Sports digest

Today's other sports in brief

Gillick's good form continues in Rome

ATHLETICS:When you're hot, you're hot, and David Gillick had another scorching run over 400 metres last night when he came within an inch of pulling off a sensational Irish victory at the IAAF Golden League meeting in Rome, writes Ian O'Riordan. Not that there was anything wrong with his performance – his second sub-45 seconds clocking in the space of a week.

It’s just a pity Gillick didn’t get the outright victory because he was well on for it. Running in lane seven, Gillick came off the final bend level with about five others, but with Chris Brown of the Bahamas about half a stride clear. Gillick then closed on him all the way to the line, only to be just out-dipped – Brown clocking a season’s best of 44.81 to Gillick’s 44.82. Only the photo-finish could separate them.

Conditions were ideal in the vast, old Olympic Stadium and Gillick was still hugely satisfied, as it proved his Irish record of 44.77 run in Madrid last Saturday was no fluke. He remains equal joint fourth fastest in the world this year, but more importantly is proving himself a highly competitive force in the event, and if he keeps going the way he is remains a definite contender for a place in the final at next month’s World Championships in Berlin.

Later, the Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele remained on track for his share of the €1 million jackpot when winning the 5,000 metres in 12:56.24 with a devastating final lap, and the fastest time in the world this year.

Israel stun Russia in Davis Cup

TENNIS: Israel stunned heavily favoured Russia yesterday, opening up a 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup world group quarter-final in Tel Aviv.

One more win in the tie will make Israel’s men’s tennis team the first to reach a semi-final place in a major sporting event.

Israel’s number two player Harel Levy, the world number 210, defied the rankings by playing some of his best tennis for years to beat Russian number one number one Igor Andreev, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in the opening rubber.

Israeli number one Dudi Sela followed up by beating Russian Mikhail Youzhny 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5.

The tie resumes today with with doubles duo Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich against Marat Safin and either Youzhny or doubles specialist Igor Kunitsyn.

Taylor reaches another final

BOXING:Irish lightweight Katie Taylor beat Alexandra Siderenko of the Ukraine 26-11 in yesterday's Russian Multi-Nations semi-final at the Sports Palace in St Petersburg.

It was the Bray woman’s third win in as many days and she will now face Russian Natalie Bondareva in today’s lightweight final. Taylor was 6-0 at the end of the first round, 9-2 at the end of second and 16-8 at the end of the third before adding another 10 points in the final round.

Second gold for Murphy in European Championships

SWIMMING: Gráinne Murphy won her second gold and third medal overall of the European Junior Championships in Prague last night. Her winning performance came in the final of the 800 metres freestyle where the 16-year-old from Ballinaboola, Co Wexford, established a new Irish Junior and Senior record for the distance event, touching the wall in a time of 8.36.63 – almost two seconds ahead of her next opponent, Tjasa Oder of Slovenia.

This world class performance comes just two days after she took gold in the 400m Individual Medley and bronze for the 1,500m freestyle at the same championships (on Wednesday evening).

“I expected the other girls to come back on the second 400m of the race but they didn’t. My whole race felt really strong from start to finish,” said Murphy.

Not only was it a win for Murphy, who is coached by Ronald Claes at Swim Ireland’s Limerick High Performance Centre at the University of Limerick, but she also managed to swim the first half of the race (400m) in a new Irish Junior record time of 4.17.76.

“It just feels really good to win another gold medal,” announced Murphy. “I have one more swim to go and that’s the 200m Individual Medley tomorrow – so we’ll see how it goes.”

Michael Dawson and Tara Dunne were also in action in their respective events. Dawson swam the 50m breaststroke in a time of 29.95 and Dunne swam the 200m freestyle in 2.09.36. Despite these good performances neither managed to progress from their heats, but both will compete again today, the final day of competition.

Dubliner Barry Murphy, based out of the University of Tennessee broke the Irish Senior record for the 50m freestyle twice yesterday at the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia; he clocked 22.41 in the heats and 22.25 in the semi-final. Murphy is now the third fastest seed going into today’s final.

Test on horses negative

EQUESTRIAN SPORT: Samples taken from three of Cameron Hanley's horses at the German national championships in Balve last month have returned negative results, writes Margie Mcloone. The tests were conducted when a syringe was allegedly found in a jacket belonging to the Mayo man at the three-star show with the rider asserting that it had been used at home in the weeks leading up to the event. While Hanley confidently forecast that the results would prove negative, he immediately asked to be withdrawn from the Ireland team competing in the FEI Meydan nations' cup legue at Aachen.

In issuing a statement confirming the results, the FEI praised Hanley for “stepping aside from competition in Aachen to avoid attracting unnecessary attention to the Ireland team. While it is never a positive thing to discover a used syringe on competition grounds – the decision to avoid competing to remove doubt as to the perceived fairness of competition should be commended.”