EQUESTRIAN: Ireland's show jumpers, with the European gold medal already secured, won against three crack German teams in the Wenz Euroclassic indoor team event in Bremen, Germany on Saturday, writes Grania Willis.
The Irish were level with the German number one squad after double clears from Peter Charles (Carnavelley) and Dermott Lennon (Liscalgot) and a clear and four from Jessica Kurten (Bonita).
The trio opted to run Lennon as their man in for the timed decider and, when Germany's Rene Tebbel returned a four-faulter with Meurer's Le Patron, Lennon produced the necessary clear for the win with Terence Harvey's Touchdown mare Liscalgot. The German number one team were second ahead of Germany 2.
CYCLING: Mark Scanlon finished seventh in the under-23 Paris-Tours classic yesterday. Scanlon led home a four-man group which finished 48 seconds behind race winner Samuel Dumoulin of Velo Club Lyon.
Meanwhile, Richard Virenque completed his comeback after a doping-suspension when he won the Elite race with a courageous long-range breakaway. Virenque went clear with fellow Frenchman Jacky Durand after just 12 of the 254 kilometres had elapsed and held off the charging main bunch to win by just four seconds.
Dutch rider Esther van der Helm proved best in the TQ Paper ladies two-day event over the weekend at Santry, winning two stages and placing second in the race time trial behind Irishwoman Susan O'Mara.
ATHLETICS: Kenya's Catherine Ndereba set a women's world best time of two hours 18 minutes 47 seconds yesterday in winning her second consecutive Chicago marathon, eclipsing the mark set a week ago by Japan's Naoko Takahashi. Ndereba won the Berlin marathon in 2:19.46 and became the first woman to dip below 2:20. Ndereba's compatriot Ben Kimondiu won the men's race in 2:08.52, finishing more than six minutes ahead of Ethiopia's Elfenesh Alemu.
