As Ian O’Riordan tells us, it’s a measure of “how far and fast Kate O’Connor has ascended the global athletics stage” that she harboured some feelings of regret about ‘only’ winning pentathlon bronze at the World Indoor Championships on Sunday. But when he caught up with her after, she gradually became a little easier on herself – after all, a fifth successive championship medal in just under 13 months isn’t bad going. Ian also rounds up how the rest of the Irish team fared in Poland.
In football, you might have heard that the Republic of Ireland have quite a big game in Prague on Thursday? Conor McEvoy reports on how the squad came through their club games at the weekend mercifully unscathed. And Kevin Kilbane reflects on his playoff experience down the years, including “the Thierry Henry game, Tehran’s call to prayer and Bursa brawls with Tony Cascarino”.
Ken Early, meanwhile, is still recovering from watching the Carabao Cup final, Arsenal’s “wretchedly risk-averse approach” largely responsible for the snooze-fest and their defeat to Manchester City. “If this is the best team in England, then the game is in a sorry state,” he sighs.
In Gaelic games, Malachy Clerkin looks back on the last day of the National Football League which featured “more ups and downs than a trampoline park”. The upshot is that Kerry and Donegal will meet in the Division 1 final, Kerry drawing with Armagh on Sunday and Donegal beating Monaghan, while Dublin are relegated after their defeat by Galway. On the women’s side, Cork and Galway will contest the Division 1 final, just a year after both counties were promoted to the top table.
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In hurling, Denis Walsh was at the Gaelic Grounds to see Limerick just about stave off a Galway fightback to book their place in the Division 1A final against a Cork side that went to town on Offaly at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. You can find reports on all the football and hurling games across the divisions here.
A sad weekend it was too for Gaelic games, and beyond, with the news of the death of Michael Lyster, the former presenter of The Sunday Game. He had retired from broadcasting in 2018 having been a presence on the airwaves since 1979.
In rugby, apart from Connacht, who beat Ulster on Friday, it was a miserable old weekend for the Irish sides in the URC, Munster hammered by the Sharks and Leinster going down to Glasgow Warriors. Gerry Thornley rounds up the action in the All-Ireland League and Michael Scully previews today’s Leinster Cup final replay between Blackrock and St Mary’s.
Does Tiger Woods really have another Masters left in him? So asks Denis Walsh in light of rumours that he might just be in the Augusta field next month. “By all sane reason the chances are remote,” he writes – if Woods does appear, it will have “the demeaning quality of the circus grotesque”.
And in racing, Brian O’Connor has word on trial starts without a starting tape continuing in Ireland as the sport here and in Britain takes steps to avoid a repeat of the shambolic scenes at the recent Cheltenham Festival.
TV Watch: Cycling fans can nestle down in their couches ahead of the start of the Tour of Catalunya today (TNT Sports 1, 2.15pm), while tennis devotees have the ATP/WTA Miami Open to look forward to (Sky Sports Tennis, 3pm). And at 8pm, TG4 has the highlights of the GAA weekend.
