Irish team selected

Sports DigestSWIMMING: Commonwealth Games finalist Andrew Bree will lead an Irish team of four in next month's World Championships in Barcelona.Main hope Bree is joined by Emma Robinson, Julie Douglas and Cork-based Lee Kelleher. The team was announced yesterday only hours after Dubliner Stephen Manley of Terenure College broke two long-standing Irish senior records in Florida.

Manley, presently attending the University of Kentucky, clipped Earl McCarthy's eight-year-old 200 metres freestyle record with a time of 1:52.48 and he was also inside Ken Turner's 13-year-old 400 metres record with a time of 4:01.03.

Earler this year Manley indicated to the Irish selectors he was opting to swim in the Irish Open Championships which clash with the World tests (July 20th-27th) in order to find a short-course time for the European short-course championships at Abbotstown in December.

MOTOR SPORT: Ralph Firman will swap his Formula One car for a World Rally Championship machine this week. The Norwich-born driver will join Jordan team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella in testing a Ford Focus rally car on closed tarmac roads around Germany in the build-up to the European Grand Prix.

Plans are being made for Ford rally driver Markko Martin to get his chance in a Formula One car.

CYCLING: Australian Bradley McGee won the eighth stage of the Tour of Switzerland yesterday but Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov raced back into the overall lead with one day to go. Vinokourov goes into the final stage - a flattish 152 km from Stafa to Aarau - with every chance of adding to successes earlier this year in the Paris-Nice and the Amstel Gold.

BOXING: Four-time heavyweight world champion Evander Holyfield (40) will face IBF cruiserweight champion James Toney in October, promoters said yesterday. Holyfield took the bout after negotiations to fight WBA champion Roy Jones Jnr stalled. The fight has been set for October 4th but promoters have not yet settled on a location.