Sports Digest: Gareth MacHale, straight from having finished 17th in the Monte Carlo Rally, picked up the Billy Coleman Award for the Young Rally Driver of the Year as Irish Motorsport honoured their National Champions at a gala lunch in Dublin yesterday.
Peter Dempsey picked up the Dunlop Young Racing Driver of the Year Award. Both Young Driver Awards are part-funded by the Irish Sports Council.
Noel Smith, winner of the first four National Rally Championships and who passed away at the end of 2004, was posthumously inducted into the Motorsport Ireland Hall of Fame. The International Driver of the Year Award, as voted by the media, went to Eoin Murray for his outstanding achievement in winning the 2005 International Alfa Romeo Challenge.
Annan urges truce
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on warring parties throughout the world to observe the Olympic truce during next month's Winter Games in Turin.
Speaking after a meeting with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge yesterday, Annan said: "The period of the Olympic Games is obviously not long enough for us to believe that we can use it to establish lasting peace," Annan told reporters afterwards.
"It is however a chance for protagonists to look around, see how they are destroying their communities and take the chance to explore other options."
Introduced into the modern Olympics in 1991, the truce calls for the suspension of fighting for the duration of the Games.
Hall swings it for SA
South Africa's Andrew Hall produced an inspired bowling performance to ensure his side sneaked a nine-run victory over Sri Lanka in a triangular series one-day match in Adelaide yesterday.
Sri Lanka had been cruising to victory, chasing South Africa's 263 for five before Hall and Johan van der Wath combined to take wickets and restrict runs.
Tillakartne Dilshan (82 not out) and Mahela Jawayardene (52) combined to scored 107 runs and looked on course for the target of 224 for five in the 45th over before Jayawardene was bowled by van der Wath.
Hall then bowled Russel Arnold and ran out Malinga Bandara on successive balls and then bowled five no-scoring "dot" balls in the final over to restrict Sri Lanka to 254 for eight.
