Other sports news in brief
English makes Youth Games
ATHLETICS:Mark English from Letterkenny AC yesterday won the 1,000 metres at the inaugural European Youth Olympic Trials in Moscow. The win guarantees him a place at the first-ever Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to be held in Singapore from August 14th-26th. The Donegal man clocked an impressive 2:24:53.
English showed maturity in holding a solid position throughout the race and nearing the end, he pulled away to easily win what he described as “the perfect race”.
West Waterford AC athlete Kate Veale finished fourth in the 5km walk in 23.01.03, setting a new Irish youth record.
Emma Prendiville of Farranfore Main Valley AC also put in a fine performance, finishing 13th in the same event.
Dempsey McGuigan (Finn Valley AC) threw 55.91m in the hammer qualification but did not make the final.
Lorenzo extends lead after winning French MotoGP
MOTOR CYCLING:Spain's Jorge Lorenzo won the French MotoGP at Le Mans yesterday to extend his world championship lead over Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi to nine points. Lorenzo finished 5.67 seconds ahead of Italy's world champion Rossi, who had started on pole position, with Italian Andrea Dovizioso grabbing third place for Honda on the last lap.
It was Lorenzo’s second win in a row and completed a Yamaha hat-trick, with Rossi winning the season-opener in Qatar in April.
It was the first time since 1980 the Japanese manufacturer had started the season with three successive wins in the top category.
Rossi led into the first corner ahead of Honda’s Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa but Lorenzo quickly seized second place and then set about reeling in the Italian. Lorenzo made his move on lap seven. The Spaniard took the lead but failed to make it stick and had to do it again three laps later. This time Rossi had no reply and Lorenzo pulled away to a comfortable distance win.
Loreto sign off on European Club high
HOCKEY:Loreto completed their European Club Champions Trophy campaign in Rome yesterday with a 3-1 win over Alta Boryspol of the Ukraine, a result that gave them a fifth-place finish, three spots above their ranking for the tournament, writes Mary Hannigan. It was 0-0 at half-time but Loreto finally converted their superiority into goals, Nikki Keegan, Liz Colvin and Nicci Daly all scoring in the space of 17 minutes. Boryspol pulled one back from a penalty corner seven minutes from time.
Having won their opening pool game against Swiss side Rotweiss Wettingen, UCD, making their European debut, suffered their second consecutive defeat at the Club Champions Challenge in Prague yesterday, but they only went down 1-0 to French side Cambrai. The students play hosts Slavia Prague in today’s fifth to eighth place play-offs.
Boston Celtics edge closer to finals
BASKETBALL:The Boston Celtics moved to within one win of the NBA finals for the second time in three years after they overcame a meek Orlando Magic to secure a 94-71 win on Saturday.
The Celtics lead the best-of-seven series 3-0 and could wrap up a trip to the NBA finals as soon as today.
“They’re playing hard, they’re playing together, they’re playing like a team that wants to win a championship,” Orlando centre Dwight Howard said.
Fielding a starting line-up of battle-tested veterans, the Celtics are hoping to reproduce the form that helped them to a 17th NBA title in 2008. Celtics coach Doc Rivers, however, downplayed comparisons. “We haven’t scratched what we did in 08,” Rivers said.
A downcast Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said his team were “a step late on every play.They got off to an early lead and I don’t think we stayed with the fight very well,” Van Gundy said.
Major glitch in Grand League
ROWING:NUIG's entry to the Grand League regatta series yielded the desired result, as their men's senior eight, the reigning national champions, saw off the challenges of St Michael's and Muckross to take the Leander Trophy at the Cork Regatta at the National Rowing Centre on Saturday, writes Liam Gorman.
The Grand League itself suffered its first major glitch, however. A mix-up of bow numbers and lane numbers resulted in what organiser Pat McInerney described as “a cock-up” in the collating of the results from the heats from the men’s single scull.
The time-trialled heats are a crucial part of the new structures as they determine which crew goes into which final – and some of the fastest scullers were sent to the D final on Saturday. The organisers admitted their mistake, but the finals were held and the times recorded in the finals determined their eventual ranking.
McInerney said that lessons would be learned for future events.
Comfortable win for Bolt again
ATHLETICS:Usain Bolt celebrated his return to China for the first time since his Beijing Olympic heroics with a comfortable victory in the 200 metres at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting yesterday.
Less than two years after his sensational sprints at the Bird’s Nest arena, the Olympic and world champion treated Shanghai Stadium to a more controlled performance on a cool evening in China’s financial capital.
Well ahead by the halfway stage, Bolt crossed the line 10 metres clear of the field in 19.76 seconds, outside his own world best time of the year (19.56) and well shy of his world mark (19.19).
The 23-year-old Jamaican was followed over the line by Americans Angelo Taylor and Ryan Bailey in second and third.
