A round-up of other sports news in brief
Ireland's Green Dragon moves into second place
SAILING: Ireland's Green Dragon moved into second place in the Volvo Ocean Race seventh leg last night after recovering from a damaged daggerboard caused by a snagged lobster pot, reports David Branigan. Just 10 miles separate the first and last boats in a tight contest in the mid-Atlantic.
Skipper Ian Walker opted to race the most direct route towards the ice-exclusion zone south of Newfoundland, leaving the remaining six boats to fight for valuable points at the earlier scoring-gate.
Green Dragon couldn’t catch them to improve on seventh, he reckoned so better to cut losses and head for the shortest route home to Galway. The tactic appeared to have paid off last night. However, the fleet is once again sailing upwind and such ‘stability’ sailing conditions are unsuited to the Green Dragon with its under-weight keel.
Bouwe Bekking’s Telefonica Blue team scored the maximum four points at the gate yesterday, adding to a string of wins recently and solidifying their second place overall. Ken Read on Puma Ocean Racing was second and just 3.5 points separate the pair.
Overall race leader Torben Grael placed third at the gate and with a 15-point advantage on the scoreboard appears unbeatable. However, the fleet must first finish this demanding leg intact before final predictions can be made about the outcome of the race.
Ferrari to get injunction result today
MOTOR SPORT: An injunction sought by Ferrari to prevent Formula Ones governing body from introducing a budget cap next season will be decided today, a French court said yesterday.
Champions Ferrari went to the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris to try to stop the International Automobile Federation (FIA) from pressing ahead with the optional €45 million cap. They have threatened to quit Formula One if the published rules are not rewritten. Renault, Toyota and Red Bulls two teams have taken a similar stance.
Emmanuel Gaillard, a Ferrari lawyer, said the team would be excessively penalised if they were to refuse the budget cap. “It is as if in a 100 metres race, some run 100 metres and others 80 metres in a sandbag,” he said.
FIA lawyer Hughes Calvet said Formula One had to take action in the face of the global financial crisis that has already seen Honda depart.
Sutherland focuses on Tchilaia
BOXING: Olympic bronze medallist Darren Sutherland will be looking to put one over on Olympic champion James DeGale in Stoke-on-Trent later this month.
Sutherland faces Vepkhia Tchilaia on May 29th – just a few months after the Georgian middleweight went the distance with DeGale on the Londoner’s professional debut in Birmingham.
Sutherland beat DeGale on four occasions as an amateur – two of those wins were in European Union finals – but he lost out in the Olympic semi-final to the Englishman in Beijing last August.
Undefeated Sutherland and DeGale are just two fights into their professional careers and already there has been talk of a rematch of their Olympic last-four clash but the focus is on the May 29th showdown with Tchilaia.
Christie niece eyes Olympics
ATHLETICS:A beauty queen who hopes to run at the London 2012 Olympics has won a place in the Miss England finals.
Rachel Christie (20), the 5ft 10in hazel-eyed niece of the 1992 100 metres Olympic champion Linford Christie, has been crowned Miss London City.
Christie, of west Kensington, said: “I am an athlete. I do the heptathlon so I have a talent at nearly everything on the track . . . I want to win the Olympics.”
Maguire to face Dowling in final
GOLF:Lisa Maguire will face Mary Dowling in today's final of the Irish Women's Close Championship in Fota Island Resort. Both women will be seeking to win the title for the first time.
Maguire emerged victorious over Niamh Kitching (Claremorris) in difficult windy conditions.
Early birdies were exchanged between the pair on the opening holes but Kitching could do little to stop the phenomenal Maguire twin who birdied three holes in a row around the turn and a three-putt bogey on the 13th led to her going four down.
The deficit proved too much to recover from and pars on the 14th and 15th were enough to halve both holes and ensure a comfortable 4 and 3 victory for Maguire and a place in today’s 18-hole final.
In the second semi-final, Dowling (New Ross) was a model of consistency and played virtually flawless golf as she finished off her talented young opponent, Laura McCarthy (Muskerry), on the 16th for a 4 and 2 victory.
Maguire secured her semi-final spot with a hard-fought 3 and 1 victory over Limerick’s Catherine Tucker earlier in the day, while Dowling earned her place with a comfortable 3 and 2 win over Karen O’Neill of Douglas.
Kitching beat Dungannon’s Caoimhe Quinn 3 and 2, while McCarthy had a similiar margin of victory over Victoria Bradshaw in the other quarter-final.
