Sports digest

A round-up of the other sports stories of the day in brief

Wild Oats X1's celebrations on ho

SAILING:Wild Oats XI claimed provisional line honours in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race yesterday, but face a protest which could see it stripped of the trophy.

Wild Oats crossed the finishing line recording a race time of two days, seven hours and 37 minutes. Investec Loyal was the second yacht to cross the finish line about three and a half hours behind Wild Oats XI.

Race chairman Tim Cox said the supermaxi, as well as English yacht RAN, failed to have an operational HF radio as they passed Green Cape, a compulsory reporting stage at the entrance to Bass Strait. A five-man jury will decide both yachts’ fate.

Impressive Johnston safely through to quarter-finals

TENNIS:Glasnevin's Paul Keoghan was quickly brought down to earth last night after his first round walkover against top seed Daniel Glancy in the National Indoor Championships at Riverview.

In contrast to Keoghan being able to indulge in the luxury of a spectator’s role on Monday, his second round opponent Mike Johnston was pushed to a second set tie-break before seeing off the gutsy challenge of Angus Lloyd in his opening contest.

But despite that favourable scenario for the Dublin northsider, Johnston, who plays out of the Donnybrook and Fitzwilliam clubs, clinched his place in the quarter-finals on a reasonably comfortable basis.

In the opening set, Keoghan put up a very resilient and energetic performance, limiting Johnston to one break of serve. But in the second set, the Dublin 4 man upped his game considerably, dropping just one game en route to a 6-4 6-1 victory.

The player standing in the way of Johnston’s place in the semi-finals is Greystones teenager Ciaran Fitzgerald who coasted to a 6-0 6-2 success over Castleknock’s Connor Schelling-Tisza.

That makes only a concession of a total of two games in

the opening two rounds for this year’s winner of ITF U-18 world-ranking event, at Cobh’s Rushbrooke, in the wake of his 6-0 6-0 victory over Co Wicklow’s Odhran O’Sullivan Hamill on Monday.

Hanley, Kuerten and Lennon get nod

EQUESTRIAN:Mayo's Cameron Hanley, Jessica Kuerten and Dermott Lennon have been nominated by Team Ireland's show jumping manager Robert Splaine for the next four qualifiers in this season's Rolex FEI World Cup series which concludes at Leipzig in May, writes Margie McLoone.

Hanley is currently competing at Mechelen in Belgium, along with the Germany-based pair of Kuerten and Denis Lynch, while Lennon will be the nominated Irish rider in Zurich at the end of next month with Kurten taking over the role at Bordeaux and Vigo in February.

Announcing his decision, Splaine said: “With both Billy Twomey and Denis Lynch assured of automatic invitations because of their top 10 positions in the world jumping rankings, I have allocated Irish places in the next four legs of the World Cup largely based on contributions to the team effort during the 2010 Superleague series.

“Billy Twomey has performed extremely well this season and now looks almost assured of qualification for the final and, with other riders chasing points, I have withheld selections for Gothenburg and s-Hertogenbosch until I see who has a chance of qualifying and doing well in the final at that stage.”

Sreesanth gives India a chance

CRICKET:South Africa, chasing 303 to win the second Test and the series against India, slipped to 111 for three when bad light ended play an hour after tea on day three at Kingsmead yesterday.

A fiery spell from Shanthakumaran Sreesanth saw Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla dismissed in the space of three overs either side of tea to put the top-ranked test team in a good position to level the three-match series.

Both batsmen played poor strokes to get out.

A few overs after angrily waving his bat at Sreesanth following a heated exchange, Smith tried to pull the fast bowler from outside off stump but hit the ball straight up in the air to be caught for 37 by wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Amla edged a flatfooted swish at the same bowler and was caught behind for 16. Sreesanth took two for 30 in seven overs after struggling in the first innings. Play was stopped with the outcome of the match still in the balance.