Parlier also has to worry about Christophe Augin, twice a winner of the BOC race,whose Geodis looks to be a formidably powerful machine.There are two women in the race. Fifteen are definite with the case of the recently qualified Raphael Dinelli still being considered. Hungary's Nandor Fa, Belgium's Patrick de Radigues, and Canada's Gerry Roufs complete the outside challenge to an event organised by and still dominated by the French.Sporting the most radical approach is Yves Parlier, whose Aquitaine Innovations has cost another pounds 125,000 to beef up a mast and supporting beams which let him down in last year's singlehanded transatlantic race. Last Sunday alone, 17,000 people turned up to view not just their sporting heroes but the amazing boats they will drive for between 110 and 120 days, 24 hours a day, through some of the most treacherous seas and conditions as they circle Antarctica. Nor was the organisation entirely sure how many competitors there would be. All week, queues of people 200 yards long and four deep have snaked their way to the pontoons where the 16 yachts, all but Goss's 60 feet long, have been going through their final preparations. But, as they head out into the Atlantic here tomorrow, both Pete Goss and Tony Bullimore will know they have made a bigger impression in the host country, France, than they have achieved at home.

Chester's 94-90 overtime league defeat against Leopards last month was their only loss in six games.. British hopes of winning what is undoubtedly the toughest test for racing yachtsmen and women, the Vendee Globe singlehanded non-stop round the world race, are decidedly slim. As well as facing Sheffield's American quartet of Todd Cauthorn, Chris Finch, Voise Winters and Deon Hanes, the Crusaders will also have to deal with the 6ft 8in Roger Huggins.The League's top two clubs, Leopards and Chester Jets, meet in the tie of the round. Only the top three clubs from last season's First Division - Ware Rebels, Coventry Crusaders and Cardiff Phoenix - have been permitted a tilt at the Budweiser heavyweights who are allowed to use up to five Americans in their line-ups, compared with two per team in the First Division. Sheffield Sharks visit Coventry, whose player-coach, Dip Donaldson, wishes he could use his 7ft 1in older brother James, an NBA veteran. Upsets will be as thin on the ground as high-scoring Englishmen this weekend when Budweiser League clubs bring to bear the full weight of their American-stacked line-ups in the first round of the Classic Cola National Cup.

"He's a much better standard of opponent than I planned to meet after a year's lay- off, but I'm looking forward to it - I feel healthy; everything's fine." If only it were.. When the journeyman Anthony Cooks was forced to pull out (wanted by the police seemingly for every crime bar the kidnapping of Shergar), 24-year-old Marcus Rhode, a fighter with a promising record of 15 victories, 15 knock-outs and one defeat, stepped in at a moment's notice."This guy doesn't need to worry about my virus, he needs to worry about my left hook trying to take his head off," Morrison said. "Once your body's controlling the virus - which mine is - this stuff is extremely hard to catch," Morrison said.Medical opinion is divided on this issue and there has been considerable criticism of Morrison, most notably from fellow HIV victim Magic Johnson, the LA Lakers basketball player who discovered he had contracted the virus five years ago but resumed playing last year.Morrison appears to have experienced little difficulty in finding an opponent for this fight. He denied that fighting in Japan, on a show which is not recognised by the Japanese Boxing Commission, was his only realistic option, saying rather unconvincingly that he had always wanted to visit the Land of the Rising Sun.Morrison added that "some of the best doctors in the world" have told him there is "absolutely no risk" to his opponent, to the fight's referee, or to spectators at ringside.