Today's other stories in brief
Mayweather outclasses Mosley
BOXING: Floyd Mayweather was reluctant to commit to a mega-fight with Filipino Manny Pacquiao after embellishing his unbeaten record by outclassing fellow American Shane Mosley in a welterweight bout on Saturday.
Mayweather had been expected to meet Pacquiao earlier this year until negotiations collapsed over the American’s demand for random drug testing.
“If Manny takes the (blood) test, we can make the fight happen,” Mayweather said after completing a unanimous points victory over Mosley at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Renowned as the best defensive fighter of his generation, Mayweather went on to surprise Mosley with a much more aggressive strategy, dominating 11 of the 12 rounds.
Kentucky win for Super Saver
RACING: Super Saver won the 136th Kentucky Derby on Saturday, giving jockey Calvin Borel a record third victory in four years and trainer Todd Pletcher his first after 24 failures in the top US thoroughbred race.
Borel rode a nearly identical trip to the one that gave him a victory last year on the 50 to 1 Mine That Bird, as he hugged the rail and passed only one horse on his way to the win at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
Super Saver won by 2½ lengths. Ice Box was second and Paddy O’Prado was third.
Pletcher, who had four entries in this year’s Derby, had been forced to pull the early favourite, Eskendereya, owned by Ahmed Zayat, because of a leg injury. Borel covered the 1¼ miles in 2 minutes, 4.45 seconds in the field of 20 horses over a sloppy track after a day of rain.
Porterfield vows to rally team to face England
IRELAND’S BATSMEN have vowed to put Friday’s abject performance against the West Indies behind them against England in their final Group D clash in Guyana tomorrow night, writes Emmet Riordan.
After their comprehensive 70-run defeat to the hosts at Providence Stadium, they now require the West Indies to do them a favour this evening and secure a victory over England to set up a winner-takes-all clash tomorrow. Regardless of what fate confronts them, Ireland know that they must put together a decent batting display after being skittled for just 68 on Friday night.
Earlier, a fine bowling and fielding display had restricted a West Indies side minus the injured Chris Gayle to 138 for nine in their 20 overs, the highlight being three wickets for 17-year-old spinner George Dockrell.
Ireland skipper William Porterfield described the defeat as “a massive missed opportunity”, but insisted his team would rally in time to face England.
Watson eighth at Badminton
EQUESTRIAN:Carlow's Sam Watson is in eighth place going into today's final show jumping phase of the Mitsubishi Motors horse trials at Badminton; the 24-year-old partners the home-bred Puissance gelding Horseware Bushman which he owns in partnership with his parents John and Julia.
One of only four riders to get home within the time, Watson jumped from 42nd after dressage to be 7.6 penalties off the leader, Australia’s Paul Tapner on Inonothing, whose score of 44.9 includes 0.4 for being one second over the time on yesterday’s cross-country phase.
Britain’s Mary King is currently lying second on 47.2 with the Irish-bred Imperial Cavalier while Germany’s Simone Deitermann, who is making her Badminton debut, is third on 48.2 with Free Easy NRM.
Kildare’s Camilla Speirs (20), picked up 9.2 time penalties yesterday on her mother Bridget’s Portersize Just A Jiff but moved up from 37th to 13th. There was plenty of grief on the cross-county course with the overnight leader, Germany’s Kai Rueder, dropping right out of contention with the stallion Le Prince des Bois.
Martin set for Giro d'Italia
CYCLING: Irish climber Dan Martin has confirmed that he will compete in this year's Giro d'Italia, which begins in Amsterdam on Saturday and runs for three weeks, writes Shane Stokes.
Martin was offered a chance to go to the race by his Garmin Transitions team and has seized the opportunity, even though he might miss out on competing in the Tour de France. At 23 years of age, competing in two Grand Tours so close together is a big ask.
David McCann (Giant Asia) took his fourth stage race of the season when he finished in the main bunch on the final leg of the Jelajah Malaysia event. He had seized the race lead on Wednesday and defended the jersey since then.
In France, Sam Bennett finished second on Saturday’s final stage of the Tour de Bretagne Cycliste in France.
Malcolm Elliott holds a 15-second lead over Adam Armstrong (Eurocycles) going into today’s final stage of the Tour of Ulster.
Murphy finishes on a high
SWIMMING: The National Swimming Championships at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin ended on a high note for Barry Murphy, who became the fourth Irish swimmer to qualify for the European championships when he won the men's 50 metres Freestyle final in 22.67 seconds, one hundredth of a second inside the standard.
Hannah Miley, the 20-year-old from Swindon, was the real star of the weekend, taking three gold medals and a silver. However, there were other notable Irish successes yesterday, with Dolphin’s Seán Leahy winning the men’s 200 Individual Medley while Portmarnock’s Fiona Doyle won the womens 100metres Breastroke title.
