Today's other stories in brief
Strong rides from Irish pair
CYCLING:Having displayed his strong climbing ability when he finished fifth on stage three of the Tour of Denmark on Friday, Daniel Martin placed 20th in Saturday afternoon's time trial, reports Shane Stokes.
He completed the 14.5km distance 55 seconds off the pace of Gustav Erik Larsson.
Martin ended the five-day race 58th overall, seven minutes and 48 seconds behind Jakob Fuglsang (Team Designa Køkken).
Meanwhile, the Irish junior Philip Lavery is continuing to ride strongly in Belgium, the Tempo BMV rider taking two wins over the weekend.
On Saturday he was best of the 75-man field in the Ronde Waubach, going clear of the peloton early to join a breakaway, then leaving this move with three laps remaining and finishing alone. He took all of the primes in the race.
He soloed to victory in the Ronde Balen road race yesterday, finishing 40 seconds clear.
Proper breaks senior long-jump record
ATHLETICS:Kelly Proper capped a marvellous season when she broke the 16-year-old Irish long-jump record at the Amsterdam Open in Holland on Saturday evening.
After she broke the Irish under-23 record a couple of weeks ago it was only a matter of time before she added the senior record, and that gives her a clean sweep of records: junior, under-23 and senior.
She opened her latest competition with an impressive 6.57 metres, only to find the wind was over the legal limit.
She followed up with 6.26 metres, before jumping 6.51 metres, but that too was deemed wind-assisted.
She aborted her fourth attempt before jumping 6.44 metres, and then capped a great evening with a jump of 6.51 metres to break Terri Horgan's 1992 record of 6.48.
Back-to-back wins for Swail
EQUESTRIAN: Conor Swail moved into fourth place in the Citreon/ShowjumpingIreland premier Grand Prix series following his win in yesterday's leg at Coilog with Glen Leddy's nine-year-old gelding Gold Digger.
Seven combinations got through to the jump-off at the Kildare venue, with Cian O'Connor recording the first double clear in 47.01 on Splendor.
This was bettered by Cork-born Billy Twomey, who is over from England for the Dublin Horse Show and showed himself on form when leaving all the poles in place in 45.93 with his own J'Taime Flamenco.
Like Twomey, Swail is not long back after injury and is wasting no time in making his presence felt.
The 36-year-old and Gold Digger, winners seven days earlier at Tattersalls, went all out and recorded back-to-back victories in 45.51.
India level series with Sri Lanka
CRICKET: India captain Anil Kumble said he was proud of his players after they bounced back yesterday to level the series against Sri Lanka with a convincing, 170-run victory in the second Test in Galle.
India lost the opening Test by an innings and 239 runs, but the three-match series now stands at 1-1 after Sri Lanka, set a victory target of 307, were bowled out for just 136.
"I am really proud of the way we played in this Test match," Kumble said.
Virender Sehwag scored an unbeaten 201 and then 50 in the second innings.
"The way Viru (Sehwag) got those runs, scoring 201 out of 329, is really amazing," Kumble said.
Loeb breaks Scandinavian grip
MOTOR SPORT: Sebastien Loeb moved one point behind World Rally Championship leader Mikko Hirvonen after taking victory in Rally Finland.
The Frenchman claimed maximum points when holding off a late surge from Hirvonen to win by just nine seconds.
The four-time world champion and his Finnish rival had been almost inseparable from the start of the rally on Thursday, their relentless pace moving them over three minutes clear of the field.
It was Loeb's 42nd WRC victory and he became only the fourth non-Scandinavian to win the Finnish event since in 1951.
"It's fantastic, an incredible feeling - winning here in Finland means so much to me," Loeb said.
Taylor chasing third big title
BOXING:World and European champion Katie Taylor could be in the ring tonight to begin her quest to win her third major title at the European Union Championships in Liverpool.
Kelly Harrington and Debbie Rogers have been named on a three-woman Irish squad along with Taylor, who has occupied number one in the World and European rankings since November 2006.
