More sports news in brief.
Stoner claims third successive win
MOTOR SPORT:World champion Casey Stoner secured his third successive victory after winning a rain-soaked German Grand Prix yesterday.
The Australian overcame sickness as well as the poor conditions to finish 3.708 seconds ahead of former champion Valentino Rossi of Italy, who regained the overall lead in the standings from Spaniard Dani Pedrosa who bowed out early in the race.
Australian Chris Vermeulen clinched third spot, 14.002 seconds behind Stoner after a tight race to the line with San Marino's Alex de Angelis.
"Those conditions were very, very hard," a groggy-looking Stoner told the BBC.
Chambers passes first trial in bid to run at Olympics
ATHLETICS:Dwain Chambers achieved the first stage in his bid to run at the Beijing Olympics when he won the 100 metres final at the British trials on Saturday and must now await a legal ruling on his eligibility.
Chambers, who completed a two-year doping ban in 2006, won impressively in 10.00 seconds, with Simeon Williamson second in a personal-best 10.03 at the Birmingham trials.
In normal circumstances, the first two automatically qualify for Beijing if they have the Olympic qualifying time - which both have achieved.
However, a British Olympic Association (BOA) bylaw prevents any athlete guilty of a doping offence from being selected for next month's Games.
Chambers is challenging the bylaw in the High Court.
Magee reaches US Open final
BADMINTON:Chloe Magee, the 20-year-old from Donegal who was named in Ireland's Olympic team last week, produced the best form of her young career to reach the final of the US Open in California on Saturday, where she lost 21-23, 18-21 to American Lili Zhou, writes Mary Hannigan.
The three-times Irish champion was seeded five for the tournament at Orange County and opened with wins over two Americans, without dropping a set, before beating the number three seed, Ana Moura of Portugal, in the quarter-finals.
Magee then reached her first international Grand Prix final by getting the better of Shih Chieh Hung of Chinese Taipei, taking the deciding set 21-12 after Hung had fought back to level the match. Zhou, though, proved too strong for the Raphoe player in the final, the 28-year-old using her vast experience to hold off Magee's challenge.
Davis second
TRIATHLON:Ireland's first Olympic triathlete Emma Davis finished second at the Waterways Ireland TriAthlone in a time of two hours one minute 51 seconds on Saturday. The race was won by Lenka Zemanova from the Czech Republic in a time of 2:01:19, with Felicity Sheedy Ryan from Australia third in 2:02:34.
"I was delighted to finish second today. There was a great crowd and having everyone cheering me on was fantastic," said Davis.
Bree states case for Murphy
SWIMMING:Andrew Bree has said that he is "very, very disappointed" that Dubliner Barry Murphy has not been chosen to represent Ireland at the Olympics next month.
Having won silver in the 200m breaststroke at the British Championships in Liverpool on Saturday, Bree finished fourth in one minutes 3.03 seconds yesterday in the 100m breaststroke final behind Murphy who was second with 1:02.90.
Murphy didn't manage to record an automatic selection time for Beijing, but neither did Aisling Cooney or Melanie Nocher who were both chosen last week to go with Bree to Beijing.
Nocher certainly backed up the OCI's decision to take her as she went inside the 'A' time when taking 200m backstroke gold in Liverpool with 2:12.71.
Bree believes Murphy has shown that he deserves a place in Beijing. Bree said: "Barry may not have got the 'A' time but he has been swimming world class times and he should be going. I can't understand why he wasn't chosen."
Bennett holds on to take Junior Tour
CYCLING:Sam Bennett of the Stena Ireland team held on to win the Martin Donnelly Junior Tour of Ireland in Castlebar yesterday, finishing eighth in the bunch sprint which decided the final stage and ending the international race 28 seconds ahead of closest rival Mark Christian (Isle of Man).
Bennett rode well throughout the event, moving into the race lead on stage four when his team-mate Philip Lavery had mechanical problems on the road to Ballycastle. He and his team then defended well on Saturday's stage,.
