Other sports news in brief

Storming performance by Irish crews

ROWING: A thunderstorm rolled in over the Rotsee ("the lake of the gods") in Lucerne on Saturday night as Ireland's lightweight quadruple scull competed in the A final at the World Cup regatta, writes Liam Gorman.

It was a notable day for two Irish crews, as Siobhán McCrohan confirmed her rise by making the A final of the lightweight single scull, her second such final this year, having partnered Claire Lambe to the same stage in the lightweight double in Bled in May.

The Galway woman finished second behind Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece. However, the final was a step up again. Early leader Tsiavou, a world champion last year in the lightweight double scull, could not contain the challenge of the accomplished German single sculler Marie-Louise Draeger; further back McCrohan failed to build on a good start and finished sixth.

The story was very similar for the quadruple. In their first race together, Niall Kenny, Michael Maher, Mark O’Donovan and Justin Ryan came close to beating world champions Italy in the heats, and they negotiated Saturday morning’s repechage well.

But the final proved a different kind of test. Ireland struggled early on, while Italy were masters – they conceded the lead to France until the business end of the race, when they came through to take gold. Ireland were sixth.

For Ireland performance director Martin McElroy, the results proved that top performance at this level comes only with experience.

The instruction to McCrohan was: “You’ve made the final; that’s an achievement; now go and see what you can do”,McElroy explained.

“If you’re a guest in one of those races – which as someone new that’s what you are – you have to have a go. You have to give it a go and see what happens – and what can happen is you’ll learn something.

“The clever guys, the crews that learn, take that lesson and decide to do something about it. That’s what happens at this top level.”

Loeb imperious in Rally Bulgaria

MOTOR SPORT:Citroen's Sebastien Loeb eased to a comfortable victory in the Rally Bulgaria yesterday to claim his fourth win of the season.

The 36-year-old French driver, chasing his seventh title in a row, finished 29.5 seconds ahead of team-mate Dani Sordo.

He took his record career tally of wins to 58 and in the overall standings now has 151 points, followed by Sebastien Ogier with 100 and Mikko Hirvonen on 86.

SARI side just fail to progress

SOCCER:Irish interest at the Fifa-backed Football for Hope tournament in the township of Alexandra, Johannesburg, ended earlier than hoped when a team representing Sport Against Racism in Ireland narrowly missed out on a place in the Saturday's knock-out stages, writes Emmet Malone.

The event, organised along with streetfootballworld, the World Cup’s Local Organising Committee and the city of Johannesburg, to help publicise the difference football can make to people living on society’s margins, included 32 teams from the likes of Cambodia and South Africa as well the defending champions, Mathare Youth Sports Association from Kenya.

The SARI team beat Dads Against Drugs from Britain 2-0 before drawing 0-0 with India’s Magic Bus. That left them needing another draw with team Uruguay to reach the last eight but they lost 1-0, despite the heroics of teenage goalkeeper Dean Sampson.

Benayoun accuses Benitez of trying to "break him"

SOCCER:Midfielder Yossi Benayoun has accused former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez of trying to "break" him in an explosive indictment of life at Anfield under the Spaniard.

The Israeli, who left to join Chelsea earlier this month, said Benitez deliberately destroyed his confidence and showed him a lack of respect.

“Everyone asks me why I left Liverpool,” Benayoun is quoted as saying in the News of the World. There is only one reason – Rafa Benitez.

“He never treated me with the respect I deserved. If I played well, I never felt he gave me credit.

“He tried to destroy my confidence. You cant treat a player like this and expect him to be happy. I felt so unhappy but, out of respect to the club, I never spoke out. The players and the people at the top of the club knew how I felt.”

Nalbandian secures Davis semi spot

TENNIS:David Nalbandian secured Argentina a place in the Davis Cup semi-finals yesterday after beating Mikhail Youzhny in the decisive rubber in Moscow.

Nikolay Davydenko’s victory over Eduardo Schwank set up a winner-takes-all shoot-out which Nalbandian won with a clinical display against Youzhny, winning 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 6-3.

Schwank could have won it for Argentina earlier on the final day but, after winning the opening set, he was outplayed by world number six Davydenko.

The Russian won 4-6 6-3 6-1 6-4 but Nalbandian had the final say. Argentina will now meet France in the last four. The French, in an unassailable 3-0 lead overnight, completed a 5-0 whitewash of Spain in Clermont-Ferrand.