Rowing: The international regatta in Ghent over the weekend confirmed that faith in Ireland's young, upcoming crews seems justified - but some of the more established rowers found the competition too hot.
Perhaps the most worrying performances over the two days from an Irish perspective were those of the lightweight double scull of Niall O'Toole and Derek Holland. This crew has been chosen to represent Ireland at the Munich World Cup regatta next month in the hope of showing form which might qualify a boat in the Olympic qualifier at Lucerne in July - but they finished fifth of five in Saturday's open final and failed to make the final yesterday after being drawn in a tough heat.
The heavyweight double of Sean Jacob and Albert Maher took third place in the open final yesterday, having finished fourth on Saturday, and the heavyweight pair of James Lupton and Kevin Boyle won a silver medal yesterday. Garda's eights, however, had to be content with fourth yesterday and did not make the final on Saturday.
The performances of the underage Irish crews were remarkable: Skibbereen won the junior eights yesterday, matching Neptune's performance on Saturday. The Cork crew also won the quadruple scull title on the Saturday. Neptune also won the fours title yesterday.
Timmy Harnedy of Skibbereen also came second in the open single scull yesterday having also finished second in the junior equivalent on Saturday.
Cycling: Brian Lennon of the St Tiernan's club took his second win of the year in yesterday's Waller Cup in Bohermeen, Navan. The 24-year-old outsprinted the Cidona Carrick rider Adrian Hedderman on the slightly uphill stretch to the line.
After his second place in last weekend's Tour of Ulster, national champion Tommy Evans went one better when he won the Tour of the Mournes. Evans is part of the five man Irish Team for the forthcoming FBD Milk Ras, and his recent results suggest that the Northern rider is coming into form as the weeks tick down to the race he won in 1996.
Motor Cycling: Michael Rutter, the 28-year-old former Grand Prix rider from Brierly Hill, West Midlands, rocketed to a tremendous treble on the V and M Yamahas at the International North-West 200 Road Races on the Portstewart-Coleraine-Portrush circuit on Saturday.
The only Irish win of the day came in the Production Machine Race, when Richard Britton won on a factory Honda.
Olympics Games: The organisers of the Sydney Olympics lost almost Aus$1 million yesterday when they mistakenly put athletics tickets on sale at half price.
An evening athletics session was publicised at cheaper day-session prices in newspapers and as a result 12,704 sports fans will get lucky.
Tickets which should have cost between $165 and $105 were advertised for half the price.
The error will cost the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympics (SOCOG) Aus$926,580 (Stg£359,710).
Cycling: French police are investigating the discovery of a bag containing syringes and unidentified substances in a waste bin during the Dunkirk Four Days cycle race, judicial sources said yesterday. A resident of Cappelle-laGrande where Saturday's fifth stage started found the bag and handed it to the police.
