Rowing: Niall O'Toole and Derek Holland have been chosen as the Irish lightweight double scull for the World Cup regatta in Munich from June 2nd to 4th, writes Liam Gorman. In yesterday's trials at Inniscarra in Cork they proved faster than the double of Gearoid Towey and Sam Lynch and analysis of their time showed they had a highly-credible 98 per cent of world best time.
O'Toole and Holland, who made the World Championship final last year in Canada, are now in pole position to be chosen as Ireland's representatives for the Olympic qualification regatta in Lucerne five weeks after Munich.
Places in a lightweight four for Munich are now up for grabs. Emmet O'Brien and Donal McGuinness had a fine win over two of the four who have been training in Nottingham, James Lyndsay-Finn and Noel Monahan, yesterday and whether Tony O'Connor and Neville Maxwell come into the picture, or win inclusion as a heavyweight pair, has still to be decided. O'Connor and Maxwell yesterday recorded 93 per cent of world best time as a heavyweight pair.
Athletics: Kenya's Charles Kimathai will be the main attraction in tomorrow's Ras na hEireann International Cross-Country in Dunleer, writes Ian O'Riordan. Kimathai, fastest in the world over 10,000 metres last summer and seventh in the recent World Cross Country championships, will be joined by fellow Kenyan stars James Kariuki and Leonard Mulchera.
Unfortunately, the timing has forced most of the leading Irish entries to cry off as Noel Berkeley, Seamas Power and Breda Dennehy Willis are instead committed to the European 10,000 metre challenge in Lisbon next weekend.
Soccer: Two goals from Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko gave AC Milan a 2-0 win over Juventus in Italy's Serie A last night, ending the league leaders' 22-game unbeaten run. Milan took the lead on the stroke of half-time when Thomas Helveg whipped in a cross from the right and Shevchenko rose above Juventus goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar to head home.
Juventus piled on the pressure after the break but Milan sealed the victory six minutes from time when Shevchenko was judged to have been brought down inside the area by Alessandro Birindelli and the Ukrainian rose to convert the spot kick. Lazio can close the gap on Juventus to six points if they can beat AS Roma in today's derby.
Athletics: American Michael Johnson broke the rarely-run 300 metres world record at the second leg of South Africa's Grand Prix series meeting in Pretoria yesterday. His time of 30.85 seconds easily beat the previous record of 31.48 seconds set by American Danny Everett and Ruben Hernandez of Cuba on September 3rd, 1990.
