A round-up of today's other sports news in brief
Brands serves up treat for home fans
TENNIS: Nathalie Dechy has announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 30. The Frenchwoman, who was on the circuit for 16 years and had a highest world ranking of 11th in January 2006, wants to devote more time to her family. She won one singles tournament while two of her seven doubles titles came at the US Open, in 2006 and 2007. She reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2005.
Willis out of world championships
ATHLETICS: Olympic 1,500 metres bronze medallist Nick Willis of New Zealand has pulled out of next months IAAF world championships to recover from hip surgery and prepare for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. “I am back running for 50 to 60 minutes four or five times a week so I’m getting fairly fit, but I can’t put in the intensive quality work on the track to get race sharp,” Willis said yesterday. Willis, who hopes to defend his Commonwealth 1,500 metres title in Delhi, had planned to run the 800 metres in Berlin.
Gebrselassie to face Kibet
ATHLETICS: Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie will go head-to-head with his nearest rival Duncan Kibet in this year’s Berlin marathon on September 20th, organisers said yesterday.
Ethiopian Gebrselassie set the world’s quickest time of 2:03:59 in Berlin last year. Kenyan Kibet, who made his distance running debut in Vienna in 2008, has the second fastest time after winning the Rotterdam marathon with a time of 2:04:27.
Swimmer out of his depth
SWIMMING: Antigua’s open water swimmer Kareem Valentine finished over half an hour behind the world champion in yesterday’s World Championship 5km ocean race at Ostia, Italy, but at least he made it just in time for the medal ceremony.
Valentine was so far behind the rest of the field that world championship organisers were already preparing to give Thomas Lurz his gold medal when the straggler clambered ashore to wild applause.
Most spectators on the beach had not realised he was still in the water and officials could not give him a time because he was over their limit.
Fellow Antiguan Orel Jeffrey was also too slow to merit an official time on the ocean waves west of Rome and compatriot Karin Clashing suffered the same fate in the earlier womens race.
The last swimmer to be timed in either race was Slovakias Lucia Vachanova, who splashed home over 13 minutes behind winner Melissa Gorman of Australia.
Gorman beat multiple world champion Larisa Ilchenko after the Russian missed touching the finish with her final stroke and had to settle for silver. Officials took several minutes reviewing television footage before Gorman, who had led for most of the ocean race, was declared the winner.
Daley claims Britain' s first individual world diving title
DIVING: Tom Daley became Britain’s first individual world diving champion when he claimed the 10 metre platform title at the World Championships in Rome yesterday.
The 15-year-old was third entering the final round and while he scored four 10s on his last dive, his rivals faltered.
Daley’s score of 539.85 points saw him overhaul Chinese pair Qui Bo and Zhou Luxin to claim the title and render the Plymouth youngster speechless.
Daley said: “I don’t know what to say. I don’t believe it, I just don’t believe it. It’s amazing. Today was never the day when I thought I would become world champion.
“I woke up and thought ‘just go out and enjoy it’. To come away with a gold medal was unthinkable. It still hasn’t sunk in. It makes all the sacrifices worthwhile.
“Now I want to do it again in 2012.”
Daley competes again in Fridays synchronised 10m heats.
Dechy calls it a day
TENNIS: German wild card Daniel Brands stunned top seed Gilles Simon of France, beating the world number seven 3-6 6-4 6-3 yesterday to advance to the third round of the German Open in Hamburg. The pair traded early breaks before Simon, still in search of his seasons first title, broke again to race into the lead 5-2 and serve out the set two games later.
Simon got another early break to go 2-1 up in the second but the determined 22-year-old Brands, ranked 120th in the world, broke twice to lead 4-2.
The Frenchman levelled with some well-placed groundstrokes but Brands hung in to break again and level the match. The German then got the break he wanted in the fifth game of the third set to go 4-2 up and serve out the match on his third match point.
Meanwhile Vesna Manasieva celebrated her 20th birthday in style by dumping second seed Anabel Medina Garrigues out of the first round of the Banka Koper Slovenia Open in Portoroz yesterday.
The Russian world number 141, playing the highest-ranked opponent of her career, battled back from a nightmare second set to triumph 6-3 1-6 7-5.
Fourth seed Robert Vinci avoided the same fate as she brushed aside local wild-card Nastja Kolar 6-2 6-0.
