Horse Sport Ireland has not ruled out taking the case involving Cian O’Connor to the Swiss federal courts.

Show jumper Cian O’Connor yesterday said he had “no regrets” after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected his appeal against the debacle at the European Championships that cost Ireland a place in the Olympics.

She won’t be there today. While her husband Rob powers it out this morning around the southern Slovakian spa town of Dudince in a time that should qualify him for next year’s Rio Olympics, Marian Heffernan will be at home in Douglas with the kids and expecting another one.

Last week I was in an audience listening to Sonia O’Sullivan discuss her Olympic silver medal.

Rob’s gold medal-winning performance in Moscow yesterday was the end result of a long process, one that started as far back as the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Family and friends of newly crowned world champion Rob Heffernan mixed nerves with tears after a 24 hours they will never forget.

Just before 9.30pm today, the eight fastest men in the world will be gathered in a small room deep in the bowels of the Olympic Stadium, attempting to destroy each other.

Ireland's athletes are 10th of the 12 competing nations after the opening day's events in the European Team Championships 1st League in Izmir, Turkey.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN has been nominated by Athletics Ireland for election to the Council of the IAAF, the world governing body for athletics.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN got 2011 off to a record breaking start on his home turf when he smashed the national 30k walk record with a sizzling 2:07.48 in the Woodies DIY national walk championships around the Monahan Road/Centre Park Road circuit in Cork yesterday.

DESPITE a disappointing run in Zagreb on Wednesday, Derval O’Rourke can end the season in style this weekend, says coach Sean Cahill.

PRINCE Albert of Monaco is engaged to marry Charlene Wittstock, a former Olympic swimmer for South Africa, a union that will give the Mediterranean principality its first crown princess since the prince’s mother, American actress Grace Kelly, died in 1982.

BILLY WALSH, the face of Irish boxing in recent years, was yesterday considering his future as Head Coach after failing to nail down the position of Director of High Performance.

ROY SHEAHAN (St Michael’s, Athy) will have the ideal opportunity to get his international career back on track when he guests for the Garda/Rylane selection against the New York Police Department in a sell-out dinner show at the Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork on Saturday night.

IRELAND’S assistant coach Marco Tardelli has kept his long-running row with France boss Raymond Domenech simmering after refusing to forgive the Frenchman for accusing his opposite number of buying the referee in an U21 match 10 years ago.

Former Olympian Michael Roche has said that he was deeply shocked to hear of the death of Irish middleweight Darren Sutherland in London yesterday.

JOHN TREACY has made his own arrangements to attend the Olympics in Beijing as the Irish Sports Council (ISC) moved to stave off any confrontation with the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) on the eve of the Games.

OLYMPIC race walker Olive Loughnane claims she is in “really good shape” ahead of next month’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

Sprinter Maurice Greene has denied reports linking him to performance-enhancing drugs, describing the claims as “messed up”.

MARTIN FAGAN’S participation in next month’s Houston Marathon will depend on the outcome of a meeting today with officials at the US embassy in Ballsbridge.

Marion Jones, the American athletics star, is facing a prison sentence after admitting lying about not taking drugs.

JAMIE COSTIN, on his comeback, and Colin Griffin, on his debut, both failed to finish the 50k walk at the world championships in Osaka on Saturday.

SINCE she finished 12th at the 20k walk world championships is Paris in 2003, life has changed dramatically for Olive Loughnane.

Irish amateur boxing received an enormous boost yesterday with the confirmation that Pat McCrory has been appointed Secretary of the Amateur Boxing Associations (AIBA) Referee's and Judges (R&J) Commission.

GARY RYAN has been appointed Director of Coaching with Athletics Ireland, but the resignation of High Performance Director, Elaine Fitzgerald, has shocked the sport and left AAI with a huge void.

THE new Irish ladies hockey coach is not expecting his new charges to set the world alight overnight, but he has already laid down what he believes to be some reasonable targets for the side as they head into a three-game series against Scotland this weekend.

RIET KUPER yesterday tendered her resignation as coach to the Irish senior women’s hockey team in a move which could ultimately see several changes in the sport’s international coaching system.

Former Olympic champion Audley Harrison’s career is in tatters after an emphatic defeat by American heavyweight Dominick Guinn sounded the death knell to his faded world title ambitions.

BRITISH show jumping legend Malcolm Pyrah is one of five candidates in the frame to become the next Irish show jumping team manager.

Top sports athletes will be able to get places at an Irish university even if they do not have enough points, it emerged today.

POLICE believe a nuclear reactor in southern Sydney was a possible target of a Sydney-based Islamic terror cell, according to details of Australia’s biggest-ever counter-terror investigation released yesterday.

Police believe a nuclear reactor in southern Sydney was a possible target of a Sydney-based Islamic terror cell, according to details of Australia’s biggest-ever counter-terror investigation released today.

Australian prime minister John Howard today welcomed news the Pope is to visit Sydney for the World Youth Day celebrations in 2008, an event expected to draw thousands of overseas pilgrims to the city.

EUROPE'S biggest lottery winner played a game of cat and mouse with the media yesterday - but not before splashing out on a facial.

KELLY HOLMES has pulled out of Saturday’s BUPA Cork City Sports at the Mardyke because of the Achilles tendon problem that forced her out of the European Cup the weekend before last.

CHRIS NEWTON, the 2003 winner, took custody of the race leader’s yellow jersey at the end of yesterday’s second stage of the FBD Insurance RAS.

There is no easy fix to ensure Irish athletes match ever-increasing international sporting standards, it was claimed today.

The judgment in the trial of Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou has been delayed for two weeks.

The judgement in the trial of Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou has been delayed for two weeks.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN fans can still look forward to some big performances from her, according to world cross-country champion Benita Johnson.

THE wide-eyed look of disbelief told it all: He kissed the track and danced a jig. This ­ for the fans of track and field at least ­ was the greatest moment of the 2004 Olympic Games

INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has set up a disciplinary commission to investigate allegations against US sprinter Marion Jones.