Today's other stories in brief

Rebellin loses doping appeal

CYCLING: Davide Rebellin has lost his appeal against the stripping of his Olympic silver medal for doping, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said yesterday.

Rebellin had complained about the validity of the testing procedures after he was ordered to return his road race silver medal from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. A retroactive test on his sample, carried out last year, showed traces of the blood-boosting erythropoietin.

Young to debut against Dutch

CRICKET: Bready and Sussex opening bowler Craig Young will make his Ireland debut in the upcoming Intercontinental Cup clash against the Netherlands in Dublin, writes Emmet Riordan.

The 20-year-old was in line to play in the recent World Cricket League success in the Netherlands only to be ruled ruled out before the tournament with a side strain.

Trent Johnston will lead the side for the four-day game in the absence of William Porterfield, who is required by Gloucestershire, while Boyd Rankin is also missing due to county commitments.

With Niall O’Brien sidelined for two months following a finger operation, Gary Wilson will take the gloves for the game at Rathmines, which starts on August 11th.

Hirvonen crash lets in Latvala

MOTOR SPORT: Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala led his home Rally of Finland yesterday after team-mate and early pace-setter Mikko Hirvonen crashed out on the fourth stage in Helsinki.

Hirvonen, last year’s winner, and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen escaped injury with the car rolling several times on a right-hand corner the Finn had described as one of his favourites.

“It was the biggest accident he’s ever had but he’ll come back from it,” Ford team boss Malcolm Wilson said. “It was a very violent accident, a typical Finland accident and I’m just pleased they’re both okay.”

After the day’s 11 stages, Latvala was 9.1 seconds ahead of Norway’s Petter Solberg. Six-times world champion Loeb is in fourth place, 32 seconds off the pace.