Olympic Games: Pat Hickey revealed yesterday that the Minister for Sport, Dr Jim McDaid, hasn't responded to an invitation to be a guest of the Olympic Council of Ireland in Sydney for the duration of the Olympic Games.
Responding to a question from the floor during the Council's agm in Dublin, Hickey said that the invitation has been issued two years ago but as yet, the minister had not indicated if he would accept.
What had been expected to be a mundane meeting, assumed a caustic note when a letter from the Athletics Association of Ireland, condemning the OCI for not affording them voting rights, was read to delegates.
In it, the AAI said that national federations engaged in the promotion of their sport on an on-going basis "may well need to consider the roles played by the leadership of the OCI".
Dermot Sherlock, the OCI's general secretary, said they had met with the AAI on several occasions and pointed to a thick file as proof of their correspondence with the AAI.
Equestrian Sport: Cameron Hanley, winner of the £66,000 Kerrygold Grand Prix at the RDS last Sunday, continued his winning ways at Millstreet yesterday when claiming the Waterford Crystal jump-off class with Ballaseyr Twilight, writes Grania Willis.
The 11-year-old Clover Hill gelding, which Hanley had ridden to victory in the King George V Gold Cup in Hickstead a fortnight before the Dublin win, was drawn last of six against the clock and, as the only horse to break through the 40-second barrier, richly deserved the victory.
Ramiro Quintana, a 23-year-old Argentinian training in Maryland with Joe Fargis, slotted into second with the Danish-bred Lacoste, ahead of James Kernan and Cheyne Walk.
But there was less bouyant news from the junior European show jumping championships, where Ireland's quartet of Olive Clarke, Louise Walshe, Samantha Duffy and Cameron Hanley's dropped out of the medals in yesterday's team decider, finishing fifth behind Britain, Germany, Holland and France.
Rugby: Springbok loosehead prop Robbie Kempson was yesterday ruled out of the TriNations Test match against the All Blacks at Ellis Park in Johannesburg today after being laid low by influenza.
Kempson's number one jersey has been handed to stand-in Ollie le Roux of the Sharks, with Cats prop Willie Meyer on the replacements bench.
New Zealand: C Cullen; T Umaga, A Ieremia, P Alatini, J Lomu; A Mehrtens, J Marshall; C Hoeft, A Oliver, K Meeuws, T Blackadder, N Maxwell, T Randell, J Kronfield, R Cribb. Replacements: L MacDonald, T Brown, B Kelleher, S Robertson, T Flavell, G Somerville, M Hammett.
South Afri Esterhuizen, R Fleck, B Paulse; B van Straaten, W Swanepoel; O le Roux, C Marais, C Viasagie, A Ventre, M Andrews, J Erasmus, C Krige, A Vos (captain). Replacements: J Smit, W Meyer, A van den Berg, W Brosnihan, J van der Westhuizen, J van der Westhuyzen, P Montgomery.
Olympic Games: At least five former Cuban athletes - one of them a world champion - are likely to see their Olympic dream turned to into a nightmare because the authorities in Havana refuse to recognise them.
"All the athletes in this position, who were Cubans but abandoned us, will face the same categorical refusal from us and none will be authorised by our Olympic committee to defend a different flag," the President of the Cuban Olympic Committee (COC), Jose Ramon Fernandez, said.
The most high-profile case involves world champion long-jumper Niruka Montalvo, born in Cuba but a naturalised Spaniard.
