THE unfortunate sight of champion jockey Tony McCoy hurtling from a horse set the sportsdesk wondering - just what is the toughest sport?

So Evening Press deputy sports editor TONY KELLY expounds on his suggestions for the most gruelling, most exacting and most arduous. If you disagree write to the Evening Press sportsdesk at 76-86 Walmgate, York YO1 9YN, or fax us at 01904 628239, or email sportsdesk.ycp.co.uk.

FOOTBALLERS - you've got it made.

Racing drivers - you've got technology on your side.

Martial artists - well, it can be rough-house of the August moon, but they are disciplines borne out of meditation and philosophy.

No, all the above fail to make my selection of the five most dangerous sports, as does being grilled by any combination of Garth Crooks, Sally Gunnell, or Gary Richardson - a clear and present danger to anyone's well-being.

Prime passion number one, I would venture, is boxing, and in particular, the professional game. Can there be any other sport where not only is the intent to physically damage your opponent, but that objective is also maintained over a sustained spell of close on 40 minutes?

Locked in combat are athletes, the majority honed over months of sweat-drenched dedication and sacrifice to the pinnacle of physical power.

Their avowed aim is to inflict defeat on their opponents, who will be just as determined to do unto him what is being done to the other in an almost umbilical and Biblical relationship. If a deadlocked bout goes the full distance, it is 12 three-minute rounds of unremitting hitting and relentless pressure, pain and pace - unless it's Audley Harrison in the ring, of course.

Such is the danger inherent in boxing that there have been several fatalities, let alone casualties, and it would be glib to just shrug aside the well-intentioned calls for a sport that does seem barbaric in the 21st century to be banned. That, however, is a moral argument that should be afforded more space to debate in than this particular column. But without doubt the big-hitters deserve sport's paramount respect.

The next four sports in my list do not appear in descending or ascending order of merit - it's just that I believe professional boxing to be the ultimate.

But the following quartet all bear the self-same ingredients of danger, daring and sheer stamina while, too, demanding both physical and mental resilience if the protagonists are ever to prevail.

National horse racing, of which the aforementioned Tony McCoy, is a champion practitioner, is my next choice.

Here, you have specimens of men, and some women too, who choose to try to control half a ton of sometimes unpredictable horse flesh across hurdles and even more daunting fences. Yet most have been on a starvation diet before they board their steeds. Framed like whippets, these jockeys are as fearless as eagles.

Anyone who completes the Tour de France race, or any similar long-distance cycling event, also earns my utmost respect. The Tour, scarred by its share of deaths, is the consummate cycling challenge, which makes six-time consecutive winner Lance Armstrong one of global sport's most phenomenal personalities.

Cycling is combined with running and swimming to comprise the world of triathlon, which strikes me as masochism gone mad. Marathon running - sometimes jaw-droppingly extended to cover distances exceeding the historical 26 miles - and its associated 'Iron Man' sport gives me the shivers. I mean, if you are meant to travel that far, then get a bus or hail a taxi.

Finally, I can't sign off without mention of my fifth harshest sport. Ice-hockey.

This is contested between players, muscled up, padded up and hyped up on of all things a wall-enclosed rink of solid ice. They play with a puck ferried at ferocious distances, while swishing around on skates that could slice a rhino's hide. And to cap it all, they wield big sticks. Enough said.

Updated: 09:53 Tuesday, January 31, 2006