Advani retains junior title

New Delhi: World amateur snooker champion Pankaj Advani once again proved that he was no push-over in the other version of the game as he retained the junior national billiards title in Gwalior on Tuesday.

The defending champion comfortably defeated Rishabh Thakkar of Maharashtra 1029-670 in the final round-robin match to maintain a cent per cent record, according to information received here.

The Bangalore-based cueist, who is defending three titles — junior billiards, junior snooker and senior snooker — at this nationals, registered four 100 breaks — 170, 132, 197, 155 — to end the challenge of Thakkar.

Round the world, alone

Paris: France’s Francis Joyon, on board his IDEC trimaran, became the first man to sail around the world single-handedly in less than 80 days on Tuesday.

The 48-year-old skipper reached the French port of Brest after 72 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes and 22 seconds at sea.

Joyon crushed the previous round-the-world record for a multi-hull, previously held by compatriot Olivier de Kersauson, of 125 days, 19 hours and 32 minutes.

The singled-handed round-the-world record in a monohull is held by Michel Desjoyeaux in 93 days, three hours, 57 minutes and 32 seconds.

Boxer paid to lose

Los Angeles: A heavyweight fighter said he was paid money to use fake names in losing five times to the same boxer in the 1990s, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

According to prosecution documents filed in a federal sports bribery case, the unidentified heavyweight boxer said he used alias or his own name as part of a scheme to pad Don Steele’s won-loss record with ‘fixed’ fights.

FBI agent Scott A. Gillespie accused Steele’s manager Robert Mitchell, 41, of fixing fights to try and get Steele a ‘big money’ fight, the newspaper has reported.

Sussex re-signs Murray Goodwin

London: County champions Sussex re-signed former Zimbabwe batsman Murray Goodwin on a new one-year contract after being rejected by veteran South African batsman Gary Kirsten.

Goodwin, 31 and who also plays for Western Australia, was looking for a longer deal, which Sussex were unwilling to offer with a second overseas player, Pakistan’s Mushtaq Ahmed, also under contract.

However, despite being snubbed by Kirsten, Sussex will have a superb opening partnership in Goodwin, who was instrumental in their championship triumph and Ian Ward.

Stadium trouble

Lisbon: A seat-throwing melee at a Portuguese stadium where a player died a week earlier prompted the premier league on Monday to bar soccer matches there for 30 days.

Security at Guimaraes Stadium, one of 10 venues for the European Championship had to be improved quickly before the tournament, the Portuguese Professional Soccer League said in a statement.

The league said that the stadium was turned into a “battlefield” during the match between Vitoria Guimaraes and Boavista.

Ricardinho transfer

London: Ricardinho, who played in three matches for Brazil in the 2002 World Cup, joined Premier League club Middlesbrough on Monday on a free transfer.

The 27-year-old midfielder has initially signed an agreement until the end of the season.

Sport on Screen

Soccer: Spanish League 2003-2004 from 4 pm on ESPN
Cricket: West Indies vs South Africa, fifth ODI live from 6 pm on STAR Sports
Cricket: Sunny By Night (India vs Zimbabwe) from 7 pm on ESPN
British golfer Nick Faldo (left) shares a joke with Ryan Lumsden, a biomechanic of the Australian Institute of Sport, at Royal Melbourne Golf Course on Tuesday.

(Reuters)