No sign of flagging: Jessica Ennis stormed to the heptathlon title with a dazzling two laps of the track
Jessica Ennis claimed gold for Britain on the penultimate night of competition in the European Championships in Barcelona.
Ennis added the European heptathlon crown to the world title she won last year with a hard-fought victory over Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska of Ukraine, winning by just 45 points.
Ennis led from start to finish over two gruelling days of competition, as she had done in Berlin last year, but this time was pushed all the way by Dobrynska.
The 24-year-old from Sheffield only had an 18-point lead (or cushion of around 1.3 seconds) going into the 800m, and Dobrynska briefly tried to wipe that out as she took the lead with 250m to go.
But Ennis was having none of it and quickly reclaimed the lead before powering to victory in two minutes 10.18 seconds.
A time of 2:09.59 would have been enough to see Ennis break the 10-year-old British record of 6,831 points held by former Olympic champion Denise Lewis, but she came up nine points short on 6,823.
No doubt: Jessica Ennis blitzed the field on her way to victory in the 800m
The haul was a new personal best and championship record for Ennis, who said: 'It's unbelievable to have won this event again.
'I had to raise my game at every level today and yesterday so to come out on top is unbelievable.
'It would have been good to have broken the record but before the 800 I just wanted to win, do everything I could to stay in the lead and get the gold medal - and I have.
Personal best: Jessica Ennis raised the bar in Barcelona with a personal best of 49.25m in the javelin
'There's a lot of pressure and expectation but I'm so happy with myself for dealing with it.
'Watching the team get so many medals has been inspiring and put me under a lot more pressure.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4duaXheF4Yendofvid [starttext] By Neil Wilson in Barcelona
Golden touch: Andy Turner hits the line first to win 110m hurdles in Barcelona
Gold for Andy Turner, silvers for Christian Malcolm and Michael Bingham, bronzes for Martyn Rooney, Jenny Meadows and Perri Shakes-Drayton - last night was one of those nights for Britain that athletes dream of.
Saturday promises to be another at the European Championships when the spirits soar and thoughts turn to another Olympic arena in London in two years with Mo Farah, hurdler Dai Greene and heptathlete Jessica Ennis all likely to add to the 11 medals Britain have now. Only Russia have more.
Turner, a couple of months shy of 30, was the great surprise. He had been taken off National Lottery funding because he had fallen so short of expectations during the past two years.
Yet he grabbed his chance after a mistake by Czech favourite Petr Svoboda and executed his 10 flights of hurdles with near perfection.
Svoboda, leading to seven, hit it hard, wobbled and never recovered. ‘I made less mistakes. That was the key,’ said Turner.
‘I walked round the stadium the other day and I stood by the rostrum and looked at the gold medal position and I thought “I want to stand on that so bad”. I’ve dreamed of doing that, just crossing the line and winning.
‘It’s been a tough two years but all those lows have been worth it. I can forget about them now. I’m lost for words.’
Turner’s gold and Malcolm’s silver was evidence that the withdrawal of Lottery funding for poor performances works.
Both lost it - Malcolm has yet to have it restored - and both are hungrier as a result.
Triple victors: Michael Bingham (L), Perri Sakes-Drayton (C) and Christian Malcolm (R) all won medal on a memorable day for British athletics
Malcolm,31, led Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, winner of the 100metres, for all but the last two strides. Lemaitre won it on the line.
‘I missed the dip because I really thought I’d got it. I didn’t even hear him coming,’ said Malcolm, who provided a second medal of the Championship for Dan Pfaff, the American imported at great expense to direct the training centre at Lee Valley in London.
Lemaitre won his second gold by one-hundredth of a second, 20.37 to 20.38sec. It was hard to know whether to be disappointed or ecstatic.
Malcolm has had a modest two years since his fifth place in Beijing and few would have tipped him to be runner-up here.
The men’s 400m brought two more medals. Not a return to the glory days when Britons won the title at four straight championships but a close run thing given that Rooney had drawn the nightmare inside lane and Bingham the next worst, lane eight.
They were beaten by the Belgian Kevin Borlee and it was the first time for 35 years that his country has won a gold.
Borlee clocked 45.00sec, while Bingham and Rooney shared the same time of 45.23sec.
