Trevor Coyle has made a spectacular impact on his World Cup final debut at the Gothenburg Scandinavium, reports Grania Willis.
He has moved up to overnight second in the overall standings despite a frustrating runout during a 13-horse decider for yesterday's class honours that pushed the stallion Cruising down to seventh behind an unassailable John Whitaker and Virtual Village Heyman.
Coyle is now within 4.5 points of the defending champion Rodrigo Pessoa, whose careful clear yesterday put him fourth in the class behind Peter Charles and Traxdata Nustria but kept the Brazilian out in front in the rankings.
The top 25 now go through to tomorrow's final leg, with Pessoa hoping to add a second World Cup to the world title he picked up in Rome last autumn. But Coyle will have Cruising tuned to perfection for the final onslaught and will be waiting to pounce any error from the Brazilian.
World Cup: Second leg - 1, Britain's Virtual Village Heyman (John Whitaker); 2, USA's Rhythmical (Nona Garson); 3, Ireland's Traxdata Nustria (Peter Charles); 4, Brazil's Gandini Baloubet de Rouet (Rodrigo Pessoa); 5, Holland's RBG Finesse (Emile Hendrix); 6, Holland's Operette la Silla (Jan Tops); 7, Ireland's Cruising (Trevor Coyle).
Overall - 1, Rodrigo Pessoa, 0 faults; 2, Trevor Coyle, 4.5; equal 3, Ludger Beerbaum (Germany), Meredith MichaelsBeerbaum and Lesley McNaught (Switzerland), 5; equal 6, Nona Garson and Emile Hendrix, 5.5; 8, Beat Mandli (Switzerland), 7; equal 9, Peter Charles and Rene Tebbel (Germany), 8.
ROWING: UCC retained the Wiley Cup with a thrilling victory over Trinity in the senior eights in yesterday's University Regatta at Castlewellan, writes Liam Gorman.
In a closely fought race, UCC pulled clear of Trinity and held off a late push to win by half a length. Trinity won the intermediate eights, beating NUI, Galway, but UCD won the novice eight. Under the rules of the competition, UCC's win in the senior eight gave them the Wiley Cup for the second successive year.
UCD won the overall women's event, in a very tight contest with TCD where the senior fours victory was the key win.
Men: Senior eight: 1, UCC; 2, Trinity; 3, Queen's, 1/2l, 3l. Intermediate eight: 1, Trinity; 2, Queen's, 4l. Novice eights: UCD. Senior fours: 1, Trinity; 2, NUI, Galway, 4l. Senior pair: Trinity row over.
Women: Senior eight: 1, TCD; 2, QUB. Intermediate eight: QUB row over. Novice eight: TCD. Senior Four: 1, UCD; 2, TCD. rt from David OBrien for Irish Times Saturday 24th. Tel: 01 2846161
Sailing: In a regatta cut short by lack of wind, Howth's David Burrows was able to rest on the laurels of his penultimate race performance on Thursday to finish third overall at the prestigious Hyeres Olympic week yesterday and claim an Irish Sailing Association performance bonus of £3,000, writes David O'Brien.
More importantly he beat the World champion Fredric Loof of Sweden for the bronze position and the Atlanta silver medallist Sebastian Godefroid of Belgium who finished fifth in the 55-boat fleet.
Though the regatta was won in impressive style by Poland's Mateus Kusznierewicz with a 20-point margin Ireland snatched race four from the Pole when 21-year-old Burrows took the safer option to wear around the gybe mark after he saw Kusznierewicz capsize.
The result throws down the gauntlet to arch rival John Driscoll of Ballyholme, who also scored high in Hyeres, posting ninth overall and earning a £2,000 cash bonus.
In the women's single-handed Europe class, Maria Coleman of Cork finished 12th overall. This result qualifies her for 2000 Olympic participation.
Cricket: Malahide, winners of the Lewis Traub League last year, are free this weekend as the new season's competition gets under way, with three matches scheduled for today and one - in Cork - tomorrow, weather always permitting, of course, writes Karl Johnston.
But two players who helped to steer them to that success - Dara and Conor Armstrong - will be in action this afternoon, only for their new club, North County, against Merrion at Anglesea Road.
Rush: M Donnelly (capt.), N Shaukat, M Jamshid, Gareth Morgan, Gavin Morgan, A Butterley, R McGuinness, C Doyle, C McGee, A Cauldwell, M Sheridan.
Merrion: G Joyce (capt.), A Fleming, Dominic Joyce, Damian Joyce, S King, R Staunton, B Spanner, D Poder, R Dowse, J Morrissey, P Quinlan.
Railway Union: S Milton (capt.), M Tucker, G Molins, R Molins, A Barling, A Corcoran, B O'Brien, C Mullen, S Grehan, N O'Brien, R Greene.
Leinster: M Jones (capt.), J V Byrne, J E Byrne, P Byrne, H Wallace, R Waddell, D Clancy, P Reynolds, J Craven, T McDonnell, R McDonnell.
Umpires: Today: At Kenure: L Keegan, J Ford; At Anglesea Road: P Thew, D Walsh; At Rathmines: R MacClancy, D Brennan. Tomorrow: At The Mardyke: A Tuffery, S Daultrey.
