Today's other sports in brief
Ireland to face in-form Sidebottom
CRICKET: England opening bowler Ryan Sidebottom is in line to face Ireland this Sunday after being named in Nottinghamshire's 12-man squad for the Friends Provident Trophy clash at Castle Avenue, reports Emmet Riordan.
The 30-year-old left-armer was named player of the series after taking 24 wickets in England's recent 2-1 Test victory in New Zealand, including figures of seven for 47, as the home side were bowled out for just 168 in the first innings of the deciding Test in Napier. Australian one-day player Adam Voges has also been included,
Meanwhile, the new Ireland captain, William Porterfield, made an inauspicious first-class debut for Gloucestershire yesterday, the left-handed opening batsman recording a duck in their clash with Loughborough in the University match at Bristol.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE SQUAD (for FP Trophy v Ireland, Castle Avenue, Sunday, 12.0): C Read (capt), M Ealham, W Jefferson, S Patel, D Pattinson, B Shafayat, C Shreck, G Swann, R Sidebottom, A Voges, M Wagh, M Wood.
Kuerten opens with a third place
EQUESTRIAN: Jessica Kuerten, attempting to become the first Irish rider to win show jumping's World Cup, finished third in last evening's opening round of the FEI Rolex final in Gothenburg, reports Margie McLoone.
The 38-year-old, drawn last to jump in the 1.50m speed class with Lady Georgina Forbes's Castle Forbes Libertina, couldn't better the times set by Germany's Heinrich Hermann Engemann (Aboyeur) and Swiss rider Steve Guerdat (Tresor V). However, she finished ahead of two of her most serious rivals for the title, Rich Fellers (USA) and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (Germany).
Kuerten, runner-up in the 2006 final, picked up 37 points for her third-place finish.
Yesterday she came fourth in the 1.50m jump-off with Quibell and fifth in the 1.45m speed event on Castle Forbes Cosma.
London sponsors in the majority
OLYMPICS: Sponsors and their guests are set to outnumber athletes more than two-to-one at the London 2012 Olympics, preliminary projections show.
Games planners expect 31,400 "marketing partners" at the event compared with just 14,500 athletes.
Media workers will also far outnumber athletes taking part, with 20,000 from around the world.
The figures are contained in an Olympic Delivery Authority document published on the London 2012 website, setting out preliminary forecasts of transport requirements for the games.
The paper also estimates the number of tickets set to go on sale for the Olympics at 7.7 million, with a further 1.5 million for the Paralympic Games.
It discloses that athletes and other members of the "Games family" will be transported between venues across London on their own dedicated fleet of coaches, cars and vans using a network of roads specially earmarked for the event.SNOOKER: Ronnie O'Sullivan yesterday admitted he has struggled to cope with the furore surrounding the lewd comments and sexual innuendos he made during a news conference in China.
And the 32-year-old has volunteered to withdraw from tournaments if anyone has been offended by his antics following his loss to Marco Fu in the China Open in Beijing last month.
After his 10-5 first-round victory over Liu Chuang yesterday in the World Championship in Sheffield, O'Sullivan said: "I regret that it happened and it's been a great embarrassment to me personally.
"But I just don't seem to get how my reputation has been damaged in China; that's not what I've heard. It doesn't seem to be the case, but if it was I would not attend tournaments out of respect. I would withdraw from events if anyone has been offended because that's never been my position."
Embarrassed O'Sullivan regrets China outburst
CYCLING: Páidí O'Brien dropped two places from first to third overall on yesterday's second stage of the Vuelta a Extremadura in Spain, a 157.7 kilometre road race stage starting and finishing in Badajoz, reports Shane Stokes.
The An Post-M.Donnelly-Grant Thornton Sean Kelly squad won Wednesday's opening team time trial, with O'Brien taking the race lead as the first over the line.
However, he lost nine seconds on yesterday's stage because of a split in the bunch at the end of the stage. He crossed the line in 50th place.
His team-mate Benny de Schrooder was 10th, finishing in the same time as the winner, Bobbie Traksle (P3 Transfer Batavus), and will start today's leg in the leader's jersey. O'Brien is nine seconds back.
O'Brien drops to third overall F1 gets tough on racism
MOTOR SPORT: Formula One's governing body launched an anti-racism campaign yesterday at the Spanish Grand Prix circuit where McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was abused in February.
The FIA encouraged fans to visit the website www.everyrace.net to pledge support for the campaign message that motor sport welcomed everyone, irrespective of gender, race or background.
