BADMINTON: Chloe and Sam Magee confirmed their position as first reserves for next year’s Olympic Games when they won the mixed doubles title at the Norwegian Open in Oslo. The Irish pair beat Denmark’s Rasmus Bonde and Maria Hesbol in straight sets to take the title. Chloe Magee, now virtually certain to play in the women’s singles at London 2012, reached the women’s singles final. She recorded a first ever win over Denmark’s Karina Jorgensen in a marathon semi-final before losing to Linda Zechiri from Bulgaria in the final. In the men’s singles, Scott Evans reached the quarter-finals before losing to Belgium’s Yuhan Tan, while Sam Magee and his Danish partner Mikkel Eljborn made the men’s doubles quarter-finals.
Locally, De la Salle Dundalk student Liam O’Leary beat Lisburn’s Andrew McKee to win the men’s singles at the Leinster Junior Open in Terenure Badminton Centre. Taking the women’s title was the experienced Claire Flood, who got the better of defending champion Laura Butler of Wexford. There was some consolation for Butler when she paired up with Kirsty Kelly of Mount Pleasant to win the women’s doubles, beating Siobhan Grehan and new partner Pam Peard in a match that went to a tense tie-breaker. Top seeds Ciaran Chambers and Josh Magee won the men’s doubles, with Chambers and Caroline Black taking the mixed title.
HOCKEY: Hermes have revenge in mind when they take on UCD in a deferred Irish Women’s Hockey League match today (Sat) in Booterstown. Last week, UCD, fielding five ex-Hermes players, beat their arch-rivals 2-0 in a Leinster League match. The students, unbeaten so far this season, currently top the Leinster league, with Old Alexander in second place. A key match today sees Old Alexandra play Loreto. In the men’s Leinster League, Pembroke Wanderers, comfortably top of the table, play Railway Union.
SNOOKER: Rodney Googins of the 147 Club in Wexford leads the Irish snooker team at the World Amateur Championships starting in Bangalore, India next week. Goggins not only reached the semi-finals last year in Syria but also made a maximum 147 break during the competition. He is joined on the team by the experienced Brendan O’Donoghue of New Institute Nenagh and by Mark Tuite of Cue Club Kilkenny, an ex-pro and current Irish masters champion.
Dublin players again dominated the second U-16 ranking tournament of the season at Newbridge CYMS. In a repeat of first ranking final, Andrew Doherty from Terenure Sports Club beat Ross Doyle from Dublin 3-1.
OLYMPIC HANDBALL: Faroe Island won handball’s Men’s Challenger Trophy Group A tournament held in the University of Limerick earlier this month. The Faroes had opened their campaign with a 30-20 victory over Ireland, captained by Patrick McAuley. After also losing to Georgia, the Irish put on their best show against England, leading 15-11 at half time. Unfortunately, they couldn’t hold on to this lead and lost a close-fought match 24-29. Two Irish players, Steffan Mayer and Christopher O’Reilly, were nominated to the All-Stars team for the tournament.
TRIATHLON: Young Irish triathlete Ben Shaw, aged just 20, finished a creditable 33rd in the elite men’s ITU Auckland World Cup. Shaw had a superb swim, coming out of the water in fifth place. On the tough 40km cycle he was part of a breakaway bunch of seven that included eventual winner Kris Gemmell of New Zealand, but faded on the 10km run to finish in 2 hrs 7 mins 43 secs – almost eight minutes behind Gemmell.
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