Young Irish side handed big shock as visiting USA snatch late victory

burg Masters later this month when a more experienced panel will get the opportunity to get things back on the rails.

It all looked so good early on when Jeremy Duncan won a penalty corner in the 24th minute and Shane O’Donoghue tucked it away in the bottom corner.

But chances were wasted and the Green Machine were made to pay when Kei Kaepller’s reverse on the volley soared past Jamie Carr and into the top corner.

With the Irish now operating a kicking back, the USA won a penalty corner and William Holt put away the rebound for victory. FINN Valley high jumper Sommer Lecky (18) revelled in her most impressive qualification in a major competition yet when she was one of only four athletes who had a fault-free day in the opening round of the Word Under-20 Athletics Championships in Tampere, Finland.

The Irish champion cleared the 1.84m qualification height to join 11 other girls in Sunday’s final. More impressively, she cleared every single height at her first attempt, having started at 1.70m.

Commonwealth Games athlete Lecky, who has a personal best of 1.86m when winning the Scottish Indoors title earlier this year, commented afterwards: “I felt really good. The track was bouncy but I was sure I could control it.”

The Irish Women’s sprint relay team excelled, securing a place in Sunday’s final as the second fastest qualifiers.

They won their heat in 44.27 seconds, with Germany the fastest qualifiers.

The Men’s relay team, which included anchor man Aaron Sexton of North Down, failed to qualify for the final after they finished third in their heat in 40.51 seconds.

In the Women’s 100m hurdles, Ireland’s Molly Scott qualified for the semi-finals after coming third in her heat in 13.95 seconds.

Meanwhile, Lorraine Ugen will lead the British team taking on world and Olympic champions from around the globe in the inaugural Athletics World Cup.

The 26-year-old set the long jump world lead with a leap of 7.05m earlier this month and stood in to win Commonwealth Games relay gold for England in April.

The United States, Jamaica, Germany, France, China, Poland and South Africa will also compete at London Stadium.