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Junior eventing team move up to take silver in Scotland

EQUESTRIAN SPORT:The Irish junior eventing team of Ruth Robinson, Alex Donohue, Tim Dennehy and Poppy de Courcy Wheeler improved greatly after Friday's dressage phase to win the silver medal at Thirlestane Castle in Scotland yesterday, writes Margie McLoone.

Eighth of the 15 competing nations following the first phase, Ireland moved up to fourth as the cross-country action came to its conclusion on Saturday evening, with Donohue best placed of the Irish squad at this stage in 13th place on Golden Orphan (49.1 penalties).

In spite of a pole down yesterday, Donohue moved up a slot but a clear from Robinson and Tamino 202 saw them leapfrogg their team-mates into eighth place.

Dennehy completed in 23rd position on Decent Gamble, while three fences down with Bantry Flipper resulted in de Courcy Wheeler dropping to 33rd.

There were two individuals also competing for Ireland, Darren Coady finishing 24th on his dressage score of 60.9 with Maylim Arch and Valerie McMillan completing in 44th position on Fonzarelli.

Britain won the team championships on a score of 132.60 penalties, Ireland took silver with 164.80, while Germany came third on 167. British riders Sienna Myson-Davies and Libby Soley won individual gold and silver with the bronze going to France's Frederique Whittaker.

Because of injury, Conor Swail was a late starter in the Citroen/ShowjumpingIreland premier Grand Prix series but yesterday in Millstreet he won the league in spite of only finishing second to Cian O'Connor.

They were the only two riders to make it to the jump-off round, Swail and Glen Leddy's Gold Digger going first and stopping the clock on 48.90. O'Connor easily bettered that with Aileen Bryan's Rancorrado and collected the €9,000 first prize in 47.43.

Rossi benefits as Stoner crashes out

MOTOR CYCLING: Valentino Rossi of Italy won the Czech MotoGP yesterday after world champion Casey Stoner crashed out early in the race.

Ducati rider Toni Elias of Spain took second, 15 seconds behind the leader, and Italian Loris Capirossi was third on his Suzuki.

Stoner, after taking pole position on Saturday in the wet, crashed his Ducati rounding a corner on the sixth lap, leaving Yamaha's Rossi alone at the front for the final 16 laps.

Australian Stoner had posted the best lap times in practice sessions on the 5.4-km circuit.

Rossi's first win at Brno since 2005 doubled his lead over Stoner to 50 points in the championship standings, with six races remaining. He now has 237 points to Stoner's 187.

Martin on the rise in Portugal

CYCLING:A strong performance on the stage-three summit finish of the Tour of Portugal saw the first-year Irish pro Daniel Martin jump up the general classification, his 12th place moving him from 17th to 11th overall in the 2.HC-ranked event. He led the best young rider classification after the stage.

Rui Miguel Sousa Barbosa (Liberty Seguros) was first to the line in Torre, beating David Blanco Rodigruez (Palmeiras Resort-Tavira) by one minute 40 seconds. Martin was five minutes and 57 seconds back. He had finished in the peloton on stages one and two, both of which were taken by Lampre's Danilo Napolitano in a big bunch gallop.

Meanwhile, the Irish road-race champion Siobhán Dervan has been riding strongly in the Route de France Féminine, the women's equivalent of the Tour de France.

The Team Fenixs rider finished 17th in the stage-six time trial, won by race leader Luise Keller (Team Columbia Women), to move up to 24th in the general classification, heading into the final stage.

Loeb regains title lead after his seventh German victory

MOTOR SPORT: Sebastien Loeb reclaimed the lead in the World Rally Championship after clinching his seventh consecutive Rally Germany crown yesterday.

The Frenchman's dominance on the tarmac roads around Trier was never threatened as he completed a wire-to-wire win to lead home his Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo by 47.7 seconds.

Belgian Francois Duval rounded out the podium positions to claim his first points since the opening round of the season in Poland.

Loeb is gunning for a fifth WRC title on the spin and with five rounds remaining in the season he now leads Mikko Hirvonen, who could only finish fourth, by four points.

Loeb's one-two result with Sordo also lifts Citroen into the lead in the manufacturers' standings, eight points clear of Ford as the season heads into its final third in New Zealand in a fortnight's time.

"I'm very happy to have won here. Germany is a special rally for me," Loeb said.

"We had a good feeling in the car all weekend, and had no real problems to contend with. Everything worked out well and now I am in the best position to start the rest of the season.

"I'm happy to take the lead of the championship, and pleased with the job Dani and I did for Citroen."

Sordo's second placing equalled his best performance at a rally, in round five in Jordan, and also lifts him above Subaru's Chris Atkinson and into third in the driver's classification.

Jenas gets England recall

SOCCER:Tottenham's Jermaine Jenas has been called into the England squad to face the Czech Republic at Wembley.

Jenas was originally left out of Fabio Capello's 23-man party but has been granted a reprieve after Michael Carrick picked up an ankle injury on Manchester United duty against Newcastle yesterday afternoon.

Jenas could stay in the squad for next month's World Cup qualifiers, which Carrick also seems likely to miss.