Tennis: TOP seed Rachel Dillon, the promising Dublin prospect whose talents are being honed under special tuition in Paris, reached the quarter-finals of the Dunlop Irish Open Junior championships at Fitzwilliam yesterday without losing a set, writes Pat Roche.

However, Sarah Farrelly of Kells proved a tenacious opponent for Dillon, who is playing in her first year at junior level. Farrelly led by 3-2 in both sets but Dillon fought back to win 6-4 6-3. Dillon, from Donnybrook, will face eight-seed Joanie Macken in the quarter-finals.

Cork's Aoife Turner, the number four seed, lost 3-6 6-3 2-6 after failing to deal with the consistent play of Lisa Walsh.

Boxing: Two members of the executive of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association have decided against resigning from office with the rest of the committee ahead of the association's annual convention in October.

IABA secretary Sean Crowley (Arklow) and treasurer Sean Horkan (Mayo) will go forward for re-election to their posts.

Meanwhile, Belfast's Martin Lindsey (bantam) and Gerry McAuley (welter) returned home yesterday with gold medals from the multi-nations event in Hungary.

Nominations - President: D O'Rourke, P McCrory. ain O Conaire. Vice President: H Doherty, J (Connaght) and J Smith. Standing Committee: A Carruth, M Power, T Mahoney, J Smith, E O'Kane, G Storey, S Canavan, J Poucher, F Ward, J Hernon, J Walsh.

Rowing: Frank Tierney, the former Financial Controller and Services Manager of the GAA, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union.

The appointment, which was widely expected, was unanimously approved by the executive of the union at the weekend. Tierney, who is presently on holiday, spent his last day as a GAA employee on Friday. He had held his most recent post since 1988.

Olympic Games: Afghanistan's Taliban movement will send two observers to the Olympic Games - but no athletes will be allowed to compete.

The decision follows a visit by a Taliban delegation to IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland two weeks ago.

Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee was suspended by the IOC last year because it no longer managed sporting activities in the country following the rise to power of the Taliban. However, it is still officially recognised.

The IOC had previously said if top-level athletes wanted to take part in the Games, cases would be considered on an individual basis, but this has not happened.