Today's other stories in brief
Jamaican cases to be reviewed
ATHLETICS: The five Jamaican athletes who submitted positive drug tests at their national championships in June will see their cases reviewed by an independent commission early next week.
“The appeal will be heard in Jamaica on Monday or Tuesday depending how quickly they can assemble the independent commission,” IAAF general secretary Pierre Weiss said.
“The timescale is okay for the athletes as none of them are scheduled to compete (in Berlin) until the relays take place next weekend, so they should be aware of their status by then.”
A Jamaican offical said all five athletes will remain in their homeland until the independent commission announces its decision.
IOC out to end issue of Jones medals
ATHLETICS: The reallocation of US sprinter Marion Jones's five medals from the Sydney 2000 Olympics will be accelerated to put an end to the case that has dragged on for years, the IOC have said.
Jones was stripped of the 100, 200 and 4x400 metres relay gold medals and her long jump and 4x100 bronzes in 2007 after she admitted to doping, but none of the athletes in those events have been upgraded.
“We have decided this morning to speed up that process as soon as possible,” International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge saids.
“The IOC has not come up today with a final response for a number of reasons.”
An appeal by several of Jones’ relay team-mates, who were stripped of their medals because of her doping, was still pending at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, while the US investigation into the laboratory linked with the sprinter was also continuing.
O'Connor in European team
EQUESTRIAN: Cian O'Connor has been included in the Irish team announced yesterday by manager Robert Splaine for the European show jumping championships in Windsor the week after next, reports Margie McLoone.
O’Connor has been selected with Aileen Bryan’s 11-year-old bay gelding Rancorrado.
The remainder of the squad is Darragh Kerins (Night Train), Denis Lynch (Lantinus), Thomas Ryan (Urleven van de Helle) and Billy Twomey (Je t’Aime Flamenco).
This weekend the focus at home are the show jumping national championships which conclude tomorrow at Coilog, having begun at the Co Kildare equestrian centre on Tuesday.
Senior men pipped by England
GOLF: Ireland's dream of a hat-trick of European Senior Team championship triumphs was shattered in agonising fashions Ascona in Switzerland yesterday England sent them packing with a 3-2 scoreline.
Now England will play Sweden for the crown while Ireland will face Italy for third place.
Ireland appeared to be heading for a heavy reverse early on when Seamus McParland and Hugh Smyth were two down in their foursomes with four holes remaining, and Maurice Kelly was also two behind at the same stage.
Adrian Morrow was struggling and only Tom Cleary seemed to be heading for a point.
But Kelly pulled out all the stops and squared his match at the 18th only to lose the first extra hole.
Morrow did recovering from a difficult period to win his match, but Michael Quirke had to play second fiddle to Geoff King and lost 3 and 2.
Clijsters beaten in Cincinnati
WOMEN'S TENNIS:Kim Clijsters's brilliant comeback after two years away from the tour came to an end at the Cincinnati Open when she lost 6-2 7-5 to world number one Dinara Safina in the quarter-finals.
Former world number one Clijsters led 2-0 in the first set and 4-1 in the second but could not press home her advantage as the Russian powered her way into the last four.
Safina reeled off six consecutive games to take the set, only for Clijsters to storm ahead 4-1 in the second.
Again, Safina hit back and though she was broken when serving for the match, she made no mistake second time round.
Earlier, fourth seed Elena Dementieva cruised into the last four with a 6-2 6-1 win over Dane Caroline Wozniacki.
Tsonga stages last-set recovery to stun Federer
MEN'S TENNIS: Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga staged a spectacular third-set comeback to beat world number one Roger Federer 7-6 1-6 7-6 yesterday to reach the semi-finals of the Montreal Masters.
Tsonga, whose looks are often compared to Muhammad Ali’s, appeared out for the count when 15-time grand slam winner Federer raced into a 5-1 lead in the deciding set.
However, the seventh seed swept through the next five games to force a tiebreak which he won 7-3 to stun the Swiss and the capacity centre-court crowd.
After taking the opening set tiebreak 7-5, Tsonga lost his way as Federer reeled off the last three games of the second to level the match.
Tsonga now faces Scotland’s Andy Murray who made short work of Nikolay Davydenko 6-2 6-4.
