Sports digest

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

Irish swimmers impress in Glasgow

SWIMMING: The Scottish Open Championships at Tollcross Park Leisure Centre in Glasgow ended yesterday with Irish swimmers again featuring strongly.

Clare Dawson (Bangor SC) swam in the final of the 100m freestyle but couldn’t match her medal success of Saturday, finishing in fifth place with a time of 57.60.

Aisling Cooney (ESB SC) qualified for the A final of the 50m butterfly, finishing sixth in 28.92.

Brendan Hyland (Tallaght SC HPC-NAC) set yet another personal best in the heats of the 400m Individual Medley with a time of 4:41.50, and in the A final went faster again, finishing just outside the medals in fourth place with a best time of 4:41.30.

Cian Duffy (Galway SC) was fifth in 4:41.77.

Emma Cassidy (Sunday’s Well SC) set new best times in the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly.

Magee earns Ireland a late reprieve

MEN'S HOCKEY: Eugene Magee's last-second penalty corner rebound saw Ireland salvage a point from a frustrating 2-2 draw in Lille yesterday as they bossed their tie with France, their second FIH Champions Challenge II match of the weekend.

Ireland dominated for long periods but found home goalkeeper Henri-Julien Lhomme in outstanding form. Mikey Watt, Peter Blakeney and Peter Caruth all forced saves inside the opening 10 minutes.

However, Lhomme was deceived by Gareth Watkins in the 17th minute, his reverse daisy-cutter skipping across his bows.

But France hit back twice in the closing two minutes of the half for a 2-1 interval lead thanks to goals from Matthieu Catonnetd.

From there, the second half was all one-way traffic, Ireland running up a double-figure total of penalty corners before Magee’s late strike which gave them a share of the top of the group.

Cook tonne not enough as Sri Lanka cruise at Lord's

CRICKET: Alastair Cook's second one-day international hundred predictably proved in vain as Dinesh Chandimal eased Sri Lanka past 246 for seven to go 2-1 up in the series yesterday.

Cook grafted hard for his career-best 119 at Lord’s, but as captain was then powerless to stop Chandimal (105 no) and Mahela Jayawardene (79) putting Sri Lanka serenely into position for a routine chase – achieved with six wickets and 10 balls to spare.

On a very good batting surface, the hosts did little wrong with the ball but – Cook apart – simply had not done enough with the bat to secure a defendable total.

Early wickets were the likeliest method of somehow prevailing but England managed only to shift Cook’s opposite number Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tim Bresnan trimming the off-bail, before Jayawardene and Chandimal shared a hundred stand.

Jayawardene needed just 45 deliveries to add a half-century here to his Leeds hundred two days ago.

Lorenzo claims Italian Grand Prix

MOTO GP:World champion Jorge Lorenzo hunted down Australian Casey Stoner yesterday to win the Italian Grand Prix and close the gap on the overall leader to 19 points.

Yamaha rider Lorenzo overtook the Australian six laps from the finish at the Mugello circuit north of Florence to claim his second win of the season, having previously won his home Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

Stoner, starting on pole position for the fifth time this season, finished third after he also lost a place to his fellow Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso on the last lap.

Italian Dovizioso stayed third overall, a further 14 points adrift of Lorenzo after eight of the 18 races this season. Ben Spies, Lorenzo’s team-mate, was fourth.

Irish crew fall to Leander in final

ROWING:NUIG/Grainne Mhaol gave Ireland welcome representation in the finals at Henley Royal Regatta yesterday, but even the experience and guile of the Galway men fell away before the sheer pace of the British under-23 lightweight four, reports Liam Gorman.

The Leander/Imperial College crew took the lead early in the Visitors’ Cup final and won by three lengths.

On Saturday NUIG/Grainne Mhaol had confidently negotiated a very close semi-final, beating Newcastle University/Marino Billi by one length, but the other semi-final was the attention-grabber. Leander/Imperial College set a new course record of six minutes 38 seconds.

But NUIG/Grainne Mhaol had a good weekend at Cork Regatta on Saturday. Their senior four and senior eight won in this final Grand League regatta. John Keohane of Lee Valley won Division One of the men’s single sculls. In the women’s single scull, Skibbereen’s Denise Walsh, a lightweight, prevailed.

Watney wins in Pennsylvania

GOLF: Nick Watney shot a flawless, four-under-par 66 to capture the ATT National in Pennsylvania yesterday.

The American finished two clear of Korea’s KJ Choi, who was left to rue a double-bogey six at the 15th over the Aronimink GC course.

Des Smyth fired an eight-under-par 62 yesterday to finish four shots behind Australian Peter Fowler in the Bad Ragaz PGA Seniors Open in Switzerland.