Eleven-year-old Carly Burke had some tale to tell her pals when she went back to school today, having taken Wednesday off. “Guess who I sparred with at Dundrum Town Centre?” Hopefully she brought some photos or video clips, otherwise they’ll never believe that her opponent was Katie Taylor.
Johnny Watterson was there to witness “Katie mania”, the Bray woman making an appearance in an outdoor ring for a promotional event ahead of her homecoming fight against Chantelle Cameron at the 3Arena on Saturday night.
In Gaelic games, Kildare’s intermediate camogie team won’t be making any appearance in this year’s championship after their county board and the Camogie Association agreed on their withdrawal. This followed complaints from the players about their treatment, including no access to showers and changing rooms after training.
Ciarán Murphy finds the whole saga dispiriting, and is at a loss to understand how the Association could stand over this withdrawal, especially when Kildare “is a key target for both hurling and camogie”. In fact, he writes, “given its demographics, it might be the most important growth market out there”.
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Also in Gaelic games, Malachy Clerkin writes about Rory Gallagher stepping down as Derry manager in the aftermath of the allegations made by his ex-wife Nicola Gallagher. He could not, says Malachy, have continued in the job, but the issue of domestic violence “doesn’t go away just because he has”.
In rugby, Gerry Thornley spoke to Andrew Porter ahead of Saturday’s Champions Cup final, the Leinster man saying there would be no better way to bid farewell to Johnny Sexton and Stuart Lancaster than by beating La Rochelle. “We want to send them off on a high.”
Over in New York, meanwhile, Philip Reid heard from both Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry as they warmed up for the US PGA Championship, McIlroy once “the main man heading into each and every Major”, but now “that aura has dissipated”. Instead, all eyes are on Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler.
Lowry is also “waiting for a spark to the season”, his scoring clubs “out of sorts”. He admits he needs his putter to heat up. “I need to put it into a furnace,” he said.
Telly watch: The PGA Championship gets under way at Oak Hill Country Club in New York today – Sky Sports Golf has live coverage from 1.0 to midnight. BT Sport 2 and 3 have the second legs of the Europa League semi-finals, Sevilla v Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen v Roma (kick-off 8.0), and Sky bring the Premier League meeting of Newcastle and Brighton (kick-off 7.30).
