A round-up of today's other sports news in brief ...
Ward leads the Irish challenge
GOLF:Co Louth's Simon Ward spearheaded the Irish challenge for the Amateur Championship on the Lancashire coast yesterday as the crunch qualifying stages ended.
Ward’s 72 at Formby to add to his 70 at West Lancashire put him in the top 20 of the 64 qualifiers for the knock-out phase. Royal Dublin’s Niall Kearney posted a 71 at West Lancashire to add to his 72. Moyola Park’s Luke Lennox marches on after a 143 total, while Paul Cutler from Portstewart also kept alive his hopes with a 146 aggregate.
Egan guaranteed another medal
BOXING:KEN EGAN is guaranteed at least a bronze medal at the EU Championships after chalking up Ireland's fifth win in five fights in Odense last night.
Egan beat Swedish light- heavyweight Eric Skoglund 10-6 in his 81kg quarter-final and John Joe Nevin also advanced following a 13-1, last-16, rout of Poland’s Mateusz Mazik.
Philip Sutcliffe stopped Steven Sharoudi of Scotland in round two on a day when David Oliver Joyce and Darren O’Neill got Ireland’s winning streak underway.
Grael makes certain of first place
SAILING:With racing still unfinished in the Volvo Ocean Race, Brazilian Torben Grael yesterday added overall victory in this 39,000-mile race to his career highlights alongside his five Olympic medals, writes David Branigan.
He steered Ericsson 4 across the finishing-line at Sandhamn near Stockholm in third place, well inside the margin he needed to become unbeatable in the event.
There was a match-race conclusion to the leg that saw Magnus Olsson lead into his home port from American Puma Ocean Racing until a snagged sail handed first place to Kenny Read who won with a minute to spare.
Ireland’s Green Dragon team placed fifth in the leg and the Galway boat is now likely to end the event in fifth place regardless of Sunday’s result or the outcome of Leg 10 to the final destination of St Petersburg that begins next week.
Ireland must do with two frontliners
RUGBY:The Ireland under-20s go into the defining match of their Junior IRB World Cup campaign against Wales this morning in Fukukoa, Japan (11am Irish-time) without two frontliners in lock Ciarán Ruddock and centre Nevin Spence.
Both have produced outstanding performances in Japan to date with Ruddock’s ankle injury seeing CBC’s Brian Hayes flying over as cover. Ruddock’s brother Rhys is named at blindside flanker after a late arrival due to A-levels (they are sons of the former Leinster and Wales coach Mike Ruddock). This sees former Gonzaga flanker Dominic Ryan switching to the secondrow.
The winners face Samoa or France in the fifth-place final on Sunday.
Carter re-signs
RUGBY:New Zealand outhalf Daniel Carter has re-signed with Canterbury for two more years, ending speculation about a possible switch to Auckland.
Carter missed the 2009 Super 14 season to play club rugby in France, but has committed to staying in New Zealand through to the 2011 World Cup.
Barry bounces back immediately
TENNIS:Limerick's Sam Barry recovered from his elimination in the ITF Futures City of Dublin Championship at the Brookfield Club, in Dartry to finish on the right side of the scoreboard in the Hayes' Solicitors' Irish Close Championship.
The promising young talent has achieved a very creditable position of 97 in the ITF Under-18 world rankings. After losing to number six seed, Australia’s Sadik Kadir, at the world ranking event at Brookfield, Barry came through his first round match at Donnybrook against Naas’ Mark Carpenter on a 6-4 6-4 margin.
