TRIATHLON: London-bound triathlete Aileen Morrison finished 14th at the Kitzbuhel World Series event in Austria – her final race before the Olympics. Morrison, in the middle of a heavy training block, came out of the water in 19th place. After a tough 40km cycle, where her group closed the gap on the leaders, she produced a storming time of 35 minutes for the 10km run, clawing her way back to 14th place. Up front, Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig made it three victories in a row. Morrison now heads for three weeks of high altitude in Spain to put the finishing touches to her Olympic preparations.
Locally, Bryan Keane won the 28th edition of the aptly named Hell of the West Triathlon, organised by the Limerick club in Kilkee. Nearly 700 competitors took to the waters of Kilkee Bay, with Keane, in his first Olympic distance triathlon for almost a year, taking an early lead on the swim.
On the bike stage , he was passed by Nenagh Tri Club’s Shane Scully, with Cork veteran Trevor Woods, Setanta’s Bryan McCrystal and Bjorn Luddick of ActiveMultisport close behind.
That left the run and about half way through, Keane overtook Scully and went on to win the race by a distance. Scully was a clear second with McCrystal winning the battle for third place. T3’s Jennifer O’Connell was first woman, beating Vanessa Fenton and and Limerick Tri Club’s Andree Walkin.
BADMINTON: Chloe Magee and Scott Evans will fine-tune their preparations for the London Games at the White Knights Badminton Challenge in Gatchina, Russia starting next Wednesday July 4.
Magee is seeded at No 2 for the women’s singles behind Swedish player Larisa Griga. With brother Sam, Magee is also seeded at No 2 for the mixed doubles. In the men’s singles, Scott Evans, the No 5 seed, is scheduled to face second seed Ville Lang of Finland in the quarter-finals.
Evans and Sam Evans will also turn out in the men’s doubles where they play Russian pair Vasily Belevantsev and Maxim Popinov their opening match.
* Follow the Irish players online on www.tournamentsoftware.com from July 4-8.
VOLLEYBALL: After a fighting performances at the qualifiers for the European Championships in Malta, the Irish women’s volleyball team is now confidant it can make it through next time.
The team, captained by Claire Treacy, was one or two points away from a breakthrough in all four of its matches. Highlight was a two-hour marathon against Liechenstein, which they only lost in the tie-breaking fifth set. Team hitter Noemi Kuncik scored 18 points, Anita Dowling was named best blocker of the match and Lyndsey Condell best server in a fighting team display that won them a standing ovation from the crowd. Tellingly, this match was their third of the tournament, when the team was well warmed up and had got used to the heat of the hall.
Although they lost their final match to Scotland the following morning, the team can look forward to the next campaign in two years time, when they can call on members of an exceptional Irish junior women’s squad as back-up.
TUG OF WAR: Gortletteragh from Co Leitrim retained their senior 600kg title when they beat Boley from Co Wexford in the second round of National Tug of War Schampionships in Dundalk. Nine teams were in action, with Lakehill of Co Mayo finishing third and Killoughey from Co Offaly defeating Ballinagh from Co Cavan to win the Div 2 title. In the novice final, Stapletons from Co Galway defeated the Burren from Co Clare to win the title with Boyneside from Co Offaly third. The Boyneside women’s team finished top of both 405kg and 435kg women’s leagues.
CANOEING: Andrzej Jezierski from Co Cork who has qualified for the London Olympics, finished fifth in the men’s C1 final at the European Sprint Canoeing Championships in Zagreb. In a solid Irish team performance all round, Jenny Egan was eighth in the women’s K1 5000m final and ninth in the K1 500m B final, while her Salmon Leap clubmate Barry Watkins was second in the men’s K1 500m B final.
In K2, Seán Marchetti and Val Peirce were ninth in the 200m B final.
In Denmark, Neil Fleming of Celbridge Paddlers produced the best performance of his career so far to finish second at the Marathon World Cup.
Slalom paddlers were in Cardiff for their World Cup, where Ciaran Heurteau finished 23rd after making the K1 semi-finals, while Hannah Craig failed to progress from the women’s K1 heats finishing 34th.
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