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Gay out of Olympic 200m

ATHLETICS: World 200 metres champion Tyson Gay has a mild muscle strain in his left leg and will be unable to train at full strength for up to two weeks.

Gay crashed out of the US 200 metres quarter-finals on Saturday, tumbling to the track after 40 metres in a fall that ended his hopes of competing at the distance in the Olympics.

"The MRI showed a mild strain in the semitendinosus muscle," his publicist said in a statement.

"He is expected to engage in active rest for up to 12 to 14 days, with light physical activity increasing through that period, and then resume training.

Gay, who will run the 100 metres and 4x100 metre relay in Beijing, is still on schedule to compete in the London Grand Prix on July 25th.

Moore claims Irish title over Healy

BOXING:Salford-born Jamie Moore added the Irish light middleweight title to his British and Commonwealth crown after stopping Belfast's Ciarán Healy in the third round at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, Dublin, on Saturday night.

Healy was dropped with a stiff left to the body in the second, and went down again twice following two more body shots from Moore in the third round before his corner threw in the towel.

Meanwhile, Paul Hyland created a piece of Irish boxing history after he claimed the vacant Irish super bantamweight title at the Basketball Arena following a 98-93 points win over Marc Callaghan.

Hyland's brothers, Patrick and Edward, have won Irish pro titles, with Patrick making it a family triple with a win on Geoff Munika on the Tallaght undercard.

Former European champion Kiko Martinez scored a laboured win over durable Ghanaian puncher Lante Addy in Tallaght. The last time Martinez was in Dublin he chalked up a spectacular first-round victory over Bernard Dunne last August.

St Michael's, Tribesmen excel 

ROWING:St Michael's of Limerick won the "battle of the Peters" at the National Junior Championships in Cork over the weekend. Peter Hanily beat Peter Chambers of Bann to take the men's singles title yesterday.

The Limerick club's four and double scull (Hanily and Killian O'Shea) also took gold. The men's senior eight was won by the Commercial-Carlow crew, which rowed as Carlow, while Skibbereen took the pair and quadruple scull.

In the women's events, Tribesmen - despite the name - took the four, the pair, the quadruple sculls and the single sculls (Lisa Dilleen).

Coláiste Iognaid carried off the women's senior eights title.

Irish men reclaim Celtic Cup

HOCKEY:Mitch Darling's brace saw Ireland's men reclaim the Celtic Cup from Welsh hands as the Three Rock man plundered a winner at Garryduff seven minutes from time.

Needing only a draw, Darling opened the scoring after a sweet interchange between Ronan Gormley and John Jermyn 15 minutes in. The Irish, though, let the Welsh back into the game with Matt Ruxton levelling early in the second period.

Ireland responded well and were rewarded when Stephen Butler's overhead found Darling to round Lee Ible for the game-breaking goal, followed up in the last minute by Timmy Cockram's drag flick to copperfasten a 3-1 win.

Earlier, the Irish women beat Wales by the same score to finish second behind Scotland on goal difference. Shirley McCay, Emma Clarke and Emma Stewart got the goals, but Ireland needed eight to claim the trophy following Scotland's 10-2 win over France.

Duddy poised for title bout

BOXING:John Duddy is poised for a world title challenge to IBF light middleweight champion Verno Phillips.

Duddy has campaigned at middleweight throughout his professional career.

Phillips (38), a three-time light middleweight champion, will make Duddy (29), his first defence since regaining the IBF belt with a split-decision defeat of Cory Spinks in March.

Gillick withdraws in Madrid grand prix as precaution

ATHLETICS:David Gillick took no chances at Saturday's Grand Prix meeting in Madrid, withdrawing from the 400 metres after feeling a slight twinge in his knee, just moments before he was set to run, reports Ian O'Riordan.

Gillick initially felt the problem come on during the week, and decided against risking it any further with the Beijing Olympics just one month away.

The Dublin athlete is due to run the 400 metres at this Friday's Golden League meeting in Rome, his biggest race before Beijing, and wanted to ensure full fitness for that one.

He described his decision as "totally precautionary", and although he had mixed feelings about it afterwards, it was clearly the right decision on the night. Paul McKee had earlier won the B-race in 46.55 seconds.

Derval O'Rourke is still experiencing some mixed form, as her 13.18 seconds was down on her season's best of 12.90 in the 110 metre hurdles, though good enough for third on the night.

Thomas Chamney could only manage 10th in the 800 metres, running 1:50.73, still well short of Olympic A-standard. of 1:46.00.

Elsewhere, Joanne Cuddihy ran 52.52 to finish fourth at Lugano in Switzerland, also well down on her best, but at least suggesting her knee injury of late is behind her.