‘It was difficult to run in eight. I couldn’t see anyone until I got to the finish line,’ said Bingham, who was born in the US but qualifies because of a British father who lives in Nottingham.
In the medals: Jenny Meadows celebrates her bronze in the 800m
Bronze medals came in rich profusion. Shakes-Drayton, 21, is a real prospect at 400m hurdles. From the end of her street in Bow, East London, you can see the Olympic Stadium being built.
She managed to change legs on each of the first four hurdles and was well beaten by the Russian Natalya Antyukh in a championship record of 52.92, the fastest by a European this year, and by Bulgarian Vania Stambolova.
Yet her time of 54.18sec was her best yet, and it represented a big improvement. ‘This is wicked,’ she said. ‘I said fifth would be great. I did loads wrong hurdling-wise but still got a bronze. If I continue the progress I have made every year since I was a junior, then I should be there or there abouts in that stadium in 2012.’
The final bronze of the evening went to Jenny Meadows, a silver medallist in the world championships last year but not in that form all summer.
‘Even three days ago before the heats it was not something I was expecting,’ she admitted after finishing a little more than a second behind the winner Mariya Savinova in 1:59.39.
‘It’s confirmed that I can start believing in myself. I’ve got two world medals and now a European. Maybe now I have to take myself seriously.’
Hanging on: There are more medal hopes to come for Team GB on Saturday
The one great disappointment was the failure of all three Britons in the 1500m final to win anything, a failure made worse in the presence of the greatest of all British middle distance runners, Sebastian Coe.
The locals had something to cheer. Spain’s team captain made a public apology for their performances 24 hours ago but Arturo Casado won gold and Manuel Olmedo bronze as the British challenge faded, Tom Lancashire finishing 10th, Colin McCourt ninth and Andy Baddeley sixth.
As the last event it took some of the shine off the night but with two days of these championships to go, Britain have exceeded the bottom line of 10 medals set by their paymasters at UK Sport.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S-R001AXOQendofvid [starttext] By Sportsmail Reporter
Fighting back: Diego Maradona accused the Argentina FA of lying to him
And the World Cup winner claims they knew full well it was a stipulation he would never agree to - and tantamount to sacking him.
Diego Maradona has accused Argentinian Football Association president Julio Grondona and director of national teams Carlos Bilardo of forcing him out of his job as coach.
Maradona, whose side suffered a humiliating defeat by Germany in the quarter-finals of the World Cup this summer, met with Grondona on Monday to discuss his future and a possible renewal of his contract.
He was told at the meeting the board were only prepared to keep him in if he changed substantial numbers of his backroom team, something Maradona was unprepared to do.
Early exit: Argentina failed to make it beyond the quarter-finals at the World Cup
'After the elimination, Grondona told me in dressing room that he was very happy with my work and wanted me to continue. There were witnesses and players there. 'When we were back in Argentina, things became darker.
'On Monday, I met Grondona and after five minutes he told me he wanted me to continue, but seven of my staff should not go on.
'If he told me that, it meant he did not want me to keep working. 'He knows that it would be impossible for me to continue if my assistants didn't continue too. I defend all of them.
'Maybe some of the people who made this decision thought I would betray them. Maybe it was because they would betray their assistants if they were me. But I will not do that.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8cJ6Ud-ab0endofvid [starttext] By Neil Wilson in Barcelona
In the blink of an eye: Lemaitre crosses the line ahead of Lewis-Francis
There is a new force in European sprinting and he's French.
Dwain Chambers lost the 100 metres final last night to Christophe Lemaitre, a dozen years his junior. He was beaten by the first white man to win this title for 28 years and the first to run under 10 seconds.
Chambers was not even among the medallists after the contest that had been built around the two.
That honour went, remarkably, to compatriot Mark Lewis-Francis, who was added to Britain's selection only last week. 'Oh, my God, I am over the moon. Underdog is an understatement,' exclaimed Lewis-Francis, one of the 2004 Olympic gold-winning relay team.
Chambers shared a time of 10.18sec with Lewis-Francis but after a long examination of the finish photo he was adjudged to be fifth behind third-placed Frenchman Martial Mbandjock and Portugal's Francis Obikwelu, all awarded the same time.
