HANDBALL: A truly mouth-watering senior singles final is in prospect in this year's M Donnelly All-Ireland Softball (60X30) championships following two hotly-contested semi-finals on Saturday. Michael "Ducksy" Walsh (Talbot's Inch) is through to his first senior singles final of these championships since 2002 while defending champion, Dublin's Eoin Kennedy (St Brigid's, Blanchardstown) will be bidding for a fourth title in-a-row.
The last time this pair met in the senior singles final of these championships was in 2000 when Kennedy emerged victorious. Walsh, who is the most decorated player in the history of the domestic game, faced rising young Wicklow star, 24-year-old Michael Gregan (Coolboy) in the semi-final.
It was a case of the grandmaster versus the young pretender with Walsh displaying his full range of skills in securing a 21-8, 21-1 success.
Kennedy beat Dessie Keegan 21-20, 21-5.
SAILING: There were further celebrations in Plymouth at the weekend when Eric Lisson brought his Granada 38-footer across the finishing line in the Rolex Fastnet Race for the Cork skipper to be placed best Class Three boat overall, writes David Branigan.
In one of the biggest divisions in the biennial race, perseverance paid off handsomely as all but nine boats kept sailing while the majority of the class retired after being lashed by gales when the race started one week ago.
However, it was the gales that likely cost Lisson a higher placing overall such as he achieved two years ago when he narrowly missed out on winning the overall title when light winds dogged the bigger, stripped out racing yachts that did so well this year.
Lisson is a two-times winner of the Round Ireland race in his 1970's vintage Cavatina.
TENNIS: World number one Justine Henin defeated third seed Jelena Jankovic 7-6 7-5 to capture her second Toronto Cup yesterday in her first tournament since losing in the Wimbledon semi-finals.
The 25-year-old Belgian recorded her seventh win over the Serb after racing through the $1.3 million tournament without dropping a set.
She was made to work hard, though, for her 35th career win, needing six match points and two hours 18 minutes to defeat a determined Jankovic.
The French Open champion will bid for her second grand slam victory of the year at the US Open starting next Monday.
In Saturday's semi-finals Henin brought Yan Zi's Cinderella run to an end with a 6-3 6-0 win while Jankovic needed over two hours on a chilled centre court to tame determined French opponent Tatiana Golovin 5-7 6-3 6-2.
CYCLING: With just two days to go until the start of the race, Navigators Insurance professional Ciarán Power has been forced to pull out of the Tour of Ireland, writes Shane Stokes. The Waterford rider was due to co-lead the US-based team with Cong native David O'Loughlin but will now miss out on one of his year's big targets due to illness.
"I won't be doing the Tour of Ireland this week," he said yesterday. "I got a test done in Belgium last week and it turns out that I have a virus. I will be off the bike for the next week, unfortunately missing the race."
Meanwhile Siobhan Dervan finished a very solid 17th overall in the Route de France Féminine on Saturday, ending the eight-day, 2.1-ranked race just six minutes 33 seconds behind overall victor Amber Neven of the US National team.
It was an impressive result for Dervan, who was 48th on the final stage to Vittel yesterday.
