SPORTS DIGEST:CRICKET: Batsmen Ian Bell was named yesterday in England's 13-man squad for the third Ashes Test against Australia, starting at Edgbaston on Thursday.
The 27-year-old right-hander, who has not played international cricket since February, comes into the side after Kevin Pietersen was ruled out of the rest of the series following surgery on an Achilles' tendon.
The English Cricket Board also included bowlers Stephen Harmison and Monty Panesar in the 13-man squad which otherwise is unchanged from the side that beat Australia by 115 runs at Lords.
"Kevin's injury has presented an opportunity for Ian Bell who we know is a top-class batsmen with an excellent international record for England," national selector Geoff Miller said in a statement.
"Ian will be looking to make the most of his return to the side during an Ashes series, and while we have a strong idea of where he will bat we won't be disclosing the final line-up of the side until the toss on Thursday."
Butler takes grand prix
EQUESTRIAN: The weather played havoc with equestrian sports over the weekend with the organisers of the international two-star show at Tattersalls having to bring their Grand Prix forward to Saturday, while at Ballinacoola in Co Wicklow the cross country phase was cancelled for the pre-novice classes, reports Margie McLoone.
At the Co Meath venue, Alexander Butler coped best with the underfoot conditions when winning the Grand Prix on Harold McGahern’s Touchdown gelding Will Wimble. Butler also won two other international classes over the weekend.
In the two-star classes at Ballinacoola, Jayne Doherty took first place in the older horses’ division with the Duca di Busted 10-year-old The Only One, with Sara Glynn claiming the six and seven-year-old class on the home-bred Killossery Kassandra.
Mixed fortunes for Irish juniors
ROWING: Ireland's junior athletes did well at the Home International match in Nottingham on Saturday, with the junior women winning their section and the junior men just missing out. England's junior men wrested the glory from Ireland by two points (21-19), while the Irish women turned the table by beating England 24-23, reports Liam Gorman.
Four of Ireland’s seven winning crews were in the junior women’s section, with Siofra Bennett of King’s Hospital and Grace Collins of Cork Boat Club notching up wins in the double and quadruple sculls. Ireland’s sole winner at senior level was Sanita Puspure, who took the women’s single scull.
At the World Under-23 Championships in Racice in the Czech Republic, lightweight double Niall Kenny and Mark O’Donovan finished with a win in their C Final on Saturday, placing them 13th overall. Michael Maher finished third in his C Final of the lightweight single scull, 15th overall.
Retrospective testing for Tour riders
CYCLING:Urine samples taken on the 2008 Tour de France will be retested in search for a new form of blood-boosting drug EPO, French Anti-Doping Agency director Pierre Bordry has said.
“Before this year’s Tour start in Monaco, we warned some 15 riders that, in conformity with the world anti-doping code, we would analyse retrospectively samples taken on the 2008 Tour,” said Bordry, without naming the riders.
The testing, which will be conducted in September and October, would look mainly for Cera, a third-generation form of the banned hormone erythropoietin (EPO), he added.
Cera was first detected on the 2008 Tour in samples belonging to Italy’s Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli.
Two other riders, Germany’s Stefan Schumacher and Austrian Bernhard Kohl, were later found to also have taken Cera during last year’s Tour.
Dovizioso profits as favourites falter
MOTO GP: Italy's Andrea Dovizioso took advantage of mistakes by title chasers Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo to win the British MotoGP at Donington yesterday.
The 23-year-old finished ahead of Yamaha Tech3 rider Colin Edwards of the US and Honda’s Randy De Puniet of France to secure his first MotoGP win.
The near-90,000 spectators were hoping for another battle between Italy’s Rossi and Spain’s Lorenzo after their epic finish at Germany’s Sachsenring last Sunday.
Instead, Lorenzo was forced to retire on lap nine after falling off his bike and hurtling across the track, and Yamaha team-mate Rossi relinquished his lead with 10 laps remaining after losing control before remounting to finish fifth.
Pittman-Rawlinson to miss finals
ATHLETICS: World 400 metres hurdles champion Jana Pittman-Rawlinson will not defend her title next month in Berlin because of a lingering back injury, Athletics Australia said yesterday.
Pittman-Rawlinson has only raced twice since returning to the track last month after a year-long lay-off due to complications from a toe injury that forced her out of the Beijing Olympics.
The 26-year-old pulled up with hamstring soreness after last week’s meet in Lucerne and the problem was diagnosed as being caused by a bulging disc in her back.
“Unfortunately the injury to my back has meant I haven’t been able to train properly for six weeks and despite intensive treatment, it is still causing me a lot of pain and hampering my running,” she said in a statement. “I will now continue treatment over the next few weeks before I head back to Australia.”
