Athletics: Derval O'Rourke set an Irish junior record of 13.61 seconds to win through to the second round of the 100 metres hurdles at the World Junior Championships in Santiago, Chile, yesterday. O'Rourke finished third in her heat and qualified as one of the fastest losers.
Kilkenny's Emily Maher won her first round heat in the 100 metres in 11.71.
Boxing: Wayne McCullough has been warned against complacency ahead of Friday's fight with Hungarian Sandor Koczak at the Ulster Hall in Belfast. Felix Racz, Koczak's manager, believes McCullough's bid to claim a second world title will not get off the ground. "This is Koczak's big chance to get into the world scene and I think he can do it. Wayne may be taking him too easily, maybe thinking he's just there to fill the card," said Racz.
"But I think he's going to shock McCullough. We know that Wayne has more experience, which is an advantage, but Sandor hasn't been in the kind of wars that Wayne has been in during his career, which is to the advantage of Sandor.
Koczak comes to Belfast as something of an unknown quantity, though he has a good record of 17 wins and only one defeat.
Basketball: The Irish Basketball Association has named Joey Boylan as new head coach of the Irish junior team. He succeeds John O'Connor, was held the position for the last decade.
Coach to the Dublin side the Saints for the last 16 years, Boylan is the longest serving coach in the league. He has won two league medals, three cup medals and five national championships with the club as either player or coach. The main target with the junior side will be the European Championship qualifiers in August of next year.
Snooker: Mark Williams remained in first gear as he slogged his way into the last 16 of the £440,000 Grand Prix at Telford International Centre yesterday. "The harder I try, the worse I seem to get," said the world champion after registering an unconvincing 5-3 win over Scotland's Billy Snaddon. "If I get any worse I'll be in real trouble and the frustrating thing is that when it comes to practice I've probably never played better snooker in my life. That was shocking, dreadful."
