Doping: A former East German sports doctor, on trial for allegedly harming athletes by giving them banned drugs, defended the doping policy yesterday. Manfred Hoeppner (66), headed the Working Group on Supporting Means, the official term used by East German officials to designate doping, from 1974.
Also going on trial in Berlin is the 75-year-old Manfred Ewald, who headed the powerful East German Gymnastics and Sports Federation from 1961 to 1988.
"I deeply regret that I was not able to protect all athletes from harm," Hoeppner said.
Hoeppner did not dispute that he had recommended the use of banned drugs, but said he had never acted against the laws of the GDR.
Golf: The winner of this year's Million Dollar Sun City golf event will receive not one but two million dollars, the organisers have announced.
"This year we've taken the bull by the horns and doubled the prize money to ensure that the event will be irresistible to the cream of the world's golfers," explained Alastair Roper, the tournament's director.
The dozen stars assembling for this year's edition will split a total purse of $4.06 million with a minimum pickup of $150,000 for the five last players.
Cricket: Australian cricketers will be asked to sign a public undertaking stating they are clean of corruption before every Test and one-day series.
Players and officials will sign the undertakings to remind them of obligations and provide the public with a guarantee matches would be played on merit.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's former cricket captain Salim Malik said yesterday he was ready to face any inquiry on match fixing and rejected reports that he was planning to quit the country.
Mohammad Qayyum, a judge of the Lahore High Court, who headed a judicial probe into cricket bribery in Pakistan reportedly said his recommendations included a life ban on Malik.
Athletics: A German court has turned down a request from former Olympic champion Dieter Baumann, who faces a two-year ban for testing positive for a banned drug, to resume competing.
Baumann, 5,000 metres gold medallist at the 1992 Barcelona Games, was suspended last November after two tests showed he had levels of the anabolic substance nandrolone.
The German filed legal proceedings against unknown parties after the drug was injected into his toothpaste, claiming it must have been injected maliciously.
Gaelic Games: Kildare put in a convincing second half performance to defeat Kerry by 0-9 to 0-8 in a senior football challenge fixture at Newbridge yesterday evening.
