The Morning Sports Briefing

Women in sport

Today as part of the Irish Times women in sport series Ian O'Riordan has interviewed rower Sinead Jennings who, at 39-years-old, is gearing up for her first Olympics in Rio next summer.

Jennings is a qualified doctor with three young children who for a long time looked likely to miss out on her ambition of making it to the Olympics, despite even having turned her hand to cycling in a bid to make it to London 2012.

But now Jennings and her lightweight doubles partner Claire Lamb are heading to Brazil after qualifying through the World Championships despite having only trained together for 10 weeks, she said: “We’d only been together for 10 weeks before the World Championships, and weren’t that far off.

“Our goal for Rio now is to aim for a medal.”

As well as the interview with Jennings, Sonia O'Sullivan talks about her training regime in her latest column, while there are also interviews with Cork captain Ciara O'Sullivan, Irelandrugby sevens player Lucy Mulhall and hockey player Nicola Daly - all of which are available in the newspaper or online.

Gary Neville named Valencia boss

Gary Neville has been named as the new manager of Valenciauntil the end of the season, and while his appointment came as a surprise Sid Lowe believes he will be a respected, although risky, choice at the Mestalla, he writes: "Gary Neville is admired in Spain. Manchester United made quite an impact and there is a kind of reverence towards a club that could keep a structure that strong for that long: one manager in a quarter of a century feels like an even more remarkable achievement here than it does in England."

Meanwhile Liverpool will play Stoke City in the semi-finals of the League Cup after they thrashed an out of sorts Southampton side 6-1 at St Mary's last night, while Everton will face Manchester City in the other last four tie.

Murphy looking to recover from World Cup hangover

Jordi Murphy has been one of a number of Leinster players who have been suffering a post-World Cup hangover, and he has watched on while Josh van der Flier has impressed in the backrow.

But Murphy believes he is fully fit and it is a matter of time before he returns to his best, he said: ""I've been there before so I know I can do it and hopefully surpass it again. It's not a physical thing. I'm fit at the moment. It took me too long to get back into the Leinster environment and start to get back into all the new calls, the way we are trying to play the game."

Meanwhile Ulster's Craig Gilroy has expressed his happiness at the appointment of Les Kiss as the province's director of rugby, he said: "I was pretty delighted [when I heard he had been appointed].

“I met Kissy in 2012 when he was with Ireland, obviously, and that was when I got my first caps. He was a massive help. He brings so much and he goes into such good detail. All the guys have a good relationship with him and he’ll bring a lot to Ulster.”

Interprovincials still have merit

Elsewhere former Meath footballer Sean Kelly believes there is still merit in the Interprovincial Championship, despite his Leinster side heading into Saturday's game against Munster without a single representative from All-Ireland champions Dublin, who are all currently away on holiday in Thailand.

Shane Lowry column

In his column today Shane Lowry reflects back on what he describes as, “the best year of my career.”

What to watch out for:

Golf

Shane Lowry is the one Irish golfer in the 30-man field at the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa. (SS4, 8am-3pm)