SNOOKER: Kilkenny’s David Morris is into the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time in China after beating beat Northern Ireland’s Gerard Greene at the Wuxi Classic .
The 24-year-old, who regained his place on the tour through Q School last month, defeated Greene 5-2, with breaks of 77, 51 and 103. He now plays either Ali Carter or Lyu Hoatian.
SWIMMING: Fergal Sommerville of Eastern Bay SC has completed the treacherous North Channel swim from Scotland to Northern Ireland in 12 hours 51 minutes. Sommerville, who is the oldest swimmer to have completed the swim, started at 5am and finished at 17:51 on Sunday June 16. This is the earliest recorded North Channel Swim and only one to have been in June since records started. * Listen to Fergal on Today FM tomorrow Tuesday 11.20. Or see http://fergalsomerville.blogspot.ie/
SQUASH (update): Ireland finished 23rd at the men’s World Team Championships, beating Botswana 2-1 in their final match.
Steve Richardson got the team off to a good start with a straight sets win. It was Richardson’s seventh game in seven days and his fifth victory in the tournament. The Ballymena man is still going strong at the ripe age of 40.
A tired Arthur Gaskin lost his match to world No 15 Alistair Walker, and so it was left to Brian Byrne to brong Ireland home. He did it in style, winning in straight sets. The hard-hitting Botswana man managed to break strings in five rackets during the match!
CANOEING: Irish Olympian Andrzej Jezierski finished sixth in the C1 200m at the European Canoe Sprint Championships in Portugal. The Polish-born athlete started strongly but was reeled in during the middle stages of the race, which was won by Jevgeni Shuklin of Lithuania. Jezierski was less than a second behind.
Salmon Leap’s Barry Watkins finished seventh in the men’s K1 500m and eighth in the 1000m. Pat O’Leary, the first Irish paracanoeist to take part in an international championships made the men’s K1 200m final, finishing ninth. Jenny Egan finished fifth in the women’s K1 5,000m, losing out on a medal in the sprint for the line.
European Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe Championships (Irish results)
Saturday: Men – K1 1000m A Final: 8 B Watkins 3:33.420. C1 200m HT1: 2 A Jezierski 41.594. Paracanoe – K1 200m A Final: 9 P O’Leary. Women – K1 200m HT 1: 9 J Egan 47.429
Sunday: Men: K1 500m A Final: 7 B Watkins 1:44.421. C1 200m A Final: 6 A Jezierski 42.631 secs. Women – K1 5000m final: 5 J Egan 23:13.753.
MODERN PENTATHLON: Irish Olympian Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Naomi Mullins finished a creditable eighth in the mixed pairs at modern pentathlon’s World Cup final in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Highlight was the swim with their time of 1 mins 55 secs the fastest of the competition. In the individual men’s event, Lanigan O’Keeffe again swam well with the 11th fastest time, but never recovered from a poor result in the fencing and finished 33rd overall. Fellow Olympian Natalya Coyle had also qualified for the World Cup final but pulled out for medical reasons. Next up for Naomi Mullins is the Junior Europeans in Sofia, Bulgaria, starting next Tuesday.
BADMINTON: Both of Ireland’s mixed doubles pairs made it to the quarter-finals at the Lithuanian Future Series Badminton Open in Kaunas. Tony Murphy and Jennie King went out to Russian pair Andrej Ashmarin and Ekaterina Bolotova, while Owen Marron and Crona Rooney lost to Milosz Bochat and Joanna Stanisz of Poland. Joshua Magee made it through to the second round of the men’s singles, losing to Maxim Romanov of Russian, the No 8 seed. Magee also lost to Romanov and his partner in round 2 of the men’s doubles, where he had paired up with Prakash Viyajanath of South Africa. Owen Marron, who had won his three matches in the qualification tournament, went out in the opening round of the main draw.
At the Djarum Indonesia Open, Chloe Magee went out in the third round of the qualification tournament and, with brother Sam, lost in the second round of the mixed doubles qualifier. Scott Evans was forced to pull out of the tournament after picking up an injury at the Thailand Open a week earlier. Next up for the trio is the World Championships in Guangzhou, China, starting on August 5.
SNOOKER: A strong Irish team takes on Wales at the annual Celtic Junior Snooker Challenge in the Ivy Rooms, Carlow next Saturday June 22. Captaining the U16 team is Adam Fitzgerald, while Corey Ramsbotton leads the U14 squad. Wales beat Ireland in last year’s challenge.
Team – U16: Adam Fitzgerald (capt), Sean Burns, Shane Bates, Charlie Sweeney, Stephen Bateman and Keane McCarthy. U14: Corey Ramsbottom (capt), Fergal Quinn, Conor Kennedy, Noel Landers, Ronan Whyte and Ross Bullman.
WHEELCHAIR RUGBY: Irish wheelchair rugby team the Gaelic Warriors produced their best result yet with a second place in the Amsterdam Quad Rugby B tournament in the Netherlands. Taking on some the best club teams in Europe, the Warriors started their campaign with a narrow 52-47 victory over the Scorpions, and then beat the Crashing Dream Team 41-29. In their final match of an exhausting opening day, they consolidated an early lead against the Rolling Rhinos to win 66-32. The following day the Warriors made the final, where they lost to West Coast Crash, a team from Southport in England they have played often in the British League. Making up the young Irish team were Ger Scully, Neville Burrell, Aidan Hynes, Alan Dineen, Johnny Mulhall and Thomas Moylan.
TRIATHLON: Junior Irish triathletes Emma Sharkey, Aaron O’Brien and Con Doherty are in Alanya, Turkey this weekend for the European Junior Championships.
All three are in good form, with Aaron O’Brien 12th at his last international outing in France and winning the Junior National Series event in Athy. Con Doherty made a good start to his seasons with an impressive third in Portugal, while Emma Sharkey hopes to improve on her previous best of 15th at an international triathlon in Holton.
Locally, Russell White led home a field of 500 at the Crooked Lake Sprint Triathlon in Co Down, with Vodafone National Series points at stake. White’s time of 57 mins 7 secs put him over three minutes clear of Aidan Callaghan, who just held off Phil Wood for second place.
Base2Race’s Rachel Glendon in a time of 1:05:41 was first of the women, with Maeve Maher Mc Williams three minutes behind in second place and Vanessa Fenton beating Kim Hickey for third place.
HOCKEY: Gillian Garrett of Old Alex, better known as an umpire, captains the Irish women’s O-40 team at this weekend’s Women’s Masters Hockey Home Nations in Dublin. Ex-Irish international Tara Browne is one of two goalkeepers selected, with Richelle Flanagan another of the ex-international players on the squad. Linda Jenkinson of Loreto and Tracey Skoyles from Naas are just two vastly experienced players on an O-45 team that also included Alison Vance Thompson in goal. Railway’s Helen Johnston captains a strong O-50 team that includes a number of ex-international players, among them Orla Bell of Pembroke. The over 40 and 45 tournaments take place in the Pembroke Wanderers grounds in Dublin’s Ballsbridge with the O-50 and O-55s in nearby Railway Union. Spectators are welcome.
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