Today's other sports stories in brief
O'Shea lands speed class in Spain
EQUESTRIAN SPORT:Paul O'Shea recorded Ireland's best result to date at the two-month Sunshine Tour in Spain when landing yesterday's 1.45m speed class on Paul Clarke's 10-year-old Cavalier Royale stallion Shannondale Macalla, writes Margie McLoone.
North Co Dublin-based O’Shea recorded the fastest time of the 69 starters, narrowly seeing off the challenge of Fidel Segovia of Argentina on Palermo. Earlier in the day, Wexford native Dave Quigley was also on the mark, taking the 1.40m speed event on Sabatini.
Nadal returns
TENNIS:World number one Rafael Nadal was named in Spain's Davis Cup squad yesterday for next month's opening round match at home to Serbia.
Nadal’s inclusion came a day after he withdrew from next week’s Dubai tournament on the advice of his doctor, to recover from the knee complaint that hindered his performance in the final in Rotterdam last weekend.
ECB severs ties with Stanford
CRICKET:English cricket severed its ties with Texas billionaire Allen Stanford following accusations that he was involved in a €6.23 billion fraud.
Stanford landed in a helicopter at cricket’s headquarters at Lord’s last year to launch the Stanford Super Series which culminated in England playing a West Indies side in a $20 million winner-takes-all match.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said it had terminated, with immediate effect, its contracts with the Stanford group.
“ECB was shocked by the charges filed against the Stanford organisation and personnel earlier this week,” ECB chief executive David Collier said in a statement.
“Within minutes of the announcement, ECB determined to suspend any further discussions with Stanford and the board has now agreed to terminate the ECB’s agreements with Stanford.”
Venus comes out on top in battle of Williams sisters
TENNIS: Venus Williams defeated sister Serena 6-1 2-6 7-6 yesterday to reach the final of the Dubai Championships.
She now faces unseeded Virginie Razzano of France, who put out 16th seed Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-1 6-2.
World number one Serena double-faulted twice as Venus broke for a 1-0 lead and then twice more when she broke again to go 4-1 up in the first set.
Serena struck the ball much better in the second set and broke serve in the third and seventh games to level the match.
In a highly competitive final set, Venus then had to serve her way out of trouble at 5-5 before going on to take the tiebreak 7-3.
