Sport

Gribben maintains early pace to keep sights on tour school final

GOLF: Paddy Gribben leads the Irish challenge at the second round of the European Tour qualifying school in Spain after he added…

Thu Nov 08 2001 - 00:00

GOLF: Paddy Gribben leads the Irish challenge at the second round of the European Tour qualifying school in Spain after he added a four-under-par 69 to his opening 68 to lie in joint-third at the Pals course.

After taking 37 shots, 1 over par, to reach the turn, Gribben scorched the back nine with five birdies to come home in five under par 32 for his 69. Gribben has a great chance of reaching the six-round qualifying final in Sotogrande next week, with the top 31 players advancing from each of this week's three venues.

At Peralada, where the other four Irish are competing, Gary Murphy is best placed at tied-27th after a level-par 71 left him at two under par. John Kelly slipped to a 74 to be in 34th place, while Peter Lawrie's 70 left him in 45th and Francis Howley recovered from a disastrous 76 to fire a 68 which moved him up to 58th spot.

HOCKEY: Mauritius Cup holders Queen's missed out on a place in this year's Intervarsity semi-finals after losing to Trinity and failing to score enough goals against the University of Limerick to finish in the top two in their pool at Belfield yesterday, writes Mary Hannigan. UCC secured their semi-final place with victories over the Royal College of Surgeons and Limerick.

READ MORE

The University of Ulster and UCD are through to the semi-finals in both competitions but Trinity's men, the only team to go through to the last four with a 100 per cent record, look the form side, beating UCD 2-0.

UCD's women's team needed a last-minute equaliser from Ciara O'Brien to snatch two points (it's one point for a scoreless draw, two for a score draw) from their game against the University of Ulster, thus beating Trinity to a semi-final place on goal difference.

ATHLETICS :The International Olympic Committee's medical commission have re-affirmed a combined blood and urine test for the banned performance enhancing drug erythropoietin (EPO).

"Taking into consideration the knowledge that urine alone is not sufficient at the moment to give a final result . . . we decided a urine sample should be sustained by abnormal blood parameters," IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said.

President Jacques Rogge had said that he hoped the IOC would approve a urine-only EPO check.