Sports Digest/HOCKEY: UCD won their third successive Chilean Cup at the intervarsity tournament in Dublin yesterday, while Trinity's men regained the Mauritius Cup they had lost to the University of Ulster in last year's final, reports Mary Hannigan.
After beating UCC in the morning's semi-finals, UCD faced Queen's, the conquerors of University of Limerick, in the decider. By half-time they were 2-0 up, through Jane Bourke and Aisling Keating, and although Queen's made a game of it after the break, scoring twice, further goals from Keating, Emily Balbirnie (penalty stroke) and Roisin Flinn sealed the victory.
Trinity, meanwhile, avenged last year's final defeat by beating UU in the last four, before meeting Cork Institute of Technology in the final.
CIT, with a sprinkling of Harlequins and Church of Ireland players, had already beaten Trinity in the pool stage and looked on course to mark their first official involvement in the tournament with a victory when Stephen Parker gave them a ninth-minute lead.
Trinity, though, fought back to win the final through second-half goals from Peter Blakeney and Dan Needham.
CYCLING: Eugene Moriarty heads into today's penultimate day of the Tour of Southland in a solid 20th place overall. The Kerryman finished 17th on yesterday's seventh stage of the 2.2 ranked New Zealand race, a 133km leg which saw Jason Allen (Pro4 CycleOps) outsprint six others for the win.
Jeremy Vennell (Calder Stewart) was fastest in the 15km race against the clock, taking over the race leader's jersey.
The race continues today with what is seen as the toughest stage of the Tour, 163km from Winton to Te Anau.
SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR: Three books with a GAA theme comprise the shortlist for the inaugural Boylesports Irish Sports Book of the Year award, which will be announced next Monday.
Last Man Standing, by Christy O'Connor (O'Brien Press); Hurling: The Revolution Years, by Denis Walsh (Penguin); and Tangled Up in Blue, by Dessie Farrell, with Sean Potts (Townhouse), were selected by a panel of sports journalists who will now choose the overall winner.
BOXING: A host of potential medal prospects at the Beijing Olympics will grace the National Stadium ring this weekend, starting this evening at 7pm, writes Pat Roche. The occasion is the international cadets tournament involving France, Germany and Ireland.
Ireland is bristling with talent in the underage category, and so the host association are putting two teams, an A and a B side, into the ring.
