In brief - 2004-11-01

The Estonian Markko Martin, a candidate for the most disappointing driver of the season a month ago, could finish runner-up in the world championship after defeating the new champion Sebastien Loeb to take the Catalonia Rally on Oct. 30, his second consecutive victory. The two were even when the Frenchman cut a corner, hit a rock and had to retire when his Citroen lost its oil. Martin took a more cautious approach in his Ford and only last-minute electrical trouble cut his winning margin over the Finnish Peugeot driver Marcus Gronholm to 23 seconds.

Ukraine won the gold medals at the 36th Chess Olympiad in Calvia, Spain, on Oct. 29. Powered mostly by grandmasters Vassily Ivanchuk (photo), Andrei Volokitin and 14-year-old Sergei Karjakin, they amassed 39 1/2 points in 56 games. Russia clinched the silver medals on a narrow tiebreaker over Armenia, each scoring 36 1/2 points. The U.S. team finished fourth with 35 points. Lithuania did best out of the Baltic states, coming in 27th place, with Estonia and Latvia taking 32nd and 33rd place respectively.

A man saw a jackpot of nearly 1 million pounds fall to just 90 pounds when his winning horse was disqualified after the race. The unnamed gambler placed a 2 pound bet on a horse called Babodana for a race at Newmarket on Oct. 30, but stewards disqualified the horse in favor of Sleeping Indian. Had Babodana won the race the man would have scooped a check worth 957,714 pounds. "I feel so desperately sorry for the guy," said the shop's manager. He has not yet come forward to claim his 90 pound winnings.

Zalgiris Kaunas got off to a bad start in its Euroleague campaign, losing 102-75 to Maccabi Tel Aviv in Kaunas on Nov. 1. Without the injured trio of Arvydas Sabonis, Simonas Serapinas and the Latvian Ainars Begatskis, Zalgiris was never really able to challenge the visitors and was quickly trailing by a large margin. Zalgiris'next Euroleague game is away against AEK Athens on Nov. 11.

Scotland's national soccer coach Berti Vogts resigned his position on Nov. 1, citing media presure and abusive behavior from a minority of fans as the reason. Scotland is currently second from bottom in its World Cup qualifying group. Former Rangers and Everton coach Walter Smith is being widely tipped as Vogts' successor.