Olympics: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided yesterday to postpone a decision on the fate of Phil Coles, the Australian facing expulsion over an accusation that he passed on sensitive dossiers about his fellow IOC members.

IOC Director-General Francois Carrard told a news conference that the IOC's executive board had received a report from a three-strong panel investigating Coles as it opened a week of IOC meetings in Seoul. But he said no decision would be made until today.

Coles, a 67-year-old former Olympic kayaker who has been an IOC member for 17 years, narrowly escaped expulsion from the organisation in March for taking repeated free holidays in Salt Lake City.

Coles has also been the subject of a second IOC inquiry into an allegation by his ex-wife that the couple received expensive gold and diamond jewellery from someone connected with Athens' failed bid for the 1996 Olympic Games.

Motor Sport: German car manufacturing giants BMW won their first Le Mans yesterday following an incident-packed race at the French circuit.

Italian Pierluigi Martini held off a late charge from Toyota's Ukyo Katayama to clinch his maiden Le Mans success after the Japanese suffered a blown tyre 55 minutes from the finish.

Martini was partnered by two other former Formula One drivers in Germany's Joachim Winkelhock and Yannick Dalmas. It was the Frenchman's fourth victory after winning with Peugeot in 1992, Porsche in 1994 and McLaren in 1995.

Cycling: Philip Cassidy followed up his victory in the 10 mile time trial championship at Warrenpoint on Saturday by dominating the Meath Grand Prix yesterday at Navan.

Cassidy was fastest by 10 seconds on Saturday from David Peelo, with a time of 20 minutes and 36 seconds, with Tommy Evans and Karl Donnelly next on 21:00. Yesterday the 37-year-old Meathman took the Grand Prix at Navan for the first time. "This is one of the races I have been trying to win for 20 years," he said.