SPORT'S energising capacity for dramatic plot-turns - only Agatha Christie does it better - was played out once more with a run of heroes to zeroes and back again.

Three months ago Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek was literally eating turf.

The Polish shot-stopper, once feted as among the best gloves-men in the Premiership, allowed a header from team-mate Jamie Carragher to squirm through his prostrate grasp for Diego Forlan to score for arch-adversaries Manchester United. From Forlan to forlorn in a heartbeat.

Within a week Dudek was on the bench, his number one slot seized by Chris Kirkland, one of the next big things for England.

All the poleaxed Pole could do was sit and wait. Then, a cruel injury to Kirkland let in Dudek for a return and the Pole star's rehabilitation was cemented in the battle for the first domestic silverware of the season - the Worthington Cup Final - against those self-same north-west foes.

After 90 exhausting minutes Dudek was being hailed by every Tom, Des and Andy. Even Sir Alex Ferguson added a glowing tribute, though whether the glow was incandescence at being unpicked by the Liverpool locksmiths again we'll never know.

As the Worthington Cup was unfolding, a change of heart saddened the golf world.

The globe's greatest wielder of clubs, Tiger Woods, decided he would not leave his native America for the Middle East to compete in this week's Dubai Desert Classic.

Woods, who had just claimed his 49th career title with the Accenture World Match-play Championship, believed that with war looming against Iraq it was 'prudent' to stay put.

He was not home alone. Other major players like Colin Montgomerie, Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros also opted not to head for Dubai, where North Yorkshire's very own Simon Dyson is in the field.

Now no-one would advocate taking unnecessary risks and the notion of personal security is extremely subjective and one which cannot be taken lightly. But the acceptance of Woods to 'avoid international travel' is surely a victory for the terrorists.

Woods' absence when the likes of his principal rival Ernie Els agreed to honour pledges to play in Dubai undermined the exalted status in which Tiger is held.

That brings us to Roy Jones junior, who, by his own daring deeds, elevated himself into the vanguard of sporting courage.

The man rated the best pound for pound boxer in the world lived up to that mega-billing when he accomplished a feat not done before for more than a century. Jones junior, who won his first world title as a middleweight, became the first man since Cornwall's Bob Fitzsimmons to capture a heavyweight championship coming from so low division when he stopped John Ruiz after 12 rounds in Nevada.

In reducing World Boxing Association title-holder Ruiz to a broken-nosed mess, while barely showing a mark on his own face, Jones not only captured his fourth crown at four different weights, he did so against phenomenal physical odds.

Ruiz' reach was a staggering seven inches longer than the upstart Jones. And the weight advantage of the soon to be downed champion was a massive 33lbs. To put it into context that's like Ruiz boasting gloves weighing in at a stone apiece.

Roy Jones junior - truly a sporting hero.

Updated: 11:38 Tuesday, March 04, 2003