Today's other stories in brief
Wesley College complete the double
HOCKEY: Having already won the Junior League back in January, for the first time in eight years, Wesley College completed the double yesterday, beating Holy Child Killiney 1-0 in the Leinster Junior Cup final at Grange Road.
Killiney had upset the odds to reach the final, beating Muckross Park and Alexandra College on the way, but they fell to a first-half goal from a short corner, Sophie Pratt getting the decisive score.
– Mary Hannigan
Villegas confirmed to play in JP McManus Pro-Am
GOLF: colombia's Camilo Villegas yesterday confirmed his inclusion in the field for the JP McManus Invitational Pro-Am at Adare Manor on July 6th and 7th, writes Philip Reid .
An impressive winner of the Honda Classic last Sunday Villegas’s addition to the field further increases the drawing appeal of the charity tournament which was won by Pádraig Harrington on its last staging in 2005. Players confirmed for the event include European number one Lee Westwood, former US Open champion Jim Furyk, recent WGC-Accenture Matchplay champion Ian Poulter, former European Tour money winner Paul Casey, Rory McIlroy and Harrington. Tiger Woods had indicated his intention to play before going on his “indefinite break” from the sport.
Rather than event tickets, "two-day entrance caps" representing Ireland, Munster Rugby and each of the Munster counties at a cost of €50 each can be purchased for the event from the website on www.jpmcmanusproam.com.
Taylor, Kavanagh face tough tests
BOXING: World and European lightweight champion Katie Taylor should get first-hand experience of just how tough the Olympic Games in London will be in over two years time when she competes at the Ústí nad Labem Gran Prix in Usti nad Labem in the Czech Republic this week.
Taylor, who has been installed odds-on favourite to win gold at the 2012 Olympiad by Paddy Power, and her Irish team-mate Sinéad Kavanagh are the only Irish boxers competing at the 24 nation men’s and women’s tournament.
The box-off will use the new women’s Olympic weight categories – flyweight (48Kg to 51Kg), lightweight (56Kg to 60Kg) and middleweight (69Kg to 75Kg).
Likewise, a number of world and continental champions at featherweight (57Kg) and light welterweight (64Kg) will be moving up and down to Taylor’s 60Kg lightweight category.
Meanwhile, 10 times senior champ Ken Egan and world youth champion Ray Moylette have been named in the Ireland squad to face a star-studded Italian side at the National Stadium in Dublin this Friday night. The Italians have named Olympic and world super heavyweight gold medallist Roberto Cammerelle and world lightweight gold medallist Domenico Valentino in their squad. Both nations meet again in Belfast on Sunday night.
Martin crashes close to finish
CYCLING: Irish professional Daniel Martin crashed on yesterday's second stage of Paris-Nice, a 201.5 kilometre race from Contres to Limoges.
Martin was one of several riders to hit the deck inside the final kilometre, but fortunately was fine afterwards.
The 23–year-old is a promising climber and is expected to show well in the mountains in the second half of the eight-day race. Martin crossed the line two minutes and 27 seconds behind the stage winner William Bonnet (Bbox Bouygues Telecom).
However, as the incident happened inside the final three kilometres, he was given the same general classification time as Bonnet and the main bunch.
Nicolas Roche finished in this peloton, rolling in 35th. He remains 55 seconds behind the overall leader Lars Boom (Rabobank), but moved up three places to 43rd overall.
