MOTOR SPORT: Almost a year ahead of its first race, Toyota launched the Formula One challenge yesterday as Mika Salo drove its test car for the first time at the Circuit Paul Ricard at Le Castellet in the south of France, writes Justin Hynes. Toyota will become the 12th team on the Formula One grid in 2002 and also the final as the FIA has placed a stricture on the number of franchises available in the sport.
Irishman Richard Cregan is a member of the team. The Dubliner joined Toyota as a rally mechanic in 1984 and has risen to the post of General Manager of the car giant's F1 project.
ROWING: Trinity, fresh from landing a prestigious sponsor in Alfa Romeo for their regatta next month, now have an anxious wait to see if the event will fall foul of the foot-and-mouth crisis.
The club's boathouse is situated in the Memorial Park in Islandbridge, and Duchas had effectively ruled it out of bounds since the beginning of the crisis until this week. But its reopening could yet be short lived and it would be unlikely Trinity would go ahead with the event if its historic and elegant clubhouse, very much part of the social side of the regatta, was not available.
It is also understood that the postponed Dublin head of the river will not now be held this year. Next weekend should, however, see the start of the rowing season with the Gannon Cup challenge between UCD and Trinity.
CRICKET: A briefing for clubs and players on the new Code of the Laws of Cricket which starts this season is being staged by the Leinster Cricket Umpires Association at Malahide CC on Tuesday next, March 27th, starting at 8.00. Similar briefings will be held at Clontarf CC and The Hills CC on Wedneday, March 28th and Thursday April 5th, respectively.
TENNIS: Yvonne Doyle, winner last weekend in Swansea, won through to this week's Girobank Tour final at Sutton yesterday. Doyle beat former British junior champion Anna Keothavong from Middlesex - the title favourite - 7-5 6-4. She faces the hard-hitting Scottish number one Elena Baltacha in today's final.
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