Sport in Brief: Montgomerie avoids unwanted record

Colin Montgomerie found his form in the nick of time yesterday to save himself from missing a fourth successive halfway cut. Europe's Ryder Cup captain improved eight shots on his first round 76 in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

It still left Montgomerie eight shots off the lead, but he was a relieved man. Four missed cuts would be a new record for me and I don't want to set those records," he said. "I hit all 18 greens in regulation, which is always good.

"That's the way I always used to play, but I've not been hitting fairways – they have been a ghost to me."

Double scullers add to list of British finalists

Great performances by the lightweight double scullers Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking and Rob Williams and Paul Mattick brought Britain's total of world championship finalists to 11 in Olympic events, plus one in a non-Olympic event and three Paralympic crews. Today's finals will be a thumping test for the new men's four who have been leading the pack all season.

Christopher Dodd

Maher flies the flag as Swiss strike gold

Switzerland gained their fourth European team gold medal for showjumping yesterday, moving up from fourth place halfway through the Nations Cup contest at the Alltech FEI Jumping and Dressage Championships at Windsor. Britain moved in the opposite direction, dropping from second to sixth place in the deciding second round.

Ben Maher has kept hopes of a British medal alive since he is now lying second for the individual title as the top 25 riders go through to tomorrow's final. In the lead is Italy's Natale Chiaudani, a member of the silver medal Italian team, now trained by recently retired Swiss rider Markus Fuchs.

Having motivated the Italians so effectively, Fuchs must have had mixed emotions as he watched Steve Guerdat achieve the clear round that Switzerland needed to defeat Italy.

Genevieve Murphy