The Morning Sports Briefing

Pat Hickey arrested in Rio

Events in Rio yesterday were dominated by the news Pat Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), was arrested for his alleged involvement in an Olympics ticket touting scandal.

Mr Hickey faces charges of supplying tickets for the purpose of ticket touting, false marketing and diverting tickets to illegal purposes, and if found guilty on all counts could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

Mr Hickey has temporarily stepped down from his role with the OCI.

Boxing judges expelled

Meanwhile following on from Michal Conlan’s controversial Olympic bantamweight quarter-final defeat to Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin on Tuesday, the AIBI announced yesterday it has expelled a “handful” of referees who have been involved in dubious decisions during the Rio Games.

Barr bids to make history

On the track today Thomas Barr bids to create history as he lines up in the 400m hurdles final at 4pm.

Dundalk beaten but hold their own

Last night Dundalk’s Champions League hopes were dealt a hammer blow after they were beaten 2-0 by Legia Warsaw at a sodden Aviva Stadium.

The Polish champions scored through a fortuitous Nemanja Nikolic penalty and a neat finish from Aleksandar Prijovic with virtually the last kick of a game in which the Lilywhites more than held their own for large periods.

Ken Early was at the Aviva, he writes: “For most of the match, even after Legia took the lead thanks to Nikolic’s penalty, there really wasn’t much in it. The gap in quality was not so wide that you really would have noticed.”

GAA Statistics

And in today’s GAA statistics column Eamon Donoghue analyses the performances of Mayo star Lee Keegan, he writes: “In Mayo’s two biggest games so far this year- against Galway and Tyrone – Lee Keegan has kept both the Tribesmen’s elusive centre forward Shane Walsh, and Tyrone’s captain and talisman Sean Cavanagh to just nine touches apiece.”