Other sports stories in brief

Glock 'fine' and back in cockpit

FORMULA ONE:Timo Glock will test for Toyota in Spain tomorrow after being given the all-clear following his big crash in Sunday's German Grand Prix, the Formula One team said yesterday.

The 26-year-old German spent Sunday night in hospital in Ludwigshafen and returned home on Monday before further tests.

"Those tests have confirmed Timo suffered no injuries or concussion," Toyota said.

Glock said he felt fine and the accident had looked worse on television than in real life.

"It was a really hard impact and my back hurt immediately after I got out of the car but now it is fine," he said. "Physically I feel absolutely fine so I am looking forward to getting back in the car on Thursday."

Toyota said an investigation into the crash, which brought out the safety car in the Hockenheim race, had traced the cause of the accident to the right-rear trackrod.

They said there had been no exceptional circumstances before the accident and Glock running wide at the last corner had not triggered the crash either.

Brilliant Powell shoots down Bolt

ATHLETICS:Asafa Powell triumphed over his Jamaican compatriot Usain Bolt in their eagerly awaited 100-metre clash at the IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting in Stockholm last night.

They had met at last month's national championships, but Powell was then recovering from a shoulder injury. In this, their first meaningful clash, Powell kept his nerve and showed he is back to his very best with a brilliant victory.

The former world-record holder posted a season's best of 9.88 seconds when finishing ahead of his successor as the planet's fastest man by one-hundredth of a second, with Jaysuma Ndure of Norway third in 10.06.

Powell, who lost his world mark to Bolt at the end of May, led after 20 metres. Bolt responded but his surge came just a little too late.

McCaw cleared to play in Sydney

RUGBY:New Zealand captain Richie McCaw has been surprisingly named to return from an ankle injury in the Tri-Nations game Australia in Sydney on Saturday.

McCaw, who was expected to be out for six weeks, is one of five changes to the starting XV who lost 30-28 to South Africa on July 12th.

Coach Graham Henry said McCaw would decide if he was fit to play.

Brad Thorn returns from a ban to start at lock; the veteran prop Greg Somerville is also back; Anthony Tuitavake replaces Rudi Wulf on the wing and Richard Kahui is at centre.

Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock will miss the game after failing a fitness test on Tuesday.

Mortlock sustained a head knock in the second half of last Saturday's match against South Africa in Perth.

Australia, New Zealand and South Africa players have voted heavily in favour of the experimental law variations (ELVS) used in the Super 14 and the Tri-nations this year.

A poll conducted among 264 players found 83 per cent thought the ELVs had a positive impact.

Ottey fails in bid for record eighth Olympiad

ATHLETICS:Jamaican-born Merlene Ottey has failed in her final attempt to achieve the 100-metre qualifying time that would have enabled her to become the first to compete in eight Olympiads.

Ottey, 48, finished second at a meeting in the Slovenian city of Maribor yesterday, said Robert Rudelic of the Athletic Club Poljane, which organised the meeting.

"Conditions were bad, she had wind in her chest and she missed the qualifying time by 28-hundredths of a second," he said.

Ottey has run in every Olympics since the 1980 Games in Moscow and her tally of nine medals is more than any other woman in track and field. She competed for Slovenia at the 2004 Games in Athens after six Olympics with Jamaica.

Her Slovenian coach, Srdjan Djordjevic, said Ottey was determined to continue training so she could race in big international events, "because she can still run very fast".

Perry makes main draw in Malaysia

SQUASH:Ireland's number one female player, Madeline Perry, powered her way into the women's main draw of the CIMB Malaysian Open after impressively despatching Orla Noom of the Netherlands in yesterday's qualifying finals of the €37,000 WISPA World Tour Gold squash event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Twice a quarter-finalist in the event, the former world number six from Banbridge, near Belfast, took just 21 minutes to overcome Noom 11-5, 11-4, 11-5 in the first WISPA Tour event to use "Pro-Scoring", which entails point-a-rally games up to 11 points (or two clear).

Perry's reward for the victory is a first-round clash with Laura Lengthorn-Massaro, the eighth seed from England.

Calzaghe-Jones fight postponed

BOXING:Joe Calzaghe's planned light-heavyweight fight against Roy Jones Jnr of the US in New York on September 20th was postponed yesterday after the Welshman sprained his right wrist in training.

Calzaghe, unbeaten in 45 bouts, vacated his WBC super-middleweight title to free him up for the duel with the veteran four-weight American.

The two are expected to meet at a later date, possibly in November.