Madrid - Fans of Spanish football giants Barcelona are confident that their team can stay top of La Liga for the rest of the season, according to an online poll organized by Catalan daily Sport.

Sport asked its readers, most of whom are Barca fans, the question "Will Barca maintain the lead until the end of the season.'"

By Monday afternoon, 71 per cent of readers had voted "yes", with only 29 per cent voting "no".

Dusseldorf - Bayer Leverkusen will play their home games in the second half of the Bundesliga season in nearby Dusseldorf but don't see it as a major setback.

"Of course it is a handicap. But I believe we will feel at home there quickly," said Leverkusen managing director Wolfgang Holzhaeuser on Monday.

Leverkusen's BayArena is being extended from its current 22,500 to 30,000 seats until July 2009 which is forcing the team to move out from January onwards. Bayer will play in Dusseldorf's 50,000-seat LTU Arena.

Lausanne, Switzerland - The inaugural Winter Youth Olympics in 2012 will take place in Innsbruck or Kuopio, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Monday.

The IOC said in a press release that the Austrian town of Innsbruck and Finland's Kuopio were picked by the IOC executive board after an evaluation committee report. Lillehammer (Norway) and Harbin (China) were dropped.

The host city will be elected by the IOC members in a postal vote and named by IOC boss Jacques Rogge on December 12.

The Winter Youth Olympics will bring together around 1,000 athletes aged 14-18 to compete in Olympic disciplines. The first summer edition is 2010 in Singapore.

Hamburg - Jelena Jankovic heads into the season-ending WTA championships which started on Monday as the top-ranked tennis player and with the knowledge that she will keep this place for the rest of the year.

The Serb Jankovic tops the latest rankings issued on Monday with 4,555 points and can't be toppled at the final event of the year in Doha which brings together the leading eight players.

Russia's Dinara Safina is second on 3,752 points and Serena Williams of the US third on 3,716 in an unchanged top 10.

New York, Nov. 3 : Paula Radcliffe has become only the second woman to win the New York marathon thrice.

Radcliffe finished almost two minutes ahead of her nearest rival.

According to The Sun, the win came exactly eleven weeks after her loss at the Beijing Olympics. She could only finish 23rd there after a stress fracture hampered her preparations.

In New York, a fit and healthy Radcliffe re-established herself as the world’s best woman marathoner, clocking two hours 23.56 seconds.

Hamburg - Former racing greats have been lining up to praise Lewis Hamilton following the McLaren-Mercedes driver's achievement in becoming the youngest Formula One world champion.

Hamilton, at the age of 23 years and 300 days, pipped Ferrari's Felipe Massa to the title by a single point after passing Timo Glock of Toyota on the last lap to finish fifth in Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.

"That was the most exciting Formula One race I have ever seen in my life and it was for the world title," said Damon Hill, the last Briton to be crowned world champion in 1996.