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■ MOTORCYCLE RACING
Biaggi, Bayliss win in Rome
Max Biaggi and Troy Bayliss claimed Superbike wins on Sunday as series leader James Toseland crashed in the second race at Vallelunga in Rome. Toseland's lead was cut to 29 points, as Biaggi moved into second place with only one round remaining. Noriyuki Haga is third, 33 points behind Toseland. Toseland claimed third in the first race behind Biaggi and Bayliss and finished 11th in race two after rejoining the field following his crash. Biaggi was second in the second race, with Haga third. Bayliss, who sits fourth in the standings, 55 points behind, has been mathematically eliminated from defending his title. The season wraps up in Magny Cours, France, next weekend.

■ SOCCER
Chelsea respond to racism
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck hit back at fans who sent racist messages to the club after the appointment of Israeli Avram Grant as coach. The Premier League club hired Grant as Jose Mourinho's replacement two weeks ago and Buck revealed there has been an element of racism and anti-Semitism in some Blues fans' protests at the decision. The comments may be particularly upsetting for Grant as the 52-year-old's Polish father Meir is a Holocaust survivor. Buck wants the abuse to stop immediately. "We welcome all constructive points of view," he said. "But there have been a few which could be viewed as racist and anti-Semitic and that must stop immediately. This is one thing we will not tolerate, whether in written correspondence, on the chat pages, on posters or banners, or through singing and chanting. It unfairly smears the reputation of the vast majority of the Chelsea fans who rightly do not want to be associated with such activity."

■ RUGBY
World peace wins 88-12
Half of New Zealanders believe their rugby-mad nation is too obsessed with winning the World Cup in France, the findings of a telephone survey released yesterday showed. But there's good news -- given a choice between world peace and a World Cup victory, 88 percent of Kiwis said they would opt for peace. The survey, by Research New Zealand, showed Kiwis are evenly divided on the question of the national World Cup obsession. Exactly half of the 500 respondents to the survey, conducted in the middle of last month, said New Zealanders are too obsessed with World Cup victory, while half said they were not. When respondents' ages were factored in, 63 percent of respondents in the 50 to 59 years age group condemned the Cup obsession while 36 percent of those aged 15 to 29 believed there was too much emphasis on a Cup victory.

■ CRICKET
Hair hearing begins
Darrell Hair, the Australian umpire who accused Pakistan of ball-tampering in the final Test at the Oval last year, was scheduled to begin his bid to sue cricket's world ruling body in London yesterday. Hair is suing his employers, the International Cricket Council (ICC), who have not allowed him to umpire in a Test or one day international since last year's controversy, for racial discrimination. Leading figures in the game, including Malcolm Speed, Dave Richardson, David Morgan and John Jameson, will be appearing in the witness box during the hearing at the Central Office of London Tribunals. The hearing could last for two weeks.


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