Double its size from last year, the Perpetual indoor rowing championship came of age yesterday here, when 1,200 competed over the Olympic distance of 2,000 metres on more than 60 machines.
The men’s open was won in 5min 52sec by Stefan Forster, a German international studying at Cambridge who forms the core of the strongest Light Blue Boat Race squad in history. But instead of gaining a 6-3 interval scoreline he let in O’Sullivan with a loose safety shot and the Essex player did the rest with a whirlwind 98.. He opened the sixth frame with another run of 67 and that was sufficient to restore his two-frame cushion.Hendry should have led 5-2 but missed the yellow in the seventh frame and then went in off to compound his mistake. O’Sullivan took the chance to come back, winning the frame with 33.Hendry’s 68 was good enough to make it 5-3 and he led 33-0 in the final frame of the afternoon. Hendry was never behind in an enthralling session watched by the recently elected president of the sport’s governing body, Lord Archer.

He led 2-0, helped by an opening- frame break of 89, but then made a couple of basic errors, allowing O’Sullivan to level with back-to-back runs of 78.
In the fifth, Hendry produced an inch-perfect break to recover from 44- 7 down to win on the pink. Stephen Hendry was on target in Preston yesterday afternoon to become the Liverpool Victoria UK champion for a record-equalling sixth occasion. With 10 frames remaining after the first session of the final, Hendry held a 5-4 lead over Ronnie O’Sullivan. On several occasions Hendry threatened to establish a more substantial advantage, but each time O’Sullivan clung on. Asked about the pressure of playing Norman in a play-off before a large gallery of his supporters, Westwood said: “The pressure’s off then really, the worse you can finish is second. I’ve played three, won three – I don’t mind play-offs, I enjoy them.”Both players finished the 72 holes tied on 14-under 274 – Norman compiled a closing one-over 73 and Westwood a par 72. But Norman opened the door after leading thoughout the final round, with three putts at the 18th to drop a shot; Westwood had a par.The Australian, Craig Parry, finished third, a shot away with 65 to finish 13 under on 275, while Scotland’s Andrew Coltart was sixth after a 71 left him on 280..

Lee Westwood won his third tournament in five weeks when he beat Greg Norman in a play-off for the Australian Open title in Melbourne. The 24-year-old from Worksop, whose pounds 83,000 winner’s cheque means that he won more than pounds 500,000 in November, pegged the world No 1 back on the final hole to force the play-off after a head-to-head struggle over the last round.
It was Westwood’s cool nerve that prevailed as Norman faltered on the fourth extra hole, taking three putts and allowing Westwood to seal victory with three-foot putt.Westwood has finished an arduous 36-tournament season with a rousing flourish following his wins in the Volvo Masters in Spain and another play-off at the fourth extra hole to win the Taiheiyo Masters in Japan.”It’s been incredible, really,” Westwood said. I’ve ended up winning three and finishing second in the other one.”Westwood’s win deprived Norman of a sixth Australian title and third in succession. “My coach [Peter Cowen] said before the Volvo Masters, `Come on, you can win two of these last five’ because I always play well at the end of the year. The best performance by a promoted team at the midway point since the league was created in 1963 was by Bayern Munich in 1965-66. They were second at the break and went on to finish third.
Despite having the former Leeds striker Tony Yeboah sent off in the 41st minute for two bookable offences, Hamburg took the lead in the 58th minute through Hasan Salihamidzic.

The Brazilian midfielder Ratinho equalised with an acrobatic volley in the 75th minute and, after Hamburg’s Markus Schopp was also shown a red card, Hristov headed home a Martin Wagner cross.In Italy, Argentina’s Diego Simeone struck twice in five minutes and Brazil’s Ronaldo added a third as the Serie A leaders Internazionale bounced back from their midweek Uefa Cup defeat to Strasbourg with a 3-1 win at Vicenza yesterday.However, Inter were forced to ride their luck as Vicenza, the Cup-Winners’ Cup quarter-finalists, had an eighth-minute goal disallowed and missed a 12th-minute penalty with the scores still level.Jurgen Klinsmann, the former Tottenham striker, scored his first league goal since returning to Serie A as Sampdoria recovered from 2-0 down to force a 2-2 draw at Bologna.. Never before in the Bundesliga’s 34-year history has a promoted club won the “autumn championship”. “Plans for a world champions’ league are a separate issue,” said a spokesman.. A last-minute goal by the Bulgarian midfielder, Marian Hristov, gave Kaiserslautern a 2-1 victory over nine-man Hamburg on Saturday and made them the first promoted club to reach the half-way stage of the German Bundesliga in the lead. The European governing body will discuss the matter at an executive meeting this week.Uefa said the annual inter-continental cup match between the champions of Europe and South America – the Toyota Cup – will not be replaced by a world club championship, proposals about which are being studied. Coleman met Keegan and the Fulham manager, Ray Wilkins, while they were in the North-west for their disappointing defeat at Preston to sort out a contract worth almost pounds 1m over three years. Coleman has not played first- team football for more than a season since rupturing an Achilles tendon.
Graham Kelly, the Football Association’s chief executive, has written to Uefa strongly urging them to restore the European place for the Coca- Cola Cup winners.

Kevin Keegan took his spending at Fulham past the pounds 5m mark yesterday when he signed Chris Coleman from Blackburn Rovers. The Second Division club negotiated improved terms with the Wales centre-back over the weekend after talks broke down last week. Though there was no evidence of drunken revelry, Iranian football fans enjoyed a wild party in the wake of their national side’s unexpected qualification for the World Cup finals with the victory over Australia on the away goals rule. Millions poured into the streets, dancing on car tops and passing out sweets and flowers In the capital, Tehran, traffic came to a halt.