Boxing: Dubliner Bernard Dunne and Belfast flyweight Liam Cunningham improved Ireland's chances of attaining further places in the Sydney Olympics when winning their contests at the last session of qualifiers in Venice yesterday.
Featherweight Dunne was a 64 winner over Czech Konstant Slachbart, but looked far better than the score would indicate, after knocking his opponent down in the second round. He now meets an Armenian Simonyan Artyom in tomorrow's quarter-finals. Dunne must win the final to qualify.
Cunningham beat his Albanian opponent Arthur Gaboceja. He now faces Dale Robinson of Britain in the quarter-finals.
John Kinsella, the Irish super heavyweight champion, went down 7-4 to Romanian Constantin Onofrei.
Also in Venice, Kevin Walsh, the St Colman's Cork middleweight, failed to qualify for a European Championship place when beaten 7-5 by Sergi Sabigsky of Belarus.
Tennis: Ireland cleared the first hurdle in their Fed Cup bid against Malta in Estoril Portugal yesterday, writes Pat Roche.
Straight sets wins by singles players Kelly Liggan and Yvonne Doyle laid the basis for a 2-1 win in the Euro African Group Two clash.
Ireland, the top seeds, slumped to a 2-6 deficit in the opening rubber and Liggan faced a set point at 4-5 but she subsequently brought her clay court experience to the fore and beat Lisa Camenjuli 7-5, 6-3.
Yvonne Doyle accounted for Sarah Wetz 6-4, 6-4 in an hour.
Gina Niland and Elsa O Riain went down in the doubles rubber as Camenjuli teamed up with Carol Casser Torreggiani for a 63, 7-5 win. O Riain. " "She was confident from the start" said Lowther. Ireland play Kenya today.
Athletics: Karen Shinkins has received a boost for her Olympic preparations with a new sponsorship deal with Kellogg's. The Irish 400-metre record holder has set five national marks in the past 18 months, lowering the outdoor time to 51.07 seconds last July and the indoor best to 52.85 seconds in Athens last month. Shinkins also finished fourth over the distance at the recent European Indoor championships in Ghent.
Swimming: Italian swimmer Viviana Susin has been banned for four years for too high a level of testosterone, the International Amateur Swimming Federation (FINA) announced yesterday in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her suspension results from having tested positive with a level greater than six at a meet in Lyon on January 25th, 1999.
The suspension went into force on March 25th. An appeal may be lodged within 30 days.
Boxing: Michael Carruth (31) will face Bristol-born Adrian Stone for the vacant IBO light middleweight title in the main event at the York Hall in London on Saturday, April 15th.
