Sport in brief

St. John's third win

St. John's College cruised to their third outright victory this season when they trounced Bulathsinghala MMV by an innings and 175 runs in their inter-school under 19 cricket tournament match worked off at Panadura recently.

Bulathsinghala MMV: 88 (S. Champaka 22 n.o, S. Prasad 2 for 15, M. Teshan 2 for 23, M. Chaturanga 2 for 8, S. Madushanka 2 for 16) and 22 (S. Udayanga 6 for 12, M. Chaturanga 4 for 5).

St. John's: 285 (C. Perera 54, N. Sameera 78, M. Pathirana 28, D. Kumara 4 for 95).

Oshada a fine century

Sri Sumangala College gained a first innings win over Royal College, Panadura in the inter-school cricket encounter played at Panadura which ended on Tuesday. The highlight of the match was the century scored by Oshada Akalanka in the first innings for Sri Sumangala. He followed his good form to score a half century in the second essay too.

Sri Sumangala 303 (Oshada Akalanka 114, Chatura Silva 33, Chathura Nilaweera 32, Udaya Priyasad 28, Dushan Vimukthi 3 for 79, Krishan Dinidu 3 for 85, Ruchira Tharindu 2 for 27) and 249 for 5 (Oshada Akalanka 79, Chatura Silva 67, Buddhi Perera 51 n.o., Aruna Dharmasena 27, Krishan Dinidu 2 for 34).

Royal Panadura 211 for 9 (Dushan Vimukthi 50, Ruchira Tharindu 42 n.o., Krishan Dinidu 32, Malin Silva 25, Chatura Silva 6 for 84, Udaya Priyasad 2 for 20).

Davydenko to miss Davis Cup

Russia's skipper Shamil Tarpishchev said Thursday that Nikolay Davydenko would definitely miss Russia's Davis Cup first round clash at Romania on March 6-8.

"We aleady decided last year that Nikolay (Davydenko) will miss this match," Tarpishchev told the press. "Meanwhile, he failed to recover completely after being injured in Chennai."

Tarpishchev said that Russia's tennis icon Marat Safin and Mikhail Youzhny would spearhead Russia in the match at Sibiu, Romania. Dmitry Tursunov and Teimuraz Gabashvili were also included in the squad.

MOSCOW, Thursday, AFP

Defar sets new world record

Ethiopia's 5,000 metres world champion Meseret Defar set a new world indoor record in the women's 5,000 metres at the Stockholm meeting on Wednesday. The 25-year-old timed 14min 24.37sec, organisers said, nearly three seconds faster than the previous record of 14:27.42 set by her long time Ethiopian rival Tirunesh Dibaba in 2007.

STOCKHOLM,

Thursday, AFP

England women's star for Boston

Kelly Smith, the England forward who was a finalist for FIFA Women's Player of the Year in 2008, signed a multi-year contract on Wednesday with the Boston Breakers of Women's Pro Soccer.

The seven-team US league will open its inaugural season in April with US rosters joined by top international talent such as Smith, who has 33 goals in 76 matches over a 14-year career with England's national squad. "We are delighted to have signed such a world-class, creative attacking talent," Breakers president Joe Cummings said. BOSTON, AFP

TV rights case dismissed

The Fundamental Rights application filed by Hashan Tillekeratne was taken up at the Supreme Court on February 17, 2009 and the case was dismissed by the Chief Justice.

On behalf of Minister Gamini Lokuge and S. Liyanagama, Secretary Ministry of Sports and Public Recreation, Rajeev Gunatilleka, Senior State Counsel appeared, and on behalf of Sri Lanka Cricket, President Counsel Nihal Fernando appeared. On behalf of Taj TV Ltd President Counsel Romesh de Silva appeared.

The initial charge was to call open bids for TV Rights and the case was dismissed and then Hashan Tillekeratne filed this motion at the Supreme Court asking to list the matter for inquiry, which was dismissed again by the Supreme Court.