A round-up of today's other stories in brief

McCloskey targets Khan title bout

BOXING: Paul McCloskey defended his European light-welterweight title for the second time against Barry Morrison on Saturday, then set his sights on a world title clash with Amir Khan.

After stopping his opponent in seven rounds in Letterkenny, he immediately targeted an Anglo-Irish bout for the WBA belt.

McCloskey was comfortably in control of the early rounds, working away at his opponent without doing huge damage.

Morrison sank to one knee in the fifth after being caught flush on the temple by a right hand from McCloskey, and was on the canvas again in the seventh, but it was ruled not a punch. But the bout lasted only another minute.

McCloskey pinned his opponent back on the ropes and landed a combination of punches. No real killer blow was apparent, but the Scot staggered to the ground and referee Mark Green stopped the fight.

Emotional home win for Loeb

MOTOR SPORT: Sebastien Loeb secured an emotional win on home soil yesterday to claim his seventh World Rally Championship title with two rounds remaining. The Citroen driver had dominated the Rally of France from start to finish, maintaining a healthy lead through the final day to claim his sixth win of the season, and 60th in total, by 37.5 seconds over team-mate Dani Sordo.

Sordo's second place also ensured the French marque cannot be caught in the race for the manufacturers' title, handing Citroen their sixth triumph.

Loeb started the day with a 43-second lead and just four stages to go, although that number was reduced to three when the second run through Bitche Camp was cancelled due to the high number of spectators, and he was untroubled as he completed the final 4km stage through his home town of Haguenau to seal his success.

"This is fantastic," said Loeb. "This has been a very impressive rally. It has been very difficult and I didn't expect so many people to be here. This is the best result for me to win the championship here in France."

Sordo was pleased with his second place, and congratulated Loeb and his team. "I'm really happy for Sebastien," he said. "And I'm really happy for Citroen. There have been so many people watching from the roadside, this is a good result for them."

Petter Solberg was third in his privateer Citroen with the Fords of Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen fourth and fifth.

Sebastien Ogier, who had been the only man with a genuine chance of beating Loeb to the title, finished sixth after his event was ruined by a suspension problem on Saturday.

Federico Villagra and Britain's Mathew Wilson were seventh and eighth with Henning Solberg and Patrik Sandell rounding out the points-scoring positions.

The next round of the championship is in Spain in three weeks.

No let-up from Turner as Killester cruise in opener

BASKETBALL: Killester produced a devastating display yesterday as they opened their defence of the Nivea For Men's SuperLeague with a 107-70 win away to Moycullen.

Jermaine Turner showed no let-up from last season as he contributed 33 points for Killester.

"Jermaine is well able to score but today was a real team performance," said Killester coach Mark Keenan. "We have a big squad and we must ensure we keep everybody ticking over. Michael Hennebry also came in and did well today and it shows how competitive the squad is."

Paul Kelleher got his UCC Demons career off to a winning start, but he was not entirely happy despite their 93-84 success at home to Ulster Elks.

"We were brilliant at times and we are awful at times," said Kelleher. "We worked hard pre-season and today was culmination of that work.

"Getting that first win was the goal but we need to push on now and do a lot better than we did today," added Kelleher.

UL Eagles' new signing Cameron Mitchell enjoyed a perfect debut as he helped to inspire his side to an 82-72 win away to UCD/Marian.

A recent graduate of Williamette University in Oregon, the 6ft 7in power forward struck 25 points to help give Mark Bernsen a winning start to his reign as coach.

Neptune won 105-59 win at home to Belfast Star.

Britain crowned world champions

EQUESTRIAN: Britain's eventers were last night crowned world champions in Kentucky.

The team of William Fox-Pitt, Mary King, Nicola Wilson and Tina Cook took gold in emphatic fashion at the World Equestrian Games.

Fox-Pitt also won silver behind Germany's Michael Jung in the individual competition, taking Britain's medal haul to five following a triple silver in the dressage.

The eventers' latest success follows the European title they won in France last year, and provides them with lift-off for a concerted medal bid at the London 2012 Olympics.

Britain dominated the team competition to such an extent they knew they would secure gold even if their last rider Fox-Pitt had three showjumping fences down.

Thailand victory for Garcia-Lopez

TENNIS: Guillermo Garcia-Lopez claimed the second title of his career with a three-set win over Jarkko Nieminen in the final of the PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok.

The unseeded Spaniard, who defeated world number one Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals, won 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 after converting his fourth match point. Garcia-Lopez, ranked 53 in the world, had only previously won at Kitzbuehel last year.