Polanik to sponsor Irish throwers
Polanik, a Polish brand of athletics equipment is to sponsor the Irish Throw team comprising young athletes in the disciplines of Javelin, Discus, Hammer and Shot Putt.  The deal will double the coaching budget available through Athletics Ireland and enable greater development of young stars who have the potential to be world class.
The deal comes through Pro Sports Europe whose CEO Brian Price said ““We are very excited about the future prospects in the junior age groups in Ireland and strongly believe that the future looks very bright for Irish throwing. We are also delighted to announce that 5% of all on-line sales on our website will go towards the future funding of the development of Throws in Ireland.”
Scottish Football offers test for goal line technology
Neil Doncaster, Chief Executive of the Scottish Premier League has offered to piot any schemes for the introduction of goal line technology in the 2012/13 season.  An incident in the Old Firm Derby on Wednesday night showed that debate over whether a ball has crossed the line will continue until such time as a technology solution is found.
It is not known whether the Airtricity League would be willing to participate in a trial but with the technology needing be tied to a power source it would look like a good potential fit for a trial that would garner worldwide attention.
Leopardstown records big rise in numbers
The crowd at Leopardstown on Thursday to see the Istabraq Hurdle was 8,537 bringing the total attendance figure for this year’s Christmas festival to 54,518. That compares very well with last year’s attendance figure of 30,172 though the weather had reduced last year to three days.  It still represents a six per cent increase on the 2009 attendance.
A total of €4.3 million was bet with bookmakers and over €1.4 million with the Tote over the four days.