Herning earns another coup: The Jutland city of Herning will host the 2003 European Short Course Swimming Championships at the Jyske Bank Boxen venue from December 12-15, it has been confirmed. Denmark, which hosted the 2010 European Women’s Handball Championships at the same venue just months after it opened, saw off a rival bid from Israel.

Persson impresses: Badminton player Joachim Persson last weekend won the singles crown at the Thwack Czech International. The current Danish number five and world number 66 was ranked sixth for the event in the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, he faced an unseeded player in the final, fellow countryman Kim Bruun, who he ruthlessly dispatched 21-11, 21-10 in just 26 minutes.

Brøndby boy Bluebirds-bound: Defensive midfielder Ibrahim Mansaray, 19, who recently turned down a new deal at Brøndby, is currently on trial at English Championship side Cardiff City. The Sierra Leone-born free agent played his first game for the Welsh club’s under-21s away at Brentford on Monday evening, but could not prevent his new side from being beaten 2-1.

Bjørn to spank the Yank: Thomas Bjørn on Sunday took his Ryder Cup record to five out of five when Europe staged a miraculous comeback from 6-10 down to win 14.5-13.5. The non-playing vice-captain had previously won the cup as a player in 1997 and 2002, and as a VC in 2004 and 2010. In the same time period, Bjørn has missed three cups – two of which Europe lost.

Quarters again for Maze: Michael Maze won admiration at the recent World Cup in Liverpool, but paid the price for a schedule that required him to play three times in one day. In the group stage, the world number 21 avenged his defeat in the Olympics to beat Germany’s Dmitry Ovtcharov, and then two others, but eventually lost to China’s Ma Long, the world number two, in the quarters.