Today's other stories in brief
Youzhny wins Kremlin Cup
TENNIS: Mikhail Youzhny took Russian domination of the Kremlin Cup into a sixth year after seeing off Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic to win the title in Moscow.
Youzhny, seeded third in the competition, had not lost a set coming into the showpiece but was soon behind after Tipsarevic took the opener 7-6 (7/5).
He responded in emphatic fashion, levelling the scores without reply to take the second set 6-0 and closed out victory by taking the decisive set 6-4.
Methody College take the honours
RUGBY: Methody College, Belfast won the Investec schools rugby festival in Blackrock College yesterday with a 3-nil victory over Clongowes Wood College, writes Gavin Cummiskey.
The victory involved coming through eight games in two days, each 20 minutes long, with thefinal being 30 minutes.
Methody captain and outhalf Patrick Jackson slotted the decisive first-half penalty to secure the Fr Jules Leman trophy. Scrumhalf Blaine McIlroy was named player of the tournament.
Methody dramatically overcame Blackrock in their penultimate game, 7-3, while Clongowes saw off English school Wellington 5-0.
Pres Cork beat English team Ivybridge, in the plate final with a Blackrock “House” selection winning the bowl after taking the place of St Mary’s College who withdrew due to mounting injuries.
The main event was referred by World Cup final referee Alain Rolland with Alan Lewis adjudicating in the plate decider.
Loeb ends on high to claim sixth world rally title
MOTOR SPORT:Sebastien Loeb clinched his sixth world rally title with victory in the final race of the season, the Rally of Great Britain.
The Frenchman had a comfortable win over world title rival Mikko Hirvonen who had gone into the final event of the season leading the world title race.
But Loeb, driving the Citroën C4 WRC, secured his sixth world crown with a 54th world rally event win in Wales.
After completing the final Rheola stage, Loeb was able to celebrate beating Hirvonen, of the BP Ford Abu Dhabi team, by a single world championship point.
“It’s been an incredible season. We made a good start then we lost everything and we came here one point behind Mikko,” said Loeb.
“Finally we’ve done it and I’m really happy but Mikko has been extremely strong. I know it will be tough next year for sure.
Hirvonen finished the rally as runner-up and also could only manage second best behind Loeb in the title fight.
Dukarska takes title in Plymouth
ROWING: Monika Dukarska won the women's singles title at the World Coastal Rowing Championships in Plymouth on Saturday, writes Liam Gorman.
In difficult conditions, the 19-year-old covered the 8km course much faster than the rest of the field. Last year she took a bronze medal in the same event, when it was held in San Remo in Italy.
Dukarska agreed that it was her biggest achievement so far. “I am hoping there will be more of them,” she added. However, there is a question as to whether her future successes will be for Ireland or Poland. Dukarska moved from her native country to Ireland with her family three years ago and she learnt her rowing with coach Mike Fleming at the local club in Killorglin. She has won medals for both Poland and Ireland in the past.
Yesterday she expressed interest in representing Ireland, but her passport will not come until she is in the country for five years.
She is set to be called up for the Poland Under-23 squad in 2010.
Rossi does it again . . . for the ninth time
MOTOR SPORT:Valentino Rossi clinched the ninth world title of his career, by finishing third in the FIM MotoGP race in soggy Sepang behind Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa.
Stoner’s second successive race victory was achieved with ayawning gap of 14.666 seconds back to Pedrosa. Yet it was Rossi’s achievement which dominated, as he defended his title.
Torrential rain caused a 35-minute delay and left behind a saturated track, on which Jorge Lorenzo was relegated from second to the back of the grid after a technical problem on the sighting lap.
The Spaniard nonetheless surged past Rossi, who started on pole but quickly dropped back to 10th. Lorenzo eventually finished fourth, just behind the Italian. American Hayden finished fifth and Aleix Espargaro marked his third race of the season by coming in a promising 11th.
Dunguib looks set for Supreme
RACING: Star bumper performer Dunguib cemented his position as hot favourite for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle with a winning debut over jumps at Galway yesterday.
The Philip Fenton-trained six-year- old was virtually foot-perfect in the CCTV Venue Control Maiden Hurdle and won in a canter as the 1-7 favourite, scoring with more in hand than the official four-length margin over An Toileanach.
William Hill reacted by cutting him to 5-2 favourite from 3-1 for the Supreme at Cheltenham.
“He’d probably settle better in a quicker run race,” said Fenton. “We’ve no immediate plans but the Royal Bond at Fairyhouse next month would be an obvious target or maybe a winners of one somewhere.”
Dunguib won four of five bumper starts, the only horse to pass the post ahead him remains On Raglan Road.
