Other sports news in brief.
Greipel takes crash-marred stage
CYCLING: Germany’s Andre Greipel sprinted to victory in a crash-marred stage four of the Tour of Spain yesterday. Greipel was the fastest of the only four riders left to dispute the victory after a major crash blocked in the bunch 2.5 km from the line in the 225.5-km stage from Venlo in the Netherlands to Liege in Belgium.
Second was Belgium’s Wouter Weylandt and Germany’s Bert Grabsch was third. Astana team sports director Sean Yates said: “It was like a scene from Apocalypse Now when our team car got to the crash. There were riders lying everywhere, it was chaos.”
Irish riders Daniel Martin (Garmin Slipstream) and Philip Deignan (Cervélo Test Team) both had bad luck during the stage. Deignan was involved in the main crash and came home 107th. Martin was involved in a crash earlier.
Ferrari say Massa will be ready to race next season
FORMULA ONE: Injured Formula One driver Felipe Massa will be 100 per cent ready to race again by next season, Ferrari said yesterday after the Brazilian underwent more checks in Miami.
A spokesman ruled out a return this year, however, with Massa due to have plastic surgery in the next few days before starting physical exercise after a further period of recuperation.
“The checks . . . all had a positive outcome, just like the eye exam: everything is in order for Felipe to get back to racing, Ferrari said on their website (www.ferrari.com).
Massa, who suffered life-threatening injuries at the Hungarian Grand Prix in July when he was hit on the head by bouncing debris in qualifying, flew to Miami on Sunday to see leading motorsport neurosurgeon Steve Olvey.
The champions said that Massa would have plastic surgery where his skull was fractured by the bouncing spring, weighing almost a kilo, that hit his helmet over the left eye in Budapest.
Springboks bring in Ndungane
RUGBY: World champions South Africa have been forced to make two changes to their squad for Saturday’s Tri-Nations clash against Australia at Brisbane’s Lang Park.
Odwa Ndungane replaces JP Pietersen on the wing after the winger returned home with a hamstring injury he suffered in last weekend’s 32-25 win over the Wallabies in Perth.
The Springboks after four matches in the competition.
Danie Rossouw, returning from a hamstring injury, was added to the bench to replace injured lock Andries Bekker, who was sent home because of a shoulder problem.
“Whilst we have a lot of versatile players in the squad, Odwa in the natural winger and therefore was the first choice,” South Africa coach Peter de Villiers said.
SOUTH AFRICA:Pienaar; Ndungane, Fourie, De Villiers, Habana; Steyn, du Preez; Mtawarira, Du Plessis, Smit (capt), Botha, Matfield, Brussow, Smith, Spies. Replacements: Ralepelle, J Du Plessis, Rossouw, Burger, Januarie, Jacobs, Steyn.
Mixed fortunes for Irish fighters
BOXING: Ireland experienced contrasting fortunes at the AIBA World Championships in Milan yesterday after Dubliners Declan Geraghty and Philip Sutcliffe advanced and bowed out at the preliminary round last 64 stage on identical verdicts, while superheavyweight Cathal McMonagle also lost out.
Geraghty, who boxes out of the Dublin Docklands club, beat 2008 Olympian and All Africa champion Manyo Plange of Ghana 12-5 at flyweight. But Crumlin lightwelter Sutcliffe lost out 12-5 to Romanian Tralan Lupu – who beat Irish Olympian John Joe Joyce in Turkey this summer – at the Mediolanum Forum in the Italian city.
Geraghty was 3-2 up at the end of the first round. Plange levelled at 3-3 in the second but two superb lefts from the Irish southpaw helped him into an impressive win.
McMonagle lost 14-5 to Thomas Markovic. The Donegal man, was 2-0 in the first round but the Croatian, using right hand counter punches to great effect, turned things around.
Hunter-Galvan banned for 2012
ATHLETICS: Banned marathon runner Liza Hunter-Galvan will be ineligible for New Zealand at the 2012 London Olympics, officials confirmed yesterday.
Hunter-Galvan was suspended by the New Zealand Sports Tribunal last week until May 2011 after she tested positive for the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO). The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) said she would also be ineligible to compete in London after her ban ends.
