BADMINTON: Irish No 1 Chloe Magee is on course to meet top seed and French No 1 Hongyan Pi in the quarter-finals of next week’s Yonex Irish Badminton Open in Lisburn – a qualifer for London 2012.
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| Chloe Magee |
Magee, the No 6 seed, plays France’s Barbara Mutias in her opening match. Pi, a former world No 2 reached the quarter -finals at the Beijing Olympics. A quarter-final place will be enough to see Magee book her place at her second Olympics. She has a tough second round tie against Dutch No 2 and Scottish Open winner Judith Meulendijks who is almost back to her best after an injury.
Magee and brother Sam are top seeds in the mixed doubles and have a bye in the first round. Also making the main draw are three other pairs – Stuart Lightbody and Caroline Black , Io Wai Lau and Catherine Coyle and Ciaran and Sinead Chambers. The Magees are currently first reserves for London 2012, with only 16 pairs qualifying.
In the men’s doubles, Sam Magee and his Danish partner Mikkel Elbjorn face Irish pair Tony Murphy and Tony Stephenson in the opening round. Also playing are Sam’s youngest brother Joshua with Ciaran Chambers and two other Irish pairs.
Irish men’s No 1 Scott Evans has drawn the top English player and No 3 seed Rajiv Ouseph for his opening round match. In the 2009 Irish Open at Baldoyle, Evans lost to Ouseph in the final. He also lost to the British player earlier this season. Top seed in the men’s singles is Spain’s Pablo Abian. A total of 60 players will battle it out in the qualifying rounds of the men’s singles, 16 of them Irish, with eight places in the main draw on offer.
In the women’s doubles, Irish national champions Sinead Chambers and Jennie King face Danish pair Maria Helsbol and Anne Skelbaek. Kirsty Kelly has teamed up with Welsh player Aimee Moran for the tournament, while Caroline Black is paired with Louise Breen, also from Wales.
An Ireland A team will play a friendly match against an international selection as a pipe-opener to the tournament next Wednesday in Lisburn. Included in the team are Fiona Glennon, Pauline Glennon, Jeannie King, Owen Marron, Niall Tierney, Scott Burnside, Sinead Chambers, and Tony Stephenson.
* Qualifying matches for the Yonex Irish Open begin in Lisburn next Thursday, with finals on Sunday.
HOCKEY: Over 50 hockey teams face a busy weekend with the opening round of the Irish Junior Cups for both men and women taking place today (Sat). Defending men’s champions Lisnagarvey host Belfast Harlequins, while UCD hope to topple last season’s runners-up Banbridge at Belfield. Monkstown, the 2010 champions, travel to Lough Moss to play four-times winners Annadale. In all-Leinster draws, Glenanne play YMCA and Suttonians face Fingal.
In the women’s competition, Old Alex, Loreto, Genesis, Corinthan and Glenanne all have home advantage. Travelling north are Hermes who play Queen’s and Pembroke Wanderers with a match against Lisnagarvey.
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| UCD’s John Murphy |
TABLE TENNIS: British No 2 Gavin Rumgay tops the men’s seedings for this weekend’s Munster Table Tennis Open in Killarney. Rumgay is seeded to meet Ryan Jenkins of Wales, who plays his club table tennis with UCD, in the final. Also on his side of the draw is Ulster’s Paul McCreery. On the bottom end of the draw is many times Irish champion John Murphy of UCD who, if all goes to plan, is likely to come up against Gavin Maguire of UCD in the quarter-finals and Jenkins in the semi-finals.
Top seed in the women’s singles is Charlotte Carey of Wales, who is expected to meet English No 5 Karina Le Fevre in the final. Dublin sisters Katie and Elayna McGolone are seeded to make the quarter-finals.
TRIATHLON: Piranha Triathlon Club, formerly called Tsunami when it was founded in 2001, has celebated it tenth anniversary. The Dublin-based club has over 180 members and welcomes new members, especially beginners. Members include three time women’s national champion Elena Maslova, currently a well-known coach, and founding member, Anna Frankland medal winner at the 2004 European Triathlon Championships.
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