Athletics: Mark Carroll has been forced to abandon his plans to experiment with altitude training because of a foot injury. He intended to spend four weeks in May in the Colorado mountains, specifically geared to help him break his 5,000 metres national record, in what would have been his first period of training at such a high altitude, writes Ian O'Riordan.
But the Cork athlete has been sidelined for the past week and a half, forcing him to redesign his preparations for the summer track season. He had hoped high-altitude training would help him become the second European-born athlete to break 13 minutes for 5,000 metres.
Carroll was also due to race over 5,000 metres at this weekend's Penn Relays before he departed but he has targeted the Prefontaine meeting in Oregon on May 27th as the most likely start to the season.
Elsewhere, Sonia O'Sullivan is slowly getting back to full training after a chest infection stalled her competitive schedule for most of the last month.
After completing a second course of antibiotics, O'Sullivan is still taking a cautious approach and is restricted to easy running. The Cork athlete expects to be on the track in early June.
Cycling: After an early season hampered by the collapse of the Linda McCartney team, Waterford cyclist Ciaran Power recorded his best performance this year when he finished 20th in the world-ranked Paris-Camembert race in France, writes Shane Stokes.
The St Quentin-Oktos professional sprinted home in a small group racing for 15th place in the 1.2 ranked 208-kilometre event, finishing 20 seconds behind solo winner Laurent Brochard. Power retired early from the Paris-Roubaix classic on Sunday, but the Paris-Camembert ride shows the 25-year-old is shaping up for a good late-spring campaign. He is next due to compete in the Grand Prix of Denain on April 26th, with the Tour of Vendee following three days later.
Hockey: The venue for Saturday's Irish Senior Cup final between Ballymoney and Pegasus has been changed by the Irish Hockey Association from Belfield to Blaris (3.0), home of Lisnagarvey Hockey Club, "to minimise the risk involved in the present foot-and-mouth circumstances".
Traditionally the final has been held in Dublin but because this year's game is an all-Ulster affair and because of the current situation, the IHA believed the sensible course of action was to switch it to a northern venue.
Soccer: World governing body FIFA has criticised the organisers of last week's fatal football match in South Africa saying they were wrong to have let the match get underway.
Forty-three people lost their lives at Johannesburg's Ellis Park when thousands of fans forced their way into the stadium despite it already being full, FIFA secretary-general Michel Zen-Ruffinen said after a board meeting.
"A first analysis of the Ellis Park incident indicates that several of FIFA's basic recommendations were not observed," he said. "There was inadequate co-operation between stadium organisers and civil security forces, and the presence of metal fences inside the ground once again proved to be a death-trap."
Rugby: Northampton flanker Budge Pountney will miss the rest of the domestic rugby union season after injuring his knee, the club said yesterday. However, the Scotland captain should be fit for consideration for the British Lions. Pountney injured the knee in training for Northampton last week and underwent surgery.
