jones to win the world 100 metres championship in Edmonton earlier this year, was third.

GAELIC GAMES: GAA fans can begin their Christmas feasting early this year with the announcement from TG4 that it will offer live coverage of next Sunday's eagerly awaited AIB Leinster club football final replay between Na Fianna (Dublin) and Rathnew (Wicklow).

Match coverage on GAA Beo from St Conleth's Park, Newbridge begins at 1.20 p.m. with the throw-in at 1.30.

RUGBY: English Premiership club Northampton Saints yesterday signed 31-year-old South Africa lock Johan Ackermann.

Ackermann, who served a two-year ban between 1997 and 1999 after testing positive for steroid nandrolone, will join Saints in January.

Director of Northampton rugby John Steele said: "Johan is a no-frills, hard lock who will improve the performance of our front five even further."