Irish fail to qualify

Basketball: The Irish senior men failed in their bid to claim one of the qualifying places for the European 2003 Championships by losing their two final games in Denmark at the weekend.

On Saturday, the Irish fell to host's Denmark 6258 after letting an early advantage slip. They went 11 points clear in the first quarter but gradually allowed Denmark back into the game, and were just a point ahead, 25-24, at the break. But Denmark took the lead soon afterwards and held the momentum until the end to survive a late comeback from the Irish.

Yesterday Ireland lost to Georgia 95-80 - their worst defeat of the qualifying pool - and that left them with just two wins from the five games.

Athletics: Kilkenny's Emily Maher emerged yesterday in the Loughborough Aqua Pura international meeting in England after a winter training with Linford Christie's group of runners. Having been taken under the wing of the former Olympic champion Maher spent some time this year in Australia undergoing warm weather training. The 19-year-old finished in third place in a time of 11.72 seconds with Britain's Sam Davies winning in 11.63.

In the men's 1,500 metres James Nolan (right) and Gareth Turnbull were Ireland's two runners, Nolan moving up from the shorter 800 metres. Although more illustrious than his 21-year-old colleague, it was left to Turnbull to challenge the Kenyans, who dominated the race, finally splitting them up the final stretch. David Kisang won the race in three minutes 38.68 seconds with Turnbull a few strides behind in second place, finishing in an encouraging 3.41.

Rowing: Neptune's women's junior 18 quadruple scull, given a row over at Portora regatta on Saturday, proved that they have serious hopes in the national championships by rowing alongside the junior 18 eights and beating them! In the men's junior 18 eight, Methodist College won, with Colaiste Iognaid of Galway second, and Neptune, without some of their regulars, a disappointing third.

Cricket: The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) intends to investigate fresh claims from former Pakistan cricket captain Salim Malik that a match between Australia and Pakistan in 1994 was a double fix so that both sides were trying to lose.

Yesterday's News of the World newspaper said it had infiltrated an international match-fixing ring headed by Malik. Undercover reporters had video tapes of conversations with Malik who promised to fix matches for up to £500,000 a game.

Golf: Sophie Gustafson held off her challengers to win the Italian Open yesterday with the easy confidence of someone who won her first US tournament only three weeks ago. Trish Johnson and Caroline Hall had posed an English threat at three behind overnight, but by the time the Swede had reached the turn with a one-under-par 36 and a fourshot lead, it was all over. She went on to post a 72 for an eight-under-par total of 284 and won by three shots.

Gustafson is proving adept at picking up the trophies and pocketing the cheques.

With her win in the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship in Georgia last month she has already banked more than Stg120,000 for 13th place in the US money list and she seems certain to meet one of her season's main goals by retaining her place in Europe's Solheim Cup team for the match against the United States at Loch Lomond in October.