A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Taylor advances at European event
BOXING: Katie Taylor and Sinéad Kavanagh opened their European Championships accounts with impressive wins in Rotterdam, Holland today.
But Laoise Traynor bowed out of the tournament following a 21-2 reversal to tough Welsh welterweight Lauren Price.
Taylor, who is aiming for her fifth European title on-the-trot, beat German lightweight Julia Irmen 15-7 to set up today’s last-16 contest with Italy’s Romina Marenda.
Kavanagh, who boxes out of the Drimnagh BC, posted an 18-9 decision over Viktoria Kebikava of Belarus and will now meet English middleweight Savannah Marshall.
Taylor, Kavanagh, Katie Rowland, Michaela Walsh, Ceire Smith, Lynne McEnery and Kelly Harrington will be involved in last-16 bouts today.
Kilkenny light-heavyweight Laura ONeill has received a bye into tomorrow’s 81kg quarter-final where she’ll meet Tinea Naga of Hungary.
Stewart has concerns after tragedy
MOTOR SPORT: Jackie Stewart has questioned the safety of IndyCar racing following the death of British driver Dan Wheldon at the Las Vegas Indy 300 on Sunday. Wheldon lost his life after a 15-vehicle crash which caused his Dallara Honda to hit a trackside fence on lap 11 of the race. The 33-year-old was airlifted to hospital but died from what IndyCar chief executive Randy Bernard said were “unsurvivable injuries”.
Stewart, who won three Formula One championships for Tyrrell between 1969 and 1973, believes there are too many cars competing at too high speeds in IndyCar and problems need to be addressed. “The accident we saw yesterday was something different,” he said. “It was such high speed on such a small track with too many cars together and not that many top racing drivers in there.”
Stewart believes reducing the number of cars on the track is not the only potential solution. “It may be we have to have smaller engines with smaller horsepower and slower speeds in IndyCar racing.”
St Louis push on to World Series
BASEBALL: The St Louis Cardinals advanced to the World Series on Sunday after a 12-6 victory over Milwaukee in Game Six sealed the National League Championship Series.
The Cardinals will play American League champions Texas, who travel to St Louis for Wednesday’s opener of the best-of-seven Major League Baseball championship.
St Louis scored four runs in the first, one in the second and another four in the third inning to seize a 9-4 lead and were never headed as they clinched the series 4-2 and booked their first return to the Fall Classic since winning it in 2006.
Cardinals starting pitcher Edwin Jackson went only two innings, but as they did all series long, their relievers shut the Brewers down to secure the win. Third baseman David Freese, who belted a three-run blast in the first inning, was named Most Valuable Player after notching three home runs, nine RBIs and hitting .545.
England suffer another trouncing against India
CRICKET: England descended to a second successive one-day trouncing after their batsmen let them down – and Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir made them pay – at the Feroz Shah Kotla yesterday.
Kohli (112no) and Gambhir (84no) confirmed England’s 237 all out was well below par as India coasted to an eight-wicket victory in Delhi with conspicuous, embarrassing ease and more than 13 overs to spare.
Delhi-born Kohli was especially impressive in an 89-ball hundred containing 14 fours in an unbroken stand of 209 – a record for the third wicket at this venue. Gambhir was no slouch either, with 10 fours from 90 balls, as the pair dominated an attack who had been set an evidently impossible task.
England are now 2-0 down with three matches left in a series threatening to go the way of two previous limited-overs attempts in this country which resulted in a combined scoreline of 10-1 to India in 2006 and 2008.
Tim Bresnan did his best to revive England’s prospects by shifting both openers early in India’s otherwise near seamless run chase, and Steven Finn also bowled well with little luck in his new-ball spell.
But the damage was done before England got the ball in their hands, a succession of batsmen having failed to provide lasting recovery from a dreadful start. Kevin Pietersen top-scored among five who bettered 30 but could not muster a half-century between them on a pitch of reasonable pace but with unpredictable bounce.
Walsh secures move to Sydney Swans
AFL: Tommy Walsh has secured his move to Sydney Swans on the final day of the AFL trade window yesterday despite St Kilda’s attempts to persuade him to stay. St Kilda has put two years into the 23-year-old’s development but the failure to give him a senior game despite good displays with their VFL-affiliate Sandringham proved their undoing.
Former All-Ireland winning team-mate Tadhg Kennelly sold Walsh on Sydney’s virtues and with the Swans promising more playing opportunities, he decided to make the inter-state switch.
Setanta Ó hAilpín failed in his bid to move away from Carlton for the second year in a row and now faces an uncertain future with the Blues having to delist one player before next month’s draft.
Coach Brett Ratten said Ó hAilpín or Paul Bower would be the unlucky player.
Murray ranked ahead of Federer
TENNIS: Andy Murray moved ahead of Roger Federer on the ATP World Tour tennis rankings for the first time, while Australian Open winner Kim Clijsters dropped out of the top 10 to 11th place of the women’s tour.
Murray rose one spot to number three after he beat Spain’s David Ferrer in the Shanghai Masters final yesterday. That followed titles this month at the Thailand Open and Japan Open. His last loss was against second-ranked Rafael Nadal of Spain in the semi-finals of the US Open in September.
Federer dropped one spot to fourth. The 30-year-old Swiss fell out of the top three for the first time since June 2003. Serbia’s Novak Djokovic is guaranteed to finish 2011 as the world number one thanks to a season during which he won three majors and only lost three matches.
On the women’s tour Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark remained the top player in the rankings.
