SHOW JUMPING: The Irish maintained their winning form at the Italian fixture in Arezzo yesterday, with Ed Little landing one of the Silver Tour speed classes and Harry Marshall claiming the runner-up slot in the Gold Tour jump-off less than 24 hours after his Thursday night win in the six-year-old class, writes Grania Willis.
Little, originally from Co Tyrone but now based with David Prentice in Co Down, brought out Belvedere to win by almost a second from the home side's Francesca Capponi in the Silver Tour speed and then added a fourth place with Pulserate in the two-phase class.
The Gold Tour also had plenty of Irish interest, with three top 10 placings. Marshall's time of 30.65 seconds with Swift wasn't quite fast enough for the top spot in the jump-off class, with Italy's Gianni Govoni and Coscard bettering that by over 1.5 seconds for a home win.
Reigning world champion Dermott Lennon, who finished second behind Cian O'Connor in last weekend's two-phase in Arezzo, steered Zora into seventh place in the 74-starter field.
Close to 100 went to post for the Gold Tour speed and Shane Breen kept the Irish in the picture when finishing fifth with Doraday, 4.67 seconds off the pace set by Brazilian winner Pedro Veniss.
TENNIS: It will be an all-Russian final in today's women's Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami when Maria Sharapova will clash with compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Sharapova won her semi-final against 18-year-old French teenager Tatiana Golovin, who lost the first set 6-3 but battled back in the second, staving off four match points before taking the set on a tie-break.
But disaster struck in the deciding third set when the teenager twisted an ankle while losing 4-3 and was taken to hospital.
"I felt a pain when I landed on this ankle," a tearful Golovin said. "We were even and I've tried to resume the game but when I felt the pain going through the whole ankle, I realised I could not go on."
"She was really unlucky, I feel bad for her," said Sharapova. "She was probably playing her best tennis, it was amazing, the game started to turn into a physical battle."
Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion, hammered world number one Amelie Mauresmo 6-1 6-4 in the other semi-final.
CRICKET: Captain Rahul Dravid hailed teenager Suresh Raina after his gritty unbeaten 81 steered India to a tense victory against England in the second one-day international in Faridabad yesterday.
The 19-year-old Raina stroked his maiden one-day 50 to power India to a four-wicket victory chasing 227 on a sluggish pitch, giving them a 2-0 lead in the seven-match series.
"Suresh showed great temperament and technique," he said. "He is a very exciting talent and such innings will give him lots of confidence."
Raina shared in a superb 118-run sixth wicket partnership with Mahendra Dhoni (38) after India had slipped to 92 for five.
"Chasing 230 on that wicket was not easy," Dravid said.
