TENNIS:To say the top-seeded players in yesterday's International Tennis Federation's finals (under-18) had a poor day at the office would be an understatement, writes Pat Roche.
The Donnybrook club has hardly ever seen such upsets; Mariyana Levova, the talented Bulgarian teenager who awaits an Irish passport to meet her intentions of playing for Ireland, and Britain's Alex Bull were beaten in straight sets as the number one seeds.
In Levova's case it could be argued she erred on and off the court. It was a major mistake on her part to compete through loyalty at her own Castleknock club tournament. It did seem, however, she had the capacity to deal with an unseeded player in Lisa Whybourn of Britain.
The British girl, ranked 1,175 against Levova's 385, was up for the challenge. She used her height and mobility well to cover the court and had a fatigued Levova in trouble from an early stage to run out a 6-2, 6-3 winner on the hour.
The boys' final was also quite an upset, Bull going out to his British compatriot Christopher Nott, 6-4, 7-5.
Meanwhile on the doubles scene Levova generated enough energy to partner Cork's Niamh Coveney to victory over Emily Southall and Emile Eskew (Britain), 6-4, 6-4.
Nott and his British partner, Chris Harrison, lost to Luke Starc and Nicola Martinez (Slovakia), 6-4, 6-4.
SAILING:In a surprise outcome to the Laser 4.7 European Championship at the National Yacht Club yesterday, the week-long leader of the Gold fleet found himself ousted to third overall by the end of the 12-race series on Dublin Bay, writes David Branigan.
The Russian Yan Chekh sailed ashore having valiantly battled to hold his lead all week but it was the Greek Alexios Katsios who triumphed after proving the more consistent of the pair.
The former Optimist sailor, who placed third in that class at the world championship three years ago, hails from Marathon near Athens and like Chekh began racing in the Laser 4.7 only in the last year.
Meanwhile, a fourth and a fifth place for the Croatian Tajana Ganic were enough to retain her overnight lead and win the women's title by 10 points.
Ireland's best result from the 12-race series came from Cork's Katie Tingle, who steadily improved all week to score 13th and 12th places yesterday, which, taken with her third and first places earlier in the series, gave her a highly creditable 12th place overall.
EUROPEAN LASER 4.7 CHAMPIONSHIP (at National YC); Final Overall Results: Men: 1 A Katsios (Gre) 56.0; 2 M Peresa (Cro) 61.0; 3 Y Chekh (Rus) 67.0; 4 A Zahtila (Cro) 69.0; 5 B Bignoli (Ita) 83.0; 6 A Chocholis (Gre) 83.0; 7 Y Hummel (Ned) 86.0; 8 F Kobielski (Pol) 88.0; 9 J Bozic (Slo) 90.0; 10 F Matika (Cro) 91.0. Best Irish: 42, R Vaughan 191.0; 62, A Ruigrok 279.0; 67, S Flanigan 328.0. Women: 1 T Ganic (Cro) 70.0; 2 M Broekhuizen (Ned) 81.0; 3 A Kordic (Cro) 83.0; 4 S De Luca (Ita) 85.0; 5 L Stock (Cro) 98.0; 6. A Stals (Bel) 100.0; 7 M Senkic (Cro) 100.0; 8 E Makowska (Pol) 104.0; 9 M Audyova (Cze) 112.0; 10 K Giraldi (Ita) 117.0; Best Irish: 12, K Tingle 142.0; 19, M Leonard 190.0; 27, K White 215.0.
SHOW JUMPING:Cameron Hanley missed out on victory by the skin of his horse's teeth - just over a 10th of a second - on the opening day of the Spanish fixture in La Coruna yesterday, writes Grania Willis.
The Mayo rider, who was this week named on the squad for next month's Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show, came into the arena knowing exactly what his target was, having just seen Germany's Franke Sloothaak take over the lead in 55.16 seconds with Quino 29.
As Hanley and SIEC Royal Star shot through the beam less than a minute later, the clock showed 55.3 to leave the Irish pair second, but a €2,000 pay cheque still wasn't a bad reward for less than a minute's work.
Jessica Kürten had got the Irish off to a pretty good start in the earlier two-phase speed class.
The world number three has been maintaining a pretty low profile - by her standards - of late, but she bounced back to form yesterday afternoon to stop the clock on 27.23 seconds with Kalande des Grez for third behind Portugal's Luis Sabino Gonçalves.
La Coruna, Spain, NH Hotels Trophy (speed) - 1, Germany's Quino 29 (Franke Sloothaak), 55.16 seconds; 2, Ireland's SIEC Royal Star (Cameron Hanley), 55.30; 3, Britain's Lactic Two (John Whitaker), 55.79. Mostoles Industrial Trophy (two-phase speed) - 1, Portugal's In-Chala-d'Eno (Luis Sabino Gonçalves), 26.12 seconds; 2, Spain's Baron de Chirel (Eduardo Alvarez Aznar), 27.09; 3, Ireland's Kalande des Grez (Jessica Kürten), 27.23.
ROWING:Orla Hayes was the one Irish athlete left with hopes of an A final place after another poor day for Ireland at the World Under-23 Championships in Strathclyde, Scotland, yesterday, writes Liam Gorman.
The 21-year-old Corkwoman finished a close second in her repechage of the lightweight single sculls to secure a place in today's semi-final(1.06).
France and Germany will be expected to take two of the three places on offer in the A final, so Hayes will almost certainly have to get ahead of the Austrian and Swiss scullers to make tomorrow's decider.
The four other Irish crews finished last in their repechages and will be in competition for lesser places today.
Lightweight single sculler Ger Ward, the lightweight and heavyweight four and the double scull of Paul Murray and Paul O'Brien would have been expected to do much better.
ATHLETICS: Ireland have won a further two medals at the European Youth Olympics, being staged in baking-hot Belgrade. That brings to four the number of Irish medals won this week.
In the 3,000 metres, Charlotte Ffrench O'Carroll was a clear second in a time of 9:37.89.
Kourosh Foroughi cleared 2.08 metres in the high jump for the bronze medal.
These followed Niamh Whelan's bronze medal in the 100 metres and the silver won by Noel Collins in the 2,000-metre steeplechase.
