More sports news in brief.
Power shows good form
CYCLING:CIARÁN POWER showed solid form prior to today's start of the Presidential Cycling Tour in Turkey when he took a top-20 placing in the unofficial prologue, the GP Istanbul. The 76-kilometre race was won by Astana's Grégory Rast ahead of Francesco Ginanni (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni), writes Shane Stokes. Power finished 18th, with Martyn Irvine next best of the Irish national team in 63rd place.
Meanwhile Pezula pro Ryan Conor scooped his second victory this season when he soloed home at the end of the Coombes Connor Memorial in Drogheda. He went clear early on in a break with several others, including team-mate Adam Armstrong, Stephen O'Sullivan (MyHome.ie), Daniel Kirwan (Lucan CC) and Philip Lavery (Eurocycles). Junior rider Lavery had a great race, being the last to stay with Conor. However, he lost contact close to the line, allowing the Pezula pro to solo in alone. Armstrong, Kirwan and O'Sullivan were next home.
Sorensen and Niland produce the goods
TENNIS:LOUK SORENSEN and Conor Niland produced the heroics at Fitzwilliam yesterday to propel Ireland to a shock 3-2 win in their Davis Cup showdown against Morocco at Fitzwilliam.
Trailing 1-2 after Saturday's doubles, in which home pair James Cluskey and Colin O'Brien lost a marathon five-set thriller 6-1 5-7 6-2 6-7 (4/7) 4-6 to Rabie Chaki and Reda El Amrani, Sean Sorensen's charges looked booked for a relegation battle against Egypt in July.
But Sorensen tore the form book to shreds by overcoming former world number 14 Younes El Ayanaoui 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7/5) 6-4. El Aynaoui is 37 next September, but he still holds a very respectable world ranking of 206. And with the pressure really on, Niland came up trumps with a dramatic 7-6 (7/4) 1-6 6-7 (6/8) 6-3 6-1 victory over Mounir El Aarej.
After going two sets to one down, Limerick native Niland looked in big trouble. But he responded in style, saving two break points at 3-3 in the fourth set, and then reeled off nine games on the trot.
If you had a weak heart, Fitzwilliam was certainly not a place to be yesterday, as both contests were certainly of the heart-stopping and nerve-wracking variety, with the tide turning in favour of each player on regular occasions.
And with a full house, including a colourful and very vociferous bunch of Moroccan fans, frequently raising the roof as they urged the players to even greater heights of endeavour, it made for a very special occasion.
Irish win gold
BOXING:IRELAND FINISHED in second place in a league table of 39 nations following the final Olympic qualifier for European boxers in Athens, Greece, on Saturday. France finished in pole position in the official rankings.
On Friday last, Irish captain Ken Egan, Darren Sutherland and John Joe Joyce qualified for Beijing by winning their semi-finals. And the trio followed that up 24 hours later with three gold medal wins.
Ireland's Paddy Barnes and John Joe Nevin had already qualified for Beijing.
Lorenzo claims maiden victory
MOTOR CYCLING:SPANIARD JORGE Lorenzo claimed his maiden MotoGP victory after a three-way battle at the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril yesterday.
The reigning 250cc world champion came home ahead of fellow countryman Dani Pedrosa and team-mate Valentino Rossi to move level on points with Pedrosa at the top of the standings.
The 21-year-old came out on top in a three-man fight for the chequered flag to finish 1.817 seconds ahead of Pedrosa, with Rossi fading into third.
The American duo Colin Edwards and John Hopkins came home in fourth and fifth, while Australia's defending champion Casey Stoner was sixth.
Line-up complete
WOMEN'S HOCKEY:THE LINE-UP for next month's Club Championships is complete with Church of Ireland and Armagh's places confirmed on Saturday, writes Mary Hannigan. They join Hermes, Railway Union, Loreto, Pegasus, Ballymoney and Cork Harlequins in the pool stages of the Championships (May 16th - 18th), which will be played at Lisnagarvey Hockey Club.
A Sandra Hackett goal decided Saturday's play-off in Limerick, Munster runners-up C of I beating Connacht champions Galway, while Randalstown's defeat by Ballymoney in Ulster ended their hopes of taking third spot from Armagh. The top two teams in each pool will go through to the semi-finals (May 24th) which, like the final on May 25th, will be played at Belfield.
