They beat holders Sara Sankey and Ella Miles, 16-17, 15-8, 15-3.Lancashire’s Colin Haughton retained his men’s singles title against Mark Constable, 15-12, 16-17, 15-6, in a repeat of last year’s final The women’s title went to Julia Mann for the sixth time. She clocked up her fifth win in a row by beating Tracey Hallam, 11-1, 11-8.* The presidency of the International Badminton Federation is to be contested for the first time in the sport’s history with the Sultan of Brunei, one of the richest men in the world, in a heavyweight competition with a stalwart of the sport, Indonesia’s Justian Suhandinata, and Thailand’s outgoing deputy Prime Minister, Korn Dabbaransi. The Sultan has never been a member of an IBF committee, but is the IBF Council’s nominee.. Joe Calzaghe will make the eighth defence of his World Boxing Organisation super-middleweight title against Mario Veit, the mandatory challenger, at Cardiff International Arena on 28 April. Joe Calzaghe will make the eighth defence of his World Boxing Organisation super-middleweight title against Mario Veit, the mandatory challenger, at Cardiff International Arena on 28 April.
The Welshman will be joined on the bill by the man he beat in his last outing in December, Richie Woodhall, who is scheduled to meet the Londoner Toks Owoh for the lightly-regarded World Boxing Union version of the title.Veit, a 6ft 4in German who has won 18 of his 30 fights by knockout, has waited patiently for his chance for a shot at the title, while Calzaghe has produced two of the best performances of his career in beating Woodhall and, previously, the American Omar Sheika.Originally, Calzaghe had been scheduled to defend his title at Cardiff Ice Rink on 17 March but the change in date has allowed his promoter, Frank Warren, to stage a triple world title show.In the third world title bout on the bill, the unbeaten Brazilian fighter, Acelino Freitas, will defend his World Boxing Organisation super-featherweight crown against an opponent yet to be confirmed.Warren can expect to come under pressure from Johnny Nelson, his WBO cruiserweight champion, to set up another fight with his Carl Thompson, whom he beat in March 1999.

Thompson completed the rebuilding of his career by taking the IBO version of the title from the Jamaican Uriah Grant with a fifth-round stoppage in Manchester on Saturday night.. A new season of doubts and suspicions begins today for a sport still in shock after the revelations of the Festina doping trial and yet to clear its name once and for all. A new season of doubts and suspicions begins today for a sport still in shock after the revelations of the Festina doping trial and yet to clear its name once and for all.
Hein Verbruggen, the president of the UCI, the sport’s ruling body, pledged to introduce new anti-doping measures this season after being criticised by the Festina trial judge. A new method to detect the banned hormone, erythropoietin, will be put into place, combining advances by French and Australian scientists.The season’s first race, the Grand Prix d’Ouverture, starts near Marseilles today without the sport’s biggest name, Lance Armstrong. The winner of the last two Tours de France has decided to stay away from France as much as possible before the Tour to avoid the French press, which he believes is biased against him.Armstrong’s US Postal team are being investigated by a French judge on doping allegations. The American squad are suspected of taking products containing calf blood during last year’s Tour, but they have denied any wrongdoing.The leading attraction of the Grand Prix d’Ouverture will be the Frenchman Laurent Jalabert, now riding for a new Danish team, CSC-World On Line.The powerful Spanish team ONCE had replaced Jalabert with the Spanish champion, Alvaro Gonzalez-Galdeano, and Czech hopeful Jan Hruska, but both were suspended soon after signing, for failing drug tests..

It’s been a bit wild and woolly for the last 24 hours, but we are now back on track, heading south in the Southern Ocean and on our way to Cape Horn. We are on the traditional classic route from New Zealand and down to 51 degrees south To go round the Cape we have to go to 56. It’s been a bit wild and woolly for the last 24 hours, but we are now back on track, heading south in the Southern Ocean and on our way to Cape Horn. We are on the traditional classic route from New Zealand and down to 51 degrees south. To go round the Cape we have to go to 56.
The Pacific is less violent than the Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean in the south is just a nasty place. The 50-knot squalls come through like bombs, but here they do not seem to have quite as much horsepower in them.Which is good as we have quite enough horsepower in Club Med We are back to doing our 500 to 550 miles a day. The rhythm of four hours off, four hours on standby and four hours on watch rolls by.

We are back with the speed, the noise and the water coming over the deck. We are back to dry suits and cups of tea that fill with cold salt water spray before you can drink them. We are back to the world we know, and we really enjoy it.I think it was my idea to route The Race through the Cook Straits which separate the North and South Islands of New Zealand I’m not so sure it was a good one It was a time of mixed emotions. It was amazing to see everyone, including some of my family, and I admired the way so many boats came out in what was quite difficult weather. Most of all I was really pleased that New Zealand had now seen this amazing boat.But it cost us a net 170 miles of our lead over Loick Peyron in Innovation Explorer. We were not surprised they did not stop for repairs of new sails. They put on a good, if rather elaborate act, beforehand, I suppose to lure us into thinking we could stop and they would then sail right by.

We were never going to fall for that.Where he did gain is that we were caught for a while in a patch of calm. When you can see a rival gaining 20 miles every hour it is very stressful.Now we are back up to 680 miles ahead, the boat is fine, the crew is fit and injury-free and we have probably four days of settled weather to take us to the Horn.I never cease to be amazed at the input of our on-shore weather router, Roger Badham, in Sydney. He is in constant touch with our navigator, Mike Quilter, and I wonder if he ever sleeps as he seems to be sending new thoughts and information every hour.Once we are round the corner we will need every bit of help we can get. The Atlantic may not be as physically demanding as the Southern Ocean, but it is a tricky section of the race as we go up the equator and then across the entry to the Mediterranean and the finish in Marseilles.We have been watching what has been happening to the Vendée Globe fleet through the St Helena High, which also trapped some of our rivals going south, the Doldrums and the Azores High.We have also been amazed at what Ellen MacArthur has achieved It is fantastic. Even if Michel Desjoyeaux pulls away in these last few days, and achieves what he set out to do and win, he will only have won that battle Ellen will have won the war.We want both. I now think we will complete the course in under 65 days, so we should be in Marseilles on about 4 March..