D Monday, October 19, 2009 METROSPORT 21 GAA: Mick ODwyer has confirmed that he will be continuing on as Wicklows Senior Football manager for 2010. The Kerry legend, who guided Wicklow to the last round of the qualifiers this year, finished a three- year term at the end of the season. But he revealed to county officials at the weekend that he wants to stay on for a fourth season at the Garden County helm. Its a major boost for Wicklow who feared that they may have lost the former Laois and Kildare chief to a managerless county once the season ended. BOXING: Carl Froch defended his WBC super- middleweight title in a tense points win over Andre Dirrell, and then promised a unification war with WBA king Mikkel Kessler. The Cobra (pictured) made a winning start to the Super Six World Boxing Classic with a split-decision win in Nottingham. The 32-year- old struggled against the tricky American but landed enough for two of the judges to score it in his favour. Next up for Froch is Dane Kessler, the man who tested Joe Calzaghe in their 2007 clash. TENNIS: Rafael Nadal said he will soon be back to winning ways, despite losing in the Shanghai Masters final. The world No.2 went down to Russian Nikolay Davydenko at the weekend but insists he is close to finding the form that saw him win five of his first ten tournaments of this year, before suffering the injury problems which ended his reign as world No.1. I just can say I am going to work hard to be at my best as soon as possible and I am not seeing myself very far off that, said the Spaniard, who now plays the Paris Masters and World Tour Finals. ATHLETICS: World champion Bai Xue continued her brilliant form this year with another stellar performance while defending her Beijing Marathon title. Her victory came two months after her gold medal success in Berlin, and she headed a Chinese clean sweep yesterday by finishing ahead of Zhang Xin and Zhu Xiaolin. The 20-year- old won a testing race in a time of 2:34:44. Samuel Mugo led a Kenyan clean sweep of the mens race, winning in 2:08:20 ahead of Nicholas Kamakya and Benson Barus. SPORTDigest Carl Froch: Defends title RUGBY HEINEKEN CUPGOLF PORTUGAL MASTERS Westwood finally wins to end his title hoodooBy PETER REGAN After three play-off defeats, two near misses in majors and an amazing 26 top ten finishes since his last vic- tory, Lee Westwood was finally back lifting a trophy last night. Westwood ended more than two years without a title by capturing the Portugal Masters by two shots from Italian francesco Molinari and four from Padraig Harrington. the added bonus he would have been happy to win the smallest event was that the massive first prize of 500,000 takesWestwood from fourth to first on the european money list. Westwood, who pulled off an un- likely birdie at the long 17th when one ahead, said: It was nice to finish it off, you never know when the next win is going to come and you start to question yourself. You always slightly doubt yourself in the back of your mind and to be number one again feels great. Its been nearly ten years since I won it. Im delighted about the world rank- ings. I always have a good look at that and its a reflection of my consistency. But winning is definitely a habit and I got out of the habit. Hopefully now that I have won again I can win even more. the 30th victory of his professional career was achieved at the Oceanico Victoria Club in Vilamoura with a 23-under-par total of 265 after a bogey-free closing round of 66. Harrington always looked to have too much ground to make up and af- terwards blamed dehydration for his costly third-round 71. In hindsight I think I got dehydrat- ed. I drank a phenomenal amount, just not enough. said the Dubliner, whose last tour win remains the US- PGA in August last year. even with an impressive closing round of 66, rory McIlroy was only 30th and so drops to second place in the race to Dubai standings. Go West: Lee Westwood shows his delight after sinking a putt on his way to victory in Portugal Picture: AP Match winner: Dupuys late penalty earned Stade the win Bath in hot water after loss to Stade Julien Dupuy put a dent in Baths Heineken Cup ambitions for a second successive season as Stade Francais stole a dramatic Recreation Ground win yesterday. The scrum-halfs seventh penalty, a minute from time, condemned Bath to a 29-27 loss and a second straight pool Four defeat. Home wing Matt Banahan had earlier run riot, the 6ft 7in england man repeatedly blasting through Stades defence ahead of englands autumn Tests, with fly- half nicky little and centre Matt Carraro benefiting from his forays. little also booted one conversion and five penalties for a 22-point haul, yet Bath were hanging on desperately before Stade substitute Ollie phillips touched down after 76 minutes. Dupuys late try for leicester last term sent Bath crashing out in the last eight and he again ruthlessly punished them with seconds left. On Saturday, leinster ran out comfortable 36-13 winners away to Brive and now lie second in pool Six, while Munster survived an early scare to claim a 41-10 victory over Benetton Treviso at Thomond park to move top of pool One. Kerin inspires Boden to victory GAA DUBLIN SFC FINAL Kingston wont write off Quins JOHn KinGSTOn has refused to write off Harlequins Heineken Cup hopes after a second straight pool Five defeat. Quins chances of reaching the last eight were left hanging by a thread as three-time european champions Toulouse staged a second-half rally to win 23-19 at the Stoop. The londoners have collected just one point from two games so far and head coach Kingston admitted: There is no question our situation is very difficult. But if we can do the business home and away to Sale and beat Cardiff, who can tell what will happen? Hands off: Ballybodens Simon Lambert attempts to tackle St Judes Niall OShea CORneR-forward Andrew Kerin hit a stunning 2-5 at parnell park to seal a second Dublin SFC title for Ballyboden St endas. The 26-year old livewire kicked goals in either half as Boden crowned a remarkable two weeks of action with their first county victory since 1995 and only the second in their history. it was their fourth game in 17 days, having taken three games and 220 minutes of action to see off defending champions Kilmacud Crokes in the semi-finals. Fatigue was visible in the last five minutes as opponents St Judes probed forward in a doomed effort to salvage a crucial goal. But for the most part Boden looked fresh, and set the pace early on in a brilliant first-half that saw them outscore Judes 1-8 to 0-7. Kerin hit his first goal in the seventh minute and effectively put the game beyond their southside neighbours with his second strike in the 41st minute. it was a finish worthy of deciding such a crucial game as he raced clear and beat highly rated Judes keeper paul Copeland with an unstoppable blast from 12 yards. For Boden trio Shane Durkin, Conal Keaney and Simon lambert theres little time to celebrate as they are in county semi-final action with the club hurlers next Sunday. But for the rest of the panel there is a much- needed break until the leinster club SFC opener against Wicklow champions Rathnew on november 8. When we look back now we can say that it was our resilience thats taken us to the title after three very testing weeks, said Ballyboden manager liam ODwyer. BALLYBODEN ST ENDAS 2-12 ST JUDES 1-13 Bath 27 Stade Francais 29 Harlequins 19 Toulouse 23 index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html