Today's other stories in brief
IAAF to help defend Gatlin appeal
ATHLETICS: The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) will help the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) defend an appeal by Olympic 100 metres champion Justin Gatlin against a four-year doping ban.
"We will be part of the defence in the Court of Arbitration for Sport," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said yesterday.
"We are going to support USADA."
A US arbitration panel suspended Gatlin for four years after a positive test for the male sex hormone testosterone in 2006.
Gatlin has appealed to CAS and in a statement yesterday, his attorney Maurice Suh said he wanted a ruling by the end of May.
Life ban for skiing coach
SKIING:Former Austrian cross-country skiing coach Emil Hoch has been banned for life by the International Skiing Federation (FIS) over his involvement in the 2006 Turin Olympic doping scandal.
FIS said the coach had 21 days in which to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Allegations against six other Austrian team officials were dismissed due to insufficient evidence.
The FIS investigations are being carried out independently of those by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which handed lifetime Olympic bans to six members of Austria's cross-country and biathlon teams following a night-time raid on their headquarters during the Games.
Italian police and doping testers found blood bags and equipment used for blood doping, enabling the IOC to issue its bans even though none of the athletes tested positive.
Russian pair to meet in Dubai final
TENNIS: Svetlana Kuznetsova will face Elena Dementieva in an all-Russian final at the Dubai Open today after the pair won marathon semi-finals.
Kuznetsova beat the Serbian fourth seed Jelena Jankovic 5-7 6-4 6-3, while later yesterday, the eighth-seeded Dementieva was also stretched before beating the unseeded Italian Francesca Schiavone 5-7 7-5 6-2. Both matches took almost three hours.
After missing out on a set point at 5-4 in the first, Kuznetsova was left to rue her missed opportunity when Jankovic came back strongly to wrap up the set.
The Russian jumped to a 3-0 lead in the second. But Jankovic broke twice to streak 4-3 ahead.
This time it was Jankovic who let her chance slip away as Kuznetsova claimed the next three games.
After an early exchange of breaks in the deciding set, Jankovic visibly waned. Kuznetsova squandered six match points on the Jankovic serve before serving out to love for victory.
In the second semi-final, after the players shared the first two sets, Schiavone, who received treatment for a tight quad muscle, was able to earn just seven points as Dementieva swept to a 4-0 lead in the deciding set.
Demetieva hammered home her advantage, allowing the Italian just two more games.
Nevin secures Olympic place
BOXING: Irish bantamweight John Joe Nevin secured Olympic qualification following a thrilling 32-16 four-round win over Ukrainian Maksym Tretyak at the second-last Olympic qualifier for European boxers in Pescara, Italy, yesterday.
The 18-year-old, who is coached by Brian McKeown at the Cavan Boxing Club, was 11-9 down at the end of the second round but staged a stunning comeback on the Adriatic coast to claim his place in Beijing with a 16-point margin of victory.
Boxers winning their semi-final bouts in Pescara yesterday were guaranteed Olympic qualification - but it just wasn't to be for Irish captain Ken Egan and John Joe Joyce.
Egan was beaten 17-13 by Ramazan Magamedau from Belarus, and Romanian Ionut Gheorghe beat Joyce 25-20.
Merckx's call
CYCLING: Belgian great Eddy Merckx has called on cycling's authorities to settle their recent disagreements and help the sport regain its dignity.
Cycling has been rocked by a succession of doping scandals but five-times Tour de France winner Merckx, nicknamed "The Cannibal" in his competitive days, insists that the sport's image has also been tarnished by conflict between the International Cycling Union (UCI) and events organisers.
