| Ireland will host thrilling Ryder
Cup
IRELAND’S K CLUB is set to host an exciting Ryder Cup according
to Padraig Harrington. After the USA’s humiliating defeat at Oakland
Hills Harrington expects Tom Lehman’s side to be highly motivated
to produce a predicted backlash. The USA team are now believed to be more
focused that ever before according to Ireland’s leading player.
Harrington said: “I think we have them more motivated than before.”
He said he expected the Americans to draw strength from their recent reverses
and play with the same siege mentality as European teams in the past.
“We’d have a far better chance in the Ryder Cup this year
if we’d lost at Oakland Hills. The fact that we’ve won the
last two means that the US team is really going to be motivated. They
are going to come out with all guns firing. They are going to have what
the Europeans had in the last Ryder Cup and I think this will be a difficult
Ryder Cup for Europe to win.”
After his recent disappointing performance in Stormont any doubts about
Alistair Cragg’s form were dismissed after he won an indoor mile
on his home track in Arkansas in 3mins 55.04secs —the fastest indoor
mile in the world so far this year.
Ireland’s European Indoor 3,000m champion said afterwards: “I
didn’t think I’d run that good. It shows that an extra week’s
training is huge this time of year.”
Cragg’s return to form means Ireland now has two athletes leading
the world season-best rankings as he joins Meath record-breaking long-jumper
Ciaran McDonagh, whose new Irish indoor record of 8.0m last week also
tops the list for his event.
Also inside the world qualifying time recently was Sligo’s Mary
Cullen who won a 3,000m in the Boston area in 9:02.13. There were good
performances also at the recent Scottish Indoors where Emily Maher won
the 60m (7.39s) with 200m wins for Ciara Sheehy (23.77) and Darragh Graham
(22.32) while Rob Connolly won the 1500m in 3:52.
The Irish women’s hockey team will be captained by Wexford native
Linda Caulfield as they prepare for their World Cup qualifying campaign.
The 115-times capped Caulfield succeeds the recently-retired Lynsey McVicar
at a time when Irish hockey is on an upward curve. The ladies will limber
up for their World Cup bid in April with a series of matches against Scotland
at Belfield in the coming weeks.
The proposed radical redevelopment of the Curragh racecourse moved a
step closer with road re-alignment work set to begin shortly. The plan
would see the main national road which runs alongside the track altered
and the construction of a new grandstand and hotel on the site of Ireland’s
premier racecourse. The racecourse expects to apply for planning permission
in the coming weeks.
Dublin boxer Oisin Fagan successfully defended his Oklahoma state boxing
title with a knockout defeat of local fighter John Huxley.
Thirty-two-year-old Fagan now boasts a professional record of 10 wins
and three defeats.
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