EQUESTRIAN: Cian O'Connor came close to winding up the Towerlands international as he started, with a win, writes Grania Willis.
But the 11-year-old mare Zanoubia, which provided the horsepower for O'Connor's triumph on the opening day of the four-day British fixture, was more than two seconds in arrears in yesterday's Speed Grand Prix for third place behind the home side's Geoff Luckett with Marlene.
The Irish were continually in the money throughout the weekend, with Edward Doyle picking up a second place in Friday night's Anglezarke Salver and O'Connor slotting Casper into fourth in the accumulator, followed home in the line-up by Dave Quigley and Doyle.
O'Connor's stablemate Ryan Crumley completed the Irish placings with fifth on Baltimore in last night's Grand Prix.
Over at the World Cup show in Stuttgart, Jessica Kürten rode Castle Forbes Libertina into fifth in Saturday's Ladies' German Masters, but a fence down in the first round of yesterday's World Cup left the Irish rider out of the money in 21st.
The Germans dominated yesterday's 15-horse jump-off, claiming the top three slots, with Marcus Ehning in the driving seat on Gitania, ahead of his compatriots Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst.
TENNIS: David Nalbandian fought back from two sets down to stun world number one Roger Federer to win the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai, China, yesterday.
Nalbandian's 6-7 6-7 6-2 6-1 7-6 victory - only Federer's fourth loss all year - snapped the Swiss maestro's 35-match winning streak and denied him a share of John McEnroe's professional-era record for a season of 82-3 set in 1984.
RUGBY LEAGUE: Normal service was resumed as Great Britain succumbed 26-14 to the might of the reigning champions Australia and crashed out of the Tri-Nations Series on Saturday.
Australia ran in three second-half tries and set up an Antipodean final with New Zealand at Elland Road next Saturday.
Britain needed a three-point win to stay alive, but their only tries came while Australia were down to 12 men each time through the sin-binning of Trent Barrett, who was shown the yellow card in the 28th and 74th minutes.
CYCLING: Following their good performances as part of the Giant Asia team this year, Irish riders David McCann and Paul Griffin are considering two offers for next season. Both have been given the option of a two-year extension with Giant Asia, while places on a new, as yet unnamed, American team are also a possibility.
The Irish duo rode strongly during 2005 for their team, taking several wins, and as a result Giant Asia are keen to hold on to both riders.
Meanwhile, with former national cyclo-cross champion Robin Seymour and current title holder Roger Aiken both out of the country, Niall David (IMBRC) won a two-up sprint with Philip Roche (Team WORC) to take the Kilbroney Park event on Saturday.
