CYCLING: Irish time trial champion David McCann took what was arguably his best win against the clock to date when he raced to an impressive victory yesterday in stage six of the Herald Sun Tour in Australia, writes Shane Stokes.
The Belfast man covered the 11 kilometre uphill time trial from Monbulk to Mount Dandenong in a time of 21 minutes 35.38 seconds, 3.75 seconds quicker than new overall leader Simon Gerrans (Ag2R Prévoyance) and a full 26.55 seconds faster than the third-placed rider, Glen Chadwick of the Cyclingnews.com-Fondriest team.
McCann's jumps from ninth to third overall as a result of his efforts and with just a one hour criterium to come in Melbourne today, looks set to finish on the podium in this 2.1 ranked event.
Meanwhile, Cycling Ireland holds its agm in the Citywest Hotel near Saggart today. Starting at 11 o'clock, the meeting will see the federation present an outline of its plans for the future. Three slots on the board will also be filled by election.
BOXING: Ricky Hatton will be free to make the first defence of his IBF light-welterweight title next month after promoter Frank Warren dropped his pursuit of an injunction against the Manchester boxer.
Hatton's projected November 26th unification clash with WBA champion Carlos Maussa at Sheffield Arena had been in doubt after Warren signalled his intention to seek to block any future fights until their imminent court battle was complete.
However, Warren will still pursue that court action against Hatton and his father Ray. Warren maintains he holds Hatton under contract for a further three fights while Hatton believes he is now a free agent.
TENNIS: Top seed Maria Sharapova was ousted from the Kremlin Cup by unfancied Dinara Safina 1-6 6-4 7-5 in a quarter-final battle of Russian teenagers yesterday.
Safina, urged on by her Australian Open champion brother Marat Safin, lost the opening set before staging a spirited comeback to beat the world number one.
"This is undoubtedly the biggest win of my career so far," said the 19-year-old. "Until now I've never beaten the world's top player." Safina now takes on France's third seed Mary Pierce, who survived six match points against another Russian, Elena Likhovtseva, to win 7-5 4-6 7-6 after nearly three-and-a-half hours.
Anastasia Myskina, who had been gunning for a Kremlin Cup hat-trick after winning back-to-back titles here, also tumbled out of the $2.3 million tournament, going down to her Russian Fed Cup team-mate Elena Dementieva 6-2 6-3 in a re-match of last year's final.
In the men's semi-finals today, sixth-seeded German Nicolas Kiefer faces Russian qualifier Igor Kunitsyn while Russia's seventh seed Igor Andreev takes on unseeded compatriot Dmitry Tursunov.
CRICKET: Fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa has been recalled to Sri Lanka's one-day squad for their seven-match tour of India starting later this month.
Zoysa was omitted from the Sri Lanka squad that won a home series against Bangladesh in September but got his recall after proving his form and fitness with the A team.
The 27-year-old's recall is at the expense of opener Avishka Gunawardene as the selectors adjusted the balance of the 15-man squad with the inclusion of another bowling option.
Marvan Atapattu, named world ODI captain of the year at the annual ICC Awards this week, was reappointed captain.
Sri Lanka leave for India on October 20th for a split tour that includes seven ODIs between October 25th and November 12th followed by a three-match Test series in December.