All though were well beaten by Lemaitre. His time of 10.11sec was a disappointment given that he broke 10 seconds less than three weeks ago but this was a contest where only winning mattered.
Sympathy: Lewis-Francis, who won silver, consoles Chambers about missing out on a medal
It was in this iconic Olympic Stadium in 1992 that Linford Christie won his Olympic gold, and the man Chambers says first inspired him was back there last night close to the finish.
Instead of greeting a triumph by the man he once managed, Christie was hugging Lewis-Francis, the one he has coached and motivated back from the abyss of losing his Lottery funding and coming close to retirement.
'A big thank you to Linford Christie - if it wasn't for you I wouldn't be here now,' Lewis- Francis said to his mentor. 'I got to the final on a lucky star and I got to these championships on a lucky star. I am the happiest man in the world. I never thought I'd beat Chambers. But Linford says, "Whatever happens, happens".'
The stadium was half full but for the followers of athletics this was seen as the race of the championships, a true contest of equals from different generations in the event that has always held the greatest fascination.
Over the line: Christophe Lemaitre finishes in 10.11secs to win European gold
The Catalan parliament banned bull fighting in Barcelona hours before the race but this gladiatorial confrontation was a blood sport itself.
Young French cock challenges gnarled British bulldog, and one reputation was bound to be left bloodied and bruised in the arena.
While Chambers, at 32, has been enjoying a late summer of life as a sprinter, a few sunny moments after the dark days of his doping ban, Lemaitre, 20, is the new kid on the blocks, an arrival from the unlikely setting of Annecy in the French Alps.
Mutual respect: Chambers congratulates Lemaitre at the end of the 100m final in Barcelona
The city is bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics and has made Lemaitre its Olympic Ambassador. Chambers, of course, is banned by the BOA from competing in his home city in 2012.
Lemaitre became known when he won the world junior 200 metres champion in 2008 and the European junior 100 championship last year when he broke the under-20 record set by Chambers in winning the same title in 1997.
What gave his name a more distinctive place in the history books was a performance this month in the French championships when he became the first white man to run 100 metres under 10 seconds, a feat that persuaded the French sports paper L'Equipe to devote its first three pages to it in the midst of the Tour de France.
Their Anglo-French rivalry has been diplomatic all summer, an entente cordiale between men who respect each other. 'He's a good kid. He's going places,' said Chambers. 'He's a great sprinter,' said Lemaitre in return.
Lemaitre won the first semi in 10.06sec into a breeze, while Lewis-Francis only qualified in third in a year's best of 10.21sec.
Chambers, up next, won in 10.10 into a lesser breeze but he reined back in the last five strides. So they were as good as equal going into the final. 'Experience is the one ace I have,' said Chambers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c9YCfw5-3wendofvid [starttext] By Neil Wilson in Barcelona
Taking it easy: The European Championships in Barcelona are just another 'stepping stone; towards London for Jessica Ennis
Jessica Ennis does not go to bed to dream of Olympic gold in 2012, or wake thinking about it. Just now and again, she says, the thought crosses her mind.
'There's a lot I want to achieve before 2012,' said the world heptathlon champion.
Winning the gold medal at the European Championships here this week is first on that list.
Ennis is the one British athlete who will be judged a disappointment if she fails to win in Barcelona, according to chief coach Charles van Commenee, and that is a pressure she is having to become accustomed to.
In truth, though, the pressure of the coach's words is nothing to what she faces two years hence at the Games in London that will define her athletic career.
Everything before, as her personal coach Tony Minichiello puts it, is just 'another stepping stone, part of a learning process'.
Ennis is fated to be the athlete who will play the role of 'local favourite' in London's Olympic Stadium, just as hurdlers Liu Xiang and Fani Halkia did in Beijing and Athens and, most memorably, Cathy Freeman did in Sydney.
Gold is expected of those nationally anointed. Nothing else matters to their home crowd beyond victory, as Britain's Jonathan Edwards found when he won his Olympic gold minutes before Freeman and was denied even a lap of honour by the excitement.
