A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Taylor guaranteed bronze after outclassing Belyakova
BOXING: Irish lightweight Katie Taylor eased to within two bouts of retaining her 60kg title with another magnificent performance at the sixth AIBA Women's World Championships in Barbados on Wednesday night.
The Bray woman advanced to the last four after outclassing Anastasia Belyakova of Russia over four, two-minute rounds in Bridgetown to claim a 16-1 quarter-final verdict. Belyakova also took two standing counts in the final round.
Taylor, who is now guaranteed at least a bronze medal, will meet American Queen Underwood in tonight’s semi-final and is due to fight at 9pm Irish time. The bout will be streamed live at www.rte.ie/sport.
Taylor beat Underwood 30-3 at the National Stadium in Dublin in February 2009 and then stopped the American in round two of their second meeting in Kildare a few days later to help Ireland beat the USA in a dual match.
China’s Cheng Dong and Poland’s Karolina Graczyk meet in the other semi-final.
Cricket player charged with fraud
CRICKET: Former Essex county player Mervyn Westfield has been charged with fraud over allegations that he deliberately bowled badly in a domestic match last year, British prosecutors said yesterday.
“I have advised that Mervyn Westfield should be charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud for intentionally playing other than to the best of his ability, contrary to his contractual obligations,” Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Antony Swift said in a statement.
“It is alleged that he dishonestly agreed to bowl his first over to allow the scoring of a certain number of runs at a match between Durham and Essex on 5th September 2009, he added.
Fast bowler Westfield will appear at City of London magistrates court on September 23rd. “We are very saddened by the news that Mervyn has been charged by Essex Police,” Essex County Cricket Club said.
EPO testing gets a major boost
DOPING: Doping tests should be able to detect hematide, the latest form of banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO), before the end of the year, a scientific advisor to the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) said yesterday.
“Hematide is a form of EPO that I believe is being widely used,” Michel Rieu told a media conference at AFLD headquarters. “The World Anti-Doping Agency first had to come to an agreement with the laboratory (developing hematide) so that the molecule can be provided to the (anti-doping) laboratories so that a testing method could be implemented.”
The two laboratories involved were the Lausanne (Switzerland) and Chatenay-Malabry (France), he added.
“There is a very good chance that hematide will be detectable this year,” he said.
Hematide is a synthetic peptide which is not protein-based and is therefore more stable.
Sevilla gets provisional suspension
CYCLING: Spaniard Oscar Sevilla has been provisionally suspended after failing an anti-doping test, the International Cycling Union said yesterday. "Earlier today, the UCI advised Spanish rider Oscar Sevilla Ribera that he is provisionally suspended," UCI said in a statement.
It said Sevilla returned “an Adverse Analytical Finding of hydroxyethyl starch in a urine sample collected from him at an in-competition test at the Tour of Colombia on 15 August 2010”. Hydroxyethyl is a plasma substitute that increases blood volume, allowing red cells to continue to deliver oxygen to the body.
The 33-year-old, who finished second overall in the 2001 Vuelta, was fired from Jan Ullrich’s T-Mobile team the following year because of allegations linking him to the Spanish anti-doping probe Operation Puerto.
He also won the white jersey for the best young rider in the 2001 Tour de France.
Mulvey gets five-year term
KIERAN Mulvey, the former head of the Labour Relations Commission, has been appointed as the new chairman of the Irish Sports Council. Mulvey, who has been handed a five-year term, will work alongside chief executive John Treacy.
Mulvey is said to have a “lifelong interest” in Irish sport and his experience as a mediator will be welcomed by the various sporting bodies in an environment that has seen its fair share of division.
Flintoff calls time on lively career
CRICKET: All-rounder Andrew Flintoff called time on one of the most colourful and inspirational careers in English cricket yesterday after years of battling a succession of injuries.
The 32-year-old announced his retirement from all forms of the game in a statement after being told by his doctor his knee could no longer stand the rigours of top level sport.
Flintoff, a match-winner with bat and ball and a larger than life character in the dressingroom, retired from Test cricket last year following the Ashes victory over Australia but had retained hopes of continuing to play for Lancashire and England in shorter forms of the game.
Talking to Sky Sports News, Flintoff said the decision had been taken out of his hands. “Speaking with my surgeon he said the operation I had 12 months ago had been fine but not good enough to start playing cricket again,” Flintoff said. “I knew in my my own mind it wasn’t right.”
Aussie Grand Prix posts big losses
FORMULA ONE: The 2010 Australian Grand Prix posted a Aus$49.2 (€35.2) million loss, placing further pressure on the state government to justify the burden on taxpayers.
The Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGRC) said the global financial crisis had continued to have a “significant impact” on the loss-making race, local media quoted the organisers’ annual report, which was tabled in Victoria state’s parliament. The report noted that despite cost-cutting, expenses had increased due to inflated costs of staging the race.
The loss follows a Aus$40 (€28.6) million shortfall from the race last year which the AGRC also blamed on the global financial crisis. Despite declining interest and accumulated losses of more than Aus$200 (€143) million in staging the race at Albert Park, the state government has committed to holding it until 2015.
