Crash injury forces Hoy to miss World Championships

Injury has forced four-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy to pull out of the World Championships in Poland later this month.

Complications to a hip injury sustained when the 32-year-old came off his bike at more than 40mph in the final of the keirin at the Copenhagen leg of the World Cup in February mean he will be unable to defend world titles in the keirin and the sprint. The Scotsman, who won three golds at the Beijing Olympics, said: "I'm hugely disappointed that I'm not going to be riding in the worlds. I've been really lucky in my career so far and this is the first time I've had to miss a major championship event due to injury."

'I'm not in right shape to do myself justice,' says Tomlinson

British long jump record holder Chris Tomlinson, who has been struggling with an Achilles problem, has withdrawn from the European Indoor Championships which begin in Turin on Friday. Tomlinson feels he is not fully prepared to mount a challenge for the title and will instead begin concentrating on preparing for the summer season. "The indoor season hasn't quite progressed as I would have liked and I just feel I'm not in the right shape to do myself justice in Turin," said Tomlinson, last year's world indoor silver medallist.

"I will focus on getting fit for my warm-weather training stint in San Diego and onwards for the outdoor season."

Lawton nominated for another major award

James Lawton, the Independent's highly-acclaimed chief sports writer, has been nominated for another major sports writing award. He is one of the nominees for sports writer of the year in the prestigious Sports Journalism Association awards. Lawton, a previous winner of the SJA's premier award, has also been nominated as sports columnist of the year in the shortlist.