BADMINTON: Sam Magee, playing with Mikkel Elbjorn from Denmark, reached the semi-finals of the Yonex Belgian Internationalbefoe going out to Jorgen Kock and Peter Zauner of Denmark. In the mixed doubles, Sam, with sister Chloe were seeded at No 2, but lost in the quarter-finals to Danish pair Kim Astrup Sorensen and Line Kjaersfeldt. Chloe Magee went out in the opening round of the women’s singles, while Scott Evans lost to No 2 seed Brice Leverdez of the Netherlands in the second round of the men’s singles.
Dublin’s Terenure Badminton Centre is the venue for this weekend’s Autumn Open with semi-finals and finals tomorrow (Sun). Among the likely finalists are Scott Burnside and Jennie King winners of the men and women’s singles at the Mount Pleasant Open a few weeks ago, the mixed doubles partnership of Daniel Magee and Fiona Glennon, and the women’s doubles pairing of Keelin Fox and Sian Williams.
TABLE TENNIS: Want to play table tennis with your workmates? The STIGA B2B Table Tennis League, open to all standards of player from novice to expert, starts next month. Info, entry forms and details of special discounts on equipment at wwww.irishtabletennis.com or the STIGA B2B League Facebook page.
SURFING: Weather and waves permitting, the European Surfing Championships began
yesterday (Fri) on the world-renowned surf breaks at Bundoran, with teams in action from 16 nations for the next ten days.
A strong Irish squad includes medal hopes Easkey Britton and Shauna Ward, bodyboarders Shane Meehan and Ashleigh Smith, Irish Open men’s champion Stephen Kilfeather, longboarders Stephen Kelleher and John McCurry, promising junior Ronan Oertzen, and “Waveriders” movie star Richie Fitzgerald,a veteran of the 1997 Eurosurf when Bundoran was also the venue.
SNOOKER: With Irish No 1 David Hogan back on the international pro tour, Vincent Muldoon and Colm Gilcreest will lead the entry at the snooker’s opening senior ranking tournament in the Ivy Rooms, Carlow next weekend (Oct 1/2).
Meanwhile, Monkstown’s Robert Murphy not only captained the Irish men’s senior team at the recent Home Internationals in Wales, but on all four of his matches. In a thrilling competition,Wales only came through for victory on the final day, when they beat Ireland 10-2.
Ireland retained their men’s billiards title with Ireland B finishing second and taking the David Joyce shield for best over all performance of the week.
TRIATHLON: Aileen Morrison finished fourth at the World Triathlon Championships race in Japan – the best result by an Irish triathlete this year so far. Morrison started with her trademark strong swim, and after a good cycle stage of 64 minutes 7 second and a 10km run of 34 minutes 48 seconds, finished in 1 hour 59 minutes 48 seconds. That put her only half a minute behind the winner Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand and ahead of world champion Helen Jenkins of Great Britain.
In the men’s race, Gavin Noble was forced to pull out on the run.
* Winners of the Lost Sheep Half Ironman in Kenmare were Eoin Cummins and Joyve Wolfe.
SWIMMING: Sorcha Barry became the latest Irishwoman to swim the English Channel last week, crossing from Dover to France in 12 hours 2 minutes. It put on the cap on a memorable summer in which a group of six Dublin swimmers set themselves the target of completing an Ironman triathlon, a two-way Channel relay and two solo channel swims. The efforts of Kevin Thornton, Julie Galloway, Lucy Gaynor, Dave Farrell, Sorcha Barry and Susanna Murphy also raised €12,00 for the National Rehabitiation Board.
* Also swimming the Channel last week was Ger Carty who made it in 18 horus 52 minutes.
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