A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Germany enjoy home advantage
EQUESTRIAN:Germany made the most of home soil advantage yesterday to post a record-breaking team score of 98.70 penalties following the second stage of dressage at the European eventing championships in Luhmuhlen.
Headed by Ingrid Klimke who achieved a mark of 30 with FRH Butts Abraxxas, German team riders fill three of the top four places on the leaderboard.
Michael Jung and La Biosthetique-Sam FBW were in second position overnight with Thursday’s leader, Sandra Auffarth (Opgun Louvo), lying fourth on 35.40. Frank Ostholt, riding as an individual for the host nation on Little Paint, is in third place on 34.
Camilla Speirs, competing as an individual with Portersize Just A Jiff, is best-placed of the Irish in 26th (49.80) with Sam Watson, riding the home-bred Horseware Bushman, best of the team in 29 th spot.
Kittel wins after pile-up in Spain
CYCLING: A large crash marred yesterday's stage seven finish at the Vuelta a España, the final sprint incident sending several riders to the ground and Tyler Farrar (Garmin Cervélo) to hospital for x-rays.
Quickest in the gallop to the line in Talavera de la Reina was the German sprinter Marcel Kittel (Skil-Shimano), who beat Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and the rest of the field for his first Grand Tour stage win.
Irish pros Nicolas Roche and Daniel Martin avoided the carnage and finished safely in the main bunch, placing 22nd and 35th respectively.
Ward moves up amateur ranks
BOXING:Joe Ward has shot up the table in the official world senior rankings released by the AIBA.
The 17-year-old light-heavyweight, who claimed European senior and World Youth gold in 2011 and 2010, is at number two behind Russian Egor Mekhonstev.
Ireland have five boxers in the top 10 in the 10 weight categories. Light-welterweight Ray Moylette, who also claimed European gold in June, is at number six.
Cavan bantamweight John Joe Nevin is at four and 2010 European middleweight silver medalist Darren O’Neill is ranked ninth.
Paddy Barnes, the 2010 European light-flyweight champion, is at eight, while Ryan Burnett, the current Youth Olympic champ, is at 11.
Ken Egan, who has moved up from light-heavy to heavyweight is ranked 13th in his new weight class, while welterweight Willie McLaughlin is at number 11.
Katie Taylor, the current World, European and EU lightweight champion, has been ranked number one by AIBA since 2006.
Emphatic win over Russia sees Ireland avoid relegation
HOCKEY:Ireland's men retained their A division European championship status in emphatic style with an 8-2 victory over Russia at the Eurohockey Championships in Monchengladbach yesterday.
Since the tiered format was introduced, Ireland had twice endured relegation. But this time around, they have stayed up with a game to spare as they blew away a limp Russian challenge.
Indeed, the scoreline fell just a goal short of the 9-2 result they inflicted on the same opposition in July’s Champions Challenge semi-final.
A first half performance of defensive discipline and attacking verve killed it as a contest, Ireland bossing it from the moment Mikey Watt spun on a John Jermyn rebound in the 15th minute.
Four more followed before half-time in a breath-taking 11 minute spell. A delightful run from Mitch Darling made it 2-0 and Eugene Magee’s drag-flick began the party tricks in the 25th minute. The Russians swapped goalkeepers in an attempt to stem the tide but the incoming Marat Gafarov could do nothing to prevent sublime efforts from Timmy Cockram and David Ames.
Russia got one back on the stroke of half-time and the second half was less fluid as Ireland tended to overplay their numerous chances.
There was space for Geoff McCabe to continue his incredible scoring record – six in eight games having not scored in his initial 89 international caps – before John Jermyn whipped home two late corners to continue his pursuit of the Irish record. His tally stands at 71 goals, eight shy of the retired Stephen Butler.
IRELAND: D Harte, J Jackson, G McCabe, R Gormley, M Watt, E Magee, P Caruth, M Darling, D Ames; P Gleghorne, C Harte. Subs: C Cargo, J Brennan, J Jermyn, A McConnell, T Cockram.
RUSSIA: R Rogov, E Mokrousov, S Kostarev, A Zhirkov, R Zakriov, P Golubev, A Mamoshkin, N Yankun, S Matkovskiy, I Loginov, A Platonov. Subs: N Komarov, I Zamalutdinov, D Volkov, P Plesetsky, M Gafarov.
Standings: 1. Ireland 6pts (+8) 2. Spain 6pts (+6) 3. France 0pts (-3) 4. Russia 0pts (-11) .
Niland and Sorenson qualify for US Open
TENNIS: Ireland will have two representatives in this year's US Open after Conor Niland and Luke Sorenson won their third round qualification matches yesterday.
Niland has followed up his feat of qualifying for the main draw of this year’s Wimbledon for the first time by replicating the feat for the US Open.
The Irish number one had to dig deep for his third qualifying round victory over the Netherlands’ Matwe Middelkoop at Flushing Meadows.
World number 199, Niland looked to be in severe trouble against his 258-ranked opponent when he won only two games in the opener. But he stormed back in magnificent style to pull off a 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory after one hour and 51 minutes.
After taking a 5-4 lead in the last set, the Munsterman put the pressure on his opponent’s serve and in the 10th game he succeeded in breaking Middelkoop to 30 to clinch his place.
Sorensen joined Conor Niland in the main draw when he defeated Austria’s Martin Fischer 7-6 (7/2) 6-1 after an hour and 32 minutes.
