A round-up of today's other sports news in brief ...
Kyle on form at Scone Palace
EQUESTRIAN: Mark Kyle recorded Ireland’s first victory on the international eventing scene this year by winning the two-star at Scone Palace in Scotland yesterday.
Riding the Irish-bred gelding Coolio (by Ghareeb) for Scottish owner Ronnie Bartlett, Kyle added just 0.4 of a time penalty on the cross country phase to his dressage score 53.5 for victory. And the Leicestershire-based rider also took second spot on Just Otto.
In show jumping, Harry Marshall put younger rivals in the shade at Kildare’s Coilog Equestrian by taking the second Showjumping Ireland premier Grand Prix series qualifiers with more than a second in hand on his wife, Dawn’s, Rainman.
Niall Talbot won the Grand Prix at Busto Arsizio in Italy yesterday with Global IT Onisha, while Shane Breen landed a speed class at Maubeuge, France, on Saturday with Carmel and Dermot Ryan’s Carmena Z.
Rossi takes win
MOTO GP: Valentino Rossi claimed victory in the first European race of the MotoGP season to go 11 points clear at the top of the standings in Jerez.
Rossi crossed the finishing line 2.7 seconds ahead of Dani Pedrosa, with Casey Stoner completing the podium places in third.
Pole-sitter Jorge Lorenzo disappointed the home fans by crashing out with three laps to go while placed fourth.
Cragg takes victory in California
ATHLETICS: Alistair Cragg wiped away some of the nightmare memories of the Beijing Olympics when he won the 5,000 metres at the Payton Jordan Memorial meeting at the Stanford University Stadium in Palo Alto, California, yesterday, writes Ian O’Riordan.
Having received expert treatment for a hamstring injury which had been with him for over two years, the Irishman took the scalp of leading American, Matt Tegenkamp, to take the invitation event in 13 minutes 22.36 seconds.
This might be some 15 seconds outside his personal, but this was a race where the performance and how he felt was far more important than the time.
“The good news is that there was no hint of the hamstring problems which I had to endure all last year and before,” said Cragg.
Freire sprints to stage victory
CYCLING: Triple world road race champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) sprinted to his second stage win on the final day of the Tour de Romandie yesterday, winning an 87-man bunch sprint into Geneva, writes Shane Stokes.
Irish road race champion Daniel Martin finished one minute and 44 seconds back in 90th place.
Overnight race leader Roman Kreuziger finished in the peloton and thus ensured his overall victory in the race, his second big win since taking the Tour de Suisse last June.
Martin ended the race 58th overall. He was 14th in the best young rider classification.
At home, Martyn Irvine moved into the lead of the Tour of Ulster. The Curran Racing rider, who will be part of the Irish national team for the FBD Insurance Rás, was second behind Greg Swinand (Usher IRC) on Saturday’s opening stage. He then finished seventh on yesterday’s second stage, which was won by Brian Kenneally (Engraveit.ie/BDBC).
Higgins in control at the Crucible
SNOOKER: John Higgins was edging ahead of Shaun Murphy in the World Championship final last night as he looked to develop a handsome overnight lead.
The two-time former champion won three of last night’s opening four frames to steam into a 7-5 lead. He went to the mid-session interval on the back of a break of 95, his highest in the early stages of the match.
With two frames remaining last night, pre-match favourite Higgins, leading 11-5, had the chance to establish control.
Murphy’s first-session century was the 81st of this year’s World Championship, obliterating the previous record of 68.
Wins for Nadal and Kuznetsova
TENNIS: Rafael Nadal made history in Rome yesterday by knocking off defending champion Novak Djokovic to capture a record fourth Internazionali BNL d’Italia title.
Djokovic took the world number one to a first-set tie-break, but Nadal won 7-6 (7-2) before claiming the second set 6-2.
Meanwhile, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova snapped a two-year title drought when she stunned world number one Dinara Safina 6-4 6-3 to win the Stuttgart Grand Prix yesterday.
Kuznetsova, the world number nine, was more consistent than fellow Russian Safina, holding her serve throughout to clinch victory after 79 minutes.
