A round-up of today's other sports news in brief...
Champion dumped out in opening game
DARTS: In the opening game of the World Grand Prix at Citywest last night defending champion James Wade was beaten 2-1 by Tony Eccles.
"I've won big tournaments around Europe during my career, but that's probably the biggest win on tv for me," said Eccles afterwards.
Dennis Priestley opened his challenge with a 2-0 victory against Denis Owens, while Meryvn King came from a set down to beat Wayne Jones, 2-1.
King will now face an even bigger challenge when he meets Eccles tomorrow evening.
Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld - returning from two months away from the game after his disappointing World Matchplay quarter-final loss - beat Alan Tabern (2-1), while Colin Lloyd defeated Vincent van der Voort (2-1) and Wayne Mardle won his battle with Felix McBrearty (2-0).
Dublin City Marathon to honour founder Carroll
ATHLETICS: In honour of their father's memory, the four children of Noel Carroll will run in this year's 29th Dublin City Marathon at the end of the month.
The birth of the Dublin Marathon in 1980 is owed almost entirely to the vision of Carroll, who was the press officer for Dublin Corporation, and his ability to persuade the Business Houses Athletic Association to take on his idea.
The inaugural race had 1,420 finishers from an entry of 2,100. The first winner was Dick Hooper in a time of 2:16:14.
The race has come a long way since then with last year's race attracting over 11,000 runners, a record number for the Dublin Marathon. Last year's race was won by Russia's Aleksey Sokolov, who set a course record of two minutes 9:07 seconds.
The Noel Carroll trophy, which is normally presented to the race winner by one of Noel's children, will this year be presented by his widow, Deirdre O'Callaghan, as Enda, Nicola, Noel jnr and Stephen Carroll will all be busy pounding the 26.2 miles of the marathon circuit.
DeGale may soon turn professional
BOXING: Britain's Olympic middleweight champion James DeGale is considering an offer of "nearly two million pounds" to turn professional rather than defend his title in London.
The 22-year-old fighter also said that at the moment "60 per cent of me is thinking of staying amateur" but that the future of his coach, Terry Edwards, was an important factor.
DeGale expects to make an announcement by the end of October and will spend this week speaking to Edwards, the performance director who led Britain to their best Olympics since 1956.
"If I do or do not go over (to being professional) everyone will soon find out," DeGale said.
Double header with Argentina agreed
HOCKEY: Argentina's men's team have confirmed a trip to Ireland to compete in a double header on October 29th and 30th, writes Johnny Watterson.
Last time out Ireland notched up a 1-0 victory against the Pumas at the Olympic Qualifiers in February.
The world number-eight side will provide stiff competition, something Ireland's high-performance director Dave Passmore is looking forward to. Passmore, who recently stepped aside as the national coach, will remain in charge of the team until a senior coach is appointed.
"This is a fantastic opportunity to play a top-ranked team who finished third in the Champions Trophy in July," said Passmore.
"Having beaten them in the qualifier earlier this year they will be keen to avenge this result and the matches can be expected to be competitive, exciting games.
"It will provide an opportunity for some of the younger players who impressed over the summer to perform against higher-ranked teams."
The squad will be announced next week.
FIXTURES: Wednesday, October 29th: Ireland v Argentina, 7.30pm, at UCD. Thursday, October 30th: Ireland v Argentina, noon, TBC.
