On easily the most dramatic day of this year’s Giro d’Italia so far, Adam Hansen of Lotto Belisol won the seventh stage with a fine solo effort but all the talking was about Bradley Wiggins who crashed and lost over a minute to many of his main rivals.

Irish team manager Des Donnelly, said Katie Taylor is focused and ready for first assignment next Monday when she will meet either Queen Underwood (USA) or Natasha Jonas (Great Britain) for a bronze medal.

HIGH performance coach Billy Walsh has underscored his belief that all six of Ireland’s boxing team can come home with medals from the Olympics in London.

“THE heathers will be blazing in Wexford tonight,” Irish coach Billy Walsh predicted as he embraced fellow county man Adam Nolan, who yesterday became the second man from the Model County to qualify for an Olympic Games — Billy himself having qualified for the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

The three remaining Irish boxers in the Olympic qualification tournament in Trabzon will be back in action in today’s semi-finals.

Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Paddy Barnes is through to his second Olympic Games and vowed to come back with a medal of “a better colour”, after defeating Stefan Caslarov (Romania) 17-9 in yesterday’s quarter-finals on a memorable day at the qualifiers in Trabzon where welterweight Adam Nolan and heavyweight Tommy McCarthy also kept their hopes alive with big wins.

Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti has urged Serie A clubs to avoid controversy as they consider possible new dates for last weekend’s programme.

Several thousand people gathered outside Livorno’s Armando Picchi stadium yesterday to pay tribute to Piermario Morosini, the Livorno midfielder who died on Saturday after collapsing on the pitch during his team’s Serie B game at Pescara.

Several thousand people gathered today outside Livorno's Armando Picchi stadium to pay tribute to Piermario Morosini, the Livorno midfielder who died yesterday after collapsing on the pitch during his team's Serie B game at Pescara.

Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini has died in hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest during his team’s Serie B match at Pescara this afternoon.

Northern Ireland 1 Estonia 2

Ryanair today announced a 9% rise in passenger numbers for January 2010, carrying 4.44m passengers in the month compared to 4.08m in January 2009.

ARSENAL are facing a possible Football Association investigation after missiles were thrown at Chelsea’s Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole during yesterday’s game at the Emirates.

The Dutch football association claim they kept Arsenal fully informed about Robin van Persie’s ankle injury after Gunners boss Arsene Wenger accused them of “minimising” the seriousness of the problem.

Arsenal forward Robin van Persie will undergo ankle surgery in Amsterdam next week and is expected to be sidelined for up to five months.

HOLLAND striker Dirk Kuyt has accused Italy of a lack of respect as the row over Robin van Persie’s ankle injury continues to rage.

ROBIN VAN PERSIE intends to do all he can to get back into action for Arsenal as soon as possible – and will travel to Serbia for radical medical treatment that involves massage using fluid from a placenta.

Arsenal are awaiting news on Dutch striker Robin van Persie who could be out for a lengthy period after suffering an ankle injury in the friendly against Italy in Pescara.

Italy 0 Holland 0

THE draw did Irish boxers few favours at the world boxing championships in Milan and this was reflected on the first day of competition when they met with mixed fortunes.

Ryanair today announced that from this July it opens its 32nd base with one aircraft at Pescara, Italy and opens four new routes (seven in total) at this new base.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE (St Michael’s, Athy) and Carl Frampton (Midland) claim star billing when they meet for the third time in a year in the featherweight final at the National Senior Championships in the National Stadium tonight.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE, his cousin John Joe Joyce, Belfast middleweight, Eamonn O’Kane and 20-year-old Clonmel heavyweight Con Sheehan will all be battling for medals and semi-final places at the European Boxing Championships in Liverpool today.

WHEN the Irish team assembled at O’Hare Airport for the return flight to Dublin after the world championships the atmosphere in the camp was one of tension as well as disappointment.

NOT so long ago John Joe Nevin was being groomed as a London 2012 prospect, but today he will climb into the Olympic boxing ring at the Workers Gymnasium as a big medal prospect for Beijing.

Steeped in the past achievements of legends like Barry McGuigan and Wayne McCullough, Ireland’s five-strong boxing squad heads to Beijing in fine shape to add their own chapter to their nation’s illustrious fighting history.

THE five-man boxing team hold Ireland’s best chance of a medal — or medals — at this year’s Olympic Games according to team manager, Jim Walsh.

IRELAND’S two most experienced Olympic boxers, Kenneth Egan and Darren Sutherland, are hoping that the IABA’s High Performance Director, Gary Keegan, will have the required accreditation to be with them at the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.

THREE gold medals put the perfect finishing touch to what was a remarkable week for Irish boxing at the Olympic qualifying tournament here on Saturday, with John Joe Joyce, Darren Sutherland and Ken Egan not only qualifying for Beijing, but winning their respective divisions.

IRELAND will have five boxers in this year’s Olympic tournament in Beijing, the biggest representation since Barcelona in 1992 when Michael Carruth and Wayne McCullough won their gold and silver medals.

THREE Irish boxers bid to secure Olympic qualification in Athens later today.

LAST year Kenneth Egan was one of the favourites to qualify for the Beijing Olympics but he lost an excellent opportunity at the world championships in Chicago and missed out on another chance in Pescara six weeks ago but he is back on track again, writes Brendan Mooney.

HOPES of getting Roy Sheahan to Athens for next week’s Olympic qualifying tournament were abandoned yesterday when it was ruled that his damaged hand would not be sufficiently recovered for an 11th-hour box-off with Willie McLoughlin (Illie GG).

DARREN SUTHERLAND of St Saviours OBA set up another exciting middle-weight meeting with Darren O’Neill (Paulstown) in tonight’s finals when he stopped Sean Shevlin in the second round of their box-off at the National Stadium last night.

DARREN O’NEILL may have put what seemed like the perfect finishing touch to his preparations for this weekend’s box-off against Darren Sutherland when he won another gold medal at the multi-nations tournament in Zagreb but he admitted yesterday his preparations for the big rematch have not been perfect.

IRISH boxing officials remain confident that at least one more fighter will secure a spot at this summer’s Olympic Games when they contest the final qualifier for European boxers in Athens next month.

JOHN JOE NEVIN put the finishing touch to a memorable week in Pescara, Italy, by winning the gold medal in the 54Kg final of the AIBA European Olympic Boxing Qualifying Tournament.

John Joe Nevin has won gold at the Olympic qualifiers in Pescara today.

JOHN JOE NEVIN, who was named the Irish Examiner National Junior Sport star for boxing on Wednesday, secured automatic qualification for the Olympic Games with a spectacular victory over Marksym Tretyak from the Ukraine at the qualifying tournament in Pescara yesterday.

Irish captain Ken Egan lost his quest to secure Olympic qualification after losing his light heavyweight semi-final to Ramazan Magamedau from Belarus in Pescara, Italy today.

John Joe Joyce's attempt to secure Olympic qualification ended in disappointment today after he was beaten by experienced Romanian light welterweight Ionut Gheorghe in Pescara, Italy.

KENNETH EGAN, John Joe Nevin and John Joe Joyce can qualify for the Olympics with just one more victory at the European qualifiers in Pescara this afternoon.

Irish captain Ken Egan, John Joe Nevin and Ross Hickey cruised into the quarter finals of the Olympic qualifiers in Pescara, Italy after recording comprehensive wins today.

The Irish squad will train with their Italian hosts, France, Greece and Lithuania today at their Santa Maria training base in Perugia, Italy.