Murphy completes Dingle Bay swim

DIGEST:King of the Channel record holder Kevin Murphy has become the first person to successfully complete a solo swim across the 15-mile stretch of Dingle Bay. The Londoner completed the challenge in seven hours 46 minutes.

Setting out from Valentia lighthouse, he traversed the bay, finishing at Coominole beach next to Slea Head.

Murphy was forced to wait for over a week as poor weather conditions stymied his initial plan to swim the bay by last Saturday. Nonetheless, he was confronted by the blunt force of the Atlantic yesterday.

"I'm feeling sore. I got a bit of a battering. It was calm for the edge of the Atlantic, but not calm for a swimmer. It started choppy, then it went calm, then the wind came up from the north, which was head on, right in the face.

"It was hard going. My ribs were really sore. I strained something and, with the battering I got, that was exacerbated."

A contrary coalition of wind, tide and "white horse" waves made the task tough. Murphy's finishing time clipped a quarter hour of his estimated figure, however.

Murphy's next challenge involves swimming the length of Aurlandsfjord in Norway next month.

There were mixed fortunes for Belfast boxers at the fourth Commonwealth Boxing Championships in Liverpool on Saturday night with Paddy Barnes and Eamon O'Kane both claiming gold but Eamon Finnegan had to be content with silver.

Holy Trinity Belfast flyweight Barnes, who won an Irish senior title at the Stadium in Dublin last February, beat India's TN Singh in his final by a margin of eight points.

Barnes led 9-6 at the end of the first round but was pegged back to 13-13 at the end of the second before forging ahead 21-17 at the bell for the conclusion of the third ahead of being handed a 30-22 decision.

Middleweight O'Kane (Immaculata Belfast) also finished on top of the podium following a thrilling 75kg final with England's Gerard Groves.

O'Kane led 12-10 at the end of the first but Groves took the next two rounds (22-20, 28-27).

O'Kane stormed back in the fourth and final round to take gold by one point (34-33).

While Barnes and O'Kane were celebrating at St Georges Hall in Liverpool, Oliver Plunkett featherweight Finnegan was stopped on the 20-point rule (20-1) in his 57kg final with England's Stephen Smith.

Orla Hayes finished second in the B Final of the lightweight single sculls for a creditable eighth place overall at the World Under-23 Championships, which finished yesterday at Strathclyde in Scotland, writes Liam Gorman.

The Skibbereen woman was well behind eventual winner Anna Moldestad of Norway with a quarter of the race to go, but covered the final 500 metres in the quickest time and was only .26 seconds down on Moldestad on the line.

Hayes (21), had lost her chance of an A Final place on Saturday when she finished sixth in a race won by Coralie Simon of France.

The four men's crews were significantly less successful: the four finished 14th overall; the lightweight four 15th; the double scull 11th of 12 and lightweight single sculler Ger Ward 16th.

Ireland won both junior matches and finished second behind England in both the senior men and senior women at the Home International Regatta at the National Rowing Centre in Cork on Saturday.

Ireland had to give way to a strong England crew in the men's senior eight, but the men's quadruple of Aidan Harwood, Ronan Egan, John Wholley and stroke Kenny McCarthy finished off a successful regatta with a good win for the hosts.

Paídi O'Brien took one of his most important wins to date when he triumphed on the fourth stage of the Ronde van Vlaams Brabant on Saturday, writes Shane Stokes.

The Kanturk rider crossed the line one second clear of the main bunch, which was led home by Krish Boeckmans (Wielerploeg CLC) ahead of Jurgen Roelandts (Davitamon Win for Life). He ended the day 10th overall, 54 seconds behind the overall leader Kurt Van Goidsenjoven (Royal Cureghem Sportief).

Martyn Irvine was 76th on the fourth stage and was 24th in the overall classification.