Sports Digest
RUGBY: French giants Toulouse opened their European Cup campaign by collecting a priceless 9-6 away win after Jean-Baptiste Elissalde kicked a penalty hat-trick against Llanelli at Stradey Park last night.
Crucially, Scarlets goalkicker Arwel Thomas missed three of his five penalties before substitute Gareth Bowen hit the post from just 25 metres with time running out.
The visitors fielded Ireland international Trevor Brennan in their second row, while Llanelli were skippered by Ireland flanker Simon Easterby.
Toulouse had to man the barricades but ended a furious opening quarter only 3-0 adrift.
Elissalde tied things up with a short-range penalty, and as Toulouse ended the half with a degree of control, Elissalde's second penalty gave them a brief advantage until Thomas found his range from 38 metres to make it 6-6 at the interval.
In the second half, a raking touchfinder from Michalak then allowed Toulouse a rare excursion into Llanelli's 22, creating pressure from which Elissalde completed his penalty hat-trick with 12 minutes left.
Elsewhere, Perpignan enjoyed a 23-0 home win against Edinburgh.
ATHLETICS: The US Olympic Committee (USOC) has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against a recommendation to remove all the gold medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics 4x400 metres squad.
The International Association of Athletics Federations asked the International Olympic Committee this year to strip the Americans of their medals after CAS ruled that squad member Jerome Young should not have been allowed to compete after a positive dope test the previous year.
In a statement on its website CAS said the appeal had been lodged by the USOC and the other five relay squad members, who include five-times Olympic champion Michael Johnson.
TENNIS: Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova beat former world number one Venus Williams 6-3, 6-4 yesterday to reach the semi-finals of the Zurich Challenge.
Sharapova, seeded fourth in Zurich, will now take on third seed Elena Dementieva in an all-Russian semi-final.
Dementieva advanced to the last four with a 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 win over Japanese ninth seed Ai Sugiyama.
In the other quarter-finals, Australia's Alicia Molik beat Nadia Petrova of Russia 6-3, while Switzerland's Patty Schnyder beat Paola Suarez of Argentina 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
TENNIS: Fourth-seeded David Nalbandian defeated American Taylor Dent 7-6, 6-3 yesterday to advance to the semi-finals of the Madrid Masters. Nalbandian will meet Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, who beat seventh-seeded Swede Joachim Johansson 7-6, 6-7, 7-6.
