Briefs

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Ireland just fall short against India in Delhi

MEN'S HOCKEY:The "execution of small details" undid Ireland in their bid to get the better of World League top seeds India in Delhi yesterday evening as Dharamvir Singh's 58th minute score eventually saw the hosts prevail 3-2.

It drops Ireland into a share of second place but, nonetheless in good shape to progress as the FIH officially confirmed a top-two finish at this tournament will see Ireland progress to round three and a shot at qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.

In a thrilling denouement, Ireland had three penalty corner chances – the details Andrew Meredith referred to – in the closing three minutes but could not get away a clean strike.

Ireland now need to win their last two games to progress, the first against Oman tomorrow and then China who are normally third seeds but have struggled with a new-look side featuring 13 debutants.

On the home front, Pembroke can claim the Leinster league title on Sunday should they get a point against already relegated Avoca.

IRELAND: D Harte, J Jackson, G McCabe, R Gormley, M Watt, C Cargo, E Magee, M Darling, C Harte, S Loughrey, S O’Donoghue Subs: A Sothern, B McCandless, P Maguire, P Gleghorne, D Carson, P Brown, D Fitzgerald.

STEPHEN FINDLATER

RTE to show fights from senior finals at National Stadium

BOXING:RTÉ will cover the Elite senior finals tonight in Dublin's National Stadium. The network will show a number of bouts from 9.45pm to 11pm on RTÉ Two and will incorporate Katie Taylor's first fight since her Olympic gold medal winning bout last August against Sofya Ochigava.

The Olympic lightweight champion's is the 10th fight in the running order and she faces Polish opposition in Karolina Grazcyk in a support bout to the national competition. RTÉ will also screen the much anticipated meeting between European light heavyweight champion Joe Ward and Beijing silver medallist Kenny Egan.

Michael Conlan, who won bronze last year in the flyweight division in London is also on the card, as is his Olympic team-mate Adam Nolan.The card starts at 7pm.

Major player in Irish tennis as player, official and mentor

DEATH OF DR HARRY BARNIVILLE: One of the best known characters in Irish tennis, Dr Harry Barniville (January 20th, 1927 – February 20th, 2013), died peacefully on Wednesday night in Dublin.

An accomplished player, administrator and a former Irish Davis Cup captain, Barniville represented Ireland as recently as 2005, when he was part of a team which travelled to the world championships in Turkey.

He topped the Irish senior rankings consistently in the 1950s and early 1960s and won most of the major domestic championships.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he made a huge contribution to the development of the junior game here, mentoring a group of talented young players, the "Barniville Babes".

Amongst the players who took part in his now annual trips to the leading UK junior tournaments over a 27-year period were former internationals Karen Nugent, Scott Barron, Eoin Collins, Dave O'Connell, James McGee and Rachael Dillon.

He was a former president of Lansdowne and Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Clubs and sat on the General Council of the Irish Lawn Tennis Association (now Tennis Ireland), and also on the Leinster Branch.

Tennis Ireland chief executive Des Allen said: "His enormous contribution to the development of our sport is beyond dispute and well documented. However, I will always remember him as one of the most pleasant, engaging and decent of men I have met through tennis."

Ar dheis Dé a anam dílis.

Cragg to return with eye on making World Cross Country

ATHLETICS:Alistair Cragg is a surprise addition to Sunday's National Inter-club cross country, at the Charleville Estate, Tullamore, which puts him in line for selection for next month's World Cross Country championships.

Cragg's main opposition is likely to come from Clonliffe Harriers team-mate Mark Kenneally, who is also coming back to competition after running the London Olympic marathon.

Sunday evening is also the deadline to secure qualification for the European Indoors, which get underway in Gothenburg next Friday.

Meanwhile, Fionnuala Britton improved her indoor 3,000m best time to 8:54.37 when finishing fifth at the Stockholm Grand Prix last night, victory going to Genzebe Dibaba from Ethiopia in a meeting record of 8:26.57.

IAN O'RIORDAN

Swimming Australia investigate damning Olympic team reports

SWIMMING:Swimming Australia has appointed a panel to investigate allegations of drunkenness, misuse of prescription drugs, breaching curfews, deceit and bullying by members of their team at the Olympic games in London.

The allegations arose after Tuesday's publication of two damning reports into the management and conduct of the team, which produced Australia's worst results in two decades. "To establish the right culture, we have to investigate these allegations and deal with them appropriately by putting in place the right framework," Swimming Australia president Barclay Nettlefold said.

"I will be encouraging the panel to look at each allegation and we want to stop talking about rumour and act on the facts of what did or did not actually occur."

The panel, comprising former Australian Rugby Union chairman Peter McGrath and three members of the SA board, will start investigations immediately.