Sport

Nesbitt goes into final day with two-minute lead

SPORT DIGEST: Andrew Nesbitt maintained his lead over the first two days of the Circuit of Ireland, and goes into today's stages…

Mon Apr 01 2002 - 01:00

SPORT DIGEST: Andrew Nesbitt maintained his lead over the first two days of the Circuit of Ireland, and goes into today's stages with a margin of almost two minutes over Derek McGarrity, writes Brian Foley.

But there could be a problem with the leading Subaru Impreza WRC as Nesbitt complained of a noise and vibration problem, which his service crew failed to cure.

Yesterday's stages in counties Leitrim, Cavan and Donegal claimed two front-runners, Peadar Hurson's Toyota and the Impreza of Daniel Doherty both retiring with transmission trouble.

This elevated Eamonn Boland to third in front of Austin McHale. However, McHale claimed that his Toyota Corolla WRC was down on engine power and he also experienced trouble with the front differential.

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The rally covers eight stages today in the Clogher Valley area near Enniskillen.

Overall placings (after two days) - 1, A Nesbitt 1 hr 52 mins 07 secs; 2, D McGarrity 1:54:08; 3, E Boland 1:54:21; 4, A McHale 1:56:56; 5, N Maguire 1:57:32; 6, D Greer 1:57:58

ROWING; Big plans for the use of the €1m just granted by the Government for the development of the National Rowing Centre in Cork stole the show at the a.g.m. of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union in Dublin on Saturday, writes Liam Gorman.

International team manager Mick O'Callaghan, who has overseen the work done at Inniscarra on the back of the £500,000 received in 1999, gave a powerpoint presentation of the extent of the development so far, and outlined the bones of the next phase. Slipways - as good as anywhere in the world, he said - dressing-rooms and toilet and shower facilities will be available for the national championships in August.

The plans to bring the facility up to World Championship standard will need another large tranche of Government funding. However "the rowing union must put money into it" too, event if it meant going into debt, O'Callaghan stressed.

Those interested in the massive ongoing work will be able to access a monthly update on rowing websites, he added, but "the best thing is to make your way down to Cork and have a good look".

President elect Frank Durkin thanked outgoing president Tom Fennessey for his five years in the job and outlined ambitious themes for his tenure, the key one being that "competitors are the most important people in Irish rowing".

Durkin, along with outgoing honorary secretary Jimmy Berminghan and outgoing honorary treasurer John McGeehan, must wait for 14 days from the a.g.m. to see if they will face challenges for their posts. An error in the calculation of the proper date for close of nominations means this window has been left for new nominations to be received.

Today is an important one for Irish rowing: the new chief coach and the elite women's group he has been coaching in Scotland - world champion Sinéad Jennings, Heather Boyle and Fiola Foley - will relocate to the National Rowing Centre.

CYCLING: With just today's stage remaining in the Fexco/Credit Union Rás Mumhan race in Kerry, the UK visitors Kevin Dawson and Mark Lovatt seem assured of taking the top two postitions overall. Both Team Compensation riders left their Irish competitors in little doubt as to their strength on Saturday when they powered clear towards the end of the 103 mile second stage around the Ring of Kerry.