British Olympic Champion DeGale Turns Professional

Fellow squad members Billy Joe Saunders and Frankie Gavin will join the middleweight gold medallist among Warren`s ranks.

Britain's Olympic champion James DeGale has turned professional and signed up with promoter Frank Warren.

Fellow squad members Billy Joe Saunders and Frankie Gavin will join the middleweight gold medallist among Warren's ranks. Saunders reached the welterweight second round in Beijing while world amateur lightweight champion Gavin failed to make his weight.

"I think they will all become world champions, and after their success as amateurs, the public is really going to get behind them and will want to watch their progress through the ranks," Warren said on his website (www.frankwarren.tv).

Motor racing - The car Lewis Hamilton will use to defend his Formula One title next year will be unveiled by McLaren on Jan. 16 at their Woking factory, a team spokesman said.

McLaren are the third team to announce a launch date. Toyota will be revealing their new car on the internet on Jan. 15 while BMW-Sauber take the wraps off theirs in Valencia on Jan. 20.

Athletics - France's Eunice Barber, the world heptathlon champion in 1999 and world long jump champion in 2003, was fined 5,000 euros ($6,323) by a French court for "refusal to obey" and "insulting behaviour" to police officers.

Sierra-Leone born Barber claimed that she was beaten by police on March 2006 after being stopped driving down a blocked-off road but the charges against the police officers were dismissed by the court.