STORM STRIPPED OF TITLES

The Melbourne Storm have been stripped of two National Rugby League championship titles and fined $A1.5 million ($NZ1.96 million) after being found guilty of long-term salary cap breaches.


NRL chief executive David Gallop also said today that Melbourne would not accrue any competition points in the 2010 season.

Gallop said the Storm had been found to have exceeded the salary cap by at least $A1.7m ($NZ2.21m) over five years.

Melbourne were stripped of their titles from the 2007 and 2009 seasons, but losing grand finalists Manly and Parramatta would not assume those titles.

The Storm were also stripped of three minor premierships for finishing first in the regular season.

"They had a long-term system of effectively two sets of books and the elaborate lengths they have gone through to cover this up has been extraordinary," said Gallop.

"The club has furthermore been fined $A500,000 ($NZ651,000) and will be forced to return $A1.1 million ($NZ1.45m) in prizemoney, with the prizemoney being distributed evenly among the other 15 clubs."

The club last month opened its books to salary cap auditor Ian Schubert after it emerged the NRL was concerned with several issues regarding player payments, including a third-party television deal involving skipper Cameron Smith.

Gallop said the Storm confirmed that undeclared promises of extra payments were stored in a secret file.

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CHILD SINKS HOLE IN ONE

A five-year-old will be the envy of all golfers after sinking a hole in one during a juniors tournament.

England's Eleanor Gamble pulled off the ace on a 78-metre par three, avoiding a lake and several bunkers and sinking the shot on just one bounce.

Eurosport reports that Eleanor was playing with her 10-year-old brother at the time as part of a juniors tournament at the Cambridge Lakes Golf Course. She said: "I was very excited. I am going to keep playing golf, and see if I will be better than my brother.

Her father is now seeking entry into the Guinness Book of Records for the youngest person to sink a hole in one.

"She keeps saying: 'I can't believe I got a hole-in-one'," he said. "We had her great grandparents over from Ireland and we took them to the course to show off our son Jacob, who is 10.

"He is really quite good but Eleanor has stolen his limelight. There were about 15 people on the tee watching.

"She got the ball over the water and then it hopped over a bunker and someone shouted that she had got it in. We were all quite speechless really.

"I think she might have broken a record because the youngest female hole-in-one golfer listed on the Guinness World Records website is by an eight-year-old from America.

"Eleanor has smashed the record by three years. We submitted an application and now we're waiting to hear back from them."

The owner of the nine-hole course did admit that the course records a lot of aces because all of the holes are par threes within short distance of the tee.

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PHEONIX EXTEND CONTRACT

The Wellington Phoenix has been granted a five-year license extension to play in Australian football's A-League until at least the end of the 2015-2016 season.


Today's announcement by Football Federation Australia ended speculation over the future of the Phoenix, caused by the Asian Football Confederation's apparent reluctance to have a team from the Oceania Confederation continue in the Australian-based league.

The FFA, which governs the 10-team A-League, became a member of the Asian Football Confederation in 2006, while New Zealand remained part of the Oceania Confederation. AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam said in November he could not see an Oceania-based side continuing in the A-League beyond 2011.

The AFC's position apparently softened after a recent meeting between bin Hammam and OFC head Raynald Temarii, leading to the license extension announced Tuesday.

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WORLD CUP VILLAGE

A temporary facility will be built on Auckland's Queens wharf to host 'party central' for the Rugby World Cup, Murray McCully confirmed today.


The Rugby World Cup Minister announced the plans at a media conference in downtown Auckland this morning.

Mr McCully said the structure was "most assuredly not a tent" and would be built out of steel and glass.

The Government would pay $9 million for the "cost-effective building" and Auckland regional ratepayers would pay $10 million for the upgrade of the wharf, Mr McCully said.

He said the Queens Wharf development would feature a fanzone with an international media lounge providing backdrops of the harbour and downtown Auckland. It would also act as a cruise terminal.

The structure would take up between 5.5 and 6 acres on the site - about 20 per cent of the wharf.

Mr Mccully said earlier temporary options involving two 98-year-old cargo sheds on the wharf were "prohibitively expensive".

Auckland Regional Council (ARC) chairman Mike Lee confirmed both of the sheds were going, subject to consultation with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.

