Sports digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Wozniacki top of the world as she advances in Dubai

TENNIS:Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki regained her world number one spot when she defeated Israeli Shahar Peer 6-2 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of the Dubai championships yesterday.

The victory ensured Wozniacki, who had ceded her number one ranking to Belgian Kim Clijsters a week ago, will return to the top spot when the new world rankings are issued on Monday.

“Of course it’s nice to be back at number one,” Wozniacki said. “You know, its a good feeling. Yeah, I gave Kim one week. Hopefully now I’ll have it for a few more weeks.”

Australian Open champion Clijsters, who took the top ranking on her way to the Paris Open final last week, is not in Dubai.

Top seed Wozniacki, who has been criticised for reaching the top of the rankings without winning a grand slam, will play Serbian Jelena Jankovic after she beat Australian Samantha Stosur 6-3 5-7 7-6.

The other semi-final will feature 11th seed Italian Flavia Pennetta and 16th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.

Chippison tour second leg attracts top field to Cavan

EQUESTRIAN: The second leg of the Horse Sport Ireland Chippison spring tour takes place tomorrow at Cavan Equestrian Centre, writes Margie McLoone.

Sixty-eight combinations have been declared for the 1.35m competition, with John Floody jumping last on Paula Rafter’s PMR Rehy Irish All Star, thanks to their win at Kildare International last weekend.

On Thursday, Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) announced the appointment of Tom Slattery as high performance coach and chef d’equipe for the pony show jumping team.

The Galway man, replacing Ian Fearon who stood down last autumn, will also act as show jumping coach for the pony eventing team.

“Ireland has some very strong riders and ponies for 2011,” said Slattery, “and the system in place for the last two years has worked well. I look forward to working with the riders and their families to achieve the best possible results.”

Yesterday, the government-established agency and Dressage Ireland published details of this year’s HSI Silver Spurs scheme, with the first round of assessment days taking place next week during the mid-term break.

The scheme, which is open to those under 25 in all equestrian affiliates, aims to identify and develop talented young riders, helping them achieve an international standard in their chosen discipline.

This year, the under-25 section will be amalgamated with the Open under-25 class.

Ecclestone defers Bahrain decision

FORMULA ONE: Bernie Ecclestone is to monitor over the weekend the political unrest in Bahrain before making a definitive decision on the future of next month's season-opening Formula One grand prix.

The Formula One supremo earlier yesterday claimed he was “more hopeful” of the race taking place in contrast to yesterday after four people were killed and hundreds more injured as riot police stormed a camp of demonstrators in the capital Manama.

However, Ecclestone appreciates the shifting sands of a volatile situation are too difficult to predict, and that on reflection he will be far better equipped to appraise the matter in a few days.

“From a realistic point of view it appears that things are changing hourly,” added Ecclestone.

Egan one bout away from 11th title after Roohan KO

BOXING:Ken Egan is just one contest away from winning his 11th national title in a row following a semi-final stoppage of Thomas Roohan at the Elite Championships last night.

The Dublin southpaw, who claimed his first two Irish titles at middleweight before moving up to light-heavyweight, stopped the Ballincarrow BC Sligo prospect in the second at the National Stadium.

Egan was 10-1 up when Roohan took his second standing count after another big right from the 2008 Olympic silver-medalist in the second round and his corner threw in the towel.

“A win is a win in my books. I boxed well – don’t know him. I never met him before. I watched him box for the first time last weekend,” said Egan.

“I made him miss and I punished him. I caught him with some really good shots in the first. I don’t really waste much and when I hit him I was hurting him with body shots. They were right to throw in the towel.”

Egan will now meet Davey Joe Joyce or Joe Ward in next weekend’s 81kg final after Joyce staged a remarkable comeback to beat Arklow garda Seán Allen 6-5 after dropping the first round 3-0 in last nights only quarter-final.

Defending lightweight and welterweight champions Eric Donovan and John Joe Joyce, also of the St Michael’s Athy club, crashed out of the tournament following shock defeats to Michael McDonagh and Karl Brabazon.

SA athletics chief banned

ATHLETICS: South Africa's athletics chief Leonard Chuene has been dismissed after being found guilty of financial corruption and mishandling the gender case of world 800 metres champion Caster Semenya.

Chuene has also been banned from holding any position in sport for seven years by the country’s Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee.

Chuene was guilty on nine out of 11 charges brought against him. He previously admitted to lying about tests conducted on Semenya, who spent almost a year on the sidelines after she was suspended by the IAAF in the wake of the gender controversy which blew up following her 2009 World Championship win.