Sports Digest

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

Martin third behind Contador

CYCLING: Daniel Martin picked up the best result of his season thus far yesterday when he finished an excellent third overall in the Volta a Catalunya in Barcelona, writes Shane Stokes.

The Garmin-Cervélo rider was fourth heading into the final stage to Barcelona, but Levi Leipheimer pulled out due to illness, moving the Irishman up the overall standings. He then finished in the main bunch, rolling in 32nd behind Frenchman Samuel Dumoulin.

Martin ended the week-long race 35 seconds behind Tour de France winner Alberto Contador in the final standings; he could find himself up to second if Contador is ultimately suspended over his positive test in last year’s Tour.

Martin was also fourth on Saturday’s stage. Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan were 36th and 82nd yesterday, and ended the race 33rd and 55th overall.

Loughnane gets inside Olympic qualifying time

ATHLETICS: Irish athletes enjoyed double success in the European Race Walking Cup in Slovakia yesterday, with Olive Loughnane dominating the senior 20km challenge to almost certainly qualify for her fourth Olympics, while Kate Veale set a new national mark when winning the junior women’s 10km event, writes Ian O’Riordan.

Loughnane proved a convincing winner in 1 hour 32 minutes 40 seconds, more than a full minute clear of the Czech Zuzana Schindlerova (1:33.51), with the Ukraine champion, Nadya Borovska, a further eight seconds adrift. Loughnane’s time was well inside the A qualifying standard of 1:33.30 for the World Championships in Korea this summer, which is also likely to be the qualifying time for London.

Earlier, the 17 year-old Veale added to her growing reputation when she took some 90 seconds off the old Irish junior 10km record when winning in 46:43. The old mark was held by Olive’s younger sister, Ann Loughnane, at 48:19.

Facile victory for Queen's

ROWING: The senior men’s eight from Queen’s University claimed the title of National Eight-Blade head of the river champions at the Lagan Head in Belfast on Saturday – albeit in a facile way. With just a week to go to the start of the regatta season, other top crews were keeping their powder dry, and Queen’s A and B were the only two senior eights in action and duly processed to the top two positions in the time-trial event, writes Liam Gorman.

Offaly Rowing Club broke up the Northern hegemony with a win in the junior 18A quadruple scull.

Meanwhile, in the Boat Race in London on Saturday, Oxford had a surprisingly emphatic victory. They took control early and beat Cambridge by four lengths.

Ireland’s national senior eight champions, NUIG, also had a good contingent in Britain at the weekend. Members of the club competed in the London half marathon in aid of the charity AD82 in memory of Andrew Dunne, who died last year.

Lynch takes qualifier

EQUESTRIAN SPORT: Ireland’s Denis Lynch won his first FEI World Cup qualifier at the Dutch five-star show in s-Hertogenbosch yesterday afternoon, ensuring his participation in the Leipzig final next month. The 34-year-old Tipperary native went into the lead halfway through the 17-horse jump-off with Thomas Straumann’s Abbervail van het Dingeshof and, in spite of the efforts of some of Europe’s top riders, he held out to claim the €58,000 first prize.

Kenneally leads way in Dunboyne

ATHLETICS: Mark Kenneally of Clonliffe Harrriers yesterday led home a record entry of over 1,000 in the Dunboyne 4-Mile Road Race, writes Ian O’Riordan.

Kenneally raced into an early lead and was never challenged as he coasted to victory in 18 minutes 26 seconds, an ideal tune-up for his marathon debut in Madrid in three weeks time.

The strongly-built Clonliffe Harriers runner also led his team to top honours ahead of Raheny Shamrock and City of Derry. Richard Corcoran of Raheny Shamrock finished second in 18:48 and Thomas Fitzpatrick of Tallaght was third in 18:55.

Kenneally will be chasing an Olympic qualifying standard in Madrid where he is confident that a performance in the region of 2 hours 13 minutes.

Kerry Harty of Newcastle, Co Down led all the way to win the women’s race in 21:42. Kate O’Neill of Metro St Brigid’s placed second in 22:57 and Fiona Roche of Raheny Shamrock was third in 23:12.

New Zealand win Hong Kong Sevens

RUGBY: New Zealand beat England 29-17 in the final of the Hong Kong Sevens to establish a five-point lead at the top of the IRB world series standings.

A converted Frank Halai try just before half-time gave New Zealand a 12-5 lead and when Halai scored again straight after the break there was no way back.

England coach Ben Ryan said: “We had the goods to come up with a win but we just couldn’t get the job done.

“There were some key moments we didn’t take advantage of; New Zealand did.”

The physicality of New Zealand at the breakdown was the decisive factor in a final where the eventual winners were never behind, although England did run in three tries, from Mat Turner, Greg Barden and Dan Norton.