Sports Digest/Motor Sport: Defending champion Stephane Peterhansel strengthened his grip on this year's Dakar Rally by winning yesterday's 483-km 10th stage around Atar in Mauritania.
The French Mitsubishi car driver beat team-mate Luc Alphand, a former World Cup downhill skier, by one minute 27 seconds to increase his overall lead to more than 21 minutes.
A Spanish motorcyclist, Jose Manuel Perez, who sustained serious stomach injuries after crashing during the seventh stage of the rally last week, died in hospital yesterday.
The 41-year-old, who was married with two children, was competing in his fourth Dakar Rally.
He is the 10th motorcyclist to die in the history of the gruelling race and the 44th competitor overall. The race is due to finish in Dakar on Sunday.
SOCCER: In the Deaflympics in Melbourne, Ireland's soccer team have qualified for the quarter-finals where they will meet Italy today.
In the group stages, Ireland lost 2-0 to Britain in the opening game last Wednesday. This was followed by a 3-1 victory over Greece on Friday and an 11-0 romp over hosts, Australia, on Sunday.
SWIMMING: Arklow swimmer John Kealy won a gold medal at the Deaflympics in Melbourne yesterday when he set a new world-record time of 27.9 seconds for the 50-metre backstroke.
The 33-year-old beat South African Terence Parkin, who had earlier won the 200m backstroke. Kealy, who is competing in his fourth games, has also won silver medals in the 100m butterfly and the 100m freestyle.
SWIMMING: Optimism abounds in Irish swimming circles with the return to base of camp training squads from venues as far apart as Tunisia and Limerick, reports Pat Roche.
Claire Mulholland, the team manager and coach along with Kilkenny's John Duffy are upbeat about the success of the camp training in Tunisia from December 28th to January 7th.
"This was an excellent departure from the norm in terms of Christmas collective training and will give our swimmers a guaranteed edge at the Luxembourg invitational international event at the end of the month,"said Mulholland.
As far as bulk training goes it was a busy time for the 10-strong squad. Nine of them covered 100 kilometres, the exception being distance swimmer Stephen Cunningham who achieved well in excess of that distance.
