Sports digest

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

Silver medal for Houvenaghel

CYCLING: Wendy Houvenaghel improved on the fine bronze medal achieved by the Northern Ireland team in Thursday's team pursuit when she took silver in the women's individual pursuit yesterday, writes Shane Stokes.

The 35-year-old qualified second fastest and squared off against Alison Shanks (New Zealand) in the final. Shanks came out best, clocking a time of three minutes 30.875 seconds, but Houvenaghel can nevertheless be very satisfied with her performance.

She posted a time of three minutes 32.137 seconds, less than two seconds off gold.

“I was quite confident going into the final, I just rode my race as I would normally ride it,” said the Derry rider. “Towards the end I could see I was down in comparison to Alison. I had nothing left so I just got to the finish line as fast as I could and came away with the silver.”

Martyn Irvine rode aggressively in the men’s scratch race. He was clear early on with the rider who would end up taking silver, but they were caught. He ended up seventh, adding to the bronze medal he got in the team pursuit plus his sixth place in the individual pursuit.

He, David McCann, Philip Lavery, Adam Armstrong and Sean Downey will ride the men’s road race tomorrow.

Barnes quotes 'taken out of context'

BOXING: Paddy Barnes, who claimed bronze for Ireland at the 2008 Olympics, has hit back at reports that he said boxing was boring following Thursday's victory over Scotland's Iain Butcher at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

The reigning European champ, meets Aussie light-fly Andrew Moloney in the quarter-finals in the Indian capital today knowing that a win will guarantee at least bronze.

“What I said was completely taken out of context,” said 23-year-old Holy Family Belfast club man.

“I was frustrated after my fight because I didn’t feel I performed as well as I can. I do not find boxing a boring sport, I never have and I never will. I live for the sport and I love training.”

Swiss victory clinches challenge cup for Ireland

EQUESTRIAN:Ireland's pony show jumpers won the Swiss Nations' Cup competition yesterday afternoon in Chevenez, clinching the inaugural European challenge cup series in the process, writes Margie McLoone.

Pathfinder for the successful team was 15-year-old European pony gold medallist Bertram Allen from Wexford who collected four faults in his first round but delivered a zero score on Acapella Z second time out.

Jeremy Sweetnam produced a clear and an eight fault round with the Irish-bred Allihies Fir Baoi while Tom Foley on Dibidoe had a single mistake in both rounds. Going last of the squad, Emma O’Dwyer with Kalim Du Montlieu had four faults in her first round but went clear second time out to help Ireland snatch the trophy from Belgium who finished second on 16 faults with the Netherlands third on 20.

This victory also secured the Irish team the European challenge cup which is based on the number of Nations’ Cup wins achieved during the year. Going into yesterday’s finale, Ireland shared the lead with Belgium, both countries having two wins apiece.

Speaking after the trophy presentation, Team Ireland Equestrian’s pony high performance manager Ian Fearon said: “This was an absolutely outstanding performance today. We’ve now won every Nations Cup we’ve entered this year and it’s a tribute to these ponies and their riders that they’ve stepped up to the top of the high performance programme so convincingly. . . . To win the new European challenge cup series in its first year is a measure of the talent that we have.”

Williams ready to resume career

TENNIS: Serena Williams has confirmed she will return to WTA Tour action after three months out injured at next week’s tournament in Linz, Austria.

The 29-year-old has finally recovered from an operation on the foot she cut at a restaurant shortly after retaining her Wimbledon title at the start of July.

Williams said: “Just this week I thankfully received full clearance to play again and I’m excited to announce that I will be playing the Generali Ladies Linz this coming week.”

Rossi lambasts Grand Prix delay

MOTOR SPORT:MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi has lambasted organisers of this weekend's Malaysia Grand Prix for moving back the start time to when he fears it will rain.

The race will begin at 4pm local time, two hours later than normal, to avoid a clash with the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix.

“We know that here after a certain time, generally 3.30pm, it almost always rains. We always bend over backwards to the Formula One superpower,” said Rossi, who was quickest in yesterday’s practice session.