DIGEST: The Blarney Castle three-day event was called off yesterday morning when the waterlogged cross-country course was declared unrideable by technical delegate Andy Griffiths, Grania Willis reports.
Huge quantities of quarry dust had been put down on the track on Thursday morning in a bid to improve the footing but, following an early morning course inspection, the decision was made to cancel in the interests of safety.
"If we had run we would only have had half a competition because so many of the riders would have pulled their horses out and, if it had rained on Saturday, I would have had to stop it anyway," Griffiths said.
The cancellation at Blarney follows a string of other equestrian sporting cancellations, including the decimation of the end of season point-to-point calendar.
This weekend's main show jumping fixture at Stepaside, Co Dublin, which is part of the Kerrygold National Grand Prix series, was called off on Thursday, along with the Riding Club's Festival at Tattersalls in Ratoath, Co Meath, which was also due to run this weekend.
RUGBY: Aidan Kearney has joined Leinster from Ulster. Second row Kearney has represented Leinster Schools and Irish Schools and was a member of the Ireland side which won the Under-19 World Cup.
"Aidan is a tremendous talent and is well known to us - in particular to (Leinster assistant coach) Willie Anderson, from Aidan's time with Ulster and Dungannon," said Leinster manager Ken Ging.
CYCLING: Mario Cipollini of the Acqua & Sapone team won the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia to Brescia yesterday, taking his number of victories in this year's race to five - a quarter of all the stages in the 2002 race.
Cipollini won a sprint finish ahead of Italian Alessandro Petacchi of Fassa Bortolo and Austrian Rene Haselbacher of the Gerolsteiner team. In all, it was Cipollini's 39th stage win in the Giro and the 176th of his career.
Italian Paolo Savoldelli of the Index team retained the overall race lead.
The Giro will be decided today in the 43.9 km individual time trial from Cambiago to Minticello Brianza. It is likely to feature a battle between Savoldelli and US rider Tyler Hamilton of the CSC team, which could be decided by a matter of seconds.
Giro d'Italia (18th stage from Rovereto to Brescia): 1. M Cipollini (Ita) Acqua & Sapone four hours 12 minutes 44 seconds 2. A Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 3. R Haselbacher (Aut) Gerolsteiner. Overall: 1. P Savoldelli (Italy) Index 84 hours 49 minutes 55 seconds; 2. P Caucchioli (Ita) Alessio 55 seconds behind; 3. T Hamilton (US) CSC 1:28.
BASKETBALL: Michael Jordan is expected to resume workouts in Chicago today in order to determine whether or not he will return for another National Basketball Association season.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that Jordan (39) will go back to the court over the weekend, two months after ending his season early for the Washington Wizards due to knee injuries.
Tim Grover, Jordan's personal trainer, said the NBA legend will probably have an announcement on Jordan's status in the next two weeks.
Jordan underwent arthroscopic right knee surgery on February 27th and returned three weeks later, but missed the final seven games of the season with inflammation of the knee. In all, Jordan played in 60 of 82 Wizards games, averaging 22.9 points.
Jordan had considered having similar surgery on his left knee but has not had that operation.
After leading the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles from 1991 to 1998 and retiring for three seasons before making a comeback with the Wizards, Jordan signed a two-year contract with his salary going to September 11th relief aid.
