Funny old round-up

BBC Sport Online picks out some of the quirky, offbeat or plain daft stories doing the rounds.

Gift of the Gab

Olympic gold medallist Gabriela Szabo has been ordered to pay track rival Violeta Szekely £3,000, after calling her "ugly".

Szabo, the reigning 1500m champion, made the comments in Playboy magazine.

The Romanian superstar claimed Szekely had not been invited to a series of athletics meetings because of her looks.

Szekely responded by branding Szabo "hunched" and launched a defamation suit, resulting in the award from a court in Bucharest.

Violeta was none too pleased

It is not the first time Szabo has got herself into trouble.

Last year, another court ordered the 27-year-old to pay a coach £6,000 - who she accused of trying to drug her coffee.

Looks like her mouth is starting to run away with her.

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Snap unhappy

The new president of Spanish side Racing Santander masqueraded as a photographer to escape a pitch ban.

Dimitri Piterman was refused permission to sit in the dug-out by the Spanish Football Federation because he is not a registered coach.

But the 39-year-old businessman managed to get accreditation as a photographer at Osasuna and proceeded to bark instructions at this team.

Not that it did him any good - Racing went down 3-1 and are now hovering dangerously above the relegation zone.

An indication that he should let his money do the talking in the future.