SPORTS DIGEST/ EQUESTRIAN: Conor Swail, who steered Drumagoland's Flight to third in two speed classes at Gijon in Spain over the weekend, made it a hat-trick yesterday when third in the Spanish Grand Prix with Poncho, finishing just over a second off the Swiss winner, Pierre Kolly, writes Grania Willis.
Harry Marshall and Ado Annie did their hopes of a place on the Barcelona Super League team no harm with a double clear in sixth.
World champion Dermott Lennon and Condios posted third in the Grand Prix van den Haag in Holland yesterday.
At the Land Rover horse trials at Burghley, Ann Hatton was 31st with Cool Kiwi after a slow cross-country clear on Saturday.
BASKETBALL: The pursuit of Irish basketball history barely paused for breath in the National Basketball Arena at the weekend, reports Johnny Watterson.
The first hurdle in the drive to become the first Irish team to make it into the top 16 in Europe was cleared as Malta folded 98-49. Word then came in that Switzerland had beaten Slovakia, leaving Ireland on the top of Pool B with seven points, one ahead of the Slovak Republic and Switzerland, who they meet in the coming weeks.
Against Malta, one of the new faces on the Irish side, Marian guard Lorcan Precious, scored 14 points. Centre Justin Naughton landed a game high of 15 points.
CRICKET: North County sealed their third league title in a row this weekend with two comfortable victories, writes James Fitzgerald.
Centuries from Andre Botha and Reinhardt Strydom on Saturday and another by Conor Armstrong yesterday ensured wins over Phoenix and Malahide to give them an unassailable lead in Section A ahead of the last round next weekend.
In Section B, The Hills will take top honours after they beat Railway Union on Saturday.
CANOEING: Malcolm Banks finally landed the K2 title in the Liffey Descent on Saturday - his 30th consecutive time to do the race. Banks (43) and Simon Van Lonkhuyzen came home first of over 900 competitors, covering the 30-kilometre course from Straffan to Islandbridge in one hour 55 minutes and 53 seconds.
ATHLETICS: Tatyana Lebedeva (29) won the Golden League's $1 million jackpot yesterday with a triple-jump victory in Berlin. The Russian leapt 14.85 metres and so became the only athlete to win her discipline at all six meetings.
CYCLING: Yesterday's final stage of the Tour of Britain saw strong rides by the Irish riders in the race, with Ciarán Power (Navigators Insurance) finishing fourth and Paul Healion (Driving Force Logistics) taking eighth, writes Shane Stokes.Eugene Moriarty (Team Ireland) was just outside the top ten in 13th.
The concluding sixth stage was won by Luca Paolini in a bunch sprint, with his QuickStep team-mate Nick Nuyens finishing safely in the main bunch in ninth, thus holding on to his yellow jersey. The Belgian led the race from start to finish.
