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| Scott Evans |
BADMINTON: Irish players face a tough draw at badminton’s World Championships in London starting on Monday August 8.
Over 200 of the world’s top players are heading for London, which is a test event for London 2012 as well as a qualifying tournament.
Chloe Magee, world ranked in the 50s, is first on court of the Irish facing Indonesia’s Adrianti Firdasari, a player ranked about 20 places above her. If she wins, Magee will play world No 6 Saina Nehwal of Inida in the second round.
In the men’s singles, Scott Evans has high hopes of making it past Michael Lahnsteiner of Austria in his opening match. Lahnsteiner, of similar ranking to Evans, most recently went out in the opening round of the Canada Open. In June, Evans reached the final of the Lithuanian Open.
The rewards for Evans, if he can beat the Austrian, is a match against Chinese sporting legend Lin Dan, whose spectacular play and flamboyant lifestyle have made him the biggest name in world badminton.
Sam Magee and Tony Stephenson open their men’s doubles campaign with a match against Ukrainian pair Vitaly Konov and Dmytro Zavadsky. They can be confident of a good result after making the final at the Lithuanian Open. Should they win they’ll face Chinese pair Biao Chai and Zhendong Guo in the next round.
In the mixed doubles, Sam and Chloe Magee have a score to settle with French player Baptiste Careme and his partner Laura Choinet. Only a fortnight ago, they lost to Careme and a different partner in a tough three-set semi-final at the White Nights tournament in Gatchera, Russia.
STUDENT GAMES: Weightlifter Kevin D’Arcy from Galway will be the first Irish athlete in action at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China, starting on August 12. Darcy, 13th at the European Championships two years ago, competes in the 85kg class snatch, clean and jerk.
John Smith of the Summerhill club, competing for DIT, is next up in the archery competition, along with the team of eight swimmers, including Dubliners Aisling Cooney, Karl Burdis and Niall Wynn.
Aiming to improve on her 12th place at last year’s World University Taekwondo Championships is Louise Buffini from Clondalkin. Buffini went on to take gold at both the Portuguese and Scottish opens over the winter.
Making up the 26-strong team are golfers and track and field athletes.
DARTS: John Seagrave, captain of the Dublin youths county darts team, has won the national youths darts title in Ennis , Co Clare. In a closely fought final, Seagrave beat Roscommon’s Dave Smith 2-1. On his way to the final, Seagrave had beaten fellow “Dub” Daniel Foley from Rush. Other Dublin players making the last 16 were Wayne Dunne from Blanchardstown, and Lee Clarke and John Maughan from Rush. Led by Seagrave, Dublin won the national youths team title, beating Tipperary 3-1 in the final. Included on the team was Robyn Byrne from Blanchardstown, the top young female player in the county.
* Swords is the venue on Saturday August 20 for a €1,000 All-Ireland Open Singles, hosted by the Manor Inn. Entries to Brendan 086-1682811.
SNOOKER: Benny O’Brien from Kilkenny won snooker’s second Summer Open in the Ivy Rooms, Carlow, with a 3-1 win over Carlow’s Karl Fitzpatrick. O’Brien caused the shock of the day when he beat top Irish international Brendan O’Donoghue 3-1 to make the final. In the other semi-final, Fitzpatrick defeated Andrew Yeates.
TRIATHLON: A strong cycle gave Setanta’s Bryan McCrystal victory in the gruelling Beast of the East Olympic triathlon in Co Wicklow. Stephen Early of Belpark had led Bjorn Ludick of Base2Race out of the chilly waters of Lough Dan,with Ludick soon taking over in front for the cycle. By the time it came for the run, McCrystal, who was six minutes down after the swim, had caught up with Ludick. He powered ahead, building up a 98 second lead to win in 2 hours 6 minutes 40 seconds. Ludick was second, while for third place, Kerry’s Aodh O’ Neill, with the fastest run of the day, caught Early in the final few hundred metres. Piranha’s Aileen Flynn was first woman in 2:41.47.
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