A round-up of today's other sport's stories in brief
Sligo find their feet in second half
SLIGO ROVERS were let off the hook by misfiring Dundalk in the first half at the Showgrounds on Saturday night in the Airtricity League Premier Division.
Dundalk dominated the opening 45 minutes of a game watched by a crowd of 2,586 but still ended the half scoreless.
Danny North broke the deadlock from a Raffaele Cretaro cross in the 49th minute and Gavin Peers doubled Rovers’ advantage from a Ross Gaynor corner just four minutes later.
Liam Burns and Gary Shanahan both had chances for the Lilywhites in the 58th and 62 minutes respectively, but Sligo survived.
Danny North got his second a minute from time to seal victory.
SLIGO ROVERS: Rogers, Keane (Owen 90), Peers, Ventre, Davoren, Boco, Ndo, Lynch, Cretaro (McGoldrick 90), Gaynor (Dillon 75), North.
DUNDALK: Cherrie, Foran, Cunningham, Burns, Shields, Mountney (Coughlan 69), McDonnell, Watters (Thomas 77), McLaughlin, Rafter, O’Neill (Shanahan 60).
Referee: P McLoughlin (Monaghan).
Taylor still taking victories on way to Olympic qualifiers
KATIE TAYLOR will head into next month’s AIBA World Women’s Championships – where she’ll be aiming for four-in-a-row – and Olympic qualifiers in China with the 125th victory of her career under her belt and on the back of a two-year unbeaten run.
The World number one recorded her second win in 24 hours over American lightweight Liz Leddy at the Peter Crotty Memorial Tournament at a sold out Dungarvan Sports Centre on Saturday night.
Louisiana-born Leddy, who dropped a unanimous decision to Taylor in Cork on Friday, took two standing counts in round three and another in round four as Taylor clocked another unanimous decision.
The 25-year-old Bray woman heads to Ukraine today with bantamweight Tyrone McCullagh and flyweight Chris Phelan to join the Irish Elite squad in training camp in Kiev.
The Elite men’s squad are currently preparing for the final European Olympic qualifiers which begin in Trabzon, Turkey, on April 13th.
Ireland will be targeting seven Olympic places at the qualifiers.
Boonen pulls out all the stops to win Tour of Flanders
BELGIAN TOM Boonen stormed to a record-equalling third career victory in the Tour of Flanders yesterday while 2010 winner Fabian Cancellara fell and broke his collarbone.
The 31-year-old Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider outsprinted Italians Filippo Pozzato and Alessandro Ballan to become the fifth rider to take three wins in the 99-year-old event.
The winner of the prestigious Belgian E-3 Harelbeke and Ghent-Wevelgem classics last weekend and now the new leader of the UCI WorldTour rankings, Boonen has seemed all but unstoppable in 2012.
The leading three formed a breakaway 17 kilometres from the finish on the third ascent of the short but very steep Oude Kwaremont climb, then Boonen beat the two Italians in a long final sprint.
“I was surprised as well as pleased to win, because I was not feeling at all good earlier on,” Boonen, the winner of the Tour of Flanders in 2005 and 2006, said. “I was feeling so rough that in fact I knew I couldn’t drop the other two before the finish and I’d have to gamble on a sprint.”
Fitzmaurice and Foley take spoils
A DRAMATIC finish to the Carlton Hotel Circuit of Kerry Rally, the third round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship resulted in victory for the local crew of Thomas Fitzmaurice/Fionn Foley (Subaru WRC) take victory on a tie break.
It was the fifth time in recent years that the rally ended is such fashion, the Kerry pair edged out the Cork/Mayo duo of Brian O’Mahony and John Higgins (Subaru WRC). Monaghan’s Niall Maguire and Enda Sherry, also in a Subaru WRC, were 32 seconds behind in third.
Fitzmaurice took a commanding 14-second lead on the opening stage and solidified his lead role on the second test as he stretched his lead to 23 seconds with Kevin Barrett (Subaru) his closest opponent.
However, suspension adjustments made a difference and the Cork ace charged into second – 11 seconds behind Fitzmaurice at the halfway point of the eight stage rally.
Remarkably, he edged a second ahead on the penultimate stage but Fitzmaurice levelled proceedings on the final stage and went on to take the spoils on the tie-break.
Quinn free to take place in Tyrone's final group game
PJ QUINN has served a one match suspension and is now available for Tyrone’s final group match against Monaghan next Sunday. The defender was sent off against Galway on March 18th and the referee reported him for “kicking with minimal force”.
The player requested a hearing as he chose not to accept the penalty proposed by the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC). He then withdrew this request and the CHC imposed the penalty which had been proposed by the CCCC, a one-match ban. He didn’t play against Meath a week ago and so is free to play on Sunday.
Carlow manager Luke Dempsey has been hit with a four-week ban for alleged verbal abuse towards a referee during last weekend’s league game against Wicklow.
