Sports Digest

A round-up of other sports news in brief...

Gay lowers his US mark in Shanghai

ATHLETICS: Tyson Gay produced a blistering display to lower his American 100 metres record at the Shanghai Grand Prix yesterday.

Gay got out of his blocks slowly but recovered to roar ahead of Asafa Powell and improve his mark to 9.69 seconds, with his Jamaican rival second in 9.85 and fellow American Darvis Patton third with a time of 9.89.

The winning performance equalled the second-fastest of all time, which Usain Bolt achieved when winning the Olympic gold medal in Beijing last year.

China’s Liu Xiang made his first appearance since failing to start in his 110m hurdles heat at the Beijing Olympic Games. Liu posted the same time of 13.15 as Terrence Trammell, but the American was declared the winner.

Irish canoeists well down rankings

CANOEING: Ireland’s three crews finished well down the rankings on the second day of the Canoe Marathon World Championships in Crestuma, Portugal, on Saturday, writes Liam Gorman .

In the senior K1 class, Peter Egan collided with another kayak in the very early stages.

He attempted to get back with the main group but eventually finished 27th.

In the men’s junior K2, both Irish crews had similar placings. Adam Sweeney and Lorcan Feely were 21st, while Liam Banks and Tom Brennan were five places further back.

Loughnane walks tall in IAAF Grand Challenge

ATHLETICS: World Championship silver medallist Olive Loughnane returned to top class competition in finishing fourth at the IAAF Walking Grand Challenge final in the Russia city of Saransk, writes Ian O’Riordan.

Competing over the shorter 10km distance, Loughnane was rewarded with a new Irish record of 43 minutes 22 seconds, clipping a full seven seconds off the old mark established in Dublin by 2003 World Championship 20km silver medallist Gillian O’Sullivan in July 2000 in a race where Loughnane was a distant second in 46:32.

There was further great news for the Cork-based Galway athlete in that her fourth place earned her sufficient points to finish second in the overall event behind the winner, Kjersti Platzer of Norway – the Beijing Olympic silver medallist, who was disqualified in Berlin when Loughnane had her day of glory.

Loughnane also had the satisfaction of taking the scalp of Italy’s Elisa Rigaudo, the bronze medallist in Beijing, who was third overall. In successfully defending her title, the 37 year-old Platzer collected €20,000 for her overall victory.

The next two across the line were Russians Tatyana Mineyeva the winner in 42:04, a European junior record, and Vera Sokolova, but they were not eligible for the overall top prizes as they had not participated in any of the five qualifying events.

Platzer announced her retirement after she she crossed the line yesterday.

Gebrselassie makes it four

ATHLETICS: Haile Gebrselassie won the Berlin Marathon for the fourth successive year yesterday morning but admitted the hot weather towards the end spoilt a world-record attempt.

Gebrselassie was aiming to lower the mark of two hours, three minutes, 59 seconds he achieved in the German capital a year but the bid went astray in the last 10 kilometres. The 36-year-old Ethiopian eventually clocked 2:06:08.

Britain exiled to Davis third tier

TENNIS: Britain will be playing their Davis Cup against the likes of Ireland and Monaco next year after Dan Evans’ comprehensive defeat by Michal Przysiezny gave Poland a 3-2 victory at Liverpool’s Echo Arena yesterday and condemned the hosts to Europe/Africa Zone Group II.

With Andy Murray having drawn the hosts level at 2-2 with victory over Jerzy Janowicz earlier in the afternoon, the result of the tie came down to the final rubber.

But Evans, playing in his first Davis Cup tie, was no match for his Polish opponent and a 6-2 6-1 7-5 defeat sealed a fourth consecutive defeat for Britain, who will now play in the third tier of the competition for the first time since 1996.

Evans, the British number five and given the second singles spot because of illnesses to Josh Goodall and James Warde, is ranked nearly 400 places higher than Przysiezny at 302 in the world but the Pole had climbed into the top 200 before knee injuries sidelined him for a lengthy spell two years ago and has a good Davis Cup record.

England avoid one-day whitewash 

CRICKET: England avoided the indignity of becoming the first international side to lose a one-day series 7-0 by recording a four-wicket victory over Australia at the Riverside, Chester-Le-Street, yesterday.

Spinner Graeme Swann proved the match-winner, taking five wickets for 28 runs from his 10 overs as England, who won the toss and chose to field, dismissed the tourists for just 176.

Swann took the key wicket of captain Ricky Ponting (53), who chipped a catch to Paul Collingwood at mid-wicket, sparking an Australian collapse as they lost their last eight wickets for 80 runs.

England began their chase brightly with captain Andrew Strauss (47) and Joe Denly (53) putting on 106 for the first wicket.

However, Australia rallied with three wickets in 13 balls as England wobbled on 141 for five and 162 for six, before Tim Bresnan (10 not out) and Collingwood (13 not out) steered the hosts home with more than nine overs to spare.

The teams now travel to South Africa for the Champions Trophy with England playing Sri Lanka in Johannesburg on Friday and Australia facing West Indies a day later.