CAMOGIE: Tipperary and Cork played out one of the best all Ireland semi-finals in recent times when Tipperary prevailed by 3-13 to 1-12 in Saturday's replay in Limerick.
Defending champions and going for three in a row, Tipperay opened in style but the sides were level at 0-6 each at half-time.
A very high tense and exciting second half saw Cork get a real tonic in the 29th minute with the opening goal of the match from Una O'Donoghue, only for Tipperary's corner forward Clare Grogan to reply immediately to make it 1-12 to 1-11.
With a minute of normal time remaining, the sides exchanged points; but Tipperary then crashed two goals to the Cork net in injury time from Eimear McDonnell and Noelle Kennedy (free) to set the champions up for the final against Kilkenny on September 16th.
TIPPERARY: J Delaney, S Kelly, U O'Dwyer, C Madden, S Nealon, C Gaynor, T Brophy, E Hayden, P Bulfin, P Fogarty(0-2), N Kennedy(1-4), J Ryan, E McDonnell(1-1), D Hughes(0-3), C Grogan(1-3). Sub: N Harkin for E Hayden (53 mins).
CORK: G Casey, D Cronin, E duggan (capt); S Dunlea, P O'Connor (0-1), M O'Connor, S Hayes, L Mellerick, V Harris (0-1), R Moloney (0-3), U O'Donoghue (1-3), E Burke, F O'Driscoll (0-3), C Harte, J O'Leary (0-1). Sub: C Corkerry for E Burke(52 mins).
Referee: J O'Brien (Wexford)
HOCKEY: Victories over Wales and Scotland at the weekend clinched the Celtic Cup for Ireland in Amiens in what was the final stage of their build-up to the World Cup Qualifier later this month. Captain Rachel Kohler scored twice in yesterday's 3-2 win over Scotland while Lynsey McVicker got the winner against Wales on Saturday (2-1).
ATHLETICS: Rosemary Ryan lost out in a last-lap sprint for the minor medals over 5000m at the World University Games in Beijing. China's Yanma Dong was a clear winner in 15m 30.45s. Russia's Tatiana Khmeleva beat Japan's Yoshika Fujinaga in a close race for silver clocking 15:43.18 to her opponent's 15:43.94. Ryan finished fourth in a best of the season 15:48.45.
BASKETBALL: The Irish senior men concluded their successful European Championship qualification run on a winning note on Saturday night, defeating Iceland 84-78 in Reykjavik. It left the Irish on top of the qualifying group, assuring them of a place in the draw for the semi-final phase.
The draw takes place next week and semi-final games will be played in November and January. Iceland proved to be stubborn opposition but coach Bill Dooley managed to get his men together in the final quarter for their fifth successive win.
The real work had been done on Wednesday, when the close win over Finland guaranteed the successful qualification.
GOLF: Brendan McGovern stormed to the top of the leaderboard at City of Derry yesterday evening to take the winner's cheque in the £18,000 North West pro-am.