The pressure is palpable. For now Ennis seems unconcerned. 'I had it on a bit of a smaller scale going into the worlds. I know it will be on a much larger scale but I think I'm quite mentally strong and I've got great people around me to help me with the pressure. Yes, I'm hoping I can deal with it quite well,' she said.
Golden girl: Jessica Ennis celebrates her magical win at the World Championships in Berlin last summer
Ennis shares her agent with Freeman and there is talk of discussions with the Australian and with Carolina Kluft, who won heptathlon gold at a European Championships in Gothenburg in 2005, about handling pressure.
Britain's chief coach Van Commenee also plans to isolate her from the hype at home by moving her to Portugal for three weeks before the Games. For now, says Ennis, it is the media more than the athletes who are thinking of 2012.
'The athletes are focused on what they are doing at the moment so it's kind of on the Europeans this year and then on the worlds next year. I think most athletes are focused on the here and now,' she said.
Aiming high: Ennis wants to win European gold in Barcelona this week
And she is not wishing it was here and now. 'The beginning of 2012, in the January perhaps, at that stage I might be thinking I just want it to come round and begin.
At this stage everyone's looking forward to it and it's quite exciting, so I'm kind of not wanting to wish away the build-up.
'Next year will be a big year, the focus on the worlds but because it will be one more season and then the Olympics will be upon us - that will be when people think about it a lot more and realise how close it is.
'At the moment it still feels like it's a while away but next year perhaps will be the time when you think, "Oh, one more season and then it's the Olympics" and start to panic.'
Missing the 2008 Olympics with stress fractures cost her competitive experience but she learned another lesson from it, like not worrying over the loss of 10 days' training last month to a virus that attacked her inner ear and caused her to lose her balance.
Brit of all right: Jessica Ennis
'Before 2008, missing a few weeks of training would have sent me into pure panic mode. Now I can compare and know that it's never going to be that bad. I can handle it a lot better,' she said.
After two weeks at the Aviva Team GB preparation camp in Monte Gordo in Portugal, the site for the team's pre-2012 camp, she is fully prepared again - down to second for the moment to American Hyleas Fountain in the year's world rankings but still No 1 in Europe.
'If I'd stayed in the No 1 position it would be great but I'm expecting that to change on and off throughout the run-up to 2012. As long as I'm in good shape and injury-free then I'm more than happy.
'Hyleas' was a really good score. It inspires me and pushes me on a bit. I want that No 1 position.'
To regain it in Barcelona on Saturday evening would require her to encroach on the greatest score ever by a Briton - Denise Lewis's 10-year-old British record of 6,831 points.
Tatyana Chernova, the Russian who was second to her in Gotzis, Austria in May, may push her close.
Before Ennis kicks off on Friday morning with the first of her seven events, Britain will hope to be knee-deep in gold. Mo Farah could well win the 10,000m on Tuesday, Dwain Chambers the 100m on Wednesday and Phillips Idowu the triple jump on Thursday.
Indeed, these Europeans promise to be Britain's most successful since 1998 but Van Commenee is right. If Ennis is not among the winners, it will be a major disappointment, stepping stone or not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-i3N2H8gbkendofvid [starttext] By Alan Fraser
Young, gifted and on the black: Alex Higgins, the Hurricane who blew exciting snooker into the homes of millions
By the later years of his mercurial life he had become a sorry shadow of a ghost, seeking out free drinks and free bets and a new set of teeth which he was convinced would restore his bark as well as his bite.
Indeed, the last time I met him, in a Belfast pub a handful of years or so ago, his mind was alert and prompting interesting debate. Until the Guinness took effect, that is, after which he was taken over by a kind of pathos, and quickly became increasingly bitter and incoherent.
But in his prime I remember him as a magnificent sight, dancing round the table on tiptoe, a Fred Astaire of the green baize, holing 'impossible' long pots before long potting became de rigueur, a Hurricane always on the verge of being a tornado.
Alex Higgins put the flawed into flawed genius. Except that to describe Higgins as flawed only scratched the surface of his dark side. His snooker genius had a San Andreas fault running through it.
And so frequent and so destructive became the earthquakes that many in the snooker world simply gave up on him.
Towards the end, however, inspired by human decency and the freemasonery of the balk, the sport rallied round. Even Canadian world champion Cliff Thorburn, a long-time enemy and sparring partner (sometimes literally), was moved to warm embrace at a fund-raising function.
