Gaelic Games: Kildare defender Brian Lacey has been ruled out of the Leinster football championship semi-final encounter with Offaly tomorrow week after receiving a four-week suspension from the Games Administration Committee, reports Philip Reid.
Lacey was sent off along with Louth's Colin Kelly - who had been only on the field for a couple of minutes - by referee Brian Crowe of Cavan for an off-the-ball incident during last Sunday's provincial quarter-final at Croke Park.
Kelly also received a month's ban from the GAC at their deliberations on Thursday night for his part in the incident.
Galway's former All-Star defender Sean Og de Paor has also been handed a four-week suspension by the GAC following his dismissal against New York last Saturday. However, de Paor's suspension finishes two days before the Connacht semi-final meeting with Sligo on July 9th which means the Galway man will be available for the game.
The GAC also imposed fourweek suspensions on Dublin hurler Niall Butler and PJ Peacock of Laois following an incident in the Leinster championship play-off game last Monday week. Butler's suspension was anticipated and Dublin had omitted him from the team to play Kilkenny.
Athletics: Sonia O'Sullivan must wait a couple of more days before her entry in next Friday's St Denis Grand Prix in Paris is confirmed. According to the organisers yesterday, the 3,000 metres that O'Sullivan intends to run is currently full with 16 runners although the chances are that a vacancy will arise.
Following her impressive season opener in Helsinki on Thursday, O'Sullivan is eager to have another competitive outing before returning into the next block of training in the build-up to Sydney.
But the race in St Denis has already attracted a top-class lineup, including Ethiopia's world champion Gete Wami, Zahra Ouaziz of Morocco and Paula Radcliffe.
It appears certain that O'Sullivan will get her starting spot, probably early next week.
As for her first summer 5,000 metres, it seems likely that the Stockholm Grand Prix on August 2nd will be targeted.
Drugs in Sport: A former East German swimmer told yesterday how the drugs she was forced to take led to her daughter's health problems.
In the trial of former East German sports official Manfred Ewald, Jutta Gottschalk told how her six-year-old had eye problems which stemmed from Gottschalk's unwitting use of anabolic steroids. Ewald, headed the East German Gymnastics and Sports Federation from 1961 to 1988 and allegedly organised widespread doping under the GDR regime.
In a separate trial in Berlin, three former East German athletics trainers were given suspended jail sentences yesterday after they were convicted of doping charges.
Peter Boerner, Helga Boerner and Alfred Papendick were convicted of contributing to the bodily harm of 16 sportsmen and nine sportswomen, including a 13-year-old girl, while trainers at an East German sports club between 1974 and 1989.
Swimming: Olympic champion Alexander Popov broke the oldest world record in men's swimming when he cracked the 10-year-old 50 metres freestyle mark at the Russian national championships yesterday. Popov, (29), clocked 21.64 seconds to beat the mark of 21.81, set by American former world champion Tom Jager in Nashville on March 24th, 1990.
