Perry and Kenny retain their national squash titles

SPORTS DIGEST: SQUASH: Madeline Perry and Liam Kenny successfully defended their national squash titles at Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club yesterday, Perry beating Aisling Blake in straight sets and Kenny coming from behind against John Rooney in what were repeats of last year's finals, writes Mary Hannigan.

Perry took just half an hour to win her 10th Irish title, defeating Blake 11-4, 11-6, 11-6, while Kenny took the fifth of his career, losing the opening set 9-11 to Rooney before taking the next three 11-8, 11-6, 11-6.

SHOWJUMPING: Irish riders failed to win over the weekend but picked up some good prize-money with Billy Twomey faring best when adding €14,000 to his earnings at the five-star show in La Coruna with a sixth-place finish in Saturday's Grand Prix on J'Taime Flamenco, writes Margie McLoone.

The eight-year-old bay stallion lowered a single pole in the second round to deny the Cork-born rider third position as his time of 49.62 was just slightly slower than winner Henk Van de Pol from The Netherlands on 46.22 and Austria's Thomas Fruhmann (48.47). Twomey and Goldex landed yesterday's two-phase class at the Spanish venue.

Neither Cian O'Connor nor Denis Lynch featured in yesterday afternoon's World Cup qualifier at Olympia which went to Australia's Edwina Alexander on Isovlas Itot du Chateau. In second came the Irish-bred Casino, partnered by Britain's John Whitaker.

The pair were the only ones to qualify for the second round with Bob Ellis's track proving extremely difficult to better.

Lynch finished fifth in the evening's accumulator on Abbervail van het Dingeshof behind the Belgian combination of Philippe le Jeune on Leo du Prairial.

BOXING: The Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) has welcomed last Friday's decision by the High Courts to uphold a resolution adopted by their members to become a company limited by guarantee.

The IABA have been involved in court proceedings with individual members of Dublin's boxing clubs and individual members of the Dublin County Board who were granted an injunction preventing the IABA becoming a company limited by guarantee last October.

One of the main points of their action maintained that the IABA's decision to become a company limited by guarantee was in violation of the associations rules and constitution.

In a statement issued on Friday, IABA President Dominic O'Rourke said they were now looking forward to implementing the decision taken by its members.

"The President and Officers of Irish Amateur Boxing Association are delighted with the Judgement of Mr Justice Sheehan which upholds the resolution adopted by the members to become a company limited by guarantee.

"They are particularly pleased that they were found to have acted in an honest and open manner throughout the long process leading up to this important decision and that the procedures they adopted were implanted correctly and appropriately."

SOCCER: Troubled eircom League club Finn Harps last night issued an SOS to their fans to keep them afloat.

The Donegal club, relegated from the Premier Division at the end of last season, is understood to have debts of €290,000.

And unless it can raise almost half this amount within the next five weeks, the club faces the prospect of not being granted a licence to play in the league next season. Club officials met with an FAI representative last week to work out what was needed to comply with the strict licencing requirements.

And, according to club chairman, Derek Wilkinson, the club was left in no uncertain terms that unless it can raise around €150,000 it will not get a licence. Board members met over the weekend to discuss matters further and it was decided to make an appeal to the public to get behind the club.

SAILING: The final 200 miles to Singapore looks set to be an exciting finish of Stage Two of the Volvo Ocean Race as the fleet weaves its way through the Straits of Malacca.Yesterday morning was full of promise for Green Dragon as they found stronger conditions to the south of the fleet, at one point sailing over 8 knots faster than the pack in front. The fleet started to compress as the front runners sailed into a hole, creeping along at just 2 knots.

Ian Walker and his crew worked away eating up the miles on the boats, they gained over 30 miles in three hours to place themselves just 30 miles behind the leader and six miles behind Telefonica Black still holding onto fifth. Elsewhere Ericsson 4 saw their lead disappear as Telefonica Blue and Ericsson 3 and PUMA closed in. By the 1000 GMT position report, they had been overtaken, and soon found themselves in fourth 7 miles behind the new leader Telefonica Blue.

The freight train that Green Dragon had jumped on was halted.The top four boats remain in a tight tussle as they battle for every mile on the water, with just 3 miles separating first to fourth.