IAAF Chief Primo Nebiolo is no more
ROME, Nov 7 — International Amateur Athletic Federation President Primo Nebiolo died of a heart attack last night aged 76, his doctor and relatives announced.

Lamine Diack appointed interim president
PARIS, Nov 7 — Lamine Diack, Ian senior vice-president, was appointed interim president of athletics' governing body today as successor to Primo Nebiolo, who died of a heart attack in Rome yesterday.

Primo Nebiolo

Aussies in firm position in rain-affected test
BRISBANE, Nov 7 — The play on the third day of the first cricket test between Australia and Pakistan came to an early close as a heavy hailstorm swept over the ground pegging Australia at 515 for 9 in their first innings at the Gabba here today.

Tauziat outplay Huber to reach Leipzig Open final
LEIPZIG, Nov 7 — Second-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France has earned a return trip to the final of the Sparkassen cup by outlasting Anke Huber over three sets.

13 Indians in the Masters Tennis main draw
MUMBAI, Nov 7 — Thirteen Indians, including local lad Mustafa Ghouse and Delhi's Vishal Uppal, are in the men's singles main draw of the ITF satellite Masters Tennis Circuit which begins here tomorrow.

Cuba, Russia remain unbeaten in world cup volleyball
TOYAMA (Japan), Nov 7 — Defending champions Cuba needed just over an hour to beat Peru in straight sets to remain unbeaten with five wins at the world cup women's volleyball tournament today.

IAAF Chief Primo Nebiolo is no more

ROME, Nov 7 (AFP) International Amateur Athletic Federation President Primo Nebiolo died of a heart attack last night aged 76, his doctor and relatives announced.

The IAAF chief, who was also a senior member of the international Olympic committee and who earlier this year helped Turin win the 2006 winter Olympics bid, suffered a cardiac arrest while at home and was taken to a clinic where he died shortly afterwards.

Nebiolo, who suffered a major disappointment in 1997 when Rome lost out to Athens for the 2004 summer Olympics, kept his iron grip on world athletics when he was re-elected IAAF chief in Seville, Spain in August.

He had been in charge of the Ian for 18 years, and stood unopposed to stay in power for another four years by acclamation from the delegates.

Since taking over control of athletics' governing body Nebiolo had turned the sport into a multi-million-dollar business run from the tax haven of Monte Carlo.

The latest Ian accounts for 1997 show revenue of over 54 million dollars and a treasure chest of 31,879,016 dollars.

Since taking over power from Dutchman Adrian Pauline in 1981, Nebiolo firmly slapped down any attempt to unseat him.

There had been reports about Nebiolo's health for over a year now and in August an English newspaper said the controversial Italian was suffering from prostate cancer.

Nebiolo, who made his money from industry mainly in construction, hated the sight or sound of drugs rumours surrounding his 'children' namely because he realised what damage it would do for the image of the sport and attracting sponsors.

"I'm up to here with pee pee," he famously remarked at the 1997 world championships in Athens when asked about drug testing in the sport.

Ironically it was Athens that was to bring him one of his lowest points in his life when after successfully hosting those world championships it secured the right to host the 2004 Olympics ahead of his beloved Rome, for whom he had tirelessly campaigned - it was seen as a vote against him more than anything else.

Turin winning the right to host the 2006 winter Olympics earlier this year brought him some consolation although it was less to do with the quality of the bid and more to do with Swiss resort Sion being the victim of an anti-Marc Hodler vote.

It was Hodler who blew the whistle on corruption within the IOC, of which Nebiolo was a member, and the resultant ban on IOC members to visit Olympic candidate cities did not go down well with the membership.

The downside to Nebiolo's autocratic leadership is that although he leaves a sport blossoming in terms of sponsorship and on the back of one of the most successful world championships since its inaugural meeting in Helsinki in 1983, there is not a long list of names being cited as a successor.

"It is unsettling. There is no obvious successor to Nebiolo," said one member.

Lamine Diack appointed interim president

PARIS, Nov 7 (AFP) Lamine Diack, IAAF senior vice-president, was appointed interim president of athletics' governing body today as successor to Primo Nebiolo, who died of a heart attack in Rome yesterday.

The 66-year-old Senegalese, elected vice-president in 1976 and senior vice-president in 1991, will remain in the post until the next IAAF congress in Edmonton in 2001 unless an extraordinary congress is called.

However, Diack, who coincidentally like Nebiolo specialised in the long jump as an athlete and is a former French record-holder, refused to comment on whether he would seek to retain the post.

Diack, State Secretary for Youth and Sport from 1970 to 1973, admitted he knew that 76-year-old Nebiolo had been ill, there had been rumours that he was suffering from prostate cancer, but was surprised nonetheless at his death.

"I knew that he had health problems but he astonished me at the last world championships in Seville in August where he lasted the pace better than I did and I am considerably younger," he said.

"His is a huge loss for athletics because he took the sport to unimaginable heights," he added.

IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri confirmed that Diack had assumed Nebiolo's post under the IAAF statutes.

Reineri added that the next council meeting would take place as planned on November 18-19 before the annual gala party where the athletes of the year awards take place.

Teams sore over substandard practice facilities

HYDERABAD, Nov 7 — The Indian and new Zealand cricket teams had a harrowing time at the Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium here due to lack of adequate practice facilities and milling crowds who had free access to the playing area on the eve of the second one-day cricket tie.

To add to the kiwis' chagrin, they could not practise at all as the only area earmarked for it was taken up by India.

The visitors were asked to go and have a net session at the Gymkhana Ground in neighbouring Secunderabad but return without any practice because the facilities there were 'substandard', according to their captain Stephen Fleming.

