Behardien shines as South Africa A beat Ireland

SPORTS DIGEST: Cricket:South Africa 'A' beat Ireland by 68 runs on Duckworth Lewis in Strabane yesterday.

Ireland put the visitors into bat but, despite Peter Connell and Trent Johnston taking three wickets each, South Africa ‘A’ went on to make 255 for nine from their 50 overs, Farhaan Behardien top scoring with 88.

John Anderson (40) and James Shannon (33) put on 45 for Ireland’s second wicket before the heart was ripped from the reply as Ryan McLaren dismissed Shannon and Kevin O’Brien with consecutive balls.

Andrew White departed in the next over, also without scoring, and when the rain returned Ireland were well short of their target on 136 for seven. The two sides meet again in Stormont tomorrow.

EMMET RIORDAN

Federer sweeps aside Djokovic

World number one Roger Federer underlined his dominant position in the game by securing his sixth ATP title of the year with an impressive 6-0 7-6 win over Novak Djokovic in the Cincinnati Open final yesterday.

Federers 21st Masters title equals Rafa Nadal’s record in the elite series and his win against the Serbian world number two showed he is in optimum form heading into the US Masters later this month.

Federer barely broke sweat in a first set which took just 20 minutes but it was a tighter affair in the second which Federer eventually won 9-7 in the tiebreak.

Sergio Garcia was still holding a one-stroke lead when play was suspended due to heavy rain in the final round of the Wyndham Championship at Greensboro in North Carolina yesterday.

Garcia was standing on 15 under par just short of the fifth green. South African Tim Clark had twice caught him with birdies at the second and fourth, but then ran up a bogey at the next to fall back alongside Americans Jason Dufner and Bud Cauley.

Cassells and Black seventh in World Championships

Ireland’s junior pair of Joel Cassells and Chris Black produced their best time ever to dominate the B Final and finish seventh overall at the World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv in Bulgaria yesterday.

The Coleraine men were pushed into fourth in their semi-final by Romania, Germany and Greece – in yesterday’s A Final the Romanians won gold, Greece took silver (in a slower time than Ireland’s) and Germany were a close-up fourth.

Coach Séamus Reynolds said he was “chuffed to bits” for the two 18-year-olds, who had come on with each tough race. Sadly for Irish rowing, the next step for Black and Cassells is to Cambridge and Oxford Brookes universities and, most likely, the rowing system in Britain.

Claire Lambe finished fifth in the B Final of the lightweight single sculls yesterday (11th overall). Niall Kenny was 15th in the men’s lightweight single on Saturday and the lightweight pair 21st. Paul O’Donovan won the C Final to finish 13th overall in the junior single sculls.

The junior women’s quadruple were 12th.

– LIAM GORMAN

 Degenkolb sprints to his first big win in the Vuelta a Espana

Talented young German sprinter John Degenkolb took the first Grand Tour stage of his career with a late all-out charge in the Vuelta a Espana yesterday.

Australian fastman Allan Davis was second, hammering the handlebars in frustration as he crossed the line in Viana, with Britain’s Ben Swift third in the bunch sprint that decided the 181.4-kilometre stage.

Spain’s Jonathan Castroviejo of the Movistar team remained the overall leader.

Argos-Shimano’s Degenkolb was delighted with what he regarded as a breakthrough win in his first major tour.

A finish like that called for pure power, which is what suits my kind of racing, not just speed, and after team mate Koen De Koert had dropped me off with 200 metres to go there was just me, Davis and Swift up there for the sprint, the 23-year-old told reporters.

Nicolas Roche finished in the main bunch to be credited with 32nd place on the stage and lies 27th overall.

Today’s third stage will be the first summit finish of the race, on Mount Arrate in the Basque Country.

Ryan helps Dundrum to title

A number of athletes who recently competed in the London Olympics were in action for their clubs in the Woodies DIY National League finals at the Tullamore Stadium yesterday.

Derval O’Rourke gained maximum points for Leevale AC a major boost in the 100 metres hurdles with victory in 13.37 seconds.

High jump record holder Deirdre Ryan also helped Dundrum SD to another club title with a winning leap of 1.70 metres. Ryan’s win helped DSD to the Premier women’s title from Leevale and Raheny.

Two members of the Irish women’s 4 x400m relay team that ran in London, Claire Bergin and Jessie Barr, dominating the individual 400 metres with Bergin winning in 55.48 seconds and Barr taking the runner-up spot in 47.06.

Barr also won the 400m hurdles, winning comfortably in 61.23, overcoming the strong challenge of Emma Peters of DSD.

Clonliffe won the men’s Premier team title beating Crusaders by two points. St Abbans won the Division One women’s title with St Laurence O’Toole taking the men’s award.