General
Racing: Winston guilty of corruption charges and banned for year
Published: 17 February 2007
The agonising purge faced by British racing in 2007 began yesterday when Robert Winston was suspended for 12 months by the Horseracing Regulatory Authority (HRA).
Boxing: Harrison has to win or face being left in the shadows
Published: 17 February 2007
After six years as a professional, Audley Harrison has finally reached the end of the honeymoon period. Tonight's fight against his former sparring partner, Michael Sprott, at the Wembley Arena, is his 24th outing as a pro, but it is the first time that he will have absolutely nowhere to go if he loses.
Athletics: Ignoring the hurdles suits Sanders fine
Published: 17 February 2007
Nicola Sanders found a simple solution to the obstacles that were holding up her progress in life. She simply got rid of them. Until last year, this 24-year-old from Amersham in Buckinghamshire was attempting to pursue a career in the 400m hurdles, an event where she had made an early name for herself by taking the bronze medal at the European Junior Championships of 1999.
Sport on TV: Stan in the dock over a grievous charge of self-importance
Published: 17 February 2007
There's been something of a hung jury, as it were, concerning The Verdict (BBC 2, all week), in which 12 good celebs and true have overseen a rape trial in which the officials were real, and the victims, defendants and witnesses actors. "Vile and indefensible" spat The Guardian - and that was just Stan Collymore. Only joking, Stan.
Racing: Harchibald's rehearsal hands star role to Macs Joy
Published: 17 February 2007
It is difficult to judge whether the Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park today can be best described as a race or a "rehab" clinic. With the Cheltenham Festival barely three weeks away, both Macs Joy and Harchibald are hastening to catch up for time lost to injury earlier in the season. John Murphy, meanwhile, has decided that this represents the best chance to get another run into Newmill, who fell on his return to fences the other day, before the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Point-to-point: Something Small has a big chance
Published: 17 February 2007
Today's East Essex meeting at Marks Tey has been postponed and organisers are hoping to reschedule in the next fortnight.
Basketball: Flournoy's Eagles must swoop for two wins
Published: 17 February 2007
The Newcastle Eagles face a defining weekend in their defence of the BBL Championship title. They travel to the joint-leaders Guildford Heat tonight, then host Milton Keynes Lions tomorrow. The Eagles trail the Heat and Sheffield Sharks, who maintained the pressure on Guildford with a 72-66 midweek win away to Plymouth Raiders.
Audley Harrison: 'Before it was anger driving me. Now it's strictly business'
Published: 16 February 2007
Snooker: O'Sullivan goes with flow in quest for new heights
Published: 16 February 2007
Ronnie O'Sullivan reached the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open in Newport yesterday, but insisted that playing well, rather than just winning, is most important to him.
Racing: Richards aims to restore Monet's fine reputation
Published: 16 February 2007
If reputations are often made too hastily in racing, then the same is also true of the way they are dismantled. In this respect, trainers must greatly envy the apathy of their horses. Nicky Richards would be gratified, certainly, if Monet's Garden could stifle the rather insulting conclusions being drawn from the solitary blemish in his brief career over fences to date.
Racing: Barnett quits the National stage to take over Ascot
Published: 16 February 2007
Few tasks on the Turf can be as stimulating as the supervision of its most famous race, but Charles Barnett seems to have found one. Yesterday the Ascot Authority announced the recruitment of Barnett, managing director of Aintree since 1993, as its new chief executive.
Racing: Williams leaves the cowshed behind to overthrow orthodoxy with State Of Play
Published: 15 February 2007
Racing: McManus' gift horse can fulfil National dream
Published: 14 February 2007
In his unassuming way, JP McManus has made a fortune by eschewing conventional judgements. Yet the stakes can seldom have been higher than now, as he contemplates a literal case of looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Athletics: Gardener given chance to run for fourth 60m title
Published: 14 February 2007
Jason Gardener has been given the chance to seek a fourth European Indoor 60m title next month despite finishing only seventh in the weekend's trials.
Racing: Beef Or Salmon joins ranks of greatest
Published: 13 February 2007
Beef Or Salmon's tremendous effort to overhaul The Listener at Leopardstown on Saturday put him in a club so exclusive that there is only one other member. Victory in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup was the Michael Hourigan-trained chestnut's 10th at Grade One level and, over fences, only Moscow Flyer has won as many. Istabraq heads the all-time leaderboard in terms of top-level wins on 14 - all over hurdles of course - with Moscow Flyer on 13, but the great two-mile chaser's first three came over the smaller obstacles.
Athletics: Pickering powers into European medal form
Published: 12 February 2007
Craig Pickering maintained his impressive momentum ahead of next month's European Indoor Championships yesterday in a 60 metres final that concluded a Norwich Union European trials meeting which threw up a clutch of hugely promising performances.
Racing: Kauto Star's latest blunder heightens Festival fears
Published: 12 February 2007
After their contrasting rehearsals at Newbury on Saturday, Kauto Star and Well Chief are both 6-4 favourite with Coral for their respective targets at Cheltenham next month. But while neither will meet a more talented rival, both illustrate the precarious link between ability and fulfilment in steeplechasing.
Basketball: Newcastle edge past Sheffield to reach Trophy final
Published: 12 February 2007
Newcastle Eagles kept one hand on the BBL Trophy last night with a hard-fought 58-55 semi-final win over the Sharks in Sheffield to earn the chance to defend their title against Plymouth Raiders on Sunday 4 March on their own court. The Raiders defeated Leicester Riders 83-64 on Friday night to reach their first-ever major final.
Skiing: Paerson sweeps into record books
Published: 12 February 2007
Inspired by another Swede making history, Anja Paerson made some of her own Sunday.
Racing: Nicholls' wandering Star
Published: 11 February 2007
Athletics: Why I fear for my big sprint rival - Gardener
Published: 11 February 2007
Athletics: Hansen's victory proves a struggle
Published: 11 February 2007
Ashia Hansen made a winning return from a string of injuries in the triple jump at the Norwich Union European Trials and UK Championships here. Hansen claimed victory with 13.68 metres at the English Institute of Sport, but this was some way short of the 14.10m needed to qualify for next month's European Championships in Birmingham.
Fishing Lines: It's so cold I'm microwaving my socks
Published: 11 February 2007
What sort of idiot goes fishing in this weather? Not so long ago, it was me. I had even planned to go fishing on Wednesday. But one look out of the window changed my mind. Given a choice between shivering in a boat on the Ouse hoping for a dumb pike, or starring in my favourite film (The Lie-in in Winter), it was no contest.
Sport On Television: Ghost of game's fading glory forced to witness a horror story
Published: 11 February 2007
Sir Tom Finney was sitting in the crowd as England lost to Spain at Old Trafford last week (BBC1, Wednesday). Mark Lawrenson, an aficionado of Preston North End, said the 84-year-old Deepdale legend was in fine fettle despite having had most of his spleen removed.
Boxing: Johanneson stays on front foot to please home crowd
Published: 10 February 2007
Carl Johanneson won every round and never took a single backwards step last night to retain his British super-featherweight title at the town hall in his hometown of Leeds.