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INDIAN BOMBINGS

The safety of New Zealand sportsmen and women in India is again in the spotlight after two bombs exploded at an IPL cricket match in Bangalore.


Ten people are believed injured, but it could have much worse and there are now fresh concerns about the Commonwealth Games later this year.

The explosions were powerful enough to blast a hole in a brick wall, injuring several police officers and security guards.

They exploded outside Chinniswamy Stadium as thousands of cricket fans packed in to watch the Mumbai Indians play the Bangalore Royal Challengers, featuring Black Caps star Ross Taylor.

Two small bombs detonated while a third on the roof of the ticket office failed to explode.

The match went ahead after a delayed start, but the blasts sent shockwaves through the Black Caps as they prepared to fly to Australia for 20/20 World Cup warm up matches.

And there are renewed fears for the New Delhi Commonwealth Games in October, with the New Zealand Olympic Committee saying it is talking to government security experts about the potential danger.

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KIWI SURFER WINS

New Zealand's 15-year-old Sarah Mason pulled off a colossal upset by eliminating Australian world champion Stephanie Gilmore from the women's world surfing championship tour event off Taranaki on Thursday.

Mason and compatriot Paige Hareb both advanced to the quarterfinals, where they will meet, but it was the last-gasp performance of Mason that drew hoots and screams from a sizeable crowd at New Plymouth's Fitzroy Beach.
Needing a score of 6.56 on her final wave with two minutes remaining to catch three-time world champion Gilmore, tour debutant Mason managed 7.10 off a long ride that included two inside moves and finished with a sharp hook where she did well to remain on the board.
That pushed Mason's total to 14.03, pipping Gilmore's 13.66 and recording one of the biggest imaginable boilovers on the Dream Tour.
Mason received a wildcard invitation on the eve of the event and finished a fighting last in her first round heat on Tuesday.
She survived the subsequent elimination round to advance to Thursday's third round where few gave her a chance against Gilmore.
Quality waves deserted her until the final six minutes of the 30min heat, where she recorded her two scoring rides.
Gilmore did all her scoring early in the inconsistent 1-1.5m waves.
Hareb was less stressed in beating Australian Rebecca Woods, scoring 13.83 to 8.07 in a heat which the Taranaki local always led.
It sets up a home town quarterfinal featuring Hareb, in her second year on the Dream Tour, against national champion Mason, who grew up in Taranaki but is now based in Queensland.
Other early third-round winners on Thursday were Hawaii pair Carissa Moore and Melanie Bartels, with Moore winning with a particularly impressive score of 17.00.
Earlier, organisers were happy to move the event's location to the No.1 beach at Fitzroy after being forced to use an isolated location south of New Plymouth for the first two rounds. Competition on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday was postponed because of inadequate conditions.
The event is scheduled to finish on Friday.

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DOCHERTY WINS TRIATHLON

Bevan Docherty's forgettable post-Olympic year is already a distant memory after New Zealand's leading triathlete left his world championship series rivals in his wake at Sydney's harbour front today.


Docherty powered to victory in the opening race of the seven-leg world championship series having cleared out by six seconds when the run leg climaxed on the steps of the Sydney Opera House - a location that resonates with the 33-year-old.

Docherty, a two-time Olympic medallist, watched the sport's inaugural men's gold awarded to Canadian Simon Whitfield a decade ago and was overjoyed to break the tape as elite triathlon returned to the city for the first time since 2000.

"I watched Simon cross the finish line here in 2000 and I said to myself I wanted to be there one day," he said.

"To do it in the exact same place is an awesome feeling."

New Zealand's leading female triathlete Andrea Hewitt was also delighted after claiming second in a tense three-way sprint to the finish of the women's race - a result in keeping with her current status as the world No 3.

Docherty's triumph has already matched his success rate in 2009, a win in South Korea the sole highpoint of a season that saw him languish 13th on the world rankings.

"I'm pumped. This is so much better than last year," said Docherty, a silver medallist at Athens Olympics in 2004 and third at Beijing two years ago.

"I felt like I had control all the way through the race. To break away on the bike just meant I could set myself up for the first half of the run and then bring it on home."

Docherty was 31st out of the harbour and was fifth at the final transition after crucially latching on to a breakaway group behind early pacesetters Hunter Kemper and Russian Anton Chuchko.
He gave the duo a 47sec head start in the 10km run before reeling them in.

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