Jonathan Greene of Carlow has won the 109th South of Ireland Championship at Lahinch Golf Club

Greene took on Keelan MMcDonagh of Athlone-NUI Maynooth in the final last evening, and in a close encounter he edged past his opponent in a final score of 2&1.

Greene follows the likes of Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke in winning the long-running competition.

There was disappointment for Ennis man Rory Chesser at the European Championships in Barcelona last night.

The 23 year old finished tenth in his semi-final of the 1500m, missing out on a spot in the final.

Chesser's time of 3:44.1 was three seconds outside of his personal best time, and wasn't fast enough to qualify him for the final as a fastest loser.

Thomas Chamney, Chesser's Ireland team mate, also failed to reach the final after finishing ninth in the second of the two semi-finals.

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Olive Loughnane withdrew from the 20- k walk at the European Championships in Barcelona, the Galway athlete had been ill over the last few days 

The 34 year-old started well but dropped back rapidly before eventually pulling out

Latter this evening David Gillick and Gordon Kennedy are in 400 metres semi final action while Ennis man Rory Chesser will compete in the 1500 metres semi final.

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Its been a mixed day so-far for the Irish team on the opening day of the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.

Rob Heffernan narrowly missed out on a medal after he finished fourth in the 20k walk while David Gillick won his heat in the 400 metres to book a place in the semi finals, where he'll be joined by Gordon Kennedy.

There was disappointment for all three of our women's 400 metre runners, as well as for Kelly Proper in the long-jump.

Ferrari received a fine and face further sanctions after ordering Felipe Massa to let Fernando Alonso pass him out to win yesterdays German Grand Prix

Despite only finishing 4th McLarens Lewis Hamilton still leads the driver's championship by 14 points with his teammate Jenson Button second
 

In Golf, today saw the start of the South of Ireland Golf Championships in Lahinch.

Ennis man Noel Pyne, who was playing in a record-breaking 48th consecutive championship,
was beaten by Sam Devey of Skerries by 3 and 2.

Another Ennis golfer, Bob Loftus lost 3 and 2, and Tony Cleary from Dromoland was also beaten.

Declan Mc Inerney from Lahinch won his match one up.

In tomorrow's matches, the holder Robert Cannon from the Laytown/Bettystown club will play Shane Hogan from Nenagh.
 

Riders go into the final day of climbing today in stage 17 of the Tour de France.

Andy Schleck will be bidding to take back the yellow jersey from rival Alberto
Contador on the legendary Col du Tourmalet .

Nicolas Roche lies 18th overall
 

One of the legends of cycling has confirmed that he's coming to Clare for the Etape Hibernia next month.

Sean Kelly will be among the thousands of cyclists participating in the event, which will be held on August 22nd

The event will start and finish in Ennis, and will take in much of North and West Clare as part of it's 80 mile route.

Up to 5000 people are expected to take part in what is Ireland's first ever closed road cycling event.

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Darren Clarke is expected to be named Colin Montgomerie's Ryder cup vice captain today with Paul McGinley aslo expected to make up part of the backroom team

Monty is expected to make an announcement at  Wentworth at 11.30am.

Clarke has plenty of Ryder Cup experience, famously staying unbeaten in the 2006 competition as he helped Europe to victory over the US.

Rory Mc Ilroy has moved up to 7th on the world rankings following his joint 3rd place finish at the Open Championship

Padraig Harrington has dropped to 17th while Louis Oosthuizen (pron: LOO-EE OOST-HAY-SUN)  has jumped from 54th to 15th following his win at Saint Andrews