A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Irish senior golfers in strong position
GOLF: Ireland were in a strong position at Tramore Golf Club in Waterford yesterday to make it two wins out of two in the Senior Women’s International Championship when play was suspended at tea-time due to a thickening sea mist.
They had beaten Wales 2-1 in the foursomes and were up in three of the five singles, down in one and level in the other.
Suzanne Corcoran and Mairéad Macnamara gave them the perfect foursomes start and Pat Doran and Helen Jones got a point as well.
In the singles, Sheena McElroy was three up on Chris Harries with seven to play, while both Doran and Jones were two up at halfway against Ann Lewis and Denise Richards respectively.
Defending champions England were on course to beat Scotland after taking all three foursomes and were up in three of the singles.
Play will be resumed this morning at the point the players finished and if Ireland and England prevail they will feature in a winner-takes-all session of just singles, with the final day foursomes scrapped.
Sheehan comes from behind as Irish maintain impetus
BOXING: Roy Sheehan maintained Ireland’s winning start at the AIBA World Championships and Olympic qualifiers after coming from behind to subdue Bahamian southpaw Carl Hield in Azerbaijan yesterday, reports Bernard O’Neill.
The St Michael’s, Athy welterweight was 4-3 down after the first, but rallied to claim the second 8-3 in Baku.
The 2007 European Union champion, also won the last round 4-3 to set up a last-32 meeting with Borna Katalinic on Sunday.
Katalinic, the Croatian champion, beat Cheng Chin Su of Chinese Taipei 14-10 yesterday to progress to within two wins of qualifying for the 2012 Olympics.
“It was tentative first but Roy had a fantastic second round to go 11-7 ahead. That’s two wins out of two now and, hopefully, we can maintain that over the weekend,” said Irish team manager Des Donnelly.
Meanwhile, Mayo’s European light-welterweight gold medallist Ray Moylette will be looking to make that three-out-of-three this afternoon.
The St Anne’s fighter is favoured to beat Arturs Ahmetous of Latvia to set up a last-32 duel with either Valentino Knowles of the Bahamas or Manoj Kumar of India on Sunday.
Moylette, the 2008 AIBA World Youth lightweight champion, has been itching to get started in Baku and reckons he’s a man for the big occasion.
“I like boxing on the big stage. Unfortunately, to arrive on the big stage you have to box to your potential all the time.
“The preparation is unbelievable. I have been out of the country six or seven times this year at training camps and competitions. It’s your job.”
'Rosscarbery Steam Engine' feted
ATHLETICS: One of Ireland’s unsung athletic heroes will finally get due recognition tomorrow when the West Cork town of Rosscarbery pays tribute to Timothy Jerome O’Mahony, known in his day as the “The Rosscarbery Steam Engine”.
In his prime O’Mahony defeated some of America’s finest athletes, at famous venues such as New York’s Madison Square Garden, before his sudden death in 1914, of a heart attack, aged just 50.
At a time when the GAA was organising Irish athletics, O’Mahony was Irish champion in the 400 metres in 1885, 1887 and 1888, and also the Irish Amateur Athletics Association (IAAA) champion in 1886, before grabbing the headlines as part of the GAA’s Gaelic Invasion tour of the US in 1888.
He not only defeated America’s best, but was nicknamed the “Unconquerable Steam Engine” on the US newswires, and in the pre-Olympic era, was widely considered a world champion.
