Historic Synchro Diving Medal for Irish divers
DIVING: Ten young Irish divers made a big splash at the British Gas ASA National Age Group Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.
The team of six girls and four boys picked up our bronze medals, including a first ever podium finish for an Irish synchro diving team.
Stars of the team were Sean McCormack from Rathfarnham and Jack ffrench from Maynooth, who teamed up to take bronze in the under 18 syncho competition as well as taking medals for their individual performances.
McCormack was third in the platform competition and ffrench also third in the 3-metre springboard.
Just missing out on a medal was Natasha MacManus. She finished 5th on the 3-metre springboard and platform and 4th in the 1-metre competition, just 0.15 of a point off a medal. Scoring personal bests were Seanagh Carton, Vivienne Hew, Francesca Hew and Roisin Kane, with the Hew sisters eighth in U-18 syncho.
Making their international debuts were stars of the future Tony Miller, Jack Price and Fionn Nolan.
SNOOKER: Vincent Muldoon, Greg Casey and David Cassidy all went out in the last 16 at the World U-21 Snooker Championships in Montreal, Canada.
Former Irish champion Muldoon came closest to progressing, narrowly 5 frames to 4 by Declan Brennan from Northern Ireland.
After Muldoon won the two opening frames, Brennan responded by taking the next three, before Muldoon levelled it at 3-3.
The Northern Ireland man won the seventh frame and was 63 ahead and one ball from victory in the eighth when Muldoon made an stunning 64 clearance to make it 4-4.
In the deciding frame, Muldoon started with a 32 break, but it wasn’t enough. Brennan, after knocking in the red, made a 72 break to win the match.
Greg Casey lost 2-5 to Zhang Anda from China, while David Cassidy played an outstanding match against No 1 seed Nick Jennings from England. Although he had trailed at the start, the young Cork player evened the score at 4-all, forcing a tie-breaking ninth frame. This could have gone either way before Cassidy missed a long green to give Jennings his chance.
HOCKEY: Ireland prepare for next month’s Eurohockey Championships with a final warm-up tournament in Paris next week when they will play four matches in five days. At the INSEP Men’s Hockey 5-Nations, the Irish men face World No 5 nation Korea on Tuesday followed by world No 1 Australia a day later. After a day’s break they play Argentina and then home side France.
Cookstown’s Ian Sloan returns to the squad after competing in last week’s U18 EuroYouth Nations Championship in Holland. Captain of the side is Ronan Gormley, who has been playing his club hockey in Spain this season.
PARALYMPICS: Ireland’s chances of qualifying a para-equestrian team for London 2012 are much improved after the Irish finished second behind world champions Great Britain at world-ranked competition in Hartpury, England. After the first day’s competition, the Irish were in second place and then held their nerve during the individual tests to hold that place. It means Ireland moved up to 5th place in the world rankings.
Making up the largest Irish squad ever were Eilish Byrne, Rosemary Gaffney, Helen Karney, James Dwyer and reserve Angela Lyons. Also in action were twice Paralympian Breda Bernie, along with Kate Kerr Horgan, Geraldine Savage and Kathryn Wheelock. All riders exceeded the minimum Paralympic qualification scores.
TRIATHLON: A choppy sea meant that the strong swimmers dominated the Howth Triathlon, which started with a dramatic 1800m swim from Ireland’s Eye back to the mainland. Kevin Thornton (Belpark/Kenitica) emerged from the water with a huge lead and, despite the best efforts of Piranha’s Matt Coughlan, proved a comfortable winner. Channel swimmer Julie Galloway of Fingal Tri had an equally big lead but Vanessa Fenton of 3Dtri , who had been ten minutes behind Galloway after the swim, put in a brilliant cycle to take over in front. She went on to win from Belpark’s Susan Lane. Winners of the shorter sprint event were Eoin Brady and Julie Carbery.
No comments yet.