Sports Digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Lennon in team for world games

EQUESTRIAN: Dermott Lennon, riding Woods Rosbotham’s Hallmark Elite, has been selected to join Denis Lynch, Cian OConnor and Billy Twomey on the Irish show jumping team competing at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, writes Margie McLoone.

At a press briefing held yesterday in the Army Equitation School, Horse Sport Ireland’s show jumping manager Robert Splaine pointed out that the team was the same four combinations which had won the Nations’ Cup of Germany in Aachen earlier in the year.

“Dermott and Hallmark Elite had a very good result in the Madrid Grand Prix on Saturday, which indicates a return to form for the combination,” said Splaine. “If we can replicate the performance from Germany we’ll be extremely competitive at the World Championships.”

Splaine added that the main objective for the team was to qualify for the Olympic Games in London by finishing in the top five, excluding Olympic hosts Britain.

“Olympic qualification is the main goal, but if we can perform on the day we can beat anyone, as we showed in Aachen,” he said.

Claes claims monthly award

SPORTS AWARD: Ronald Claes, the high performance centre coach at the Arena pool at UL Limerick, is the Philips Sports Manager of the month for August.

The Irish team’s medal tally at the European Swimming Championships in Hungary was significantly better than it has been in recent years; it yielded one silver medal (Gráinne Murphy), four national records, four finalists and three semi-finalists.

Physio says capsules used before

RUGBY: Steph Brennan, the former Harlequins physiotherapist, yesterday told a Health Professions Council misconduct hearing in London that the previous season he had tried to end the club’s policy of using fake blood capsules to engineer substitutions. The HPC’s committee will today retire to consider its verdict after hearing evidence. Brennan admitted bringing on a fake blood capsule for Tom Williams to use during Harlequins’ Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster at the Stoop in April last year, and said it was the fifth time he had done so, starting in the 2005-06 season. Three of the occasions were to get players with suspected concussion off the pitch.

Taylor moves into quarter-finals

BOXING: Defending World lightweight champion Katie Taylor advanced to the last eight of the Sixth AIBA Women’s World Championships after recording an emphatic last-16 victory over Adriana Araujo of Brazil in Barbados last night.

The Bray woman, who beat Neetu Chalal of India 12-2 in the last-32 on Saturday, hammered the Pan-American 60Kg champ 20-5 at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex in Bridgetown. Taylor was 5-1, 11-2 and 16-4 ahead at the end of the first three rounds before adding another five points to her tally in the fourth and final frame.

The 24-year-old Irishwoman will now meet Anastasia Belyakova of Russia in tomorrow’s quarter-finals just three bouts away from winning her third World title on the trot.

** Defending super-bantamweight champ Kiko Martinez will put his European crown on the line against Limerick southpaw Willie Casey at the University of Limerick on November 6th, and Dubliner Paul Hyland will get a shot at the winner.

Simmons names strong squad for Zimbabwe tour

CRICKET: Ireland coach Phil Simmons has named a strong 14-man squad for the tour of Zimbabwe, with the return of the county-based trio of William Porterfield, Niall O’Brien and Gary Wilson, writes Emmet Riordan.

O’Brien has returned after surgery to an injured finger and has played for the Northamptonshire second team in recent weeks.

Porterfield, who returns to captain the side, and Wilson, have been released by their counties after missing the recent trip to Canada.

Opening bowler Boyd Rankin (foot injury) and all-rounder Alex Cusack (recovering from surgery) miss out.

Left-arm seamer Phil Eaglestone and wicketkeeper Rory McCann drop out from the Canadian touring party.

Ireland complete their Intercontinental Cup group matches against a Zimbabwe XI, starting next Monday, before taking on a full Zimbabwe side in three One-Day Internationals.

Ireland need full points from the four-day game to keep alive their slim hopes of making the final for a fourth straight time, while they need to win two ODIs to stay above Zimbabwe in 10th in the rankings.

IRELAND(squad for tour to Zimbabwe): W Porterfield (Gloucestershire, capt), A Botha (North County), G Dockrell (Leinster), A Eastwood (Pembroke), T Johnston (Railway Union), N Jones (CSN), J Mooney (North County), K O'Brien (Railway Union), N O'Brien (Northants), A Poynter (Clontarf), P Stirling (Middlesex), A van de Merwe (The Hills), A White (Instonians), G Wilson (Surrey).

Fixtures: Intercontinental Cup v Zimbabwe XI, Harare, Sept 20th-23rd. ODIs v Zimbabwe, Harare, Sept 26th, 28th and 30th.