A round-up of today's other stories in brief
BOA 'optimistic' after hearing
OLYMPIC GAMES: The British Olympic Association’s final attempt to keep their lifetime ban for drugs cheats took place yesterday with the organisation’s chairman likening the policy to refusing to select match-fixers or overt racists.
BOA chairman Colin Moynihan said he was “cautiously optimistic” after the Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing in London yesterday to decide whether the lifetime ban bylaw breaches the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code. If it is overturned that will enable cyclist David Millar and sprinter Dwain Chambers, and possibly others, to compete for Team GB at the London 2012 Games. Moynihan said afterwards: “The most comparable would be match-fixing – if someone was proven to have been involved in match-fixing I am sure the BOA would take a very tough line and would not select them for Team GB.”
Federer and Nadal through
TENNIS: Twice champion Rafa Nadal and triple winner Roger Federer barely raised a sweat as they each cruised into the third round of the Indian Wells ATP tournament with imperious victories on Sunday.
Spaniard Nadal ruthlessly dealt with Argentine Leonardo Mayer 6-1 6-3 before Swiss maestro Federer eased past American wild-card Denis Kudla 6-4 6-1 in the evening session at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Left-hander Nadal, who has reached the semi-finals at Indian Wells in his last six appearances, broke Mayer twice in each set to wrap up a commanding win in one hour, 15 minutes. In dazzling afternoon sunshine, the match ended when a Mayer forehand sailed wide. “Its nice to be back playing at the very good level,” the Spaniard, who will next face compatriot Marcel Granollers, said afterwards.
“Winning is the most important thing. It’s not easy to be back after a while without competition, but I did really well.”
ICC denies match-fixing investigation
CRICKET: International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat has denied a newspaper report that it is investigating match-fixing claims during last year’s World Cup semi-final.
A front-page article in the Sunday Times alleged that the ICC had been looking into concerns over the match between India and Pakistan in Mohali last March.
Lorgat denied the assertion yesterday, labelling the article “baseless and misleading” and adding that the ICC had no reason to suspect fixing in a match India won by 29 runs. “The ICC has no reason or evidence to require an investigation into this match,” Lorgat said.
The article made claims regarding the activity of illegal bookmakers in cricket, amongst which it alleged unnamed players from New Zealand were open to striking a deal with such figures.
New Zealand Cricket strongly rejected those reports yesterday.
Nevin feared missing Games
BOXING: John Joe Nevin feared injury would rule him out of the Olympics after he fractured his jaw fighting for Paris United in the World Series of Boxing.
He picked up the injury following an accidental clash of heads in the opening 30 seconds of his fight with Branimir Stankovic when United beat Milano last week. Nevin beat the Serb on a split decision to help United to a 3-2 victory in Paris.“I’ll have to give up sparring and boxing for four or five weeks. It was a worry. To miss the Olympic Games would be heartbreaking.
“In the first 30 seconds of the fight he collided his head against my cheekbone. He (Stankovic) was a strong boxer. He apologised for it. He said he was sorry for what happened with the head. Each round he came out, he apologised. He couldn’t apologise enough. The Olympics is my dream and I’m very happy to get the good news that I can box in the Olympics again.”
Porterfield confident of earning spot in Sri Lanka
CRICKET: Ireland captain William Porterfield has backed his side to take one of the two spots in September’s World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka as they begin their qualifying campaign in Dubai this morning, writes Emmet Riordan.
Namibia are first up for Ireland in a gruelling schedule of seven group games in eight days before a further three days of play-offs in the 16-team competition.
“We have played a lot more cricket against the major teams,” said Porterfield. “In addition our lads have played a lot of Twenty20 cricket for counties in England. So all that experience is going to help the side in the tournament.”
Ireland will be missing wicket-keeper Niall O’Brien after he decided to play in the recent Bangladesh Premier League, but Gary Wilson has show good form in the build-up to the competition, while Paul Stirling blasted a century against Kenya recently. Left-arm spinner George Dockrell has also been in great form and is likely to continue with the new ball.
