ATHLETICS:David Gillick got a fair idea of where he lies in world 400-metre running at last night's Golden League meeting in Rome, his eighth-place finish some way off the leading Americans. The harsh draw of lane one certainly didn't help, but Gillick's time of 45.81 seconds was well off his recent best of 45.23, and even further off the winning 44.44 seconds of the American LaShawn Merritt, writes Ian O'Riordan.
Yet it was just the test Gillick wanted ahead of next month's World Championships in Osaka.
It was still a solid run given the lane draw, and running on the inside never gave him a chance to truly challenge the leaders, with the other American Angelo Taylor taking second in 44.55, and the Swedish runner Johan Wissman a surprise third in 45.12
There was even less joy for Alistair Cragg in the men's 5,000 metres, where a severe injection of pace in the closing stages forced him out of the leading bunch, and he later dropped out.
Victory there went to the class Ethiopian Sihine Sileshi in 13:01.46, the fastest in the world this year, just ahead of Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge, with the top eight all breaking 13:10.
One of the performances of the night came from America's Michelle Perry in the 100-metre hurdles, where she clocked a brilliant 12.42 seconds - the fastest this year and 10th fastest ever - to keep herself in the running for the Golden League jackpot.
It was also a reminder of the kind of challenge Derval O'Rourke faces in Osaka, as her best this summer remains 12.98.
SHOW JUMPING: Ireland won team silver yesterday at the European children's show jumping championships in Istanbul, writes Grania Willis.
With Britain unchallenged for gold, the quartet of Edward Doyle junior, Jordan Coyle, Michael Duffy and Jack Dodd were level-pegging with the Portuguese team after two rounds to force a jump-off for the silver and bronze and it was the Irish that came off best against the clock to claim the silver.
HOCKEY: It was a day to forget for the Irish under-18 teams at the European Youth Championships in Edinburgh yesterday, the girls suffering a 10-0 drubbing by Germany in their top four pool game and the boys losing 3-1 to Russia in their fifth-to-eighth-place pool, writes Mary Hannigan.
The girls were 3-0 down by the sixth minute, Germany making it 4-0 by half-time, and after then holding their opponents scoreless for 25 minutes Ireland collapsed midway through the second half, conceding four goals in seven minutes, Jana Teschke making it 10 at the death.
Ireland play England in their final game today, still with an outside chance of a bronze medal, while the boys meet Scotland. Captain Neil Hamilton converted a penalty stroke in the 12th minute to give Ireland the lead yesterday, but Russia were 2-1 up by the break, scoring their third two minutes from time.
ROWING: Garda held off a fierce challenge from Commercial Rowing Club to win the men's intermediate coxed fours final at the Irish National Championship regatta at the National Rowing Centre, Inniscarra Lake, Co Cork, yesterday.
At the halfway stage Garda led by 1½ lengths from Commercial. By 1,500 metres they led by one length. With 250 metres to go the lead was down to a half length, but the Garda crew held off the final Commercial challenge to win by just one second.
NUI Galway came from behind in the final 200 metres to pass the St Michael's/Neptune composite crew to win the men's senior coxless pairs final. The Galway University club retained the men's senior coxless fours by getting the better of the Galway/Skibbereen composite .
In an all intervarsity women's intermediate eight final, DULBC (Trinity) led all the way to win by a length from Queen's.
