The Australian's 68 was only one outside Ian Woosnam's best round of the day that took the Welshman into joint second

The Australian's 68 was only one outside Ian Woosnam's best round of the day that took the Welshman into joint second with the broomhandle-wielding Bernhard Langer.They were both two shots behind Spain's Domingo Hospital. While his co- leader overnight, Colin Montgomerie, played better but stayed at seven under, Hospital played worse and got to 10 under with a 69. An occasional commercial pilot, the secret to Hospital's success has been to leave the driver given to him by Ballesteros at home, and put the putter given to him by Olazabal in his bag. The result has been 28 and 27 putts on the first two days and the chance to fly into uncharted airspace over the weekend.. Sailing Tony Buckingham's 40ft Easy Oars led the celebrations for the British trio of 1997 Admiral's Cup boats as they put in another set of solid performances at the SORC regatta in Miami, writes Stuart Alexander. Despite gear failure in the third race of a five-day series, the Olympic helmsman Andy Beadsworth took Easy Oars, the former American team yacht Pigs in Space, to a close-fought third race and then led from start to finish in the fourth.Also enjoying the breezy, 18 to 22-knot winds was the crew of Tim Barrett's Mumm 36, Bradamante. With the 1996 Olympic silver medallists, John Merricks and Ian Walker, steering and calling tactics, aided by 1992 the 470 Olympian Andy Hemmings trimming sails, they showed good downwind speed to take two second places.Completing the picture, Graham Walker's 45ft Indulgence made up for a fifth place in the third race, when caught by a shift in wind direction, with a well-earned third in the fourth.The 14 yachts in the BT Challenge begin the fourth leg from Sydney to Cape Town tomorrow..

Basketball Mike Burton, the Chester Jets coach, hopes his players will take at least a four point lead into the final minute of tomorrow's 7-Up League Trophy final, when they bid for the first title in the club's history against the London Towers, the holders, at Birmingham's NEC, writes Richard Taylor. The Jets have lost the last two out of three Budweiser League meetings against the Towers this season, but only after London hit a three-pointer for the final basket of the game.Burton, who was once assistant with the England team under the London coach, Kevin Cadle, said: "We'll just play them hard like we've done in the past and let the game take care of itself."Cadle expects neutrals in the crowd to back Chester, but believes his team's away games in the European Cup have prepared them. "Every European game was like a cup final, so we've been in this situation already this season," he said.. Tennis Greg Rusedski is still suffering with a wrist injury and has pulled out of the ATP Tour event in Rotterdam next week. Rusedski, the British No 2, was injured playing Pete Sampras in the final of the San Jose tournament two weeks ago. He had to pull out of Memphis, which followed San Jose, but came back in the Philadelphia tournament this week, losing 6-4, 6-2 to Thomas Johansson of Sweden in the first round.Now back in London, Rusedski is still in pain and feels it is futile to play in Rotterdam and risk aggravating the injury..

Football Jimmy Nicholl, who was dismissed as manager of Millwall earlier this year and was sent off on his debut for Bath City last weekend, has rejoined Raith Rovers as assistant manager. The Dutchman Rinus Israel has signed a contract to coach Ghana until the 1998 Word Cup. He won 47 caps for the Netherlands and was in Feyenoord's 1970 European Cup-winning side.. Boxing The purse offer deadline for Lennox Lewis's mandatory World Council title defence against London's Florida-based Henry Akinwande has been brought forward from 9 April to 17 March. The change was made at the request of Lewis's British promoter, Panos Eliades, to speed up the staging of the fight. November Ntshingila, the world-ranked South African featherweight, fought for the final six rounds with only one hand yesterday but still scored a unanimous 10-round points decision over the Mexican Antonio Hernandez.