A round up of today's other stories in brief...
Gillick not out of his league in red-hot 400m
ATHLETICS:David Gillick produced an excellent performance at the Rome Golden League meeting last night when finishing sixth in a truly world-class 400 metres, writes Ian O'Riordan.
Running in the difficult inside lane, Gillick was mixing it with the best of them, as the American world champion Jeremy Wariner narrowly snatched the victory - it went to a photo finish - from his compatriot LaShawn Merritt in a superb 44.36 seconds.
Gillick finished strongly to clock 45.52 and, while that was short of his Irish record of 45.12 set in Lille a fortnight ago, it was still another encouraging run in the final countdown to Beijing.
Russias world and Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva set a world record of 5.03 metres last night. The 26-year-old also held the previous record of 5.01, which she set at the 2005 Helsinki world championships.
Elsewhere, the Irish 4x100m women's team set an Irish junior record at the World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
The team of Joan Healy, Steffi Creaner, Hannah Lewis and Mairead Murphy clocked 45.93 when finishing fourth and narrowly missing out on the final.
Earlier in the day, Ciara Mageean qualified for the final of the 1,500 metres, finishing fourth in her heat in a personal best 4.21:73.
Paul Fitzpatrick of Shercock AC clocked a personal best 44.52:12 in the 10km walk, finishing 20th.
Klitschko seeks early victory
BOXING:Wladimir Klitschko is seeking "the clearest possible victory" when he puts his IBF and WBO heavyweight titles on the line against Tony Thompson tonight in Hamburg.
Coming off a points victory over Sultan Ibragimov in February, the 32-year-old Ukrainian is eager to make a strong statement this time out.
"I will try to end this fight as soon as possible. It is my goal to win as clearly as possible. And that means early and by KO."
Bennett back in the yellow jersey
CYCLING:Stage one winner Sam Bennett of the Stena Ireland team is back in the yellow jersey of the Martin Donnelly Junior Tour after yesterday's fourth stage to Ballycastle, which was won by his team-mate Charles Prendergast, reports Shane Stokes.
Another rider from the squad, Philip Lavery, had been leading overall, but he dropped to fourth when a problem with his cleats caused him to lose time.
Prendergast outsprinted Marcus Christie to win the 113.5km stage. Bennett was eighth, but will start today's penultimate stage in the top spot.
Martin Donnelly Junior Tour: Stage Four (Castlebar to Ballycastle) - 1 C Prendergast (Stena Ireland) in 3 hours 10 mins 4 secs; 2 M Christie (Usher Irish Road Club) same time; 3 M Duffy (Stena Ireland) at 1:47; 4 N Brown (Hot Tubes); 5 M Cumming (North of England) both same time.
Overall - 1 S Bennett (Stena Ireland) 9 hours 24 mins 50 secs; 2 M Christian (Isle of Man) at 5 secs; 3 S Lambert Lemay (Hot Tubes) at 21 secs; 4 P Lavery (Stena Ireland) at 1:03; 5 D Schils (Dave Raynor Team) at 1:07.
Mountains: Brown, 46 points.
First Junior: Schils. Team: Stena Ireland.
Kürten may be back in action soon
EQUESTRIAN:Jessica Kürten could return to action as soon as next Tuesday following a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to put a stay on the suspension handed down to the rider by the Fédération Équestre Internationale, writes Margie McLoone.
The CAS decided to put a hold on the suspension following the FEI's inability to attend a hearing scheduled for Tuesday where Kürten was to appeal her two-month ban from competition.
The ban, due to run until August 6th, was imposed by the sport's governing body following the discovery of a prohibited substance in samples taken from Kürten's mount Castle Forbes Maike at La Baule in 2007.
Meanwhile, Cian O'Connor has been added to the list of Olympic entries as non-travelling reserve to Denis Lynch by HSI's show jumping team manager Robert Splaine. O'Connor has been nominated with the 11-year-old gelding Complete.
Nocher and Bree through to finals
SWIMMING:Melanie Nocher and Andrew Bree celebrated their Olympic selection in style last night at the British championships in Liverpool.
Nocher lowered her 200-metre Irish backstroke record for the second time in a month when she clocked 2:13.37 to qualify second-fastest for today's final.
"I just think it's fantastic that I'm getting the chance to go to Beijing and it's great that Aisling (Cooney) is going as well," Nocher said. "I think every athlete dreams of competing at the Olympics because that is the pinnacle for every athlete."
Bree qualified fastest for this morning's 200-metre breaststroke final and was just six-hundredths off his Irish record when touching in 2:13.20. The Co Down man will be going in against Kris Gilchrist, who is seen as a prospect to make a final in Beijing for Britain.
Also yesterday, Clare Dawson finished seventh in the 200-metre freestyle final in 2:03.36 and Barry Murphy was seventh in the 50-metre freestyle final with 23.08.
De Villiers takes diplomatic line
RUGBY:South Africa coach Peter de Villiers has refused to describe Craig Dowd's description of him as a "puppet" as racism.
Earlier this week, ex-New Zealand prop Dowd suggested De Villiers, the first non-white Springboks coach, was merely a figurehead and questioned if he knew anything about rugby. "While the Springboks have some good staff, De Villiers is merely a puppet," Dowd said.
His comments have sparked outcry in South Africa - who play New Zealand in Dunedin this morning - the South African Rugby Union demanding an apology.
"I don't know what his agenda is, if it is racism or not," De Villiers said. "In South Africa racism is a big thing and in other countries it's really big too. So maybe, I don't know, you can ask him that."
South Africa were humbled by the All Blacks 19-8 in the first clash last Saturday in Wellington.