Only Higgins's fans, who got no closer than an auditorium or, more likely, their favourite television chair, remained utterly loyal, seemingly oblivious to his often grotesque behaviour.
Higgins was the people' s champion. He will always be the people's champion. Like George Best, that other flawed genius and slightly older contemporary from the harsh council housing estate life of Belfast, Higgins possessed a certain charm.
Unlike Best, who harmed mostly himself and alienated few, Higgins often betrayed an unsavoury bullying nature. Best disliked people who went around saying: "Do you know who I am?'
'Do you know who I am?" Higgins would ask menacingly of all manner of innocent folk just trying to do their job or their best.
Cue a new star: Alex Higgins in 1968, aged 19
Of course, everyone knew who Higgins was. He was the man responsible for turning a smokefilled- dingy-back-room game into a popular television sport, at one crazy point second only to The Morecambe and Wise Show in the BBC ratings.
Higgins was that much-needed colourful character whose emergence happened to coincide with the advent of colour television.
Snooker suddenly made sense to the general viewing public when they could spot that the brown was behind the blue and the yellow was at the other end of the table from the pink. And in Higgins the TV audience latched on to a prince among the identical penguins in their dinner suits and black bowties.
'When Higgins came on the scene he had a style that set him apart from other professionals,' Clive Everton, the veteran BBC commentator and esteemed snooker historian, said.
World champion: Higgins with wife and baby in 1982
'Players mixed occasional attack with canny defence. Higgins was more attacking, much more flamboyant.'
'A snooker revival needed a personality out of the ordinary for people to become attached to. That was Alex. And for good or ill, he did get snooker talked about and written about in both the sports pages and the news pages.'
His was a natural talent, as unique as it was inimitable. Quick of foot and eye, edgy, given to various nervous ticks and mannerisms, Higgins played with a spellbinding flourish.
And the closer he came to likely defeat, the better he played. He was often compared to the gunfighter with a solitary bullet in the firing chamber. The first of his two World Championship successes came in 1972, ironically prior to live television coverage and in the days when the event was spread over months and at different venues.
The winner's cheque was a paltry £480. At just 23, he became snooker's youngest champion.
A handful: Higgins with drink and cigarette
Higgins assumed the role of anti-hero - anti-Christ in some eyes - over the subsequent decade. It was 10 years before he won his second world title at a time when his game and life had been in decline.
That 1982 championship is doubly remembered in the annals of great Crucible moments.
There was that famous 69 which did for Jimmy White in the semi-final, a clearance Ronnie O'Sullivan later described as the 'most stupid' he ever saw. 'You watch it now and you just think how did he clear up from there?' O'Sullivan said.
There were, too, those oft-replayed emotional scenes after his victory in the final over Ray Reardon. 'Bring my baby,' he cried at the moment of triumph. 'Bring me my baby.'
A television audience of 14 million watched and ooh-aahed as 17-month-old Lauren was cradled in Daddy's arms. The next morning, Higgins appeared in front of a disciplinary panel of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. The governing body f ined him £1,000 for a number of misdemeanours including urinating in an ornamental flowerpot at the Crucible.
Bloodied: Higgins getting attention from the police
The titles soon ran out. His last tournament success came in 1989 with the defeat of a young Stephen Hendry in the Irish Masters. But the bad behaviour continued. The head-butts, the assaults, the insults and the threats. In one particularly unsavoury incident he threatened to have fellow Irishman Dennis Taylor shot.
Snooker increasingly saw less of Dr Jekyll and more and more of Mr Hyde. Higgins had always possessed the apparently contradictory capacity both to be self-destructive and a born survivor. The first restricted his victories to far fewer than his ability merited; the latter extended his life, if not his career.
How else could he have got himself into such a state while lasting for so long? 'If he carries on like that he won't even make 30,' a snooker official said of the 24-year-old Higgins. Few thought it much of an exaggeration.
But Higgins reached 30, 40, 50 and even 60 while contending with throat cancer and all manner of ailments. When he attended the funeral of his mate and fellow rabble-rouser Oliver Reed, it was hard to determine which of the pair had died. That was in 1999.
