Sports Digest

A round-up of other sports news in brief

Bousquet beats Bernard in final

SWIMMING: Frederick Bousquet upset new world record holder Alan Bernard in a pulsating 100 metres freestyle final at the French championships yesterday.

Bousquet set a best time of 47.15 secs to beat Bernard by 0.36 of a second and clinch the last spot for this year's world championships in Rome. On Thursday Bernard became the first man to complete the distance under 47 seconds when he clocked 46.94 in the semi-finals. The record has yet to be ratified since he was wearing a new suit designed by his sponsor Arena.Bousquet was wearing a Fina-ratified Jaked suit, which is manufactured in Italy and helped Spaniard Rafael Munoz beat the 50 metres butterfly world record earlier this month. "It is not the suit that swims, I do," Bousquet said.

Queen's take Wylie cup

ROWING: UCD won the overall prize but had the Wylie Cup for men snatched from them by Queen's University at a close University Championship of Ireland at Castlewellan in Co Down yesterday, writes Liam Gorman.

Trinity, the other college in the hunt for big honours, won the Bank of Ireland Cup for senior women. The Wylie Cup result hinged on the novice eight final which was won by one foot by the Northern college from UCD.

Queen's had won the intermediate eight and UCD the senior eight, so Queen's carried off the prize by virtue of taking two of the three eights contests. Trinity's women came out on top after taking both the senior and intermediate eights.

Ireland in fine form from the start

BOXING: Irish boxers ensured they couldn't be beaten on the night after opening up a 5-1 lead with four bouts remaining in a senior international with Scotland at the National Stadium, Dublin last night.

European Union champion David Oliver Joyce, World youth champ Ray Moylette, Patrick Ward, Fergal Redmond and Jamie Dowling all had their hands raised in victory.

Joyce, from the St Michael's Athy club, beat featherweight Michael Roberts 11-1, and Moylette, who boxes out of the St Anne's club in Westport, hammered Tommy James 15-0. Ward, of the Olympic club in Galway, who was doubling up at lightweight with Moylette, earned a 6-1 victory over Sam Hill.

And Redmond beat John Slaven 11-5 - while Kilkenney's Dowling beat Stirling welterweight John Thompson 10-5. Paul Barbour lost out 11-3 to stylish Scottish John Tain. Both nations will meet again at the Riverbank Hotel in Wexford tomorrow night.

Delany gets Irish women's team job

CRICKET: Former Railway Union player and coach Paul Delany has taken charge of the Ireland women's team ahead of their busy summer schedule, writes Emmet Riordan.

Delany coached Railway to the Irish Senior Cup title in 2006 and has also taken charge of underage representative teams. Joe Doherty, Cricket Ireland's chair of cricket, said: "We are happy to have found someone of Paul's experience to take up the reins and work to build the profile of Ireland women's cricket nationally and internationally. We are looking forward to Paul making a valuable impact as we head into a busy summer schedule of coaching and competition against some of the world's top teams." Ireland will host a Tri-Nations series involving Pakistan and South Africa at the end of May, with the European Championships taking place in the Leinster area at the start of August.

Armstrong given the all clear

CYCLING: American Lance Armstrong has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) over a random test conducted last month, the AFLD said in a statement.

Seven-times Tour de France winner Armstrong also said he had been cleared, writing on his Twitter feed: "Just got the word from the French agency AFLD on the shower gate incident. Case closed, no penalty, all samples clean. Onward."

Australia's appeal rejected

TENNIS: Australia's appeal to shift next month's Asian zonal Davis Cup tie against hosts India out of Chennai over security fears was rejected by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) yesterday.

"The ITF board of directors has upheld the decision of the Davis Cup committee regarding the Asia/Oceania zone Group One third round tie between India and Australia," the ruling body said in a statement.

The May 8th-10th tie will stay in Chennai, it said, adding: "The location and venue was previously approved by the Davis Cup committee following a positive report from the ITF's security consultants."

Australia face a year's ban and a substantial fine if they do eventually decide not to travel to Chennai, according to Davis Cup rules.

"If, after the draw has been made, any nation withdraws from the competition, that nation shall not be eligible to take part in the competition in the following year," the rules state.

Shepherd keeps hopes alive

RUGBY: Cameron Shepherd scored a try in each half to keep alive the Western Force's slim hopes of a semi-final place after they beat South Africa's Lions 55-14 in their Super 14 match at Subiaco Oval in Perth yesterday.

The Force were also awarded two penalty tries in the match to help them move to fifth place on the table, leapfrogging the Auckland Blues, who play the Queensland Reds today, and the New South Wales Waratahs.

Tipperary ease past Waterford

GAA: Tipperary powered their way past Waterford, 1-15 to 0-6, in a one-sided Munster MFC quarter-final at Thurles last night.

Tipperary were in control from the start. They were leading 0-6 to 0-1 after 17 minutes and then had a goal from Brian Hewitt in the 24th minute. They now meet Cork in the provincial semi-final.

SCORERS

Tipperary - J McMahon 0-6; B Hewitt 1-1; R Peters 0-3; R McGrath 0-2; T Hill, J Lonergan, L Treacy 0-1 each; Waterford - P Whyte 0-2; S Lawless, B O Halloran 0-1 each.