SPORTS DIGEST: RUGBY:Clontarf and Shannon head the Ulster Bank League Division 1A table following hard earned victories over Young Munster and Cork Constitution respectively.
They are the only sides to have won their opening two games. It needed a late penalty from the former Cork Con wing Richie Lane to give Clontarf a 16-15 victory over Young Munster at Castle Avenue.
The only try came in the first half when Young Munster had hooker Ger Slattery in the sin-bin. Clontarf took advantage to score a penalty try which Lane converted.
The wing also landed two further penalties. All of Young Munster’s Munster points came from the boot of Willie Staunton who kicked five penalties. Shannon came from 7-0 down to beat Cork Constitution 14-10 at Temple Hill. Their try came from full-back Luke O’Dea, while Gareth Quinn-McDonagh kicked two penalties and Mossy Lawlor contributed a drop goal.
Earlier, Brian Hayes had given Con the lead with a try, converted by Gerry Hurley. The other Cork club Dolphin had better luck beating Blackrock College 17-10 at Musgrave Park. Wings Cian Bohane and Kevin Brophy got tries with Barry Keeshan kicking the remainder of the points. Blackrock are now bottom of the table with two defeats.
Lansdowne recorded a surprise 23-19 away success over St Mary’s at Templeville Road. Wing Cian Aherne and centre Sean Carey got their tries. Old Belvedere find themselves just one place off the bottom of Division 1A after their 30-25 defeat by Garryowen – their second successive defeat at Anglesea Road.
Ballynahinch head Division 1B with two wins, plus a bonus point. They defeated Ulster rivals Belfast Harlequins 27-16.
Buccaneers are on eight points with two wins after beating Ballymena 16-10 at Eaton Park. Dungannon are third, despite losing 12-5 to UL Bohemians at Annacotty.
Bruff got their campaign going by accounting for Galwegians 21-12 at Killballyowen, as did UCD, successful 23-16 against UCC at Belfield.
Strong showing from Irish duo
CYCLING: Nicolas Roche capped off a strong Tour of Beijing performance when he finished 11th overall in the WorldTour race. He and fellow Irish pro Philip Deignan (RadioShack) came home in the main bunch on both Saturday’s leg and yesterday’s concluding stage, defending their overall positions. Roche ended the five-day race 48 seconds behind the winner Tony Martin (HTC Highroad), while Deignan was 20 seconds further back in 31st.
The final stage was won by the Russian sprinter Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha Team), who beat Juan José Haedo (Saxo Bank Sungard) and Elia Viviani (Liquigas- Cannondale) to the line at the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium.
Roche outsprinted Deignan for victory on Friday’s stage, netting his first WorldTour stage win and turning around what had been an otherwise frustrating season.
Murray beats Nadal to continue on winning way
TENNIS:Andy Murray reduced Rafa Nadal's granite-like resistance to rubble as he stunned the Spaniard 3-6 6-2 6-0 to capture the Japan Open title yesterday.
It was the Briton’s second title in two weeks, after he won in Bangkok, and ended Nadal’s bid to become the first man since Pete Sampras in 1993-94 to retain the Tokyo crown.
“I played some great tennis, especially in the third set,” Murray said after winning his 20th career title.
“It was the best tennis I’ve played against Rafa,” added the Scot, who had lost 13 of his previous 17 matches against the world number two.
Murray, who has won 21 of his last 22 matches, will wish he could bottle the magic he produced in an astonishing third set, when he dropped just four points.
Murray returned to court afterwards to win the Tokyo doubles with brother Jamie.
“Winning with my brother makes it the perfect week,” he said.
Dolan has first nine-dart finish
DARTS:Brendan Dolan wrote his name into the record books while progressing through to the World Grand Prix final, where he was beaten 6-3 by Phil Taylor in Dublin last night. Northern Irishman Dolan produced the first nine-dart finish in World Grand Prix history during the second set of his semi-final with James Wade before going on to knock out the reigning champion 5-2 and reach the first major final of his career.
Taylor saw off Richie Burnett 5-2 in his semi-final.
Fagan forced to drop out in Chicago
ATHLETICS:A very definite tale of so near and yet so far for Martin Fagan yesterday as he fell agonisingly short of securing the A-standard for next year's London Olympics after what looked like being a superb run in yesterday's Chicago Marathon, writes Ian O'Riordan.
The 28-year-old from Mullingar was well on course to run under the 2:15.00 that would have booked his place in London, but was forced to drop out with just over a mile to go due to “heat issues”.
It wasn’t a particularly hot day in Chicago although Fagan perhaps paid a price for some heated running early on: he passed halfway in 1:05.11, averaging 4.56 per mile, and was up to seventh position overall around 21 miles, or 35km, which he passed in 1:47.44.
That had him on a 2:11.10 estimated finish, but he started to struggle for the next few miles, and passed 40km in 2:04.21, just before dropping out.
