Boxing: Adrian Patterson (24), the stylish Newry southpaw, Waterford's Neil Gough and Drogheda bantam Damien McKenna walked away from yesterday's Olympic qualifiers in Liverpool empty-handed and with their Sydney dreams in tatters.

Last night Irish middleweight champion Kevin Walsh (25) of St Colman's Cork lost on a countback 20-11 to Alexandre Poleudoina (Belarus). It was desperately close and they finished 4-4 on the final bell.

Gough was perhaps the biggest disappointment. Aged 30 and with eight national senior titles behind him, it was thought his guile and confidence would have carried him through but he got entangled in a low-scoring contest with Danish champion Rada Zam Zam and lost out 4-2.

Lightweight Patterson's attractive style and clever boxing was not given any credit by the judges and he had to stomach a 10-2 loss to Lithuania's Raimundas Petrauska.

Damien McKenna (25) was disillusioned by not having been awarded a point when adjudged a 10-0 loser to a snappy Ukraine bantam Serhiv Danvlchenko.

Tennis: The largest single gathering of nationwide teenage tennis players assemble at the Riverview club in Dublin on Friday for the Grand Finals in the inaugural Irish second-level Schools' Senior Cup, reports Pat Roche.

Eight boys and eight girls schools, representative of the four provinces, have emerged from regional qualifiers and will compete for the titles. Play is scheduled to start at 9.30 a.m.

Athletics: London looks set to be the only contender when the International Amateur Athletic Federation's council meets in Paris on April 2nd to decide which city will host the 2005 world championships. The IAAF yesterday confirmed both Perth and Berlin had missed the deadline.

Hockey: Pembroke Wanderers beat Monkstown 2-1 in the final Leinster Senior League match of the season at Rathdown last night to finish a point behind the new champions, Glenanne. Simon Cox gave Monkstown an interval lead before under-21 international Justin Sherriff struck twice for Pembroke in the second half.