Motor Sport: Donegal's Damien Faulkner moved a step closer to Formula One yesterday when he won the European Formula Palmer Audi Championship at the series' penultimate meeting at Brands Hatch.
The 24-year-old from Moville claims the series prize of a fully paid drive in the European Formula 3000 championship, the junior series to Formula One which features on the bill alongside the premier class at most of the European F1 races.
Many past F3000 racers have gone on to careers in Formula One including David Coulthard, Eddie Irvine, Jean Alesi and as recently as this year Nick Heidfeld, the young German who won the 1999 championship. Faulkner won the series in fine style. Having established a 25 point championship lead over his nearest rival, England's Justin Keem, Faulkner sealed the championship win at this weekend's Brand Hatch double header, qualifying on pole for both of yesterday's races and then taking victory in the first race and second in the later event, leaving Keen without hope of reply at Magny Cours in three weeks' time.
"I deliberately did not calculate the championship situation as I wanted to stay focused on each race," said Faukner. "Now that it has been confirmed I just don't have the words to explain how good it feels, it just hasn't sunk in yet."
Gaelic Games: At today's All-Ireland lunch in the Citywest Hotel in Dublin, the GAA will unveil their initial commercial deals on behalf of the Players Advisory Group. The plans centre on the agreement of 10 companies to contribute £25,000 each to a fund that will be used to open endorsement opportunities for players.
The timing of the move will be seen as a response to the unofficial Gaelic Players' Association (GPA) announcement of a similar deal last month. That involved the use of 10 inter-county players to make promotional appearances for the Marlborough Group recruitment agency.
Murray Consultants is the official agency appointed by Croke Park to handle commercial opportunities on behalf of players. This scheme features what are being called "foundation sponsors" who will come up with £250,000 in return for being able to use players from a pool of 100 for promotional and endorsement campaigns.
Equestrian: Ireland's show jumpers continued their incredible run of success with a runaway victory in the world's richest Nations Cup at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Saturday, winning by a distance to create yet another new record with the 10th Irish win in the current Samsung series.
Saturday's Calgary win came at one of the toughest shows in the world and was previewed by individual wins for team members Dermott Lennon and Billy Twomey.
Lennon and Liscalgot were pathfinders and came home with just a quarter of a time fault and even a single mistake from Twomey and Conquest wasn't enough to spoil the chances.
Superb clears from both Jessica Kurten (Paavo N) and Kevin Babington (Carling King) left Ireland on just .25 at the break, with the Germans closest on four.
While the German challenge fell to pieces, with both of their first riders returning eight-faulters, to allow the Dutch through to second, the Irish soared away from the rest and, when Kurten put in one of only two double clears, victory was assured without the need to call on Babington a second time.
The win left each of the four $12,500 Canadian dollars richer, plus a share of the 50,000 Swiss Francs for the overall Samsung series victory and now makes Ireland red-hot favourites to claim the final in Rome next month when all teams revert to a zero score.
Bank of Montreal Nations Cup: 1, Ireland, 4.5 faults; 2, Holland, 16; 3, Germany, 16.25; 4, Switzerland, 20.75; 5, Britain, 21; 6, America, 40.
American Airlines Fight To The Finish: 1, Ireland's Garronturton Lady (Dermott Lennon); 2, Switzerland's Cosima (Marcus Fuchs); 3, Figaro's Boy (Ludger Beerbaum).
ATCO Power: 1, Ireland's Hilton (Billy Twomey); 2, Ireland's Paavo N (Jessica Kurten).
Cycling: Ireland team riders David O'Loughlin and Brian Kenneally both received boosts to their end-of season aspirations yesterday when they were second and third respectively in the world-ranked Tour of the Peaks in Derbyshire.
O'Loughlin (22), who this weekend was offered a trial with the professional Linda McCartney squad, went clear with eventual winner Mark Lovatt 20 miles into the hilly race and eventually finished one minute and 34 seconds in arrears. Kenneally jumped clear of a nine-man chasing group to finish a further one minute and 16 seconds behind.
Back home another McCartney-destined cyclist, Mark Scanlon was best in both the Collins/Christle Memorial and the Beechmount Cup in Meath this weekend.
Cricket: Pembroke, along with Railway Union, were relegated for the first time to Section B of the Leinster Senior League when a faster run-rate victory at Sydney Parade enabled The Hills to maintain their Section A status next season. Pembroke's David Holt with 60 was the game's top scorer.
Matt Dwyer, Barry Archer and Mark Clinton were The Hills' top batsmen, and Richard Hastie captured 6 for 43 off his 15 overs for Pembroke. Meantime on Saturday, Jeremy Bray of Phoenix scored an undefeated 58 against The Hills to set a new Leinster record of 1,273 runs for the season in 21 matches and 21 innings, during which he hit two centuries and ten fifties, for an average of 115.7.
