Sports digest

Today's other stories in brief

Taylor one bout from gold

BOXING: Ireland's World and European champion Katie Taylor is just one bout away from securing her third European Union title in a row after a comfortable semi-final win over Julianna Rocha in Hungary, yesterday.

Taylor, who had her dad Peter and Zuar Antia working her corner, clocked up her third win in three days at the championships following a 9-3 verdict over the Pole in Keszthely.

The Bray woman will now meet Denica Eliseeva of Bulgaria in today’s lightweight final – in a repeat of the 2009 EU final which Taylor won 8-1 in Bulgaria.

Taylor, who turned 24 last month, was 3-1, 5-2 and 8-2 up at the end of the rounds one,two and three and drew the final frame 1-1 with Rocha en route to victory.

Martin stays in yellow in Poland

CYCLING: Twenty four hours after winning stage five and taking the race lead, Dan Martin kept his yellow jersey on yesterday's penultimate leg of the Tour of Poland, finishing seventh on the 228.5 km mountain stage to Terma Bukowina Tatrz, reports Shane Stokes.

Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) broke away inside the final three kilometres and soloed to victory, hitting the line seven seconds ahead of the next chasers.

Michael Albasini (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Martin’s closest rival Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini) led this small chase group home, picking up some bonus seconds. Bole crashed on the wet surface metres after the line.

Martin finished safely in this chase group.

Gay beats Bolt into second place

ATHLETICS:World record holder Usain Bolt lost his first 100 metres final in over two years when he was beaten into second place by American Tyson Gay at a Diamond League meeting in Stockholm last night.

Gay got a good start and was narrowly ahead by halfway before storming clear to win in a meeting record of 9.84 seconds for his first victory over Bolt.

The Jamaican triple Olympic champion, who had looked out of sorts, finished in 9.97.

Bolt’s previous defeat was also in Stockholm in July 2008 when he finished behind compatriot Asafa Powell.

Hughes qualifies for semi-finals

ROWING: Mayo man Turlough Hughes produced a terrific final 500 metres to qualify for the A/B semi-finals of the men's single scull at the World Junior Championships in Racice in the Czech Republic yesterday, reports Liam Gorman.

The single scull is one of the toughest events at the championships, with 27 countries competing, and by finishing third in his quarter-final Hughes lifted himself into the top 12.

Coming into the final quarter of yesterday’s race the King’s Hospital student was one place away from where he needed to be. Andre Redr of Slovakia and Joosep Laos of Estonia had already all but nailed down the first to qualification places, and Hughes was fourth.

But the Westport student pulled out by far the fastest final quarter, passing Albania’s Marsel Nikaj.