Athletics: The first step in Sonia O'Sullivan's latest comeback trail begins in Glasgow tomorrow with the Britannic Women's 10km Road Race, writes Ian O'Riordan. It will be her first test since the illness-ruined cross country season, and it won't be an easy start.
Included in the field of 7,500 runners are five top class Kenyans, the most dangerous of which will be Joyce Chepchumba - former winner of the London and Chicago marathons. Lornah Kiplegat and Linah Cheruiyot are equally experienced.
But O'Sullivan is looking for nothing more than a good test of her fitness. "I'll run this just to get some idea of where I stand right now," she said this week." The ninth edition of this race, has also attracted a number of the leading British runners such as Marion Sutton and Trudi Thompson.
Also looking for some indication towards their track form tomorrow will be Seamus Power and Peter Mathews, who both run the Dublin five-mile classic in Walkinstown (2.0).
A national record will on the mind of Cork's Robert Heffernan when he competes in 20km race at the European Race Walking Cup in Dudince, Slovakia this afternoon. His own mark of one hour 21 minutes and 11 seconds is the target. Gillian O'Sullivan and Olive Loughnane will also seek fast times in the women's 20km race.
Cricket: It's that time of year again, the first round proper of the Irish Senior Cup - sponsored by Royal Liver - when the southern clubs enter the all-Ireland fray more in hope than expectation, writes Karl Johnston.
The southern record, since the only all-Ireland club competition was inaugurated in 1982 is dismal; to date, the triumph of Phoenix in 1986 has yet to be equalled by any other club from the south.
This time around, five local clubs at least will enjoy home advantage, with The Hills facing well-known opponents in Pembroke, who got a walk-over courtesy of North in the preliminary round. In that round, Leinster defeated Lurgan and Phoenix saw off UCC; today they are away to Downpatrick and Ballymena, respectively.
Elsewhere in Leinster, Clontarf, Old Belvedere, Railway Union and Rush will enjoy home advantage against Limavady, Brigade, Ardmore and Strabane, respectively. The southern clubs who make the journey north are Merrion, North County, Malahide, YMCA and Cork County.
Meanwhile, Brian O'Rourke, the Leinster Cricket Union's industrious Development Officer, has organised a northside Primary Schools tournament which will be staged at the Rush CC grounds at Kenure on Sunday. A similar event will be staged for southside Primary Schools at the CYM grounds at Terenure on Thursday next, May 24th, and the winners in each case will meet in a best-ofthree finals on a date to be announced later this summer.
Boxing: The Hyland brothers from Tallaght, Paul and Patrick, turned in the most notable performances for a family double in the finals of the National Junior Boxing Championships at the National Stadium last night, reports Pat Roche. The brothers were easy winners over Mark Magee of Donegal's Dunfanaghy at light-fly and Martin McKeown of St Patrick's Newry at bantam.
Big disappointment was Charlie Nash of St Joseph's Derry who was stopped at the end of the third round by Thomas Lee, the Oughterard flyweight, in accordance with the 15 points ruling. Nash had taken two standing counts of eight.
