A round-up of other sports news in brief
Maguire twins pull out of Tenby strokeplay event
GOLF: The Maguire twins last night pulled out of the British Women’s Open Strokeplay Championship which begins tomorrow at Tenby in Wales. No official reason was given, but it is almost certainly a case of both of them being exhausted after the exploits of the last fortnight.
The 15-year-old Curtis Cup stars from Slieve Russell both competed in the AIB Irish Open at Killeen Castle with Lisa being the leading amateur – and then they headed for Royal Belfast, did not have the chance of a practice round and played in the British Girls’ Open Championship. There Leona reached the quarter-finals and Leona got to the semis.
They intend to play for Ireland in next month’s Home Internationals at Whitchurch in South Wales. They also pulled out of the British Women’s Matchplay at Ganton in June. Danielle McVeigh of Royal County Down defends her strokeplay title at Tenby.
Dent pulls off surprise victory
TENNIS: Journeyman American Taylor Dent pulled off a surprise win over Spaniard Feliciano Lopez at the Cincinnati Masters yesterday to set up a second-round clash with world number one Rafa Nadal.
The 29-year-old Dent, who last won an ATP tournament in 2003, won out 6-3 6-2 in perfect conditions on centre court.
Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, ranked 26th in the world, defeated Spain’s Nicolas Almagro (ranked 10 places above him) 6-3 6-3.
Rheinisch finishes 16th in Slovakia
CANOEING: Eoin Rheinisch finished 16th in the men’s K1 (racing kayak) at the Canoe Slalom European Championships in Slovakia at the weekend.
The two other Irishmen in the event finished 26th (Ciaran Heurteau) and 46th (Patrick Hynes) and Ireland were ranked 11th in the team event.
Netherlands too strong for Ireland
HOCKEY: The Irish under-17 girls’ team went down to a 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands in the opening match of the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore yesterday, but against one of the favourites for the gold medal Dave Passmore’s side put up an impressive show, reports Mary Hannigan.
Having trailed at half-time to a 22nd minute strike from Floortje Plokker, Ireland equalised through Emily Beatty seven minutes after the break, the Alexandra College player finishing off a fine passing move down the right. Roos Broek, though, put the Dutch back in front just a minute later before the game was stopped for half an hour due to lightning. After the resumption Frederique Derkx converted a penalty corner to make it 3-1 for the Netherlands.
Ireland play New Zealand today before completing their pool campaign with games against Argentina (Thursday), Korea (Friday) and South Africa (Sunday). The top two teams in each group go through to Tuesday’s medal play-offs.
IABA hold box-off tomorrow night
BOXING: The Irish Amateur Boxing Association will hold a box-off at the National Stadium in Dublin tomorrow night to help with their selection process for the sixth AIBA World Women’s Championships in Bridgetown, Barbados next month.
Bray lightweight Katie Taylor, who claimed her third European title in a row in Hungary this month, will be targeting her third World title on the trot in Barbados.
Drimnagh middleweight Sinéad Kavanagh is another strong contender for Barbados, while Wednesday’s box-off, which starts at 7pm, should help decide the flyweight and light-welterweight positions.
The midweek duels will see Debbie Rogers meet Ciara Smith at 51kg and Kelly Harrington face Allana Murphy at 64kg.
Meanwhile, the Russians are playing their cards close to their chest ahead of Barbados and have not confirmed their lightweight position, although they have named a 10-strong squad.
