A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Strong show from O'Leary and Burrows

Ireland’s Olympic sailors opened with a strong performance on Weymouth Bay on the south coast of England yesterday.

Peter O’Leary with David Burrows lie second overall in the men’s keelboat event sailed in the Star class after two races.

After a 30-minute delay to allow the breeze to settle, racing for the 16-boat fleet got under way with the Irish boat appearing to trail towards the rear.

However, a wind shift brought the Cork/Dublin pair to the front, one place behind the French team.

“The time we spent here is definitely paying off, we feel as much at home here as the Brits so there’s some home-waters advantage,” Burrows said.

In the second race, the pair had a brilliant first lap of the course and led the fleet by up to 50 metres until Brazil’s Robert Scheidt with Bruno Prada and Britain’s Iain Percy with Andrew Simpson closed in and took over the lead.

That battle continued to the end and the result was being debated in the protest room as officials differed over the neck-and-neck finish between the pair.

“We got unlucky in the second beat as we got out of phase as the whole fleet closed in,” said Burrows. “It was almost a restart so we’re happy enough with sixth.”

Conditions varied across the course with wind ranging from 10 to 18 knots during the day and Burrows estimated that opposite sides of the course held as much as four knots of difference in the breeze. DAVID BRANIGAN

Foot injury adds to previous woe  for Radcliffe

Paula Radcliffe’s dreams of making up for previous bitter Olympic disappointments were ended yesterday.

Radcliffe formally withdrew from the women’s marathon after admitting defeat in her battle against a degenerative foot problem.

The 38-year-old had been hoping to claim a first Olympic medal in her fifth Games.

“I have been through the mill emotionally and physically the past three weeks, cried more tears than ever, vented more frustration and at the same time calmly tried every direction and avenue available to heal myself,” Radcliffe said.

“Now is the time to rest totally, give my body chance to recover.”

Honduras send Spain home with shock victory

Spain were knocked out of the Olympics as Honduras pulled off a shock 1-0 win at St James’ Park last night.

Jerry Bengston’s seventh-minute header ensured that the Spaniards, whose senior team are reigning World and European champions, will go home early following an opening defeat by Group D leaders Japan.

Iker Muniain hit the post and substitute Rodrigo the bar amid a second-half Spanish onslaught, but Honduras battled heroically to keep them at bay.

Bengtson got the game off to a sensational start when he climbed high to power Roger Espinoza’s driven cross past Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea.