Olympics: Sweden's failure to stand up to Adolf Hitler may have quashed its hopes of staging post-war Olympic Games, according to a poll published yesterday. The Nordic country, whose capital Stockholm hosted the Games in 1912, has failed in seven bids since 1984 to host either the summer or winter Games, which have developed into lucrative commercial bonanzas.

"Sweden never fought Hitler," said the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, which published a poll compiled over five years by Christer Persson, chief of the Swedish town Ostersund's failed bid to host the 2002 Winter Games.

The poll, based on responses to a questionnaire Persson sent to members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) who decide by vote which city wins the right to stage the games, revealed that the second World War had not been forgotten.

"What spoke strongly against Olympic Games in Sweden is the fact that Sweden did not join in the alliance against Hitler," Aftonbladet said, citing a reason given by several IOC members.

Political devolution in the UK could threaten future British Olympic success, the British Olympic Association (BOA) has warned. BOA chief executive Simon Clegg said competition between sporting bodies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland was against the interests of the UK as a whole.

"The biggest challenge to British success in international sport is devolution," Clegg said.

Snooker: Ronnie O'Sullivan crashed out of the Regal Welsh Open at Cardiff after losing to Northern Ireland's Joe Swail. O'Sullivan, winner of the Champions Cup, Regal Scottish Masters and China Open during a superb first half of the campaign, was beaten 5-4. Ken Doherty, who became the first player from the Republic of Ireland to capture a ranking title when he triumphed at the 1993 Regal Welsh, set up a quarter-final against Stephen Hendry or Marco Fu by beating Australia's Quinten Hann 5-3.