Sports Digest

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

Glancy comes up trumps in Crete

TENNIS: Daniel Glancy yesterday captured his first ITF Men’s Futures doubles title, coming up trumps with Britain’s Marcus Willis in Heraklion, Crete.

But the ground-breaking feat of the 21-year-old Castlebar native in the artificial grass court event was achieved at the expense of fellow Irish players Sam Barry and Colin O’Brien.

Glancy and Willis had to work very hard for their victory though over Limerick teenager Barry and Dubliner O’Brien, with the Irish-British combination being pushed to a champions’ tie-break before they prevailed on a 7-5, 5-7, 10-8 scoreline.

The previous best doubles performances turned in by Glancy in a world ranking event were semi-final placings in two Futures events, in Iran and Greece, in November and October, respectively of last year.

Maoi Chinn Tire comes home 200 to 1

RACING: A horse called Maoi Chinn Tire became the longest priced winner in 20 years in Britain when successful in a hurdle race at Wetherby in northern England yesterday at 200 to 1.

In 1990, Equinoctial won a race at 250 to 1 but yesterday’s winner traded on the betting exchange Betfair as high as 1,000 to 1 – and was matched for €1,100.

Trained by 35-year-old Jennie Candlish in central England, Maoi Chinn Tire was making his debut over hurdles and started the outsider of the 13 runners in the race.

After racing in the rear early on, the gelding made up good ground, led three hurdles from home and won by nine lengths for jockey Alan O’Keefe.

The horse joined Candlish only in the last month after previously being with Stan Moore who won with it three times earlier in the year in Flat races over much shorter distances and lower in class.

High-spirited Ballesteros on road to recovery

GOLF: Seve Ballesteros was in high spirits and cracking jokes when he made a rare public appearance yesterday, opening a symposium on brain tumours supported by his foundation.

The five-times major winner has been battling back to health after being diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumour in 2008.

“I’m very well. Little by little and week by week I notice small improvements. I’m on the road towards normality,” Ballesteros said.

Walking unaided and speaking with much greater clarity than on previous occasions, Ballesteros joined in the question and answer session and quizzed his own doctor with a big grin.

The 53-year-old Spaniard told the gathering a joke and went on to speak about his recovery programme. “The key is to have a strong mind, to accept the situation and to beat it,” he said. “I have been on a very strict diet and have done a lot of exercise.”

Giants take charge in World Series

BASEBALL: The San Francisco Giants won Game 1 of the World Series with 14 hits. They took Game 2 with shutout pitching. With the best-of-seven series heading to Texas, the Rangers are down 2-0 and – after getting outscored 20-7 in San Francisco – still haven’t won a World Series game in the franchise’s 50-year history.

Matt Cain and two relievers combined on a four-hitter and Edgar Renteria drove in three runs to lead the Giants to a 9-0 win last night at ATandT Park in San Francisco. The Giants scored seven runs in the final inning.

“We’ve put ourselves in a good situation,” Cain said in a news conference. “We’ve just got to take that confidence and some of the good approaches that we’ve had in these last two games and take them down to Texas with us.”

Khan could take on Mayweather

BOXING: Amir Khan has revealed he could fight American superstar Floyd Mayweather next year with the blessing and backing of friend and sparring partner Manny Pacquiao.

The WBA light-welterweight champion from Bolton continues his American adventure in December with a mandatory defence against heavy-handed Argentinian Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas.

Khan (23) has come on leaps and bounds since relocating to California and joining up with renowned trainer Freddie Roach nearly two years ago, but freely admits he still has progress to make before he is ready to take on the very best.

Maidana will certainly represent a stern test on December 11th, a respected puncher challenging a champion with a reputation for being vulnerable.

And while Khan respects the danger posed by the South American brawler, he is also planning for the long-term and revealed a Mayweather showdown is a definite possibility.

Dementieva calls it a day

TENNIS: Russian Elena Dementieva, who won gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Athens, announced her retirement from tennis at the WTA Championships on Thursday.

The 29-year-old, who won 16 Tour titles in her career and was runner-up in two Grand Slams, made the surprise announcement at the Khalifa Tennis Complex in Qatar after losing in straight sets to Francesca Schiavone.