A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Vansummeren powers home
CYCLING: Belgian Johan Vansummeren upset the favourites to claim the 258-km Paris-Roubaix classic yesterday on a day containing several crashes. Towering Garmin-Cervelo rider Vansummeren, who is 1.97 metres tall, attacked a leading group of four riders with about 15-km left before going on to win. Defending champion Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland was second with Dutchman Maarten Tjallingii coming home third.
Murphy misses out on final place
SAILING: Ireland’s Annalise Murphy missed out on a place in the medal race final at the first event of the ISAF World Cup of Sailing in Mallorca, writes David Branigan. The Dun Laoghaire sailor placed 11th, just outside the ranking for the single-race decider.
The 10-race series in the Bay of Palma was marked by light and shifty conditions that saw a high-scoring regatta in which she won a race and placed inside the top 10 but also counted weightier mid-fleet results.
Murphy’s previous three events all ended in medal race standings in the Laser Radial class. New Zealand’s Sara Winther placed third in the final and with her previous three race wins, took the class from Evi Van Ecker of Belgium.
UCD defy brave Lansdowne's rally
RUGBY: A late Lansdowne rally was scuppered by the clock at Coolmine yesterday, as UCD held out to record a hard-fought 28-27 All-Ireland Under-21 Cup final win after an entertaining bruiser.
Niall Earls’s accuracy from the boot along with maximum use of possession ultimately rewarded the Clonskeagh outfit after a game they just about shaded.
Once Earls struck the first penalty successfully after five minutes UCD kept their noses in front for the duration, although Lansdowne’s chase had most College’ fans present on tenderhooks right until the final whistle.
SCORERS: UCD: N Earls 6 pens, R Hannon, D Lynch try each. Lansdowne: C Ronaldson 5 pens, con, H Kennedy, N Cullen try each.
LANSDOWNE: C Toolan (B Geraghty 20); N Cullen, J McMahon, H Kennedy, D Leyden; C Ronaldson, P O’Driscoll (A Byrne 79); S Caldbeck, P Reilly (E Lewis 79), J O’Connell; T Beirne, R Farrell (C O‘Donnell 58); D Heffernan, C Butterworth (A Hoban 52), B Moylett.
UCD: D Costello; J Egan (S O‘Meara 70), A Boyle, D Lynch, B Doyle; N Earls, P Du Toit; J Tracy (R Hannon 16), D Burke, R Harrison; A O’Connor (R Cronin 72), E MacMahon; P Dix, M McGroarty (L Gaffney 75), E Joyce.
Referee: D Connolly (IRFU).
Fagan takes third place as Espana claims title
ATHLETICS: Defending champion Martin Fagan had to be content with third place in yesterday’s Great Ireland 10km Run, as former European 5,000 metres Jesus Espana of Spain made a decisive break inside the last kilometre, writes Ian O’Riordan.
Fagan clocked 29.35, behind Espana’s 29.26, with Finland’s Jussi Utriainen taking second in 29.31. The next Irish finisher was Joe Sweeney, who ran 30:42 for ninth – as Fagan still took the National 10km title.
British teenager Charlotte Purdue underlined her potential when winning the women’s race in 32:42 seconds, 21 seconds clear of team-mate Gemma Steel. Fionnuala Britton was seventh in 34:10, with Mary Cullen one spot behind in 34:22. Elsewhere. Sean Connolly ran the fastest marathon by an Irishman in three years yesterday when clocking 2:17.20 at the Rotterdam marathon with victory going to Kenya’s William Chebet in 2:05.26.
Unfortunately Connolly’s time falls just short of the official IAAF standard for the World Championships in Daegu, set at sub-2:17 for men, and sub-2:43 for women.
McBride to bow out after defeat
BOXING: Kevin McBride was hardly in a position to complain about the performance of the referee in Saturday night’s fight in Newark, but by adhering strictly to the rule book, Randy Neumann had effectively taken McBride’s most effective weapon – the clinch – out of play, reports George Kimball.
Since the lumbering McBride hadn’t a hope of matching Tomasz Adamek’s speed, the cornerstone of his battle plan, if he had one at all, appeared to rest on turning the fight at the Prudential Center into a 12-round wrestling match. By winning a unanimous decision in the one-sided fight, Adamek (44-1), a former light-heavyweight and cruiserweight champion, cleared the final hurdle for a challenge to WBC heavyweight champion Vitaly Klitschko in Poland in September.
The 37-year-old McBride (35-9-1) said afterward the bout had probably been his last, bringing down the curtain on an 18-year career that began a year after he represented Ireland as a raw teenager at the Barcelona Games.
UL and Garda make presence felt
ROWING: University of Limerick and Garda combined to produce the fastest eight at the huge Skibbereen Grand League regatta at the National Rowing Centre yesterday, reports Liam Gorman. John Keohane of Lee Valley was the fastest single sculler at the event, which overcame foggy conditions early on.
Trinity took the overall honours at the Irish University Championships on Saturday at the same venue. UCD were the fastest senior eight, and retained their Wylie Cup crown as this success trumped Queen’s win in the intermediate eight and Trinity won the novice eight.
UCD also won the Bank of Ireland trophy for women, also taking the senior eights crown.
The best overall school at the National Schools’ Championship was Intermediate School, Killorglin.
The event had a big increase in numbers on last year.
