Gymnastics: The pornographic magazine Playboy revealed in Bucharest yesterday that they were to pay Romanian gymnast Corina Ungureanu
US$1,700 after the national gymnastics federation refused to pay her a bonus for being part of October's world championship winning team.
The Romanian Gymnastic Federation (FRG) decided not to pay the 20-year-old, who has now retired from the sport, the bonus because they said she had violated the sport's ethics for posing nude in Playboy's Romanian edition.
However, Playboy reacted angrily to the puritanical attitude of the Federation.
"The FRG behaviour towards Corina was totally unjustified leaving her off the prize awards ceremony and depriving her of the bonus for the world championship winning team," a Playboy spokesman said.
"In order to set this injustice right Playboy Romania will pay Corina $1,700."
Her former coach Octavian Belu and deputy coach Mariana Bitang were the harshest critics of Ungureanu's photos, which they said showed a "lack of decency" that had tarnished not only her own but also her teammates' image.
Responding to Belu's criticism that "she could have had the decency to wait until the (sporting) world had forgotten her," Ungureanu said: "I don't think he would like to hear what I think of his decency as a man and trainer."
Awards: Diego Maradona got the vote from his country's sporting journalists yesterday as Argentina's sportsman of the century.
Rugby star Gonzalo Quesada was voted sports personality for 1999 but there was no question of anyone other than Maradona getting the overall vote, largely for lifting the 1986 World Cup. Maradona was present at a special ceremony on Monday night at Quilmes near Buenos Aires to honour his achievements.
"Long live Argentine sport, which is a healthy sport," said Maradona, who said the award was "the best prize of my life and which makes me feel very proud."
Boxing: Flamboyant British boxer `Prince' Naseem Hamed will make his next defence of the WBO featherweight title against American Junior Jones in London on March 11th rather than the original venue in New York it was announced yesterday. However, the announcement means that Hamed, who is undefeated in 33 fights, with 29 wins inside the distance, will lose his WBC belt, which he won when he beat Soto.
WBC president Jose Sulaiman said last week that under the two bodies' respective rules there was no choice but for Hamed to relinquish one of the belts. The WBC won't recognise the WBO division and Hamed is refusing to relinquish that title.
