Ibrox hunts Lewis fight

Glasgow's Ibrox Stadium, home to Glasgow Rangers, has joined the list of possible venues for the Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield heavyweight unification rematch.

Lewis's promoter, Panos Eliades, and manager, Frank Maloney, are to meet Rangers officials tomorrow for discussions about hosting the fight.

Yesterday Maloney had talks with Tom Shorey, the sales director of the new 75,000-capacity Millennium Stadium with a view to staging the triple-title fight in Cardiff, on the same area of Welsh soil where Lewis stopped Frank Bruno in October 1993 in his first term as WBC champion.

Eliades, though, still believes Las Vegas will emerge as the favourite location.

"I think Las Vegas is going to end up being the favourite. But South Africa is still a possibility, and Glasgow Rangers have come in with Ibrox. The Rangers people want to have negotiations, and that will happen on Thursday. We'll fight wherever the money is," he said yesterday.

Hockey: Eleven months ago Hermes clinched their first Leinster Senior A title in 25 years when they drew 0-0 with third-placed Old Alexandra at Belfield, writes Mary Hannigan. Tonight the teams meet again at the same venue, only this time a draw would secure the crown for Alexandra.

They go into the game as the only team in Ireland to have beaten Hermes this season - and they did it twice (in the league and in last week's Leinster Senior Cup final).

Hermes, though, are the only side to have beaten the league leaders (a 3-0 win in January's Irish Senior Cup quarter-finals) since they lost their opening match of the season to Loreto - all of which makes predicting tonight's result nigh on impossible. For Hermes anything less than a victory will render their final fixture of the season, against Muckross next week, meaningless, and send Alexandra off to Rome as champions. A win for Hermes would leave them needing two points (for a score draw) against Muckross to pip Alexandra for the title. Meanwhile, the Maids of the Mountain are no more - from next season the Leinster Senior B club, founded in 1919, will be known as Three Rock Ladies, following a decision to merge with the men of Three Rock Rovers. Maids have been playing at Grange Road for 10 years but the merger will now entitle them to equal rights with Rovers. A second water-based pitch will be laid at a cost of £400,000.

Golf: Lee Westwood sought the advice of Tiger Woods's coach, Butch Harmon, yesterday as he tried to bury the memory of "Black Sunday". A closing round of 79 in the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando at the weekend gave the English player food for thought on the eve of golf's unofficial "fifth major", the £3 million Players' Championship starting at Sawgrass near Jacksonville tomorrow. So in the absence of his regular coach Pete Cowen, Westwood and his manager Andrew Chandler agreed to ask Harmon if he would take a look. "It's for a second opinion on the things Lee has been working on," said Chandler as the 25-year-old from Worksop worked with Harmon on the practice range yesterday morning. Harmon has taken both Greg Norman and Woods to the world number one spot, the position Westwood has set as one of his goals for this season.

Close friends Westwood and Darren Clarke will be able to keep an eye on each other in the first round. Westwood, fifth last year, plays at 8.22 a.m. with twice-winner Steve Elkington and Chris Perry.

Clarke is in the very next group with Fuzzy Zoeller and Peter Jacobsen. Colin Montgomerie partners John Daly. He tees off at 1.21 p.m. local time (6.21 p.m. in Ireland) with both Daly and Andrew Magee, runner-up to Jeff Maggert in the World Match Play championship last month.

Nick Faldo is just ahead of them with US PGA champion Vijay Singh and David Toms, and immediately behind comes Ian Woosnam with Americans Tom Purtzer and Harrison Frazar.

Olympics: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has refused to compensate the Canadian city of Quebec for the cost of mounting their losing bid for the tainted 2002 Winter Olympics, it was revealed there yesterday.

Quebec mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier wrote to IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch last month asking for £6 million in compensation for the city's failed Olympic bid.

Yesterday, however, L'Allier said that he had received a written reply from Samaranch refusing to compensate Quebec financially for its losing bid for the Games, which eventually went to Salt Lake City.

Six IOC members were found guilty by an IOC inquiry of accepting excessive gifts or cash for themselves or family members during Salt Lake City's bid for the Games.

Tennis: Swiss top seed Martina Hingis reached the quarterfinals of the Lipton Championships in Florida yesterday after crushing Germany's Marlene Weingartner 60, 6-2. Hingis now faces Austria's Barbara Schett, who defeated Russia's Anna Kournikova 6-1, 1-6, 6-1. Germany's seventh seed Steffi Graf also reached the last eight, over-powering Nathasha Zvereva of Belarus 6-2, 6-4.

In the men's event, Pete Sampras bowed out when losing to Richard Krajicek in straight sets.