Sports Digest: Lennox Lewis was last night thinking over the possibility of his heavyweight title fight against Mike Tyson going ahead in Atlanta on June 8th, after the American was granted a licence to fight by the Georgia Boxing Commission.
BOXING: Lennox Lewis was last night thinking over the possibility of his heavyweight title fight against Mike Tyson going ahead in Atlanta on June 8th, after the American was granted a licence to fight by the Georgia Boxing Commission, reports John Rawling.
Although Lewis wants guarantees that Tyson is medically fit to box, and his backers have been openly considering alternative contests, the champion was under renewed pressure to honour the contract he signed with Tyson.
The Georgia Boxing Commission administrator Tom Mishou explained that, with the formality of a $10 payment, Tyson was now licensed, saying: "Shelly Finkel, Mr Tyson's manager, contacted my office. He asked if I would send him a licence application that he could get Mr Tyson to fill out. I said, sure. Mr Tyson filled it out, they sent me the required medicals, they sent me the money, we issued the licence."
Although the commission's decision flies in the face of advice given by the Association of American Boxing Commissions that all licensing authorities should respect the decision of Nevada to reject Tyson's application, it is clear the former champion's backers have moved rapidly to put together a deal which might make the fight commercially viable.
The Georgia Dome, a 72,000-seat stadium, is being proposed as a venue. Guardian Service
WINTER OLYMPICS: Switzerland's Simon Ammann became the first man to win double individual ski jump gold for 14 years as the men's K120 competition reached a thrilling climax yesterday at Utah Olympic Park.
Ammann (20), secured his second gold in four days with a final jump of 133m. The win follows his success in the K90.
As on the normal hill, the event looked like a battle between Ammann, K90 silver medallist Sven Hannawald of Germany, and Poland's Adam Malysz, who got bronze in the K90.
Ammann and Hannawald were tied for the lead after the first of their two jumps. Malysz was clear in third place but his second jump of 128m was never going to be enough. Ammann, the penultimate competitor, pulled off the biggest jump of the day to take the lead.
Hannawald then sailed for 131m but slipped on landing to hand Malysz silver and bronze to Finland's Matti Hautaaeki.
ATHLETICS: Karen Shinkins is top of the latest IAAF indoor 400m world rankings after her 51.58 seconds Irish record run in Blacksburg, Virginia, last week. She takes over from Germany's Grit Breuer, who has a best of 51.62 from the previous week.
James Nolan is ranked 10th over 1,500m with 3:38.69, and Peter Coghlan's 7.71 over 60m hurdles is the equal seventh fastest European time.
