MOTOR SPORT: The Arrows Formula One team have been denied entry to the 2003 world championship.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) issued its official entry list yesterday without the Leafield-based team. Arrows have been struggling with cash problems and missed six of the last seven races last season.

They did pay the £220,000 entry fee but this did not guarantee them entry into the championship.

Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw has been trying to sell the team and last month said he was in talks with a Germany-based company.

Even if the team survives now they will have to pay a £31 million bond to the FIA to enter the championships.

Arrows have lost many members of staff in recent months because of the financial uncertainty surrounding the team, which also faces winding-up orders in the courts from several creditors including former driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen and engine suppliers Cosworth.

Yesterday's news means that there will be only 10 teams on the grid for next season.

nBADMINTON: Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark and Mark Constable of England will top the line-up at the Irish International Championships to be staged at the National Badminton Centre, Lisburn from December 6th-8th. With Peter Gade of Denmark withdrawing from the Championships due to a heavy competition schedule in December, Denmark's number one Jonassen will prove tough opposition for Constable, who will be defending his title from last year.

Denmark will also field their number two player Tine Rasmussen in the women's singles competition and her opposition will come from Scotland's Susan Hughes and Nathalie Deschamps of Belgium. The championships will get underway on Friday following the qualifying rounds on Thursday.

AWARDS SCHEME: Donegal's Shaun Gallagher was yesterday named Young Rally Driver of the Year and Michael Devaney the Young Racing Driver of the Year. In all, seven awards were presented to reflect outstanding achievement in karting, motor racing and rallying, both at home and abroad during 2002.

Gallagher became the third winner of the Billy Coleman Award while Devaney won the Dunlop Sexton Trophy and the title of Young Racing Driver of the Year for the second year in succession. It was his third year to win an award as he also was Junior Kart Champion in 2000, the inaugural year of the Alfa Romeo-sponsored Awards for Excellence.

Award winners: ·Richard Tannahill - Junior Kart Champion; Jeffrey Collier - Irish Kart Champion; ·Niall Maguire and Paul McLaughlin - Dunlop National Rally Champions; ·Michael Devaney - Dunlop Sexton Trophy (Young Racing Driver of the Year); Shaun Gallagher - Billy Coleman Award (Young Rally Driver of the Year); ·Andrew Nesbitt - International Driver of the Year; ·Michael Roe - Hall of Fame Award.

SWIMMING: China's Qi Hui broke her own world record to win the women's 200 metres breaststroke at the World Cup short-course meet in Shanghai yesterday.

The 17-year-old smashed her mark of two minutes 19.25 seconds set in Paris in January 2001 with a time of 2:18.86. Qi had also broken a World Cup record in the 200 individual medley on Sunday.

Compatriot Luo Xuejuan, third behind Qi in the 200, took the 50 metres breaststroke in 31.03, ahead of Li Wei and Pang Duenyi.

World record holder Anna-Karin Kammerling of Sweden came up short of her own record but managed to win the 50 metres butterfly ahead of China's Zhou Yafei and Martina Moravcova of Slovakia.

Yana Klochkova of Ukraine took the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:33.91, well short of her own world mark of 4:27.83.

In the men's events, Briton James Hickman took first in the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly.

CYCLING:With just one round remaining in the national cyclo cross league, Irish champion Robin Seymour looks set to lift the overall title, following another winning performance in the sixth round of the series. Starting at the back of the field, the Wicklow rider beat Apollo CC rival Aidan McDonald by over one minute. Third place went to Seymour's WORC team-mate Dave Gill, with Niall Quinlan and Keith Meghen next home.

Seymour has now taken three wins and one second place in the league and on that form, barring mishap, is likely to take his 12th national title in the discipline next Saturday at Powerscourt. The final round follows on December 14th.

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