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Today's other stories in brief

Lewers opts for the Britain route

HOCKEY: Ireland international Iain Lewers, who has been playing professionally with HGC in The Netherlands , has withdrawn from the senior Ireland squad with a view to playing for Britain in the 2012 Olympic Games in London, writes Johnny Watterson.

The Ulster player is now ineligible to play international hockey for a period of three years after which he will be permitted to declare for Britain.

It effectively ends his career with Ireland.

Lewers' ambition is clearly to follow in the footsteps of Stephen Martin, Billy McConnell and Jimmy Kirkwood.

They all won Olympic medals playing with Britain in the Los Angeles Games of 1984 and Seoul in 1988.

Since then, the rules have been changed by the Irish Hockey Association so that those Ireland players from Ulster, who are eligible to hold a British passport, must declare for either Ireland or Britain.

Belfast Twenty20 qualifier will include 3rd-4th play-off

CRICKET:THE ICC has confirmed a third and fourth place play-off will be included in next month's World Twenty 20 Qualifier in Belfast. As part of the revised schedule announced yesterday, there will also be a play-off for the fifth and sixth spots, with the tournament taking place over four days from August 2nd, writes Emmet Riordan.

The move follows Zimbabwe's decision to step down from next year's finals in England. Although it still has to be ratified by Cricket Zimbabwe, they are expected to back the proposal after the ICC confirmed they would continue to fund the African country to the tune of €7 million and they would also keep their participation money from the tournament.

Pending that decision, the ICC also confirmed the winner of the event at Stormont will take the place of Zimbabwe in Group A, alongside India and Bangladesh.

The losing finalist would play in Group B, taking part in the tournament opener against England at Lord's, and also face Pakistan. The winner of the third and fourth place play-off would slot into Group D, with South Africa and New Zealand.

The third and fourth place play-off will take place on Monday, August 4th after the two semi-finals, with the final being pushed back to the Tuesday. It will be preceded by the fifth and sixth place play-off. Eight of Phil Simmons's squad will be in action on Sunday when an Ireland XI takes on a North West Overseas XI at Beechgrove in Derry.

O'Brien is June's top manager

RACING: Trainer Aidan O'Brien has been named as the Philips Sports Manager of the Month for June.

O'Brien, who received the leading trainer award at Ascot, had six winners at the festival, including Yeats, who won his third Gold Cup in succession.

O'Brien's Frozen Fire went on to win the Irish Derby at the Curragh.