SPORTS DIGEST:EQUESTRIAN: Ireland's Jessica Kürten will miss this coming weekend's Rolex FEI world cup show jumping finals in Geneva following a fall at her yard in Germany late last week, writes Margie McLoone.
The Co Antrim-born rider, who was joint-fourth in the Gothenburg final in 2008 and second in Kuala Lumpur two years previously, was hospitalised on Friday and, although later released, will not make the Geneva starting line-up for which competitors have qualified from 13 leagues around the world.
Commenting on her fall, Kürten, who headed the western European league, said yesterday: “I am very sore at present and, while I expect to be back competing shortly, the final is just too soon. While I’m obviously disappointed, I feel a little lucky because, if it wasn’t for my riding helmet, things would have been a lot worse.”
Ireland will be represented at the five-star show in Geneva by Dermott Lennon from Co Down and Co Offaly’s Darragh Kenny, who is based in the United States where he qualified in second place in the East Coast league behind Olympic gold medallist Mclain Ward.
Ferrero too good for Granollers
TENNIS: Juan Carlos Ferrero safely negotiated an encounter with fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers to reach the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters yesterday.
Ferrero, the ninth seed, romped to the first set without losing a game against qualifier Granollers, who improved in the second but nevertheless slumped to a 6-0 6-3 defeat in just 69 minutes. The top eight seeds were handed byes to the second round. Tomas Berdych, the 10th seed beat Spain’s Feliciano Lopez 6-3 6-1.
Morris a doubt for visit of Munster
RUGBY:Tighthead prop Robbie Morris is a major doubt for Connacht ahead of Sunday's clash with Munster in the Magners League at the Sportsground. The former England international suffered a calf injury in the Challenge Cup win over Bourgoin.
Winger Liam Bibo and flanker Ray Ofisa, both of whom missed the weekend’s win, are also rated very doubtful for the visit of Munster.
However, coach Michael Bradley said he expects winger Fionn Carr and centre Niva Ta’auso, both of whom came off on Saturday after picking up knocks, to recover in time for Sunday’s encounter.
“These are exciting times,” said Bradley. “Confidence is high in the camp at the moment, and with a big crowd behind the lads I’m sure they will respond again and hopefully continue the good sequence of results. There is a lot to play for at this stage of the season and it is really a matter of keeping performances at a high level.”
McGarrity and McKee snatch victory
MOTOR SPORT:For the fourth time in 11 years, last Sunday's Circuit of Kerry Rally was decided on a tie break. In an exciting finish to the event, the third round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship, Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Subaru WRC) edged out long time leaders, Kevin Barrett/Seán Mullally, also in a Subaru WRC.
The pair, who won the Circuit of Ireland last week, were seven seconds adrift of their rivals entering the final stage; amazingly, McGarrity/McKee traversed the test seven seconds faster than Barrett/Mullally and got the verdict on the tie-break rule – that benefits the faster crew.
Barrett began in splendid fashion. A five-second lead on the opening stage was stretched to 10 seconds by the end of a loop of three stages. Although McGarrity reduced the deficit to two seconds by the fourth stage, Barrett clawed time from the other stages and led by seven seconds prior to the finale. Barry Meade (Escort) took the Modified category and Alan Ring (Mitsubishi) won the Group N section.
Simmons looking for a significant improvement
CRICKET:Ireland coach Phil Simmons has called for a big improvement from his front-line batsmen after seeing his side go down to a 31-run defeat in the first of three Twenty20 clashes against a West Indies XI at Trelawny Stadium on Sunday evening, writes Emmet Riordan.
Ireland had reduced the home side to 10 for three early on and some fine bowling from Kevin O’Brien, Trent Johnston and Paul Stirling restricted them to 63 for four after 14 overs.
But the West Indies would add 80 runs from the last six overs, with Narsingh Deonarine top-scoring with 40 and Darren Sammy clubbing 28 runs off 15 balls as they finished on 143 for eight.
Any hopes Ireland had of chasing down the target were torn to shreds in the opening overs after William Porterfield, Niall O’Brien and Gary Wilson all departed with just nine runs on the board.
Paul Stirling’s innings of 25 completed a fine game for the 19-year-old, while Johnston hit an unbeaten 28 late in the innings. But the early losses proved too much to overcome with Ireland finishing on 112 for seven.
“We didn’t bat well enough and that was the main issue,” said Simmons.
“We had them at 40 for four or something like that before we allowed it to slip but overall we did well in the field. We should have gotten closer to their score. So it’s a case where we have to do some work on our batting,” he added.
Ireland will get that chance on Thursday when they take on the West Indies in a full One-Day International at Sabina Park in Kingston.
