Selectors leave Kurten out

EQUESTRIAN SPORT: Jessica Kurten has been overlooked for the major World Cup shows for the rest of the year and the start of the 2006 season, reports Grania Willis.

Kurten had applied to go to the World Cup shows in Stuttgart, Geneva and Mechelen, but the selectors voted last night to leave her out, instead giving the nod to Cian O'Connor, Billy Twomey and Shane Breen.

"We haven't deliberately snubbed her," chairman of selectors Taylor Vard told The Irish Times last night. "We wanted to reward the riders that fought tooth and nail for us to stay in the Super League and we also wanted to get some of the younger horses out to the World Cup shows during the winter to gain experience for the Super League next year."

Kurten, who will be jumping in next week's $1 million Las Vegas Invitational, refused to ride on teams with Cian O'Connor, following the positive drug test on Waterford Crystal that resulted in the loss of the Athens Olympics gold medal. Harry Marshall joined Kurten in refusing to ride with O'Connor and both riders stated that they would not ride on teams under the current selection procedure.

"I'm not surprised under the circumstances," Kurten said from her base in Germany last night, "but I'm not disappointed. I'll just go to other shows and start my World Cup campaign in the New Year. I don't begrudge any other Irish rider going to the World Cup shows."

If, as expected, Kurten is promoted into the top 10 when the new world rankings come out this week, she would automatically get invited to the World Cup shows and would not need to rely on the Irish selectors for a place. Kurten was the only Irish rider to qualify for this year's World Cup final in Las Vegas, recovering from a bad start to finish 14th overall.

At last night's selectors meeting, Cian O'Connor was selected to travel to both Geneva and Mechelen, Shane Breen was named for Verona and Stuttgart, while Billy Twomey was nominated for London and Leipzig. World champion Dermott Lennon had already been named for this week's World Cup show in Helsinki and next week's fixture in Oslo.

"We want to use the World Cup shows to keep us at the top level in preparation for the first Super League show in La Baule in early May," Vard said. "We want to hit La Baule with a chance of doing well in it, so we don't have to play catch-up like we did this year."

Ireland was lying last in the Samsung Super League going into the final in Barcelona last month. Both Kurten and Harry Marshall refused to ride, although Marshall had a last-minute change of heart which came too late for inclusion on the squad for the Spanish showdown, but equal fourth allowed Team Ireland to avoid relegation by just 1.5 points.

TENNIS: World number five Justine Henin-Hardenne will not play in next year's Fed Cup for Belgium due to health reasons. The French Open champion, who has been dogged by fitness problems over the past two years, told Belgian newspaper La Libre that her priority was to win back her number one ranking.

Her decision, while not unexpected, is a blow to Belgium who could face holders Russia in April without their two best players. Anastasia Myskina, who progressed to the second round of the $650,000 Filderstadt Grand Prix after beating German qualifier Stephanie Gehrlein 6-1 6-4, also announced yesterday that she would be stepping down from Russian Fed Cup duty.

DRUGS IN SPORT: Tennis is stepping up its fight against drugs cheats by unifying the sport's anti-doping programme. The International Tennis Federation (ITF), which organises grand slam tournaments and the Davis Cup, is to manage and enforce the Tennis Anti-Doping programme at men's ATP events from next year.

MOTOR RACING: Honda announced yesterday that they are to acquire 100 per cent of BAR by the end of the year and also said they were considering supplying engines to the new team.

Japanese driver Takuma Sato, whose Formula One future had been thrown into doubt after BAR announced Brazilian Rubens Barrichello would replace him to partner Briton Jenson Button in 2006, said yesterday he had been offered a drive for 2006 by an as yet unnamed group hoping to establish Formula One's 11th team next year.

CRICKET: Paceman Simon Jones has been ruled out of England's tour to Pakistan after failing a fitness test on his injured right ankle yesterday. The Glamorgan fast bowler sustained the injury during the fourth Test against Australia in August and was forced to miss the fifth and final match of the Ashes series at The Oval.