HOCKEY: Ireland’s women’s hockey team will take on South Africa, India and host nation Argentina in two four-nation tournaments in Buenos Aires before Christmas. The two-week trip will provide valuable match practice for the squad in the run-up to next year’s London 2012 qualifiers.
Meanwhile, Alan Giles has retired from the Irish men’s team. Giles, now 30, made his debut against France just over two years ago. He will continue to play club hockey with Pembroke Wanderers.
BADMINTON: Irish international badminton players Tony Stephenson and Sinead Chambers made it an Ulster double at the Autumn Open, sponsored by Curam and Yonex, at Dublin’s Terenure Centre.
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| Sinead Chambers and Jennie King |
In the men’s singles final, Stephenson beat his Alpha clubmate Scott Burnside in straight sets. Defending champion Chambers was up against Jennie King of Mount Pleasant in a repeat of last year’s women’s singles decider. Despite King’s best efforts, it was Chambers who again came out on top, winning in straight sets.
King and Chambers later teamed up to beat top seeds Pauline and Fiona Glennon in a thrilling women’s doubles final that went to a tie-breaking third set. In the men’s doubles final, defending champions, Dan Magee and Niall Tierney of Mount Pleasant faced the new Alpha pairing of Tony Stephenson and Tony Murphy. Magee and Tierney took the opener 21-15 but the Alpha boys bounced back to take the second. In the deciding third set, Magee and Tierney began to dominate and came out worthy winners.
An all-Mount Pleasant mixed final saw Dan Magee and Fiona Glennon getting the better of Owen Marron and Jennie King.
WINDSURFING: Dubliner Mikey Clancy won the most recent round of the Irish Wave Windsurfing Championships held in near perfect conditions at Elly Beach, Belmullet Co Mayo. Over three rounds of competition, Clancy held off the challenge of Rob Jones and Oisin van Gelderan, who finished joint second, with Mark
Killeen third. Katie MacEnana took the women’s title. Fabian McGovern proved best of the silver fleet, while Ryan O’Leary was best junior. Brandon Bay in Kerry hosts the final round of the championships in a few weeks time.
SQUASH: Irish No 1 Madeline Perry is seeded at No 3 for next week’s US Squash Open in Philadelphia, where many times world champion Nicole David from Malaysia is top seed. Perry is expected to meet either France’s Camille Serme or multiple US champion Latasha Khan in the quarter-finals. Last weekend, Perry went out in the semi-finals of the Carol Weymuller Open in New York to the unseeded Raneem El Weleily from Egypt. Weleily went on to win the tournament.
Ireland’s No 2 Aisling Blake played in the Alexandria Open in Egypt, where she reached the quarter-finals.
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| Ireland’s winning 680kg team |
TUG OF WAR: Ireland beat Sweden to win the 680kg title at the European Tug of War Championships in Minehead, England, with a team dominated by members of the legendary Boley club from New Ross in Co Wexford. Earlier in the competition Boley had won a European club title at 680kg and also took bronze at 640kg. The Irish men finished 5th in the 720kg class, while the women did well to finish 6th at 560kg.
GYMNASTICS: After taking a first ever bronze medal for Ireland at the Salamunov Memorial World Series Cup in Maribor, Slovenia, Kieran Behan leads a strong Irish team at next week’s World Championships in Tokyo. Behan, who is based in England, finished third in the floor final at Maribor, just 0.225 behind the winner. He also finished 15th in the high bar. Also competing in Tokyo are Luke Carson, Rohan Sebastian, Charlotte McKenna and Sophie McCoo.
MODERN PENTATHLON: After topping their qualification pools, Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Eanna Bailey finished 14th and 16th at the Junior European Modern Pentathlon Championships in Drzonków, Poland.
Natalya Coyle finished 15th in the women’s competition after a gutsy run. In the mixed team competition, the Irish pair of Coyle and O’Keeffe finished fifth.
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