Sports Digest / Cycling: The promising Irish rider Ciarán Kelly raced to an excellent victory yesterday in the junior Mazenzele Opwijk event in Belgium, writes Shane Stokes. The second-year junior lined out with 125 others in the 83km race, throwing down the gauntlet right after the start when he attacked on the first climb.
His move drew a small break clear, and these worked well to establish a one-minute lead. Kelly surged again on the last lap, opening a lead of over 30 seconds and soloing to the win. The result builds on the fourth place he achieved one week ago and shows he is in fine condition.
Meanwhile, Páidí O'Brien and Mark Cassidy finished 21st and 28th respectively out of 114 starters in the elite race at Vollezele.
At home, the new season continued to pick up pace with several events being run around the country. Usher IRC duo Greg Swinand and Shane Baker were first and second in the Cycleways Cup in Navan yesterday, with third place going to the previous day's Annaclone GP victor Conor Murphy (Crannog CC). Julie O'Hagan won the women's event and so took an early lead in the National League. Vincent Gleeson got the better of Eddie O'Donaghue and Seán Lacey in the Mick Cahill Memorial in Banteer, while up north, Alan Hall (Apollo) sprinted to victory in the Phoenix GP.
ROWING: The first national time trial under the auspices of Ireland coach Harald Jahrling yielded a few pleasant surprises for the German, writes Liam Gorman. Chief among these were the excellent showing of a heavyweight crew, the coxless pair of Alan Martin and Cormac Folan, the continuing high standard set by Sinead Jennings and the good form of a hugely-promising junior double scull of Paul O'Brien and Rory O'Connor.
Participants at the National Rowing Centre in Cork had their times over 4,000 metres - reduced from 6,000 metres for safety considerations - weighted against the expected winning time in the 2008 Olympics. On this measure, heavyweight single sculler Seán Casey (84.2 per cent on Saturday and 85.8 yesterday) was fastest, and Jennings (83.6 on Saturday) second.
Richard Coakley, an under-23 lightweight, was third with 83.5 per cent on Saturday and Martin and Folan impressed with 82.0 per cent.
"They are quite a sleek-looking crew," said Jahrling.
The junior double of Offaly clubman O'Connor and Neptune's O'Brien has been training together for a while and if they prove themselves over time they could be targeted at the World Junior Championships in August.
TENNIS: A tearful Paul-Henri Mathieu buried his Davis Cup demons yesterday to lead France into the quarter-finals with an emotional victory over Thomas Johansson.
The 22-year-old Mathieu, who blew a two-set lead in the decisive match of the 2002 final against Russia, survived the loss of two match points in the third set to beat the Swede 6-1 6-4 6-7 6-4 and clinch a 3-2 win in Strasbourg.
In Fribourg, the visiting Dutch side squeezed out a 3-2 win over a feisty Switzerland sorely missing world number one Roger Federer.
The Dutch will travel to Slovakia for the quarter-finals after the Slovaks completed their victory over champions Spain 4-1 in Bratislava.
Spain, like Switzerland and all other first round losers, must now fight for their top-flight status in play-offs.
In Brasov, hosts Romania overturned a 2-1 deficit to beat last year's semi-finalists Belarus 3-2.
In Sydney, Australia completed a 5-0 whitewash of Austria. Australia will play Argentina in the quarters in Sydney in July. Argentina completed a 5-0 demolition of the Czech Republic.
CRICKET: The West Indies selectors have dropped captain Brian Lara, along with opener Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo for the home Test series against South Africa and Pakistan.
The WICB named a 22-man squad that did not include any of the players that have signed personal deals with Cable and Wireless.
The squad includes six uncapped players: Ryan Ramdas, Narsingh Deonarine, Darren Sammy, Donovan Pagon, Denish Ramdin and Dwight Washington.
Pacemen Darren Powell, Jerome Taylor and Tino Best have all earned recalls.
SQUAD: Devon Smith, Wavell Hinds, Xavier Marshall, Ryan Ramdass, Darren Ganga, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ryan Hinds, Narsingh Deonarine, Darren Sammy, Donavon Pagon, Courtney Browne, Denesh Ramdin, Carlton Baugh Jr, Ian Bradshaw, Dave Mohammed, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore, Dwight Washington, Reon King, Darren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Tino Best.
BASKETBALL: By the end of the weekend the standings were, well, the same as they were at the beginning, writes Gavin Cummiskey. It was already apparent that St Vincent's and the Tralee Tigers were sitting pretty in the play-off semi-finals of the men's Superleague, but Limerick could yet squeeze Neptune out of third spot in the southern conference.
Neptune gave them a prime opportunity by losing to the Tigers, but St Vincent's edged past Limerick by a mere four points. They even led by seven at half-time, but Stephen McGuirk's performance aided by 29 points from Mike Trimmer saw the Dublin club prevail. Trimmer, in particular, will be expected to replicate this display when the pressure is at its most intense in Cork on March 19th.
Chris Craig's Tralee team may well come face to face with Neptune again in the last four, something they will relish having cleaned them out over the weekend. Killester will struggle to get past the Cork side, but they did hold on to second spot in the Northern Conference with victory over Ballina to at least restore confidence for Jerome Westbrooks' men. Crucially, this gives them home court advantage for next week's quarter-final.
The UCC Demons will face UCD in the other quarter-final after they finished second and third in their respective conferences. The Demons ensured this by beating the Shamrock Rovers Hoops in their final regular-season game. Home advantage should be enough for the Pat Price's Demons to edge their student rivals.
Judging from what has gone before, the Southern Conference seems primed to confirm its domination with only St Vincent's able to upset the formguide. Considering the Demons are hosting the final weekend on March 19th and 20th, they could yet seize the opportunity to deny the Tigers a league and cup double and back-to-back Superleague titles.
Meanwhile, in the woman's play-offs Mercy Coolock beat the Waterford Wildcats, while Glanmire's rollercoaster season continued with a one-point victory over St Paul's at Littleisland.
BOXING: The first session of quarter-finals in the National Senior championships at the National Stadium on Saturday was hardly lacking in nostalgia as Paul Hendricks, a son of former multi-champion and renowned international Ned, made his bid for next weekend's semi-finals, writes Pat Roche.
Truly a chip off the old block, 23-year-old lightweight Hendricks, who campaigns out of the Baldoyle club, was nigh perfect in his application en route to a decisive, double scores win over the experienced Terry Carlyle of Crumlin.
A strong Hendricks was particularly comfortable at close quarters, putting short, crisp combinations together with verve and style.
The lightweight division is among the most competitive, with the experienced Stephen Ormond (St Matthew's), Dean Murphy (St Saviour's) and David Anthony Joyce (St Michael's, Athy) all confident of advancing to the finals.
Murphy's ability to score with a solid left hook against Belfast southpaw Noel Monteith (Dockers) saw him through. Ormond outclassed Aaron Sadler (St Saviour's).
Deano Byrne, the Crumlin light welter coached by former European medallist Phil Sutcliffe, enriched his popularity with the Stadium crowd in the process of dispatching the challenge of Louth's Eugene McEneaney, a cautious southpaw who suffered a 20-3 drubbing. An aggressive Byrne, with accuracy to match, had his man taking two standing counts of eight in the second round.
