Sports Digest

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

Taylor dedicates world award

BOXING: KATIE Taylor has dedicated her AIBA World female boxer of the year award to everyone who helped make female boxing an Olympic sport.

The three-time world lightweight champ from Bray, was speaking in Almaty, Kazakhstan, yesterday where she scooped the coveted award.

This is the second time the current European and EU champion claimed the award after her achievement in Moscow two years ago.

Cullen's injury jinx strikes again

ATHLETICS: Mary Cullen’s unlucky injury jinx has struck again as a broken collar bone will force her to miss most of the upcoming cross country season, including next month’s European Championships in Portugal, writes Ian O’Riordan.

The Sligo athlete has been based in Dublin in recent months, having left her American training base earlier this year, and sustained the injury when falling off her bike earlier this week, having introduced some cycling into her regime as a way of preventing running-related injuries.

Cullen has missed the last three major championships on the track through injury, including this year’s European Championships in Barcelona, yet having worked so hard to get back to full fitness, she’s now resigned to being out of competitive running for at least 10 weeks to allow the broken collar bone to heal correctly.

Giants savour first World Series triumph in 56 years

THE San Francisco Giants were able to savour a first World Series triumph in 56 years when they beat the Texas Rangers 3-1 in Game Five of the best-of-seven Major League Baseball championship.

Shortstop Edgar Renteria stroked a three-run homer to left-centre field in the seventh inning off Texas ace Cliff Lee to break up a scoreless stalemate and give a masterful Tim Lincecum his second victory of the series.

Renteria, who also homered for the first run of San Francisco’s Game Two victory, was named World Series MVP after batting .412 in the Giants’ 4-1 triumph to end a patchy season on the highest note possible.

Closer Brian Wilson struck out Nelson Cruz to end the game, setting off a wild celebration as Giants players charged out of the dugout for a group hug near the mound, while the outfielders threw their gloves in the air as they rushed to join in. The win marked the first for the Giants since 1954 when the franchise played in New York.

Ireland take gold in Sangju

EQUESTRIAN: Ireland won team gold at the ninth World University Equestrian Championships which concluded in Sangju, South Korea yesterday, with Sara Glynn claiming individual silver, writes Margie McLoone.

Twenty nations competed in the dual discipline event and Ireland was awarded the gold medal after finishing second in show jumping and fifth in dressage.

The dressage competition was run over three days and in yesterday’s final Glynn, who is on an ERASMUS from the Dublin Institute of Technology to Berlin University, was beaten by less than one per cent by Britain’s Rebecca Woolven.

Queen’s Ben Crawford, who went into the event as the reigning show jumping champion, finished fourth, with Nicola FitzGibbon of Trinity coming seventh. All three Irish riders finished in the top 10 in show jumping.

Chef d’equipe Natalie Quinlivan said: “We’ve had a brilliant world championships and its a fantastic result from all team members.”

Ireland's adaptive coxed four in final

ROWING: Ireland’s adaptive coxed four qualified for their A Final at the World Rowing Championships in New Zealand yesterday by winning their repechage, writes Liam Gorman.

This is the first time Ireland has had an A Finalist at adaptive level in the World Championships. In a dramatic finish, Poland, who had led Ireland at half way (500 metres), caught a crab (missed a stroke) near the line and ended up in last place. Ireland and the United States took the two qualification places in tomorrow’s A Final. The Ireland crew of Anne Marie McDaid, Sarah Caffrey, Shane Ryan and Kevin du Toit are coxed by Helen Arbuthnot of the Molesey club in England. The crew are classified LTA, which means they have functional use of their legs, trunk and arms.

Ireland’s Arms and Shoulders single sculler, Karol Doherty, just missed out on qualifying for the A Final when he finished third in his repechage yesterday.