Sports Digest: Cian O'Connor took the leading rider award in Frankfurt and Waterford Crystal was declared top horse after finishing second in last night's Show Jumping Grand Prix at the German fixture, writes Grania Willis.
O'Connor, who won with Zanoubia on the opening day and was second with Waterford Crystal in Saturday's Champions Cup, brought out his Athens mount for yesterday's feature, but couldn't quite catch the target set by Germany's Tjark Nagel and Cash and had to settle for the runner-up spot
He might have missed out on the big one, but after also racking up a third place with Echo Beach, along with a fifth apiece for Zanoubia and Waterford Crystal, O'Connor couldn't be beaten in the race for the leading rider title.
Harry Marshall put Ireland at the head of the line-up at the five-star Spanish fixture in La Coruna, snatching the honours with All Shook Up in Saturday's Banco Pastor Trophy at La Coruna by .23 of a second from Olympic champion Rodrigo Pessoa.
Although Jessica Kurten came close on her debut at Olympia when claiming a speed class runner-up slot with Laurus, top World Cup points eluded her at the London pre-Christmas extravaganza yesterday. Kurten looked set to give the opposition a good run for their money when steering Quibell to an immaculate first round clear in yesterday afternoon's Tourism Malaysia World Cup. But the world number seven's luck ran out at the last against the clock when the mare kicked out the front rail to drop to seventh.
Britain's Robert Smith netted the £20,000 winner's purse with a galloping clear from the Irish-bred grey Kalusha.
Killester just fall short
Although they accounted for Shamrock Rovers Hoops on Friday night, Killester were unable to put the back-to-back victories together that would have sent them into the New Year nicely poised for the basketball play-offs, writes Gavin Cummiskey.
UCD Marian saw to that with a five point margin of victory that ended their miserable six-game losing streak.
As an aside, the Killester women's team did manage an epic 93-90 victory over UL Aughinish, in yet another dent to the Limerick team's invincible status, with Sue Altman outscoring Irish international Michelle Aspell by a basket, 39 to 37, while Carmel Kissane had an extra point on import Courtney McDaniel. These individual triumphs made all the difference.
UCC Demons were the only club strong enough to win at home and on the road in the same weekend by accounting for Neptune 116 to 101 before travelling up to the national arena and condemning the Hoops to a second defeat. This was achieved despite decent resistance from Irish underage star Ciarán Whyte and northern conference player of the month for November Rueben Statum.
The southern conference award went to Killarney's Justin Wingard, who leads the league in rebounds. Both winners are Americans. The contribution of Irish players was not recognised by the Superleague.
Coach of the month went to St Vincent's Joey Boylan. His team kept winning this weekend, but only just as they overcame UCD in overtime 109 to 99.
Elsewhere, Ballina sneaked out of Ulster with the narrowest of victories against Star of the Sea.
Mylotte lands her first title
Laura Mylotte won her first national squash title at Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club yesterday, beating top seed Aisling Blake in the final, while Liam Kenny successfully defended his title by beating former Irish champion Derek Ryan, who was appearing in the 15th national final of his career, writes Mary Hannigan.
Blake, who lost to Irish number one Madeline Perry, absent this year through injury, in last year's final - her fifth defeat by Perry in seven years - rallied after dropping the first game to Mylotte, taking the second to square the match, but Mylotte, the number two seed, held her nerve to win a tight third game (10-9) before comfortably closing out the match in the fourth, dropping just two points.
Australian-born Kenny had an easier route to victory, beating 36-year-old Ryan, seeking his ninth title, in straight games in just 40 minutes.
CYCLING: With the defence of his title fast approaching, Irish cyclo cross champion Roger Aiken (Banbridge CC) took another win when he finished 31 seconds clear of Ulster champ Andy Layhe (Apollo) in Saturday's Dromara CC event at the Island Centre in Lisburn. The duo pulled clear at the end of the second of 10 laps. Aiken crashed one lap later, losing time on Layhe, but regained the lead on lap six. He and the Apollo rider had a good tussle but Aiken finally ended the race just over half a minute ahead. Third place went to Owen Jeffries, writes Shane Stokes.
Meanwhile, Ger Madden got the better of Stephen Halpin and Seán Lally yesterday in the John Sweeney Memorial in Batterstown. Julie O'Hagan of the promoting Dublin Wheelers club was best of the women.
