BOXING: Bernard Hopkins became the first undisputed world middleweight champion in 14 years when he stopped Felix Trinidad in the 12th round at Madison Square Garden early yesterday morning.
Hopkins was well ahead on points when he took the decision out of the hands of the judges by landing a crushing right cross to the Puerto Rican's head, and a little shove put him down with one minute and 42 seconds remaining.
Hopkins, 35, who went into the fight with the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council titles, captured Trinidad's World Boxing Association belt to become the first middleweight to hold all three major championships since Marvin Hagler ruled the division from 1980 to 1987.
ATHLETICS: Olympic Champion Naoko Takahashi became the first woman to smash the two hours 20 minutes barrier as she won yesterday's Berlin Marathon. The 29-year-old from Japan won in two hours 19 minutes 46 seconds.
Her front-running performance bettered the time of 2:20.43 seconds set over the German course two years ago by Tegla Loroupe. On this occasion the Kenyan finished second in 2:28.02. Germany's Kathrin Wessel finished third with a time of 2:28.36.
ATHLETICS: Irish javelin thrower Terry McHugh finished his season at the weekend with victory at a meeting in Locarno, Switzerland. His winning throw of 78.19m was a season's best and constitutes an "A" qualification standard for next year's European championships.
CYCLING: IOC president Jacques Rogge has applauded the efforts of cycling's governing body, the UCI, to clear the sport of doping. Commenting at the World Track Championships in Belgium, which ended yesterday, Rogge said that recent efforts - which include a urine-based test for EPO - showed that cycling was setting an example that other sports should follow.
On the track, France put in the best overall performance, capturing four of the 12 world titles, including the men's kilometre and sprint, both won by Arnaud Tournant, and the Olympic sprint and Madison titles.
BASKETBALL: Killester suffered a disastrous start to their league defence, falling to UCD Marian 94-82, writes Ian O'Riordan. Trevor Smullen did most of the early damage, although Killester responded to lead by five points at the break. Hamp Jones then took over for UCD Marian, and ended up as the game's top scorer with 26 points.
Elsewhere Neptune got the better of Notre Dame 88-86 at the NBA, while Killarney snatched victory from St Vincent's, winning 83-81.
There were heavy losses for Star of the Sea at the hands of Tralee (103-77) and Sligo at the hands of Limerick (94-75) while Waterford lost unexpectedly to Tolka Rovers.
Women's champions Wildcats managed to secure their first points despite a late rally by Meteors, holding out to win 61-52.
