DIGEST: Just three days into 2003 and golf's Padraig Harrington has claimed his first accolade of the New Year by winning the RTÉ/Hibernian Sports Personality of the Year Award, writes Johnny Watterson.
Harrington, who was part of Europe's Ryder Cup winning team at The Belfry in September and finished second in the European Order of Merit, picked up his award during last night's televised banquet at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin along with Kerry GAA legend Mick O'Connell (Hall Of Fame), Armagh (Team of the Year) and Dublin footballer Stephen Cluxton (Young Personality of The Year).
A shortlist of 11 sports stars were in the running for the overall prize, including soccer's Robbie Keane and Damien Duff; Sonia O'Sullivan from athletics; Gaelic football's Kieran McGeeney and hurling's Henry Shefflin; Irish rugby outhalf Ronan O'Gara; record winning jump jockey Tony McCoy; show jumping world champion Dermott Lennon and Sam Lynch from rowing, as well as Harrington's Ryder Cup team mate and fellow Dubliner Paul McGinley, who sank the winning putt at The Belfry.
Harrington emerged from a 2002 season as one of the most consistent golfers in the world and promptly followed up with a win in the Asian Open and a rare victory over Tiger Woods in the Target Challenge.
O'Connell from Valentia Island in south Kerry, won four All-Ireland titles in a career which spanned three decades, while Cluxton represented a new breed of young Dublin footballers. He won his first All Star award last year.
Armagh, under captain McGeeney and manager Joe Kernan earned Team of The Year for their All Ireland win over hotly-fancied Kerry.
ATHLETICS: Several Irish athletes compete in this afternoon's Great North Cross Country in Newcastle with the prospect of placing in the top finishers, partly because of the defection of many of the elite entries, writes Ian O'Riordan.
Paula Radcliffe's withdrawal from the women's 6.8km race due to a bacterial infection has certainly increased the chances of Anne Keenan Buckley taking one of the leading places. The Laois athlete is still showing no signs of slowing down, and is already thinking of another strong performance at the World Cross Country in Lausanne in March.
Joining her are Maria McCambridge and Pauline Curley in a race where Kenya's Edith Masai will now start as the favourite. The Ethiopian duo of Derartu Tulu and Gete Wami also withdrew last week, and all three Irish athletes are capable of making it into the top 10.
On the men's side Seamus Powere has himself had to withdraw after suffering a minor dose of the flu over the New Year, and Irish interest in the short-course 4.1km race now consists of Cork's Fiachra Lombard, and Dublin's Eugene O'Neill, Mark Kenneally and Rob Connolly.
There is also Irish interest in the 9km race with Galway's Paul McNamara and Paul Reilly.
TENNIS: World number one Serena Williams settled a score with Kim Clijsters at the Hopman Cup in Perth as the United States beat Belgium 2-1 to reach the final.
Williams, beaten by Clijsters in the WTA Tour Championships in November, avenged the defeat with a battling performance, winning 7-5, 6-3 in 67 minutes.
In today's final Williams and Blake will line up against Australia's world number one Lleyton Hewitt and Alicia Molik.
