Sports Digest

A round-up of other sports news in brief

Gillick finishes fifth in London

ATHLETICS: David Gillick got some consolation for the disappointment of the European Championships by beating two of the 400-metre medallists from that occasion, when finishing fifth at the London Diamond League meeting on Saturday, writes Ian ORiordan.

Victory went to the top American Jeremy Wariner in 44.67 seconds, Gillick clocked 45.79 in fifth – ahead of the Belgium’s Kevin Borlee, the European champion from Barcelona, and Britain’s Martyn Rooney, the bronze medallist, who finished seventh and sixth on Saturday.

Paul Hession finished seventh in the 200 metres, clocking 20.79 seconds behind the American Wallace Spearmon’s 20.12.

At home, Ferrybank AC claimed both the women’s Premier Division and the men’s Division One at the National League final in Tullamore on Saturday. The women won the Premier Division with 134 points, ahead of Leevale on 99 and Ballymena Antrim on 98, while the men claimed the Division One title with 119 from Limerick County on 108 and Tallaght on 92.

Clonliffe Harriers won the men’s Premier Division with 136 points while Galway County collected 107 points to win women’s Division One.

Hopkins pipped in semi-final

GOLF: Irish teenagers Dermot McElroy and Jeff Hopkins failed in their bid to carry off the British Boys Amateur title at Kilmarnock (Barassie) at the weekend – but both can feel proud of their efforts during the gruelling contest.

McElroy, the 17-year-old from Ballymena, put up a tremendous fight in the quarter-finals before going down on the home green to Aaron Leitmannstetter from Germany. McElroy needed a birdie on the last to take the match into extra time but failed.

Hopkins from Skerries having got past French boy Stanislas Gautier 21 in the quarter-finals came up against German Max Rottluff for a place in the final.

This was a very close affair with Hopkins going down 21 when he lost the 17th.

Spaniard Adrian Otaegui defeated Rottluff 43 in yesterday’s 36-hole final.

Australian Open victory a huge boost for Perry

SQUASH: Madeline Perry recorded a thrilling five-game victory over England’s Alison Waters at the weekend to win the Australian Open in Canberra.

The 33-year-old from Belfast saved two match balls in the fifth game of the $56,000 WISPA World Tour squash event to win the biggest tournament of her career – 11-5, 12-10, 6-11, 4-11, 13-11 – on the all-glass court at Canberras Royal Theatre.

“Getting to the final was a big achievement, but winning it was huge for me,” said the career-high world number six, whose ranking is now certain to rise.

“I won the first two, but I wasn’t feeling amazing, I felt a lot of tension in my body and then she really upped the pace in the third and fourth and I couldnt respond.

The fifth was pretty even all the way through – you could see both of us were getting a bit tired and not doing that much. But I stuck in there and took my match ball when it came. The win marks Perrys seventh WISPA Tour title – but her first on foreign soil in five years.

Rossi signs a deal with Ducati

MOTOR SPORT: Valentino Rossi has signed a two-year contract to ride for Ducati next season.

The reigning MotoGP world champion will part company with Fiat Yamaha at the end of the current campaign, bringing to an end his hugely successful seven-season association with the team.

Meanwhile Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo won his seventh race of the season at the Czech Grand Prix on Sunday to extend his Moto GP championship lead to 77 points.

The 23-year-old Yamaha rider started third on the grid, but quickly jumped into the lead on the first lap, where he stayed for the rest of the race on the 5.4-km Brno circuit.

He finished more than five seconds ahead of compatriot and championship rival Dani Pedrosa, who began on pole.

Australian Casey Stoner, who is third in the standings, finished third on a Ducati, beating out Ben Spies into fourth. Valentino Rossi finished fifth, where he started the race.

McLaughlin maintains momentum

CYCLING: Ronan McLaughlin took a superb fourth place in the final overall classification of the Mi Aout Bretonne in France yesterday, finishing alongside his rivals in the main bunch and maintaining his high overnight position, writes Shane Stokes.

An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly team-mates Matt Brammeier and Pieter Ghyllebert also rode strongly and ended the four stage, 2.2 ranked event in eighth and 13th overall, respectively. Connor McConvey was best placed of the team on the concluding 176km stage to Guerlesquin, finishing eighth.

Murray wins final in Toronto   

TENNIS: Andy Murray clinched his first title of 2010 with a magnificent straights-set victory over Roger Federer in the final of the Toronto Masters last night.

The defending champion prevailed 7-5 7-5 after outlasting the former world number one in a match which was severely disrupted by two lengthy rain delays.

When the weather relented it was Murray who forced the issue, his new-found aggressive approach paying dividends against a strangely subdued Federer.

The win improves Murray’s record against the Swiss ace to seven wins from their 12 meetings and also gives him an element of revenge after he was comprehensively beaten in the final of the Australian Open earlier this year.