Athletics: Mark Carroll's build-up to the Sydney Olympics continued in highly impressive fashion at the weekend with a 1,500 metres victory at the US Grand Prix in Raleigh, South Carolina. His time of three minutes 34.91 seconds was an improvement of almost a second on his personal best and the closest mark to Ray Flynn's Irish record of 3:33.5 in recent years, writes Ian O'Riordan.
The quality field included a couple of top Kenyans but none of them had an answer to the Corkman's finish. Souza Hudson of Brazil was finished second in 3:34.97, with the American David Krummenacker third in 3:36.15. Carroll's time also qualifies as an A-standard for Sydney although he is still likely to keep his focus on the 5,000 metres.
Also competing in Raleigh was Susan Smith-Walsh, who finished fifth in the 400 metre hurdles in 56.72 seconds - just under a second behind the winner Tonja Buford-Bailey of the USA (55.76).
Elsewhere, there were also Olympic A-standard qualifying times for Waterford's Jamie Costin and Robert Heffernan of Cork at the European Race Walking Cup in Germany. Costin became the first Irishman to break four hours for the 50km distance, finishing 12th in three hours 59.01 seconds - a six minute improvement on the Irish record.
Heffernan finished 18th in the 20km race in one hour 22.43 minutes, just under the one hour 23 minutes qualifying time. In the women's event, Kerry's Gillian O'Sullivan - already qualified for Sydney - improved her best to 1:31.31
Sailing: Ireland's fourth potential qualifier for Sydney 2000 narrowly missed a selection criteria result on Saturday when Jon Lasenby of the National Yacht Club ended 17th overall at the Laser European Championship, writes David Branigan.
Needing a 12th place by nation, the single-hander came 14th in one of his best series to date as his form has been building steadily in recent months. However, Lasenby still has this week's Kieler Woche regatta in Germany in which to achieve his remaining qualification result.
The Laser sailor scored several top ten results during last week's championship which was won by Britain's Ben Ainslie. Other Irish team sailors in action last week included David Burrows at the Finn Gold Cup in Weymouth. The Malahide sailor scored ninth overall despite a head cold and hand injury; the series was hampered by mixed weather before being abandoned on the final day due to high winds.
Tennis: Pete Sampras was outgunned by Australia's Lleyton Hewitt in the Stella Artois Championships at Queen's yesterday.
The American superstar never looked like retaining his title and went down 6-4 6-4 in less than an hour and a quarter.
Sampras had hailed 19-year-old Hewitt as his "the future of tennis" on Saturday - but yesterday the future caught up with the man who dominated the world game in the 90s.
Hewitt was reminiscent of Boris Becker in his heyday, throwing himself around Centre Court in his enthusiastic pursuit of every point.
The only difference was that Hewitt looked more like an Australian cricketer, with his white "war-paint" across his nose and cheeks to protect himself from the searing sun.
Sampras never got going and his mood was best summed up by one of his fans in the crowd, who midway through the second set shouted: "Get hungry, Pete."
Motor Sport: Andrew Nesbitt rocketed his way to a well deserved victory in the 2000 Shell Donegal International Rally after setting a blistering pace throughout the three-day event. Driving his mighty Cuisine de France Subaru Impreza WRC, the Armagh driver was fastest on all of the Donegal stages and now moves to the top of the table in the Toshiba Computers Tarmac Championship with 30 points.
Unable to do anything about Nesbitt's pace, 1999 Shell Donegal International Rally winner James Cullen took the runners-up spot on the event over three minutes adrift. Taking 12 points for second, the Donegalman jumps to second in the Championship.
Third went to Frank Meagher, who benefited from Ian Greer's going off on stage 22 - the Hillsborough driver losing over two minutes and dropping to sixth. A strong drive by young Donegal brothers Daniel and Michael Doherty saw them take a well earned fourth place in their Keystone Subaru Impreza.
