1. #GOLDEN GIRL Fionnuala Britton took gold at the 18th SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Velenje, Slovenia yesterday.

She is only the second ever Irish athlete to win the gold medal after Catherina McKiernan, who won the event in 1994.

Britton established her lead early on and finished ahead of Portugal’s Felix, who took second place and Britain’s Gemma Steel, who came third.

2. #THIRD It was also a good day for another Irish star in the pool.  Melanie Nocher secured bronze medal in the 200m backstroke final at the European Short Course Championships in Szczecin, Poland.

Nocher set a new Irish senior record of 2:05.00 in the heats and then went under that to take the medal in a time of 2:04.29.

3. #HEINEKEN CUP Leinster took a big step towards booking their place in the knock-out stages with a 13-18 win over Bath at the Rec yesterday afternoon.

The two sides meet again at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening. Here’s how it unfolded.

4. #PREMIER LEAGUE Two goals in the last six minutes against Blackburn earned Martin O’Neill a win in his first game as Sunderland manager yesterday.

Later on, Stoke ended Spurs’ unbeaten run with a 2-1 victory at the Brittania.

5. #SNOOKER Mark Allen was denied a UK Championship victory in a thrilling final against Judd Trump in York last night.

6. #POLITICAL FOOTBALL Bill Beaumont’s bid to replace Bernard Lapasset as chairman of the International Rugby Board will go to a vote in Los Angeles today.

7. #CHANTS Celtic will learn today if they will be punished by UEFA when the governing body announce the outcome of their disciplinary hearing into alleged “illicit chanting” by fans in the Europa League match against Rennes.

Dundalk shooting victim was popular Armagh GAA star