A faded Higgins is ravaged by cancer in later life
'Could you face life without snooker, Alex?' he was once asked. 'Could snooker face life without me?' Higgins replied.
Merely repeating the view of many an observer, Higgins said this year: 'I was the most natural, charismatic player who ever lifted a cue.'
Not a bad epitaph for someone I will always remember as an extraordinarily talented, damaged, paranoid, emotional wreck of a man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA5yDwORg6Eendofvid [starttext] By Ivan Speck in Paris
Five star: Mark Cavendish indicates his number of stage wins
Others may have won the coloured jerseys but Mark Cavendish had eyes only for love on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday as he sprinted into the hearts of an adoring Parisian public.
As they held on to lampposts and trees, stood on boxes, crates and stepladders, the sight of Cavendish cruising to a second successive victory on the most glamorous avenue in France met the eyes of the swarm of spectators.
His triumph appeared as effortless as it was emphatic. While his rivals were separated by spokes, Cavendish crossed the line four bike lengths ahead of the pack, raising his right hand and holding up five fingers to signify the number of stage victories he gained in this year's Tour.
Make that 15 in the past three years and now only 11 men in Tour history have won more stages than the Manx Missile.
Cavendish then charmed his new public with a few words in faltering French for national television.
His lucidity returned in his later press conference, especially when it came to the touchy subject of the green points jersey. That fell to Italian Alessandro Petacchi, a slender 11 points ahead of Cavendish.
Cavendish said: 'I'm a sprinter. My job is to win stages. If that's how I win the green jersey then so be it, but my style of winning the green jersey is to win stages. I won't change.
'I'm disappointed not to win it this year, I set it as my target. I had some bad luck in the first week and I was the weak link of the team, but I've won five stages so I'll be happy with this year's Tour.'
Cavendish's future has been the subject of furious speculation during the latter days of the Tour. He is under contract with HTC-Columbia for another year, yet the same situation didn't prevent Team Sky from luring Bradley Wiggins into their monied world last autumn.
the moment: Alberto Contador celebrates as he crosses the finish line in Paris
The British team's first venture along the route of the world's grandest road race has been disappointing, largely because of Wiggins' overall position of 24th. Last year he missed the podium in Paris by a single place.
That under-performance notwithstanding, it has been a spectacular Tour. Every day has had its twists, its implications for the overall standings or for the green points jersey, its crashes and mishaps or its tales of the travails of Lance Armstrong in his farewell Tour.
A Tour for the ages, but also one which will forever carry an asterisk against the name of Alberto Contador. The Spaniard's winning margin of 39 seconds was exactly the same portion of time he took from runner-up Andy Schleck on the upper slopes of the Port de Bales when Schleck attacked only to drop a chain almost immediately.
Contador shot past, seized the opportunity to take advantage of a mechanical failure and took the yellow jersey which he never relinquished.
Schleck questioned Contador's ethical values. Contador later offered an apology, but without returning the 39 seconds he effectively stole from his rival, it was no more than a hollow gesture.
Just as it is impossible to guess what might have happened had Schleck's bike not failed him, so it is impossible to fully ignore Contador's dubious behaviour.
What a difference was the fortitude of Cadel Evans, the road race world champion who fractured his elbow in the Alps, and yet not only took the yellow jersey that day in Morzine-Avoriaz, but rode on with the injury all the way to Paris.
Armstrong broke no bones, but his pride was torn just as messily as his jersey on the same day as Evans crashed.
Just a magnificent sight: The pack ride up the Champs Elysees during the 20th and final stage of Le Tour
Three calamities of his own that day cost the seven-times winner almost 12 minutes and prematurely ended his dream of an improbable final victory at the age of 38. Even yesterday, the American was the centre of attention - and the stage had not reached its official start.
Armstrong and his RadioShack team-mates turned up for the ceremonial roll-out from the town of Longjumeau wearing special black race suits with the number 28 embossed on the back - a tribute to the 28 million people worldwide currently dealing with the effects of cancer.
It is a disease from which Armstrong himself recovered in 1997, but any hope of parading the message along the Champs- Elysees were swiftly derailed by the officious race organisers who ordered RadioShack to revert to their usual red and grey outfits and later fined the team 6,300 Swiss francs for their audacity.
