Mark English has won bronze for Ireland at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow, grabbing his third major Championship medal in the 800 metres.

Martin O’Neill says he understands what James McClean is going through, having himself experienced hostility from the crowd at Windsor Park when, as a young Catholic during the Troubles, he first broke into the Northern Ireland team in the early 70s.

The Irish rowing team have claimed two medals at the World Rowing Cup I in Belgrade this morning.

Sanita Puspure is also through to her final.

The first World Cup event of the rowing season began yesterday in Belgrade. Having wintered together in Australia and New Zealand, two Skibbereen double-acts now face very different challenges. Gary and Paul O’Donovan are on top of the world to be shot down, while Shane O’Driscoll and Mark O’Donovan must summon the appetite to survive the biggest test of their careers.

The first World Cup event of the rowing season began yesterday in Belgrade. Having wintered together in Australia and New Zealand, two Skibbereen double-acts now face very different challenges. Gary and Paul O’Donovan are on top of the world to be shot down, while Shane O’Driscoll and Mark O’Donovan must summon the appetite to survive the biggest test of their careers.

The National Rowing Centre was tranquil as the water on sun-kissed Inniscarra Lake yesterday with Ireland’s top rowers putting on a united front to launch the international regatta season and kickstart new Rowing Ireland chief executive Michelle McElligott Carpenter’s reign.

There won’t be any medals, that’s for sure, and we’re unlikely to see any Irish athlete make a final, but that’s not to say we should stick a skewer in the IAAF World Indoor Championships before they’ve even begun.

Manchester United stars past and present yesterday stood in silent solidarity at Old Trafford to mark the 60th anniversary of the Munich air disaster.

The Liam Mackey interview: At the end of a momentous year for the club, John Caulfield talks candidly about the pleasures and pressures of managing Cork City. ‘When we were appointed I remember saying ‘people in the League of Ireland think we haven’t a clue’.

In 2017, Shane O’Driscoll and Mark O’Donovan found another gear. After a series of near misses they blew their rivals away to win European and World Championship golds. It hasn’t made them rich, it’s barely kept a boat on the water, or a car on the road. But it kept the dream alive. Now, however, a political decision means they must start all over again and risk everything in their bid to make the Olympics.

Defiant up until the end of his five-year trial, Ratko Mladic desperately tried to postpone the verdict but it’s unlikely to further post-war reconciliation in Bosnia, writes Daria Sito-Sucic    

American and Serbian paratroopers have held joint exercises in Serbia, watched with unease by Russia which is trying to increase its influence in the Balkans.

Rep of Ireland 1 Denmark 5

Denmark stand between the Republic of Ireland and their dreams of a trip to the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia.

John Giles discussed Ireland’s World Cup rescue mission with John Fallon

Serbia's first openly gay prime minister Ana Brnabic is expected to attend a gay pride march in Belgrade, as police cordoned off the city centre with metal fences to secure the event.

We’ve been far too tentative at the start of a number of games in the campaign so far, and unforgivably sloppy too at times. That has to be avoided in Tbilisi, writes Liam Brady.

Serbia have recalled Torino attacker Adem Ljajic to their squad for the upcoming World Cup qualification double-header against Moldova and Ireland.

A relentless heatwave dubbed "Lucifer" which gripped parts of Europe this week has sent temperatures soaring to record highs, causing at least two deaths and prompting authorities to issue severe weather warnings.

Irish athletes face an uphill struggle at the World Athletics Championships, which kick off in London tomorrow. Fierce global competition and drugs are two obvious reasons but there are obstacles a lot closer to home, argues Brendan O’Brien.

Usain Bolt brings the curtain down on an extraordinary career in London ready to turn the World Championships into his personal party.

The World Rowing Cup regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, presents Ireland’s seniors with a final chance to test themselves before the year’s main event, the World Rowing Championships in September.

We’re six games and nine months into the latest qualifying campaign, one that started with a brilliant result and an awful display against Serbia in Belgrade, writes Brendan O’Brien.

With Austria four points behind joint leaders Serbia and Ireland in Group D, the conventional wisdom has it that nothing less than a victory in Sunday’s game at the Aviva will be enough to resuscitate the visitors’ flagging World Cup qualifying hopes.

There were only a couple of selection decisions Martin O’Neill needed to be convinced of last night and Kevin Long did well enough against Uruguay to show he’s capable of stepping up to the challenge of a World Cup qualifier on Sunday.

Gary and Paul O’Donovan will be defending their European lightweight double sculls title at the 2017 European Rowing Championships this weekend, writes Sarah Dineen.

The Irish senior rowing team are currently fine-tuning performances at a camp in Varese, Italy after a successful opening World Cup event of the season.

Irish Rowing — and those involved in the sport in Skibbereen — were yesterday celebrating an impressive medal haul from the World Cup Regatta in Belgrade.

Gary and Paul O'Donovan are through to the A final of the lightweight men's double sculls at the World Cup Regatta in Belgrade.

The 2017 World Rowing Cup series kicks-off in Belgrade tomorrow with most Irish eyes on the O’Donovan brothers, Paul and Gary in the lightweight men’s double sculls. The regatta has attracted rowers from 26 nations, with a number of Rio 2016 Olympic medallists competing.

The first World Cup event of the season looms large for Ireland’s senior rowers. World Cup One takes place in Belgrade, Serbia from May 5-7.

At a stretch, you could call these the best of times and the worst of times for the boys in green.

The domestic regatta season officially kicks off this coming Saturday with the largest ever Neptune Regatta taking place in Islandbridge, Dublin.

On the road to Russia, where booby traps have to be dodged, a steady head like Darren Randolph admits Ireland have to be pleased with how they’ve negotiated the first half of the journey.

There is a theory that playing for England isn’t the draw it used to be, given the pressure that comes with it, and the ever-increasing rewards that are now the norm at the higher end of the club game, but there are no signs of it gaining currency on this side of the water.

No injuries, no panic.

At Ireland’s training headquarters in Abbotstown yesterday, Martin O’Neill was doing a passable impression of a boxer absorbing a flurry of punishing blows before bouncing off the ropes and back onto the front foot.

A four-goal comeback in the Champions League sounds like fantasy football, and maybe it is — but Carlo Ancelotti has been on the receiving end.

Irish athletics faces some challenges after a difficult European Indoor Championships in Belgrade but there were some green shoots with Ciara Neville gaining valuable experience at her first senior championship.

Ciara Mageean made it through to this evening’s European Indoor 1500m final but it was far from pretty.

Bandon’s Phil Healy gets Irish interest underway at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade today and she, like the rest of the Irish team, will need to be at her best to advance past the first round.

International trials and assessment will take place at the National Rowing Centre in Farran Wood, Cork, on the weekend of March 25-26th.

Ireland has one realistic medal chance as 567 athletes from 49 countries line up for the 34th European Indoor Championships, which start tomorrow in Belgrade.