Enthusiastic welcome for third-place Green Dragon
SAILING:Five-times Olympic medallist Torben Grael added a bullet-proof layer to his overall lead of the Volvo Ocean Race at the weekend when the Brazilian skipper led the seven-boat race into Galway after 7.5 days at sea,
writes David Branigan.
With a clear speed advantage in the gale force winds, Ericsson 4 built a 40-mile lead during Saturday and reached the Aran Islands shortly before midnight on Saturday before gybing past Innisheer and the final sprint to the finish.
That left the main competition fighting for the podium where second and third places are finely balanced. However, it was Ireland's Green Dragon that became the talking-point as skipper Ian Walker watched a second-place slip from his hold to American Puma Ocean Racing due to a shredded "Code Zero" sail.
However, though it appeared that fourth-placed Telefonica Blue was gradually reeling the Galway boat in, having closed to within three miles, Walker's team managed to stay just far enough ahead passing into Galway Bay to claim third place and his much sought-after podium place.
But it was the turn-out and enthusiasm of the crowd of thousands gathered at 5.00am to greet the home-side entry that provided the reward for the eleven crew-members as Green Dragon completed its 40,000-mile circumnavigation since first visiting Galway last July.
Success for show-jumpers
EQUESTRIAN: Irish riders were successful at shows throughout Europe at the weekend, with Shane Breen winning the speed Derby in Hamburg on Royal Concorde while Denis Lynch came seventh in Saturday's Global Champions' Tour with Lantinus.
Army rider Capt Shane Carey took second place in yesterday’s Derby feature event at the three-star show in Eindhoven in the Netherlands with the Minister for Defence’s Irish-bred Cavalier Royale gelding River Foyle.
At the five-star show in Madrid, Billy Twomey and the bay stallion Goldex claimed runner-up spot in the 1.45m speed class, while Marion Hughes claimed third in the 1.40m speed class and was followed by Cameron Hanly in fourth.
More unrest over new regulations
MOTOR SPORT: The Formula One Teams' Association have dropped a bombshell on FIA president Max Mosley by demanding the 2010 regulations be scrapped.
All 10 teams have put their name to a letter understood to have been handed to Mosley shortly before yesterday’s Monaco Grand Prix.
In exchange, the teams will sign up to a new Concorde Agreement, commit to Formula One until 2012 and continue to work on reducing costs.
The news again throws into doubt the future of the current teams, and goes against the grain of Mosley’s confirmation of possibly increasing the cap.
It remains to be seen what Mosley’s reaction will be, in particular given one of the main points of the cap is to attract new teams. His response is expected today.
“The points we have put on the table are pretty clear, and I think we raised some issues in the meeting we had,” said Ferrari team boss Domenicali.
Loeb slips to fourth with penalty hit
MOTOR SPORT: Championship leader Sebastien Loeb fell foul of the stewards as Jari-Matti Latvala eased to victory on the Rally d'Italia in Sardinia yesterday.
Loeb finished third on the road but was subsequently hit with a two-minute penalty for an infringement committed yesterday, dropping the Citroen driver to fourth behind Petter Solberg.
The Frenchman was penalised after co-driver Daniel Elena was deemed to have unfastened his seat belt before the car came to a full stop to repair a puncture picked up on stage 11.
Latvala, meanwhile, had no such woes at the front, coming home 29.4 seconds clear of team-mate Mikko Hirvonen as BP Ford claimed a morale-boosting one-two.
