Kinsale yacht steals victory

Sailing: George Radley's Imp was in celebration mode over the weekend following the unofficial result that the Kinsale yacht had won the Round Ireland Race on handicap time, reports David Branigan.

The 20-year-old Ron Holland design had been the fleet leader for most of the epic circumnavigation.

George McConnell's Sigma 38 Galliver had threatened to steal the victory late on Friday evening but was narrowly beaten into second by a mere five minutes and 30 seconds.

The race took almost six days for the first of the big boats to cross the line off Wicklow. That contest for line honours had seemed certain to be won by Monkstown Bay Sailing Club's Tokio but a late surge by Richard Balding's Fenix stole the result by one hour.

Having lost its main sponsor, Wicklow Sailing Club had limited resources for promoting and developing the race.

Cycling: After taking his first senior national medal in last week's national championships, 1998 junior world champion Mark Scanlon's run of good form was brought to an abrupt halt when he broke his elbow in a French race on Saturday.

The 19-year-old was competing in the Grand Prix de la Ville de Nancy with his CC Etupes team when he, along with six others, came down in a pile-up 16 kilometres into the event.

According to manager Frank Quinn, the injury will rule him out of competition for six weeks and thus puts paid to his aims of riding in the European under-23 championships, which was one of his main goals for the year.

Quinn remains hopeful that the young Sligo rider can come back with a strong end-of-season campaign and secure a professional contract for 2001.

Women's Hockey: Ireland had to be satisfied with a scoreless draw against Belarus in yesterday's European under-21 championship opener in Prague, but, ultimately, were probably relieved to have secured a point.

The Irish women, who came up against unexpectedly physical opponents, were indebted to goalkeeper Angela Platt, who pulled off several important stops, particularly at the end, when Belarus forced three consecutive penalty-corners in stoppage time.

Although the umpiring was weak as several Belarus players were fortunate enough to have received warning cards, Ireland seldom threatened an attack and will be looking for an improved performance today against Scotland, who overwhelmed Azerbaijan 14-0 yesterday.

Ireland must finish in the top two of their section to stay in contention for elevating themselves to the top flight through the classification stages of the biannual tournament.