OLYMPICS: More than 35,000 extra tickets for the Athens Olympics - including some for sought after events like the opening and closing ceremonies and the sprint finals - are being made available, organisers said yesterday.
The unexpected batch of the Games' most popular tickets came up for grabs after a review of seating arrangements at the main Olympic stadium, the aquatic and gymnastics centres.
The tickets include 1,000 for the opening ceremony, some for the basketball final, expected to feature the United States' latest "Dream Team", and attendance at the men's 100 and 200 metres finals. The new tickets will go up for sale tomorrow.
During the first phase of ticket sales from May 12th to June 12th last year more than half a million out of a total of three million tickets on offer were snapped up, netting more than €40 million.
CYCLING: Eugene Moriarty has continued the remarkable run of the Hibernian Team Ireland squad in the pro-am Malaysia Tour de Langkawi, sprinting home an excellent fifth on the 175 km stage from Muar to Johor Bahru. The Kerry rider crossed the line in the same time as the victorious Italian specialist Ivan Quaranta (Formaggi Pinzolo Fiave), with Luciano Pagliarini (Lampre), Ruben Bongiorno (Ceramiche Panaria-Margres) and points leader Gordon Fraser (Health Net Pro) completing the list of front runners.
Paul Griffin and McCann crossed the line in 17th and 25th position, ensuring that Ireland finished fourth in the team stage classification.
MALAYSIA TOUR DE LANGKAWI - STAGE SIX
1, I Quaranta, 175.2 km in 3 hours 39 mins 20 secs; 2, L Pagliarini (Lampre); 3, R Bongiorno (Ceramiche Panaria-Margres); 4, G Fraser (Health Net Pro); 5, E Moriarty (Hibernian Team Ireland) all same time. Other Irish: 17, P Griffin; 25, D McCann; 52, D Lynch; 55, P Deignan; 72, D O'Loughlin, all same time.
TEAM STAGE CLASSIFICATION
1, De Nardi; 2, Iran; 3, Wismilak; 4, Hibernian Team Ireland.
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
1, M Perez (Colombia Selle Italia) 17 hours 46 mins 38 secs; 2, H Guerra Garcia (Relax Bodysol) at 32 secs; 3, F Gonzalez (Colombia Selle Italia) at 42 secs. Irish: 11, McCann, at 2 mins 4 secs; 20, Deignan, at 3 mins 16 secs; 64, Griffin, at 16 mins 47 secs; 67, O'Loughlin, at 17 mins 21 secs; 84, Lynch, at 22 mins 47 secs; 103, Moriarty, at 29 mins 9 secs.
GOLF: Doonbeg Golf Club - the Greg Norman designed links golf course in west Clare - has been given the green light by An Bord Pleanala to begin work on the accommodation and clubhouse phase of the development. The overallproject, when finished, will represent an 150 million investment.
SWIMMING: Connacht have the largest representation with 15 competitors on the Irish Schools Four Nations swimming team to compete at Southampton on March 20th, reports Pat Roche.
SENIORS - Boys: M Timmins (Connacht); S Aherne, A O'Toole, C Holland, B Murphy (Leinster). Girls: C Farrell, D Ryan, M Tighe (Connacht); N McDonnell (Leinster); S Meyler (Munster); C Dawson (Ulster).
INTERMEDIATE - Boys: K Quaid, P McNally, D Kelly (Connacht); S Redmond, D Matthews (Leinster); O Cummins (Munster). Girls - AM Fenton, H Burke (Leinster); N Kavanagh, L Byrne (Connacht); C Kelleher (Munster); M Nocher (Ulster).
JUNIOR - Boys: J Egan, K Higgins, S Heffernan (Connacht); J Murphy, S Kelly (Munster); W Logan (Ulster). Girls - L Judge, L Boland, E Porter (Connacht); L McDonnell, A Cooney (Leinster); A Hurley (Munster).
HOCKEY: Ireland beat Argentina's B team, which featured four of the world champion's A side, in a friendly in Cordoba last night, with Jenny Burke scoring the only goal 10 minutes from time.
The only blot on an otherwise encouraging evening was the injury sustained by captain Lynsey McVicker who needed stitches in a head wound after being struck by the ball.
