Other sports news in brief
Symmons earns Loreto a point
WOMEN'S HOCKEY:Loreto opened their European Club Champions Trophy campaign in Rome yesterday with a 2-2 draw against Scotland's Kelburne, a goal in each half from Nikki Symmons giving the Leinster club a point, writes Mary Hannigan.
A hard-fought draw it was too against the pool’s second-ranked team (Loreto are ranked fourth), not least because Loreto picked up three yellow cards in the course of the game, Symmons, Clodagh Grealy and Sarah O’Meara all spending time in the sin-bin. It was Symmons who gave Loreto a 10th-minute lead but Kelburne were level eight minutes later in a tight first half that saw both sides force four short corners.
Despite having the better of the second half, when they added seven more corners to their tally, Loreto fell behind in the 44th minute but when a Kelburne foot stopped the ball on the line 11 minutes from time Symmons stepped up to convert the stroke.
UCD take their bow in the Club Champions Challenge in Prague today, the students opening against Switzerland’s Rotweiss Wettingen before taking on Royal Uccle (Belgium) tomorrow and Cambrai (France) on Sunday in the pool phase of the tournament.
Birrell to coach England U-19S
CRICKET:Former Ireland coach Adrian Birrell has taken up an offer to coach the England Under-19 side for their home series against Sri Lanka this summer, writes Emmet Riordan.
The 49-year-old will continue his duties as coach to the Ireland A side, with Ireland assistant coach Peter Johnston and senior international Trent Johnston taking charge of the team when he is unavailable.
Birrell previously worked with the South Africa Under-19 side.
Pozzato takes Giro stage after tight sprint finish
CYCLING:Team Katusha's Filippo Pozzato recorded the first Italian stage win in this year's Giro D'Italia after a tight sprint finish to stage 12.
The 206-kilometre haul from Citta Sant’Angelo to Porto Recanati did not witness a repeat of stage 11’s sensational events, which saw an entirely new top 10 after a mass early breakaway. That remains unchanged, with Australian Richie Porte retaining the race leader’s pink jersey for Team Saxo Bank, but a measure of order was restored.
Bouygues Telecom’s Thomas Voeckler led and paced the crucial late break but Pozzato got up to pip the Frenchman on the line.
Rabobank’s Rick Flens had made an early solo breakaway to go nine minutes 25 seconds clear, with the Dutchman soon followed by Omega Pharma-Lotto’s Olivier Kaisen and Yuriy Krivtsov of Ag2r-Mondiale.
The trio led by over six minutes and Flens took the Monte San Giusto sprint points, with Kaisen then winning the Macerata climb, but that lead was steadily eroded until they were hauled in at the Potenza Picana climb 10km from home.
Michele Scarponi took the points at that climb, before Voeckler led a 10-man breakaway group.
Voeckler was edged out by half a wheel length as Pozzato came up trumps in the sprint for the line, with Jerome Pineau following in third for Quickstep.
Irish pro Daniel Martin finished six minutes 28 seconds back when he placed 138th on the stage. He is now 66th overall.
Onions out for up to three months
CRICKET:England bowler Graham Onions has been ruled out for up to three months due to a back injury.
The Durham paceman has been out of action since he was forced to return home from England’s tour of Bangladesh with the injury in March.
The 27-year-old underwent scans on his back earlier this week, which confirmed the extent of the damage that effectively rules him out of the international summer.
Onions had seen a spinal specialist to get to the bottom of the problem, and the latest scans confirmed he had an ongoing bone stress reaction in his back.
