Sports digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Pakistani police arrest bookies

CRICKET:Pakistani police have busted a gang of bookmakers who were behind death threats to wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider, they said yesterday.

Haider fled the Pakistan team hotel in Dubai last November hours before a one-day international against South Africa.

He flew to London where he applied for asylum after saying that an unknown person had threatened him for not co-operating in fixing the one-day series.

“We arrested eight bookmakers yesterday and some of them have confessed they had the threatening calls made to Zulqarnain,” said Nasir Qureshi, a senior investigating police officer.

The bookmakers running an illegal den were arrested from the Sambrial area near Sialkot in the eastern province of Punjab. Haider returned to Islamabad last week after getting reassurances from Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik about his safety and security.

Coffey helps Ulster into pole position

GOLF:The Ulster ladies served notice at Royal County Down in yesterday's sunshine that they intend to create history by holding on to the Women's Interprovincial title by topping the leaderboard after the opening round.

For the first time the players had to face 18 holes qualifying to decide the seeding of the provincial teams before the matchplay series and, led by Malone’s Louise Coffey, the home team fared best.

The holders, on 488 from their six best cards, were six shots better than second-placed Munster.

International Coffey posted the best score of the day, a one-under par 75, which was three shots better than Cork’s Gillian O’Leary.

Today Ulster face Connacht, while Munster take on Leinster.

Chabal retracts comments

RUGBY:Sebastien Chabal, who has been provisionally suspended after criticising the standard of refereeing in the French championship, said yesterday his comments were taken out of context.

The France player was provisionally suspended by his Racing Metro 92 team on Tuesday until the league rules on the comments. Chabal said the top 14 referees were “hopeless” and used to favour Castres and Biarritz.

Brutt's boldness pays dividends

CYCLING:Russia's Pavel Brutt saw boldness pay off at last when he won the 172.6-km first stage of the Tour of Romandie in emphatic style yesterday.

The Katusha rider, known for his swashbuckling but usually unsuccessful victory bids, joined forces with three other riders soon after the start in Martigny and used the three climbs to drop them one by one and cross the line on his own in Leysin.

Winner of a Giro d’Italia stage in 2008, Brutt dislodged Jonathan Castroviejo from top spot after the Spaniard won Tuesday’s prologue and now comfortably leads two of his breakaway companions overall.

Ukraine’s Oleksandr Kavachuk is second, one minute behind and Belarus rider Branislav Samoilav is third, 1:22 adrift.

Rowland and Accueita progress

BOXING: Irish boxing chief Dominic O'Rourke has hailed the performances of Katie Rowland and Austeja Accueita at the first Women's World Youth and Junior Championships in Turkey.

European Youth silver medalist Rowland, from the Geesala BC in Mayo, guaranteed Ireland a third bronze at the tournament following a 16-13 quarter-final win over Thi Yen Nguyen of Vietnam in Antalya yesterday. The victory arrived just a few hours after Accueita, who boxes out of the Finn Valley club in Donegal, beat Marthamma Sattivada of India 14-8 in the Junior event.

The duo join Belfast’s Michaela Walsh – who claimed a last eight win Tuesday – in today’s semi-finals in Turkey, just two fights each away from bagging three gold medals at the inaugural tournament.

Rowland and Walsh meet Frida Stenholm and Ornella Wahner of Sweden and Germany today in the World Youths, while Accueita faces Sweden’s Agnes Alexiusson.

Higgins profits from O'Sullivan's mistakes

SNOOKER: John Higgins punished an unforgivable series of mistakes by Ronnie O’Sullivan as he came out on top in their World Championship quarter-final in Sheffield last night.

The Scot had trailed 8-5 during the afternoon session but won eight of the next 10 frames to tie up a 13-10 victory.

In a high proportion of those frames, O’Sullivan led, missed reasonably easy balls and was made to pay by the opponent he regards as the most complete player in the sport. Certainly Higgins proved himself a better finisher tonight than his fellow three-time former Crucible champion, sealing his victory with a fine break of 79 which began with a fluke.

O’Sullivan began the day by surging from 4-4 to his three-frame lead, making breaks of 82, 77 and 47 in the process.