A round-up of today's other sports stories in brief
Magee clinches place at London Olympic Games
BADMINTON:Chloe Magee last night clinched a place at the London Olympics after reaching the quarter-finals of the Irish Championships in Lisburn.
The 23-year-old Donegal woman won her two matches yesterday to seal the last eight place she needed to seal a place in London.
Magee, who competed at the Beijing Games in 2008, won’t be officially confirmed until the end of the badminton season in April, but yesterday’s results mean that only a disaster will prevent her from boarding the plane.
“I’m just delighted,” she said. “Basically that’s it sealed and delivered now.
“I have had 10 good tournaments now so it’ll only be an injury now that will stop me.”
Magee began her Irish championships with a comfortable 21-12, 21-13 win over Barbara Matias of France. before defeating fancied Dutch competitor Judith Meulenjijks 13-21, 21-11, 20-11.
Morrison in line for January return
GAELIC GAMES:The chairman of the Cavan county board is confident that coach John Morrison will link up with their senior football team in January despite suffering a serious illness.
Tom Reilly said that while Morrison has suffered a stroke, it was at the lower end of the scale and he was treated within a short time of it happening last week.
“I am delighted to say that John is making an excellent recovery and is making plans to come back on board with us very soon,” said Reilly. “He was very lucky that he got to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast so quickly.
“He is making a great recovery. He didn’t have a full blast of a stroke, but he did have one. Thankfully his speech, movement and temperament are all the same.
“He’ll return to us again, I expect we’ll see him back with us by late January.”
Crunch day for Irish boats in Perth
SAILING:Today will be a crunch day for two Irish boats at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Perth as the final fleet races for the first half of the two-week event are held before tomorrow's medal race, writes David Branigan.
Ger Owens and Scott Flanigan, competing in the 470 class, slipped to 36th overall after eight races were completed. The pair must place in the top 19 to qualify for next summer’s Olympics but yesterday slipped a place to 24th.
A further seven nations will have a qualification opportunity next year but the double-handed crew clearly struggled for downwind boatspeed yesterday despite some impressive recoveries on the short course.
Two further races will be held for the 470 class today while Laser Radial sailor Annalise Murphy, who qualified for the Olympics earlier this week, will also have two races to improve on her present fifth overall and maximise her chances for the medal race tomorrow.
Murphy misses out on bronze
SWIMMING:Ireland's Gráinne Murphy missed out on a bronze medal when she was placed fourth in the women's 800 freestyle at the European Short Course Swimming championship in Szczecin, Poland.
In a heat-declared event, with the 18-year-old from Wexford going in the fastest heat, Murphy recorded a time of 8:19.39, a new Irish record, but she was over three seconds off taking the bronze.
The gold was won by Denmark’s Lotte Friis (8:07.53) with Spaniards Erika Villaecija Garcia (8:12.23) in silver and Melanie Costa Schmid (8:16.28) in bronze.
Murphy had warmed up for the race by competing in the 200 breaststroke heats, breaking her own personal beat. She and Shani Stallard missed out on progressing to the final, as did Aisling Cooney in the women’s 50 fly.
Murphy is back in action today in the heats of both the 400 freestyle and 100 metres butterfly. Melanie Nocher is entered in the 400 free heats along with Clare Dawson and Niamh O’Sullivan.
