In brief: Stage victory for Vinokourov
Cycling
Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov powered to a solo win in the 13th stage of the Tour de France, a 196-km ride from Rodez yesterday.
It was a sweet revenge for Vinokourov, who narrowly missed victory in Friday's 12th stage after cracking in the final climb. Vinokourov -- whose win was warmly greeted by Astana team leader Alberto Contador -- had tears in his eyes after crossing the line 13 seconds ahead of the peloton.
The Kazakh rider, who is back on the Tour after picking a two-year ban for doping in 2007, broke from the pack with eight kilometres left and never looked back. Briton Mark Cavendish was second after winning the sprint of the peloton with Alessandro Petacchi of Italy coming home third, according to provisional results. Ireland's Nicolas Roche, meanwhile, finished 30th to earn 14th place overall.
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ATHLETICS: Derval O'Rourke hopes to end a period of frustration when she competes in the 100m hurdles at the European Permit meeting in Lignano, Italy this afternoon.
So far this summer very little has gone right for the Irish record holder with her best legal time of 13.09 well below what she will need to produce at the forthcoming European Championships. She did run a good 12.80 in the European Team Championship in Buda-pest on June 20 but that was fractionally wind aided. Then she fell in a race in Germany before being disqualified in Barcelona.
"It's time for Derval to get a fast time under her belt but a good solid run here will suffice" said her coach, Sean Cahill.
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CAMOGIE: Cork showed that they will not be relinquishing their Gala All-Ireland senior title without a fight after a gutsy 2-10 to 1-10 victory over Wexford at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
It looked like the three-in-a-row chasers were heading for a third defeat of the campaign as they trailed the league champions by a point entering extra time but Síle Burns struck for a goal and then followed up with a point to snatch the victory.
Kilkenny maintained their perfect record but once again Clare showed that they are not out of place in this company before falling to a 4-14 to 0-14 scoreline at Corofin.
Galway, meanwhile, concluded their campaign with a comfortable 4-19 to 2-5 victory over Dublin. Aislinn Connolly was on fire for the Tribes-women, slotting two goals while being as accurate as ever from placed balls.
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CRICKET: Salman Butt will captain Pakistan for the remaining test matches on their tour of England following the resignation of Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced yesterday.
Afridi announced his decision to retire from test cricket for the third time after Pakistan lost to Australia in the first test at Lord's on Friday.
It was Afridi's first test after coming out of a four-year self-imposed test exile. At a PCB meeting yesterday morning, opening batsman Butt, 25, was named as Afridi's replacement for Wednesday's second test against Australia as well as the forthcoming four-test series against England.
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EQUESTRIAN: The Irish show jumping team have leapt to third place in the Meydan Superleague rankings after Thursday night's victory at Aachen in Germany, it was confirmed by the world governing body the FEI.
The team arrived at the German Nations' Cup in sixth place on the Meydan leaderboard, hovering just outside the relegation zone, and as 10/1 underdogs. But superb displays by Meath's Cian O'Connor with Michael Smurfit's mare K Club Lady and Dermott Lennon on Woods Rosbotham's gelding Hallmark Elite resulted in four clear rounds from the Irish on what is acknowledged as the most challenging track in world show jumping.
The FEI confirmed that although Ireland is now on an equal 28.5 points in the Meydan Superleague with Great Britain and Germany, well adrift of leaders France on 43.5.
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TENNIS: Carlow's Tommy Murphy clinched a second round place in qualifying for the Irish Men's Open at Fitzwilliam yesterday.
Murphy -- who has just finished his second year as a tennis scholarship student at San Francisco's Berkeley University -- ended the hopes in the ITF Futures world-ranking event of American player Rico Gore 6-4 6-2. However, Murphy faces a tough challenge to nail down a place in the main draw, as he is opposed in the second round today by No 2 seed, Slovakia's Marko Danis, who has a world ranking of 1166.
Unlike Murphy, former Davis Cup player George McGill was defeated by Italy's No 5 seed Albano Olivetti, 6-3 6-4..
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SWIMMING: Irish teenager Sycerika McMahon missed out on a second medal at the European junior championships in Helsinki after suffering a slip on the blocks in the final of the 200m freestyle.
A nasty gash on her left leg, which required treatment after the final, left her a body length behind and out of medal contention, having qualified second fastest from the semi-finals. The 15-year-old eventually finished sixth in 2:03.67.
However, against her coach's wishes, the gutsy teen competed in the 200m individual medley semi-finals and qualified for today's final.
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ROWING: NUI Galway retained the Men's Senior Eight Title at the Irish Rowing Championships at the National Rowing Centre, Cork.
In an almost photo finish NUIG came from behind to take the championship on the line by a mere three feet from the in-form Queen's University crew in what was essentially a replica of last season's tight contest. The NUIG crew included Beijing Olympian Cormac Folan along with Alan Martin and James Wall.
NUIG's senior four also took the title following a strong challenge from the UCD four who had won at Henley a few weeks ago. In fact, the UCD crew had targeted the senior four but the NUIG crew of Paul Giblin, Alan Martin, Cormac Folan and James Wall were just too strong.
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