"We are disappointed at the facilities here which are not of international standards," Fleming told reporters after his team sat in the middle for nearly one and half hours to have some nets and then retired to their hotel.

Indian coach Kapil Dev also criticised the poor facilities by saying his best bowler could not bowl to his best batsmen as the practice wicket was damp and he did not want to risk any injuries.

"You have seen with your own eyes what facilities were there...I will mention these things in my report to the board. There should be some way to control the crowd from entering the playing area and disturbing practice," he fumed.

The private security firm hired by Hyderabad Cricket Association tried to stop only the scribes from carrying out their duties but allowed all and sundry free access to the ground. Finally the scribes had to enter the dressing room to talk to the Indian captain and coach.

Aussies in firm position in rain-affected test

BRISBANE, Nov 7 — The play on the third day of the first cricket test between Australia and Pakistan came to an early close as a heavy hailstorm swept over the ground pegging Australia at 515 for 9 in their first innings at the Gabba here today.

Earlier, the play had resumed after a 65-minute rain delay but only lasted for 20 minutes before the weather intervened again.

There were 20 overs remaining to bowl and the ground lights had been switched on when the storm struck.

Australia, in reply to Pakistan's first innings total of 367, were 148 runs ahead with a wicket in hand. Shane Warne was batting on 34 and scoot Muller on one when the stumps were drawn.

Monday's play will start a half-hour early and is scheduled to finish 14 minutes beyond normal stumps to accommodate Sunday's lost playing time.

Tauziat outplay Huber to reach Leipzig Open final

LEIPZIG, Nov 7 — Second-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France has earned a return trip to the final of the Sparkassen cup by outlasting Anke Huber over three sets.

Tauziat, the world's ninth-ranked player, blasted her 11th ace to close out the match against the German, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours, three minutes at the tonight's final, Tauziat will face Kveta Hrdlickova, a Czech qualifier who upset top-seeded Mary pierce of France, 1-6, 6-3 , 6-3. For the 67th-ranked player, it was her biggest career win.

Huber, the world no. 19, started the match fast. Backed by 5,000 cheering spectators, she took the first set by pinning Tauziat at the baseline with her hard groundstrokes and drop volleys.

But Tauziat, attacking behind her serve and volleys, erased a 3-2 lead by the German to capture the second set. In the third, she gained a decisive break when Huber double faulted to fall behind 5-3.

Tauziat, who took the title in Moscow two weeks ago, lost the final at Leipzig last year to Steffi Graf, a five-time winner of the event before retiring.

Huber will move up to 16th in the ranking, good enough for the final qualifying spot in the chase championships that takes place in new York between November 16-21.

Huber, a 1996 Australian open finalist, hasn't reached a final since the Canadian open two years ago. It was her second semifinal of the season.

13 Indians in the Masters Tennis
main draw

MUMBAI, Nov 7 — Thirteen Indians, including local lad Mustafa Ghouse and Delhi's Vishal Uppal, are in the men's singles main draw of the ITF satellite Masters Tennis Circuit which begins here tomorrow.

Apart from top seed and Davis cupper Prahlad Srinath, sixth seeded Sandip Kristine, Ghouse and Uppal, the other Indians are Vijay Kannan, Vinod Sridhar, Nitin Kristine, Davis cupper Syed Fazaluddin, Akshay Vishal Rao, Rohan Bopanna, Manoj Mahadevan, Vasudev Reddy and Saurav Panja.

The singles winners in the event would get 31 ITF points and runner-up 23 points and semi-finalists and quarter-finalists would take home 16 ITF points.

Those who lose the first round matches would get one ITF point, while the second round losers will collect five points.

All the seeded players have been given bye directly to the pre-quarter finals.

Following is the singles seedings: 1 Prahlad Srinath (India), 2 Thomas Messmer (Germany), 3 Tom Chicoine (USA), 4 Radin Zitko (Czech republic), 5 per Thornadtsson (Sweden) 6, Sandeep Kristine (India), 7 Kunj Majmudar (USA), 8 Andrei Youzhny (Russia).

Cuba, Russia remain unbeaten in world cup volleyball

TOYAMA (Japan), Nov 7 — Defending champions Cuba needed just over an hour to beat Peru in straight sets to remain unbeaten with five wins at the world cup women's volleyball tournament today.

The Cuban women, also the winners of two straight Olympics and two straight world championships, rallied to a 25-19, 25-23, 25-18 victory in Toyama, central Japan.

European champions Russia, hot favourites after beating Cuba, China and Brazil to win the grand prix in august, also posted their fifth straight win beating Japan 25-15, 25-22, 23-25, 25-18 in Sapporo, northern Japan.

Peru looked like taking the second set leading 22-20, but Cuba's top scorer Yumilka Ruiz sent her team back into their rhythm and they never faced a serious challenge afterwards.

Russia lost one set, the third set they have lost in five matches, but their coach Nikolai Karpol stimulated his players to regain their concentration against a noisy partisan crowd of 7,300 people.

Brazil and South Korea stood with four wins against one defeat, followed by China and Japan with a 3-2 record, keeping alive their hopes of finishing in the top three in the 12-team round robin to earn a berth in the Sydney Olympics.

Atlanta Olympic bronze medallists Brazil, whose only defeat was caused by Cuba, breezed past winless African champions Tunisia 25-10, 25-14, 25-16, while silver medallists China edged past Croatia 25-22, 27-25, 26-24.

In Sapporo, South Korea defeated Argentina 25-19, 25-20, 25-21, while wild card entrants Italy defeated the United States 25-21, 25-21, 25-19.