Sports Digest

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

First runs ruled out due to weather

CANOEING: Ireland’s Aisling Conlon and Hannah Craig completed their first runs in the women’s K1 event at the Canoe Slalom World Championships in Bratislava yesterday – only for their efforts to be ruled out. Yesterday evening the organisers set aside the entire first run and cancelled the programmed second run because of high winds.

Conlon, who is just 19, had been placed 41st after the initial run, while Craig was 16 places further back. The Antrim woman was one of a number of athletes who suffered in the conditions – she missed gate four and was hit with a 50-second penalty.

The Irish competitors hope to qualify a women’s K1 for next year’s Olympic Games. The top 15 countries at this event qualify.

O'Neill is Manager of the Month

MANAGER OF THE MONTH: Shamrock Rovers’ Michael O’Neill has been named as the Philips Sports Manager of the month for August.

On Friday, August 26th, his side became the first League of Ireland team ever to reach the group stages of the Europa League, after a brilliant 2-1 win away to Partizan Belgrade put them through on a 3-2 aggregate result. Their reward is group matches against Spurs, Rubin Kazan and PAOK Salonika.

Martin finishes fourth in last mountain stage

CYCLING: Showing strong form on the final summit finish of this year’s Tour of Spain, Irish rider Dan Martin made a determined bid for stage success on yesterday’s climb to Peña Cabarga. The Garmin-Cervélo rider was ultimately caught but still took a strong placing, finishing a fine fourth at the line, writes Shane Stokes.

First home was the Briton Chris Froome (Sky Procycling), who beat race leader Juan Jose Cobo (Geox TMC) to the line and, together with the time bonus, reduced his overall deficit to just 13 seconds with four days remaining. Martin finished 24 seconds back, while his cousin Nicolas Roche (Ag2r la Mondiale) was 17th.

The former’s strong effort moved him up one place to 14th overall, while Roche is three places further back. The race heads to Noja today, with the finish far enough from the big climbs to make a large sprint possible.

Morgan injury gives Bopara his chance

CRICKET: Ravi Bopara knows he has an outstanding chance, in the final three NatWest Series matches against India, to book a seat on England’s plane to the subcontinent for next month’s rematch. Bopara will be well aware the field has cleared a little for prospective one-day international batting positions. Eoin Morgan, the man who nosed ahead of Bopara at the last minute before the first Test against Sri Lanka and has been an ever-present since, is suddenly out of the equation at least for the rest of this season with injury.

Morgan was a late absentee from England’s win on the South Downs, with a shoulder injury which has been troubling him since last winter and is now causing him so much pain that he must sit out the remainder of the series, and appears in some doubt to travel to India too. The upshot for Bopara is that, continuing at The Oval tomorrow, he can look forward to the remainder of an audition.

Hendry beaten in first round

SNOOKER: Stephen Hendry was poised to lose his place in the world’s top 16 after defeat by Robert Milkins in the first round of the Shanghai Masters. The 42-year-old lost four frames in succession from 1-1, meaning he is set to drop out of the world’s elite for the first time in 23 years.

That would leave him having to qualify for December’s UK Championship and could also see him miss out on the Masters, a tournament he has won a record six times, with this the final ranking event before the October cut-off. Asked how he would feel about missing the events, Hendry said: “It would be disappointing. But the way I’m playing at the moment I’d lose in the first round anyway.”

The Scot was not the only big name to fall in yesterday’s evening session as world number four Ding Junhui lost 5-3 to Martin Gould, but Neil Robertson and Matthew Stevens found life easier, claiming 5-0 and 5-2 wins over Liang Wenbo and Stephen Lee respectively.

Elsewhere, John Higgins and Mark Williams both cruised into the last 16 with little difficulty.