SPORTS DIGEST

Other sports news in brief

O'Carroll advances to quarter finals

BOXING:There were mixed fortunes for Ireland's junior boxers at the last 16 stage of Heydar Aliyev Multi Nations in Baku, Azerbaijan yesterday.

Cork flyweight Roy O’Carroll advanced to tommorrow’s quarter finals following a 14-12 win over Alin Abbasov of Azerbaijan.

But Belfast’s James Tennyison and Waterford’s Rohan Date bowed out following preliminary round reversals, Date losing out 10-4 to Russian European champion Magomed Masayev.

Ten Irish boxers are competing at the tournament which has attracted 10 nations.

Chris Mullaly, Ryan McKeown and Daniel Fullerton will be in action today against opponents to be confirmed. The rest of the Irish squad are due to box tomorrow.

Higgins denied day off by Allen

SNOOKER:John Higgins remained on course for a place in the Betfred.com World Championship final but Mark Allen denied him a day off after a gutsy fightback last night.

Allen had trailed 13-3 after the opening two sessions of their semi-final, and Higgins needed just four of eight frames in the evening session to allow himself a leisurely Saturday afternoon.

But the pair will be back today to play to a finish after Allen won six frames to cut Higgins’ lead to 15-9. The 33-year-old Scot requires just two more frames for victory.

Left-hander Allen (23) has been hoping to become Northern Ireland’s first champion since Dennis Taylor landed his late-night success against Steve Davis in their memorable 1985 final.

FIA urge Ferrari to accept cap

MOTOR SPORT:Formula One's governing body has urged Ferrari to accept a voluntary cost cap for 2010 despite the champions saying it would make the competition "fundamentally unfair".

In an exchange of letters, International Automobile Federation (FIA) head Max Mosley rejected Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo’s concerns about the cap.

“I hope Ferrari will take the lead in agreeing the cost cap mechanism, thus freeing its engineers to work and preserving its shareholders money,” said Mosley.

The FIA announced on Thursday an optional cost cap of €45 million, compared to some teams’ existing budgets of more than €151 million, that it hoped everyone would ultimately embrace.

Montezemolo warned earlier in the week of the dangers of creating a two-tier Formula One , with capped teams competing with far greater technical freedom than those with unlimited budgets, describing it “fundamentally unfair”.