In brief: Irish young guns lay down marker
Equestrian
The young guns of Irish eventing showed their huge potential when Sam Watson finished 13th and Camilla Speirs claimed 14th place at the super-tough Mitsubishi Four-star Badminton Horse Trials yesterday, writes Louise parkes.
Kildare student Speirs (20), who is aiming for selection for this autumn's World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, did her prospects no harm when producing a sensational cross-country run on Sunday riding Portersize Just a Jiff.
A superb dressage score of 48.3 from the little bay gelding ensured this partnership was competitive from the outset. A single error in yesterday's closing show jumping phase saw them slip just one place from overnight 13th.
Watson and Horseware Bushman picked up eight show jumping faults to drop five places down the leaderboard, while Mark Kyle rounded up the strong Irish finish when slotting Step in Time into 20th place.
Meanwhile, Ireland's top show jumpers gathered at Coilog Equestrian Centre in Kildare yesterday for the second leg of the Premier Grand Prix League series in which Dermott Lennon and Vampire pipped Olive Clarke and Cruisings Mickey Finn in the six-way jump-off.
Sailing
Despite bright sunshine at Dublin Bay, cool and fickle winds made for testing racing during the annual Mitsubishi Motors Youth Championships at Dun Laoghaire.
More than two-dozen clubs were represented in the all-Irish fleet of 235 boats.
Blessington's Finn Lynch won the 32-boat Topper fleet with four race wins, though the 420 class managed two more races and saw Jane Butler and Jenny Andreason score five wins to win this double-handed class.
Tennis
Conor Niland stormed back from a mid-match wobble to clinch a second-round place in the ATP Challenger Tour event in Ramat Hasharon, Israel, writes Paddy Hickey.
The Limerick man looked on course for victory against Noam Okun, when, after taking the first set, he raced into a 4-2 lead in the second.
But then Niland lost four games on the trot, allowing his opponent to level at one set apiece.
However, after the first seven games of the decider went with serve, Niland made the crucial move when he broke Okun's serve to surge into a 5-3 lead, en route to a 6-4 4-6 6-3 win. Niland will face either Rainer Schuettler or Simon Stadler in the next round.
Cycling
The Eurocycles outfit scored their biggest success of the season yesterday when Adam Armstrong had a double reason to celebrate.
Armstrong was the overall winner of the Tour of Ulster, which was staged around Dungannon, and was also celebrating his birthday.
Runner-up was Malcolm Elliott with Philip Lavery in third place. The final stage was won by Tim O'Regan.
Irish Independent
