Sports Digest/ EQUESTRIAN: Jessica Kürten recorded the best result of the weekend when finishing third in the young horse final at the German fixture in Neumunster on Saturday, reports Grania Willis.
But although the Irish riders made some pretty successful raids on the international coffers, there were no winners sporting the green coat of Ireland.
The world number three brought out Castle Forbes Lord Lancer for Saturday's young horse championship, but the eight-year-old was 1.34 seconds off the pace set by American winner Peter Wylde with the aptly named Let's Fly.
Denis Lynch, who went on to finish equal third in that night's knockout class with Schneesturm, kept the Irish in the picture when slotting Le Beau into fifth.
There was no joy for either of the Irish duo in yesterday's Grand Prix, however, with Lynch down in 26th after two down with Lancelot. Kürten finished on the same score, but slid to 34th after a slower tour of the track on Jipey Dark. The €11,000 winner's cheque went to Germany's Thomas Voss.
Over at San Patrignano in Italy, Niall Talbot was third in the two-phase and just one slot lower in a one-round speed, while Cork's Shane Sweetnam steered Quidam Junior into eighth in Saturday's Kilkenny Classic on the Florida circuit in Wellington, where America's Federico Sztyrle recorded the only clear of the class.
Trinity senior eight fastest on the Lagan
ROWING: Trinity's senior eight were the fastest crew at the Lagan Head of the River on Saturday, reports Liam Gorman. The visitors shone in the first head in the remarkably good conditions, giving themselves a margin of 23 seconds over Belfast Rowing Club.
The surprise packets of the day were the Methodist College, Belfast, junior-18 eight, which placed fourth overall, just ahead of UCD's intermediate eight.
Trinity's good day was compounded when their two novice eights placed ninth and 13th overall.
Like his international team-mate Sinead Jennings, Richard Archibald clearly benefited from the recent skiing camp - he was the fastest single sculler of the day, completing the shorter second head (2.7 kilometres) in 11 minutes, 49.1 seconds.
Solid showing from Roche in five-day
CYCLING: Nicolas Roche yesterday finished the five-day Tour of the Mediterranean in 41st place overall and 10th in the best young rider classification, reports Shane Stokes.
The 2.1-ranked race was won by Spaniard Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d'Epargne) ahead of Ricardo Serrano (Tinkoff Credit Systems) and team-mate Vladimir Efimkin.
Roche was 11:02 back. He finished in the main bunch on Saturday's 145 kilometre stage to La Garde.
Yesterday's stage took the riders 122 kilometres from Dolceacqua to San Remo and was won by neo-pro Mirco Lorenzetto (Milram). Roche was in a large group 6.21 behind.
The 22-year-old is building form for his targets later this season. Among his goals are a debut in the Giro d'Italia or Vuelta a España.
