SOCCER
Kerry’s Sean Kennedy and his Republic of Ireland U16 team-mates today open their Victory Shield campaign.
They take on hosts Northern Ireland in Bangor at 3.
Both Merseyside managers are feeling the pressure this morning.
Liverpool and Everton conceded a combined total of nine goals in the Premier League yesterday.
A 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal has left Toffees in the relegation zone.
Harry Kane netted twice for Spurs as they beat Liverpool 4-1 at Wembley.
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp claimed he could have defended better than his players
Finn Harps take on Drogheda United in their rescheduled S-S-E Airtricity League Premier Division tie tonight.
Kick off is at 8.
MOTORSPORT
Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of clinching his fourth Formula One world title after winning the United States Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver is now 66 points ahead of rival Sebastian Vettel, who kept finishing second in Texas.
Hamilton will be crowed champion if he finishes no lower than fifth in Mexico next weekend.
Ireland’s TDC supported Autotest team took runner up position, behind old rivals Northern Ireland, in the Ken Wharton Memorial International Autotest at Alcester, in Warwickshire, at the weekend. After seven long, demanding tests, totalling well over two thousand seconds, there was just 20 seconds between the two teams from this island, with England, Scotland and Wales trailing behind.
Kilkenny’s Ian White, making his debut in the event, was the star of the Irish team, finishing second in the individual competition, behind English veteran Malcolm Livingston, with NI team leader Paul Blair next in line. Leitrim’s David Thompson finished fourth, taking a class win. This was Northern Ireland’s 36th win in the long history of the event, another new record.
20 year-old Navan driver Keith Donegan finished the Final of the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch yesterday in second place, just one tenth of a second behind winner Joey Foster, after battling his way through from sixth position on the grid. Earlier, Donegan also finished as runner up in his heat and third in his semi-final, giving him his best results of the year in this blue riband event of the FF1600 class.
At Mondello Park, defending Parts for Cars Irish National Rallycross Champion Derek Tohill kept his unbeaten record this year, winning the Super Final well ahead of Noel Greene.
The Kilkenny crew of Enda O’Brien and John Butler have recorded a resounding victory on the Garda Síochána Motor Club’s 2017 Germaines of Baltinglass Mini Stages Rally. They were outright fastest on four of the event’s six stages in their Ford Escort RS, their final margin of victory extending to fifteen seconds.
HORSE RACING
Colin Keane (23) will take a lead of four (90-86) over Pat Smullen to the rescheduled Fairyhouse meeting on Tuesday afternoon where he’ll continue his battle to become Irish Champion Flat rider for the first time in his career.
Reigning champion Smullen (40), who has nine Irish titles to his credit, narrowed the gap to five behind the Meathman with a brace of winners at Dundalk on Friday night and started today at Leopardstown in the best possible way. He scored aboard well-backed newcomer Contingent for his boss Dermot Weld in the 1m maiden to peg one back, with no joy coming from his three remaining rides.
Keane had six rides at the south Dublin track without a winner but managed three runner-up finishes, including aboard the hot favourite Cannonball trained by his boss Ger Lyons in the Listed Trigo Stakes won by the Aidan O’Brien-trained Bound and Seamie Heffernan.
Both riders will renew rivalry at Fairyhouse, postponed on Saturday due to the arrival of Storm Brian.
