It was billed as a match worthy of a semi-final, the promoters were oh so wrong. The match never even went to a third set, but if you ask any of the 15,000 fans packed into Rod Laver Arena, they may not even have noticed. It lasted a record 2 hours and 50 minutes, two set matches don't go that long. The ladies played 209 points in 24 games, that means on an average every game went to deuce. It had 34 break points created, an average of almost 3 every 2 games. It witnessed 66 un-returnable shots and that's just the maths of it.

When Justine Henin finally lifted her arms in triumph you were compelled to raise yours too. Not to salute one, but two women who made tennis a very special sport tonight, carrying it to levels very rarely witnessed of late. Henin, a seven time Grand Slam champion and a winner here in Melbourne Park in 2004, was in just her second tournament after a self-imposed 20 month hiatus. At the other end of the court stood the reigning Olympic champion and no.5 seed Elena Dementieva. Dementieva incidentally was a winner at Sydney last week where she had beaten both the current world no.1 Serena Williams and no.2 Dinara Safina without even batting an eyelid. This match should never have really happened in the second round, but the fans who bought their tickets to be in the Arena today witnessed one of the greatest contests of all time.

A1 Team Ireland and Adam Carroll moved one step closer to the team's maiden title after taking victory in this morning's Sprint race at A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain.

India's Narain Karthikeyan finished second with Mexico's Salvador Duran taking the final podium position.

Ireland got a good start but Mexico had a better run into Paddock Hill, taking the lead around the outside through the first corner. Ireland settled into second from USA, Portugal, India and Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Australia's John Martin took advantage of a mistake by Switzerland's Neel Jani to take eighth place before the mandatory pit stop window opened.

The Alpine Skiing contingent led by Megha ensured that the final day of competition in the Special Olympics World Winter games ended well for India, as the 14-year old from Himachal won her third gold medal of the games, this time in the Novice Slalom run.

Megha was always the favourite to win the event after racking up easy wins in the Giant Slalom and the Super Giant Slalom a few days ago. The youngster set a breathtaking pace, completing the course in 49.12 seconds in her first run, and though she slacked off in her second run, taking over a minute to complete it, Megha just about managed to finish a second ahead of Lea Kranjc who put in a combined time of 1 minute and 50 seconds to win her third straight

On a sad day for Indian sport, especially keeping in mind the spirit of the Special Olympics, two medals were stripped from Indian athletes under the Honest Effort ruling, which has lead to the disqualification of their scores from Thursday's competition.

Parth Malhotra and Pinky Sunil who won Gold and Bronze respectively in the Snowshoeing 50 meters dash in their respective gender categories were disqualified after their times improved by more than the permitted 15% from their preliminary divisioning time for that leg of the competition.

In the divisioning process, all the athletes for a particular sport compete against the clock to determin

Parth Malhotra led the way in a great day for India's Special Olympics movement, running an outstanding final round of the Snowshoeing 50m dash to capture Gold in the Special Olympics World Winter Games taking place at Idaho, USA.

In one of the largest Special Olympic programs in the world, India has over 230,000 registered Special Athletes in 26 programs across the country. 45 of these athletes are representing the nation across four different event categories at the World Winter Games.