SWIMMING: French Olympic swimming champion Clement Lefert is to retire from the sport to con-centrate on his studies, the 24-year-old said yesterday. Lefert, who won the 4×100m freestyle relay to see off a United States quartet which included Michael Phelps and added a silver medal in the 4x200 metres freestyle relay, wants to concentrate on finance studies.
FIELD HOCKEY: Spain forward Pol Amat, the 2008 World Player of the Year who made more than 300 appearances for his country, has called time on his international career at the age of 34. A highly skilled and quick player, he competed at five Olympic Games, helping Spain to silver medals in Atlanta in 1996 and Beijing four years ago. His participation in the London Games was cruelly cut short last month when he dislocated his shoulder and was forced out of the tournament.
HORSE RACING: Camelot’s greatness as a racehorse is not in doubt but today he can achieve legendary status by winning the English St Leger and become the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 42 years. Despite his achievement in winning the English 2000 Guineas and the Epsom Derby he has had to play second fiddle to the remarkable unbeaten Frankel in terms of racing headlines. However, landing the world’s oldest classic today, becoming the 16th horse to pull off the Triple Crown but first since Nijinsky in 1970, would justifiably earn the Irish horse as great a profile as Frankel.
ICE HOCKEY: Commissioner Gary Bettman received a unanimous vote from the NHL owners this week in support of a lockout of the players if the two sides can’t reach a deal by tonight. Neither side appears to be willing to budge, making it unlikely that better proposals from the owners or the players union will be presented before the new collective bargaining agreement deadline arrives. Pre-season training camps are scheduled to open September 21 and the season is supposed to start on October 11. The league originally demanded that the players drop their percentage of current league revenues from 57 per cent to 43 per cent.
BOXING: WBC super welterweight champion Saul Alvarez will defend his title against gritty opponent Josesito Lopez in a 12-round title fight tonight at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. The 22-year-old undefeated Alvarez will be making his fifth title defence and is heavily favoured to beat Lopez, who is fighting for a title for the first time.
CRICKET: India’s cricketers have been ordered to wear the same jersey design that won them the cricket World Cup last year for next week’s World Twenty20 in a bid to bring them good luck. Nike, the Indian national team’s clothing sponsor, had unveiled a new Twenty20 design that displayed the national colours prominently at a media launch. But India’s cricket chiefs have asked the players to wear the same blue shirts in which they won the 50-over World Cup in order to bring good luck to the team. India won the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007 but failed to make the semi-finals of the next two editions in 2009 and 2010.