Irritated but undeterred, the riders pointedly donned the black jerseys once more when they mounted the podium on the Champs-Elysees to receive the team award.
Armstrong said: 'The idea was to talk about the significance of the disease. Unfortunately the Commissaires didn't agree.'
It could only happen to Armstrong, and the Tour will be a less colourful circus without him.
Champagne moment: Race champion Contador celebrates with bubbly (left), but Lance Armstrong rides into trouble with Tour De France officials (right)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYeKYXZ73mIendofvid [starttext] By Ivan Speck
Mr muscle: Mark Cavendish (centre) celebrates as he wins the 18th stage of the 2010 Tour
Who needs teammates to lead you home when you possess the blistering speed of Mark Cavendish?
Deprived of his usual lead-out man Mark Renshaw by the Australian’s expulsion for an inexplicable head-butt last week, Cavendish won the bunch sprint into Bordeaux with dismissive ease.
The Briton was so far ahead as he crossed the line on the Boulevard des Freres Moga that he was able to glance around at his rivals with an impudent grin.
His habit is to sit on Renshaw’s wheel before darting out with his final burst of acceleration. That tactic denied him, the HTC-Columbia rider took a tow from whomever it suited him in the final 500metres.
When he decided the moment was nigh, the result was as inevitable as every one of his now 14 Tour stage wins. He stands just 16 points behind Alessandro Petacchi in the chase for the green points jersey. For a second successive year, though, it appears that it will remain agonisingly out of his reach.
Easy: Cavendish had time to look round at his nearest competitors before crossing the line in triumph
Cavendish said: ‘I’ve got to try to win on the Champs-Elysees, whatever happens. It was hard to know what the gap behind me was but I was pretty pleased at how easily I jumped on to Alessandro’s wheel. I was sheltered from the wind as well so that played in my favour.’
Should Petacchi follow Cavendish home on the Champs-Elysees, it will be regarded as a frustrating Tour by the Briton.
A first green jersey would be his had he made the most of his chances. A puncture on the chaotic cobbles stage from Belgium into northern France cost him his position in the peloton.
Scenic: The pack passes through the town of Tartas during the 18th stage
He caught up admirably, but then didn’t contest the sprint within his own group at the finish line in Arenberg, costing him three points.
Another seven or eight went the following day in Reims when, fatigued by the previous day’s exertions, he lost his first Tour de France sprint since 2007.
Factor in his refusal to take part in an intermediate sprint early in Stage 10 when Petacchi and Tor Hushovd both picked up points and he would now be at worst five points behind the Italian.
Race you: A horse and rider gallop alongside the pack In other words, a repeat of his victory last year on the Champs-Elysees would have guaranteed him the green jersey.
The decision to send Renshaw home angered Cavendish, although common sense told him to bite his tongue rather than openly criticise the Tour organisers.
He added: ‘I’ve missed Mark, especially in the Pyrenees to see someone suffering more than me. Obviously it was going to be more difficult for me without Mark there and that win today was for him.’
Cavendish was greeted on the podium by Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. The shame is that, barring a crash for Petacchi, he will not be mounting the podium to wear green in Paris on Sunday afternoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ueS0ePnd5Mendofvid [starttext] By Ivan Speck from Col du Tourm
Hollow victory: Schleck celebrates winning the stage but still trails yellow jersey holder Contador
The private battle for the yellow jersey between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck was perfectly framed in a shroud of mountain fog yesterday.
For nearly half an hour they raced, isolated from the peloton, changing rhythm, exchanging glances and words as they climbed higher and higher in a frenzy of wheels and madcap spectators.
When they finally crossed the line almost 7,000 feet above sea level on the summit of the Col du Tourmalet - one of the fiercest challenges that the Pyrenees can offer - it was within a wheel's turn of each.
Their sweat-stained embrace was of two boxers falling into each other's arms after punching themselves to a standstill.
Schleck took the stage victory, Contador will almost certainly win the Tour. He is the better time trialler of the pair and with two sprint stages sandwiching Saturday's race against the clock, only an accident can surely now prevent him winning a third Tour de France.
