TIANJIN (CHINA): Romanian newcomer Andreea Raducan stole the show with a flawless set of floor exercises, scoring the day's highest mark to capture her first World Gymnastics title. South Korea's Lee Joo-Hyung on the parallel bars and Spain's Jesus Carballo on the high bar broke the gold medal monopoly here of gymnastic powers China, Romania and Russia.

Chinese won two of the final day's events and ended up with four of the world championships' 14 gold medals. Russia, winless today, had five and Romania had three.

Bukhatir to take cricket to Morocco

SHARJAH:

The man who brought cricket to the desert venue of Sharjah is now planning to take it to Morocco.

Abdulrehman Bukhatir, the man behind Sharjah cricket, told Gulf News that a One-day international tournament will be held at Tangier, Morocca in 2001. The tournament will be organised in association with the Moroccan Cricket Association, which is an affiliated member of the International CricketCouncil.

Rios puts down fighting Tilstrom

SINGAPORE: Top seed Marcelo Rios of Chile was made to fight all the way on Sunday to retain his crown in the $ 725,000 Singapore Open ATP tour event. Rios, a former world number one, converted his sixth championship point to score a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) victory against Swedish qualifier Mikael Tillstrom.

Williams sweeps past Hingis

ZURICH: Venus Williams swept past world number one Martina Hingis 6-3, 6-4 in the European Indoor championship final on Sunday. The decisive victory gave the world No 3, finalist last year, her sixth tournament win of the season.

Williams staged a repeat triumph over Hingis, having beaten the Swiss in the Grand Slam Cup semifinals two weeks ago.

Competing without her usual entourage of father, mother or sister Serena, Williams enjoyed her new-found independence breezing through the event without dropping a set.