Desmond withdraws threat of injunction

Rowing: Mick Desmond, the coach omitted from the Irish squad for the World Championships in Canada later this month, yesterday dropped his application for an High Court injunction which would have prevented the squad travelling unless he was reinstated as coach to the lightweight quadruple scull.

The case was dropped after the Irish Amateur Rowing Union (IARU) agreed that Desmond was and is a high-performance coach and made a significant contribution to the sport; they also paid their own costs. IARU president Tom Fennessey later said in a statement that he was "delighted that Michael Desmond has seen fit to withdraw his application for an injunction against the IARU, which confirms the executive's right with regard to appointments and selections both to international events and World Rowing Championships.

"However, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the input that Michael Desmond has contributed to the sport of rowing over the years." Desmond said that did not want to take the chance of creating a situation where he might have ended up adversely affecting the chances of an Irish crew doing well at a major championships. However he added: "Coaches in the sport need to think very carefully about being involved with the national federation unless there is a contract involved."

Motor Sport: Bernie Ecclestone is considering the reintroduction of official qualifying sessions for grands prix on Fridays. The Formula One commercial rights holder said: "Everybody is here on the Friday, so maybe we ought to make it official. It is very easy to aggregate the Friday and Saturday times for television and I think it would be a great solution."

At present, Friday's two hour-long sessions are tests enabling drivers to familiarise themselves with the circuit and teams to fine-tune chassis settings.

Before 1996 grid positions were determined by a driver's best lap in either of the two qualifying sessions on a Friday or Saturday. The snag was that if it rained on the Saturday there was no real incentive for the drivers to go out.

Tennis: Conor Niland, the number two seed, helped keep Irish interest alive in the ITF world junior ranking tournament at rain-swept Rushbrooke yesterday, by beating Briton Robert Searle 6-1 6-4.

Irish junior champion Catherine Lynch set herself up for a crack at tournament giant-killer Majen Immink in today's semi-finals by beating Nadine Kessel of Germany in straight sets.

Boys' Singles: quarter-finals - B McLaren (Brit) bt I Flanagan (Brit) 4-6 6-2 6-4, N Bamford (Brit) bt N Crawley (Brit) 6-3 7-6, V Vander (Neth) bt S Weidl (Ger) 6-4 5-7 6-4, C Niland bt R Seale (Brit) 6-1 6-4.

Girls' Singles: quarter-finals - M Immink (Brit) bt V Bellor (Ger) 7-6 7-5, C Lynch bt N Kessell (Ger) 6-4 6-1, I De Geest (Neth) b t K Gintere 6-2 6-0, H Broome (Brit) bt S Gregg (Brit) 6-3 5-7 6-4.

Tennis: Steffi Graf has called her decision to retire from Wimbledon and the French Open "a mistake". The seven-time Wimbledon champion announced the decision following her defeat in the final at the All-England Championships to Lindsay Davenport in June. But the 30-year-old German admitted she was having second thoughts. "I made a mistake," Graf said. "That is the way I felt and that was my immediate response."