Sport Shorts 22 April

The latest rankings of the many international boxing associations indicate that SA has no fewer than 11 world champions.

Local boxing's hall of mirrors

However, this is something of an illusion. The authoritative Ring magazine, whose rankings are widely considered to be the most accurate and legitimate, has only East London-based IBF strawweight champion Nkosinathi Joyi as the best in his division in the world. The only other South African so-called world champions who are even rated among the top 10 in their division by Ring are IBF flyweight champion Moruti Mthalane in fourth position; Jeffrey Mathabukla, rated the sixth-best junior featherweight; and IBO champion Tommy Oosthuizen, who is placed seventh.

Caster's medal mission

Caster Semenya is confident of winning a medal in London on August 11, perhaps even the gold. South Africa's medal hope in the women's 800m not only qualified for the 2012 Olympics in Pretoria on Friday night, she made history by running her first sub-two-minute time on home soil. She had done it three times before but always at a foreign venue. It was also the first time in 20 years that a woman has run the 800m in SA in under two minutes. The last time was by Zelda Pretorius, who won in 1:58.85 on April 1, 1991. "I was delighted to do it in front of my home fans," said Semenya after her victory in 1min 59.58sec.

Crusaders on the up and up

The Crusaders continued their rise up the Super 15 ladder with a 42-14 demolition of the Hurricanes yesterday to move into the top six. In a first-half blitz the Crusaders raced to a 32-0 lead, claiming their first four-try bonus point of the season, before the Hurricanes got on the board with a try on half time. The Hurricanes scored first after the break but the Crusaders regained control through their dominant forward pack to take charge for the rest of the match.

Senegal favours French coach

French duo Bruno Metsu and Pierre Lechantre are the leading candidates for the vacant position of coach of the Senegalese national team, the Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) revealed yesterday. In an interview with the official website of the FSF, federation president Augustin Sengor said: "We have a short list of five contenders, of whom we can say that two stand out." He said that Lechantre and Metsu "meet our criteria and have the best experience of the African game of all the candidates".

England's team amuses Henry

All Blacks coach Graham Henry has poked fun at the England rugby team, describing its players in tongue-in-cheek comments as "a shambles" who should "self-destruct and start again". Henry made the comments while replying to a question from an England supporter at a fund-raising dinner in Auckland. When contacted later by reporters, Henry said he didn't want his comments published. But the organiser of the dinner said Henry was an experienced public speaker who knew the media "could be there and would be there". Henry has previously said the English are "world champions at wasting talent".