Today's other stories in brief
Another setback for England
RUGBY:Nick Easter has been forced to fly home just four days after arriving in New Zealand as England's preparations to face the All Blacks suffered another setback. He has failed to recover from a fracture to his right hand, suffered while captaining an England XV to victory over the Barbarians last weekend. Easter (29) is the fourth player to pull out of the squad, following Wasps outhalf Danny Cipriani (broken ankle), his replacement Dan Hipkiss (fractured cheekbone) and winger Paul Sackey (knee).
Barry takes title in Estonia
TENNIS:Sam Barry struck a major blow for Irish under-age tennis when capturing the ITF under-18 boys' singles title in Tallinn, Estonia, on Saturday.
The second-seeded Limerick player, who has two more years left at under-18 and is a member of Tennis Ireland's National Junior Training squad, overwhelmed France's unseeded Valentin Nourrissat, who had earlier eliminated top seed Jonathan Kidane of Sweden 6-2, 6-2 in the final.
His straight sets success marked Barry's first ITF under-18 title, and was a case of third time lucky after runner-up achievements in similar events in Qatar and Turkmenistan.
Earlier on Saturday in the semi-finals, right-hander Barry recovered from a shaky start to overcome Germany's Leandro Toledo 4-6 6-4 6-1. It was a a welcome change of luck after the Irish women's Fed Cup defeat in Estonia last January.
City in pursuit of Ronaldinho
SOCCER:Manchester City will persist in their attempts to pull off the most amazing transfer coup of the summer after extensive talks over the weekend concluded with Ronaldinho mulling over a contract that would make him the best-paid footballer in the world.
That would mean him getting close to €250,000 a week, a salary that would be partly funded by sponsors and Thai backers. First City want the former world footballer of the year to give them a clear answer about whether he would be willing to move to England.
Garry Cook, City's new executive chairman, confirmed yesterday a club-record €22.5 million deal for Jo, the Brazilian striker, would be concluded with CSKA Moscow in the next week, subject to the striker getting a work permit.
Ronaldinho is seen as the showman who would guarantee full houses and with that in mind a delegation from the club flew to Porto Alegre on Saturday to try to set up the deal. "I don't want to give too much away, but Barcelona gave us clearance to talk to him," said Cook. "We're nowhere near completion . . . At the moment, though, we're just ticking off the boxes."
The discussions were mainly with Ronaldinho's brother, Roberto de Assis, who is acting as his agent. However, Ronaldinho briefly put in an appearance, too, and there will be more talks over the next two days.
Youths stake claims for Mexico
BOXING:Eleven new Irish champions are in contention for selection for the national squad for the World Youth Championships in Mexico later this year (October) after claiming youth titles at the National Stadium in Dublin on Friday night.
Stylish Belfast light heavyweight Tommy McCarthy, the reigning Ulster senior champion, Ruairi Dalton, Tyrone McCullagh and Tyrone McKenna all had their hands raised in victory at the home of Irish boxing.
Declan Geraghty was also celebrating after edging his light flyweight contest with Garry Molloy on a count-back, the Dockland teenager emerging victorious from an edge-of-the-seat affair by a margin of two points.
Ray Moylett saw off the challenge of his own St Anne's team-mate, Martin McDonagh, leading all the way to a 9-4 decision on an evening of mixed emotions for the Mayo club, while Jamie Kavanagh bounced back from losing the first round to tie the next two before denying Patrick J Ward.
Meantime, David Joe Joyce earned a deserved victory over Christy Boyle, who put in a solid final round, restricting Joyce, who received a public warning in the final frame, to one point while securing four of his own.
Geesala middleweight David Barrett got ahead early and built on his lead to the final bell in his contest against Matthew O'Sullivan.
Ross Lacey took the heavyweight honours for Munster following a convincing win over Luke Cadden and super heavyweight Darren Cruise brought the curtain down on a top-class tournament with a 11-4 victory over John Stokes.
The 2008 World Youth Championships will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, between October 25th and November 1st.
Dressage wins
EQUESTRIAN:Irish dressage history was made yesterday at the Lipizzaner stud in Lipica, Slovenia when Anna "Petzy" Merveldt won the Grand Prix Special on James Connors's 11-year-old Coriolan gelding Coryolano. The competition started on Saturday but was suspended following heavy rain. Three tests had to be ridden yesterday but no one could match Merveldt's score of 65.96 per cent.
Following victory by 26-year-old Judy Reynolds in Thursday's opening competition, this was the first time Irish dressage riders had ever won two classes at the same international show.
Reynolds added to Thursday's success by taking second and equal fourth place in the Intermediate 1 class on Saturday.