'I haven't won the Tour yet,' Contador said. 'There are still three days left and in this year's Tour, every day has had its own story so nothing is certain. But I did what I wanted to today.'
The weather by the Spanish border could hardly have presented a greater contrast with the stul t i fying heat that accompanied the peloton in the plains and also the Alps.
Friendly rivalry: Schleck (left) and Contador give each other a pat on the back
It was fortunate that the worst of the rain, great torrents of it, had passed by the time the field set out from Pau.
There was still the fog, though, and complicating matters still further, a dozen mountain sheep who suddenly climbed up from their grassy perch on the Col du Soulor to wander in front of the peloton, all but dislodging Contador from his saddle. On the Tourmalet, it was the extremes of human life which had the leaders bobbing this way and that as they made their way through the throng.
Running bananas and bottles, the devil, Father Christmas, even four Borat impersonators dressed only in fluorescent green mankinis and polka dot caps, the final mountain climb had them all.
VIP guest: President Nicolas Sarkozy (right) talks to former champion cyclist Laurent Jalabert
Schleck barely noticed them, so focused was he on forging away from Contador and turning his eight-second overall deficit into a lead to take into the time trial.
Time and again, he accelerated. His changes of pace varied from the subtle to the blatant, but he made sure that his riding companion felt every one.
Contador did, then with just under three miles to go, put in his own burst, a gauntlet of honour which Schleck accepted as he chased the Spaniard down.
Competition: Goats joing the race in the misty mountains between Pau and Tourmalet
Schleck said: 'I gave everything I had today which hasn't been the case on every climbing stage. I'm so happy because I have shown that I am his equal in the mountains now.'
With the race now leaving the mountains for the vineyards of the Bordeaux region, it is Mark Cavendish time once more. The green jersey of Thor Hushovd may be all but out of reach, but the British sprinter will seek his fourth stage win of the Tour.
Mountain to climb: The pack climbs Soulor pass on the 17th stage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwqj2axTSMUendofvid [starttext] By Ralph Ellis
Top of the world: Jodie Williamssurges ahead of her rivals to storm to victory in the 100 metres IAAF World Junior Athletics Championships final in Canada
England's new junior sprint queen Jodie Williams clinched gold on Wednesday night in the World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, with a sizzling 100m run in just 11.40sec.
The 16-year-old extended her winning streak to a remarkable 149 races since she began running five years ago.
Williams had cruised into the final by winning her semi in 11.59 - the fastest time recorded in the three heats and was thrilled to taste gold in the final.
Just champion: Williams celebrates her stunning 11.40 sec triumph
She said: 'I knew it was going be a close race and I wasn't quite sure I could come out and perform again, so it's obviously a huge relief and the pressure has lifted a bit. 'I thought that if I got off to a good start I'd be in with a good chance and that's just what I did'
Last night's gold justified her decision to concentrate on the age group event rather than try to run in next week's European Championships in Barcelona, even though her times could win her medals among the seniors.
'I know the day I get beaten will come eventually, but my winning streak has given me great confidence coming here and getting a medal is brilliant,' added WIlliams.
'This is another step up for me. The next step is the World Seniors so this is a stepping stone but it means a lot, it's a great achievement.'
All gold: Yet to taste defeat, sprint sensation Williams raises her gold medal
World champion Allyson Felix backed that plan, saying: 'My one piece of advice for her is to enjoy what is a really special time in your career. Take it slowly and learn a lot.'
The schoolgirl from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire will try for a sprint double in the 200m. [endtext]
No sign of flagging: Jessica Ennis stormed to the heptathlon title with a dazzling two laps of the track
No doubt: Jessica Ennis blitzed the field on her way to victory in the 800m
Personal best: Jessica Ennis raised the bar in Barcelona with a personal best of 49.25m in the javelin
+day+at+European+Championships...+and+there%27s+more+to+come+1.jpg)
+day+at+European+Championships...+and+there%27s+more+to+come+2.JPG)
+day+at+European+Championships...+and+there%27s+more+to+come+3.jpg)
+day+at+European+Championships...+and+there%27s+more+to+come+4.jpg)
+day+at+European+Championships...+and+there%27s+more+to+come+5.jpg)
+day+at+European+Championships...+and+there%27s+more+to+come+6.jpg)
