Maurice Smith, one of Jamaica's few medal favourites for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, has withdrawn from the team days before the team is scheduled to depart for the Games. Smith, a decathlon silver medallist at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Japan, reportedly informed members of Jamaica's management team yesterday after-noon that

Jamaica could have had the fastest man in history in their sprint squad at the Commonwealth Games next month. Instead, they will have someone by the name of Slowly. Usain Bolt announced in June that he would not be representing his country on the Commonwealth stage in Delhi but neither will the other five speed merchants who,

Steve Hooker had a close shave in his final meet before the Commonwealth Games, the Olympic champion missing the mat in a leap in northern England. The pole vaulter failed to register a height in the gusty conditions at an Australia v England competition on the banks of the River Tyne in Newcastle, won 5-4 by

Australian Commonwealth Games team chef de mission Steve Moneghetti admits extroverted and controversial runner John Steffensen will be missed in Delhi. But whether he is actually in any shape to have mounted a creditable defence of his 400 metres title next month is another matter altogether. Steffensen has not raced competitively since

A lack of IOC commitment meant Sydney was ''a Games that had drug users who were not caught'', writes David Sygall. Somewhere, possibly now at the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland, a file containing the coded identities of seven drug cheats from the Sydney Olympic Games is secretly kept from the public. They are