IRISH IN ACTION/Cycling:NICOLAS ROCHE finished 64th in Saturday's Olympic road race in Beijing, ending the 245 kilometre event in a group sprinting for 54th place. They were 10 minutes 37 seconds behind race winner Samuel Sánchez (Spain), who out-paced breakaway companions Davide Rebellin (Italy) and Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) for the gold medal.
Alexandr Kolobnev (Russian Federation), Andy Schleck (Luxembourg) and Michael Rogers (Australia) also finished in the same time as Sánchez, taking places four through to six.
Roche's team-mate Philip Deignan came home 15 minutes 53 seconds back, placing 81st. Those in his group were sprinting for 72nd.
Roche had been aggressive earlier in the race, attacking hard with several others approximately 65 kilometres from the end.
A total of 143 riders lined out in the event. Although the Irish riders will have been aiming to finish higher, they can take consolation from the fact they rode solidly on a tough course in testing conditions. Many big names pulled out, including Alberto Contador and Oscar Freire (Spain), Jens Voigt and Stefan Schumacher (Germany), Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) and Stuart O'Grady (Australia).
Next up of those in the Irish team is David O'Loughlin, who will line out in the qualifying round of the individual pursuit on Friday. Robin Seymour will go in the cross-country mountain-bike race on Saturday, August 23rd, reports Shane Stokes. Seymour got a boost to his confidence on Saturday when he won a round of the Canadian Cup in Quebec.
Sailing:DOUBLE-OLYMPIC Gold medallist Ben Ainslie produced a fourth and a win in day two of racing in the Finn class at Qingdao yesterday, moving the British sailor into second overall, reports David Branigan.
However, American Zach Railey has shown steady and surprising form so far and leads the 26-boat fleet.
Ireland's Timothy Goodbody had a consistent day with two 15th places that brings the Dún Laoghaire sailor into 18th overall after four races.
Conditions on the course were marginally better with six to eight knots of wind. Later in the week, tides are expected to become more of an issue as slack water occurs during the racing schedule.
Equestrian:IRELAND WERE facing an uphill battle going into this morning's cross-county phase of the three-day event, lying 10th of the 11 teams competing in Hong Kong. In yesterday's third and final session of dressage, Patricia Ryan had a battle on her hands from the outset with Fernhill Clover Mist who never settled and finished on a disappointing score of 78.70, just one place off the bottom of the leaderboard.
Niall Griffin and Lorgaine produced a career-best test for a score of 50.60 which left them in 35th in the individual standings.
Australia was in the gold medal position as the cross-country phase commenced at Beas River.
Ireland's sole show jumping representative Denis Lynch flew out of Dublin yesterday with two fingers of his left hand strapped together having broken them in a fall in the Puissance on Saturday. Later today, he will jump Lantinus in the warm-up class.
