Minority report: Garda salute Egan's success

In the second round of the women's singles, Irish No 1 Chloe Magee faced Spain's Carolina Marin, who is top seed for the Irish Open and currently world No 18. After Marin took the opener 21-15, the second set was more even, but the Spaniard edged it 22-20.

Magee with brother Sam made it to the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles, where they lost to Ronan Labar and Emilie Lefel of France despite leading midway through the second set. The French won seven consecutive points to take the set and then won the decider.

In the men's singles, Scott Evans lost a 28-26, 21-19 marathon to Kwong Beng Chan in the second round, while Jonathan Dolan had a good straight sets win over No 7 seed Peter Koukal of the Czech Republic in his opening round. Top seed Ville Lang of Finland, who is also No 1 for the Irish Open, went out in the semi-finals to eventual winner Brice Leverdez of France.

SQUASH: Michael Craig from Belfast was the surprise winner of the M19 title at the Irish Junior Squash Open at Sutton LTC, Dublin.

In the final, Craig beat Sutton's David Ryan, in his first year at U19 level and ranked No 2 in Europe after winning the Nordic Junior Open last month.

He did it in three sets with the final scoreline 11-7, 12-10, 11-9. In the W19 decider, Czech Karolina Holinkova beat Claire Gadsby from Scotland 3-1.

CANOEING: Garda Peter Egan, of the Salmon Leap Canoe Club in Leixlip, has won his fifth Garda Sportstar Award.

Egan had a very successful year on the water. He won the K2 at the Liffey Descent, took both K1 and K2 titles at the National Marathon Championships and finished 19th at the World Canoe Marathon Championships in Denmark. In sprint racing, he won national 200m K2 and 5,000m K1 titles. Wrapping it all up nicely were five gold medals at the World Police and Fire Men's World Championships held in Northern Ireland.

POWER LIFTING: Three veteran members of the Hercules Club in Dublin city centre returned home with gold medals from the WPU World Power Lifting Championships in Holland.

Bill Healy, in the M60 81kg class, set a new world record of 230kg for the squat, followed by a 140kg in the bench and 225kg in the dead lift for a total of 595kg. In the M65 81kg class, Billy Kidd did himself proud with a 180kg in the squat, 100kg in the bench and a brilliant 190kg dead lift. That's a total of 470kg – not bad for a 68-year-old!

Finishing off the day was Mark Fitzgerald in the M50 81kg class with a perfect 140kg bench press.

Also for the Hercules, 21-year-old Aspek Dzaparov, a star of the future, won the junior 60kg "raw" class, with 200kg for the squat, 112kg in the bench press and a 182.5kg in the dead-lift for a world record total of 495kg.

A team of 24 Irish was in action.

SNOOKER: Ex-pro Michael Judge leads a strong Irish team at the IBSF World Amateur Snooker Championships already under way in Daugavpils, Latvia, with finals on December 8. Also competing in the men's senior competition are Brendan O'Donoghue and David Hogan. Making up the masters' squad are Mark Tuite, Shane Gorman and Stephen Merrigan.

VOLLEYBALL: Naas Cobras face DVC tomorrow in a crucial match midway through the women's premier league.

Naas, a team built from members of the successful Irish junior international team, are unbeaten so far this season and top the league table. DVC lost a five-set marathon to Trinity in October and victory tomorrow would keep their league hopes alive.

STRONGMAN: Ireland's Gavin Redmond won the Under 105kg class at the Europe's Strongest Man finals in Randalstown.

In total, 12 competitors took part in two weight categories. James Ward of England retained his 90kg title.