Other sports news in brief
Kazakhs hoping to sign Armstrong
CYCLING:Kazakhstan's cycling chief said yesterday he was optimistic of signing the former Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong to compete for Astana next season.
"He (Armstrong) is a great cyclist and he is also a great humanitarian and that makes him a perfect fit for our team," Kazakhstan defence minister Danial Akhmetov, who is also president of the country's cycling federation, said.
Armstrong said this month he would like to return to racing and ride in the 2009 Tour, four years after winning the world's most prestigious bike race for a record seventh time.
Although the American, who turned 37 last week, did not say which team he would ride for, several sources have said he would race for Astana. He would receive no salary or bonuses.
Armstrong's former team manager, Johan Bruyneel, who is now in charge of Astana, has said he could not see his former protege competing for any team other than the Kazakh outfit.
A survivor of testicular cancer, Armstrong said his main reason for returning to the sport was to raise awareness about cancer.
O'Brien to face BHA panel over Juddmonte tactics
RACING:Ireland's champion trainer Aidan O'Brien and jockey Colm O'Donoghue will face the British Horseracing Authority's disciplinary panel tomorrow over a possible breach of the "team tactics" rule during Duke Of Marmalade's Juddmonte International success at Newmarket last month, writes Brian O'Connor.
O'Donoghue rode the O'Brien pacemaker Red Rock Canyon in the race and appeared to controversially drift off the rail a half mile from home, which allowed Duke Of Marmalade a clear run on the inside.
Duke Of Marmalade's jockey John Murtagh was later quoted to the effect he had told O'Donoghue to execute such a move beforehand.
O'Brien and O'Donoghue are required to travel to London for the hearing but the BHA have also indicated the panel will consider if Murtagh "instructed, directed or encouraged O'Donoghue to ride in the way he did" and if O'Donoghue made "a manoeuvre in the interests of a horse from the same stable."
If found guilty, O'Brien could be in breach of Rule 153 (iv) which states a trainer must be able to satisfy the stewards he instructed the rider to treat other horses without favour.
The result of the Juddmonte International cannot be changed.
Pakistan ministry takes control
CRICKET:Pakistan's sports ministry has decided to take control of the country's cricket board (PCB), which has functioned independently since 1948.
The ministry amended the board's constitution and issued a notification on Monday under which it will monitor the PCB's operational and financial affairs, the board said yesterday.
Sports minister Najamuddin Khan said his ministry had taken control because the board was functioning without a chairman following the resignation of Nasim Ashraf.
"All sports federations in the country come under our control. And we also want to have a certain level of transparency in cricket affairs as people are unhappy with the performance of the team," Khan said yesterday.
Pakistan are ranked sixth in the International Cricket Council's (ICC) test and one-day rankings.
Russian walkers brought to heel
ATHLETICS:Five leading Russian walkers, including a world record holder, have been banned for doping, the Russian athletics federation (RAF) said yesterday.
Sergei Morozov, who holds the world record in the 20km walk, Vladimir Kanaikin, Viktor Burayev, Alexei Voevodin and Igor Yerokhin were banned for two years each after testing positive for EPO.
"They all had failed a test for EPO and after a hearing by our federation's anti-doping board on September 9th, each of the five athletes was banned for two years," RAF secretary general Vladimir Usachyov said.
"Both samples A and B of all five athletes came out positive and we had no other choice but to ban them for two years." All five were forced to miss last month's Olympics.
Kanaikin, 23, and Morozov, 20, had been favourites for the gold in the 20km in Beijing after setting world records over the distance in the past 12 months.
Malori takes Under-23 time-trial title
CYCLING:Italian Adriano Malori delighted the home crowd to win the men's under-23 time trial at the world road championships in Varese, Milan, yesterday.
The European under-23 champion, fifth in the same race at the Stuttgart worlds last year, went out last and completed the near-35km course in 41 minutes 35.98.
Germany's Patrick Gretsch was second and Australian Cameron Meyer third. Russia's Dmitry Sokolov, among the favourites, slipped coming out of a tunnel and continued after being helped up.
The women's time trial takes place today.
Safin fails to justify seeding
TENNIS: The seventh-seed Russian Marat Safin was a surprise casualty in the first round of the Thailand Open in Bangkok yesterday, losing in straight sets, 6-4 7-6, to the German Philipp Petzschner.
"I didn't feel comfortable on court," said Safin, a former US and Australian Open winner. "Unfortunately, I didn't win - the other guy was better than me."
