Today's other stories in brief

Roche holds on to fifth place

CYCLING:Ireland's Nicolas Roche retained his fifth place overall on yesterday's stage of the Volta a Catalunya, writes Shane Stokes.

Davide Malacarne (Quick Step) soloed to victory in Cabacés ahead of several chasers, while Roche came in as part of a 27-man group, 40 seconds behind.

His group was sprinting for sixth place and the Irishman placed a solid 13th on the stage.

There was little change to the general classification; overnight leader Joaquin Rodriguez (Team Katusha) holds on at the top, retaining his ten second lead over Xavier Tondo (Cervélo Test Team). Roche remains 80 seconds back.

The ProTour race continues today with a 161.9 kilometre stage from El Vendrell to Barcelona.

Ireland finish 13th in team pursuit

CYCLING: The Irish team yesterday finished 13th in what was its first-ever participation in the team pursuit at the world cycling championships, writes Shane Stokes.

The quartet of David O’Loughlin, Matt Brammeier, Martyn Irvine and Stephen Barrett covered the 4000 metre distance in a time of four minutes 12.136 seconds, 0.549 off their 2009 Irish record of 4 minutes 11.587.

The Great Britain squad went fastest with a time of three minutes 56.869 seconds, beating Australia, but the tables were turned in yesterday evening’s gold medal final. There, the Australians clocked up a time of three minutes 55.654 seconds.

The Irish riders were disappointed not to improve their national mark, but Brammeier said afterwards that a bout of food poisoning earlier this week had probably affected his form. “I thought I was healthy again but I didn’t have the top end I needed…it’s very disappointing.”

Kuerten has to settle for third spot in Netherlands

EQUESTRIAN:Jessica Kuerten and Denis Lynch are in action this weekend at the five-star show in s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands where the highlight of the international show jumping programme is Sunday's FEI World Cup qualifier, writes Margie McLoone.

Yesterday evening, Kuerten and Lady Georgina Forbes’s mare Castle Forbes Libertina set the early target in the speed class when clear in 57.42. However, they had to settle for third spot when overtaken by Switzerland’s Pius Schwizer and Ulysse (55.30) and the host nation’s Harrie Smolders riding Exquis Powerfee (57.32).

This afternoon, the main focus of attention at the Dutch venue will be dressage with the kür (freestyle dressage to music) deciding who will be this season’s FEI World Cup champion.

At the two-star show in Vilamoura, Portugal, Conor Swail picked up two second placings yesterday, the Malahide-based rider partnering Cara Touch in the 1.35m two-phase competition and Mojito in the later 1.40m speed class.

At home, the Horse Sport Ireland/Chippison spring tour moves back to the Cavan Equestrian Centre with 83 horses declared for Sunday’s eighth leg of the series. Slane-based John Floody currently tops the rider rankings on 30 points ahead of Conor Drain (24) and Cian O’Connor (29). Clem McCMahon and Frank Curran share fourth position on 18 points apiece.

Fox completes brave comeback

BOXING: AVRIL FOX staged a remarkable comeback to book her ticket into the Youth One middleweight final at last night's semi-finals at the National Stadium in Dublin.

Trailing by three points going into the final round, the Rathkeale woman produced a storming final frame to see off the challenge of Lauren Crawford.

Meanwhile, just a point separated victor and vanquished in three male semi-finals, Bernie O’Reilly edging out George Boylan and Padraig Hampsey emerging victorious over Pearce Knocker.

Brian Mullen beat Keith O’Brien by 3-2 in an extremely close light- heavyweight decider. Conor Doherty, Anthony Coyle,Patrick McGinley and David Timlin also registered wins. Meanwhile, Toome ace Enda Kennedy went down to Daryl Fitzgerald by three points in one of the bouts of the Youth 2 semi finals,

Limericks Christy ODonnell also won, while Rohan Date advanced at the expense of Bobby Ivers, who was retired injured.

Canas calls time on career

TENNIS:Argentina's Guillermo Canas has announced his retirement from tennis at the age of 32 due to a persistent right wrist injury.

The former world number eight came to the decision he could not continue eight weeks ago and made the news public at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami yesterday. “I wanted to be 100 per cent sure when I made the announcement,” said Canas, who recently opened his own academy in Key Biscayne.

McDonnell's goal enough for holders

HOCKEY: Leinster opened the defence of their senior interprovincial title with a 1-0 win over Munster at Grange Road last night, Railway Union's Jean McDonnell getting the decisive goal for the hosts midway through the second half.

Goalkeeper Pamela Smithwick denied Munster an equaliser in the closing stages with several fine saves. Ulster also began with a win, Stephanie Quinn’s goal from a short corner securing the points against Connacht.

Leinster’s men, meanwhile, scored a double success over Ulster. A Gareth Watkins hat-trick helping the seniors to a 4-1 win and goals from Brian Doherty and Jonathan Kane gave the under-21s a 2-1 win.

Senior Women: Ulster 1 (S Quinn), Connacht 0; Leinster 1 (J McDonnell), Munster 0.

Today: Leinster v Connacht, noon; Ulster v Munster, 4pm. Tomorrow: Connacht v Munster, noon; Ulster v Leinster, 4pm.

Senior men: Leinster 4 (G Watkins 3, P Blakeney), Ulster 1 (T Cockram). Today: Ulster v Munster, 2.0. Tomorrow: Munster v Leinster, 2.0. Under-21 men: Leinster 2 (B Doherty, J Kane), Ulster 1 (N Hamilton). Today: Ulster v Munster, 12.0. Tomorrow: Munster v Leinster, 12.0.