Motor sport: Carroll on pole for A1 decider
Sunday May 03 2009
MOTORSPORT: Adam Carroll drove superbly to put Ireland on pole for today's season-ending A1GP races at Brands Hatch.
Carroll held off the challenge of Monaco's Clivio Piccione in feature race qualifying to keep Ireland's title hopes on track with a time of one minute 10.902 seconds.
Switzerland's Neel Jani leads Carroll by two points in the overall standings, with Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque a further four back. Jani will start the feature race from fourth, while Albuquerque starts from ninth.
MacHale leads in Killarney
A battle royal for top place in the Ordnance Survey Ireland International Rally of the Lakes in Killarney saw Gareth MacHale from Rathcoole narrowly ahead last night in his Ford Focus, 2.2 seconds up on Irish Tarmac Championship leader Eugene Donnelly's Skoda Fabia.
Last year's Killarney winner Eamonn Boland's Impreza was close behind in third place, while Tim McNulty, the winner in 2006, lies in fourth.
Alan Ring's Lancer Evo led the Group N Production class in seventh overall, 35 seconds ahead of local man Colm Murphy's Impreza.
Lorenzo grabs pole in Spain
MotoGP championship leader Jorge Lorenzo grabbed pole position for today's Spanish Grand Prix with a qualifying time of one minute 38.933 seconds yesterday. Spaniard Lorenzo came in ahead of Dani Pedrosa, with Casey Stoner in third and six-time World champion Valentino Rossi in fourth.
Lawrie keeps defence alive
GOLF: Dublin's Peter Lawrie moved into contention to defend his Spanish Open title in Girona with a round of 71 in blustery conditions.
Lawrie lies in third place on 11 under par, three shots behind France's Thomas Levet and one adrift of England's Stuart Davis. Lawrie is trying to become the first player since Max Faulkner in 1953 to retain the title.
Higgins downs battling Allen
SNOOKER: Scotland's John Higgins survived a major Crucible scare to reach the World Championship final and end Mark Allen's magnificent run.
Higgins had been 13-3 ahead at one stage but Allen fought back to 15-12. However, the Antrim man could not complete the recovery with Higgins going through a 17-13 winner.
Higgins will face Shaun Murphy in the decider after Murphy saw off Neil Robertson 17-14 in the second semi-final. The Aussie had stormed back from 14-7 down to draw level at 14-14 before bowing out.
Twomey racks up fifth place
EQUESTRIAN: Irish riders have been staying in the ribbons following their third-place finish at the Belgian Nations' Cup at Lummen on Friday.
Cork-born Billy Twomey racked up a fifth place in the big jump-off class yesterday with KEC Maximum Joe, in a double clear round that wasn't fast enough to trouble German winner Daniel Deusser.
Earlier, the 32-year-old also recorded a 10th place in the two-star jump-off with the seven-year-old bay gelding Viceroy. Meath's Cian O'Connor claimed sixth in the Winning Round on the Irish-bred Irish Independent Echo Beach.
Butler strike edges thriller
HOCKEY: Glenanne were first to book their place in today's men's Irish League final, edging out Banbridge in a 5-4 win. Ross McCandless scored a hat-trick for Banbridge but Stephen Butler's second goal sealed the win.
They will face Pembroke, who beat Three Rock Rovers 2-1, the winner booking their place in next season's Euro Hockey League Championship.
Elsewhere, Nicola Evans also bagged a hat-trick as Hermes saw off Pegasus 4-1 while Loreto had Nikki Keegan to thank for their 2-0 win over Cork Harlequins in the women's semi-finals.
Federer slides to Rome loss
TENNIS: Holder Novak Djokovic took advantage of Roger Federer's slump in form to reach the Rome Masters final with a 4-6 6-3 6-3 win yesterday. Federer looked to be cruising when leading 6-4 2-1 before rain halted play. Djokovic rallied after the restart, aided by some wild shots from Federer, and will face Rafael Nadal, who beat Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 6-3 6-3.
HANDBALL: Defending World Men's Open Doubles champions, Dublin's Eoin Kennedy (St Brigid's, Blanchardstown) and Cork's Tony Healy (Ballydesmond), suffered a shock defeat in yesterday's Official Irish Team Men's Open Doubles Trials semi-finals at St Coman's, Roscommon Town.
The 2006 champions were edged out over two games by legendary Kilkenny man Michael "Ducksy" Walsh (Talbot's Inch) and Meath veteran Tom Sheridan (Kells) on a scoreline of 21-13, 21-16.
Cavan's Paul Brady and Michael Finnegan (both Kingscourt) prevailed in the other semi-final.
