A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Giggs earns Olympic call as one of three over-age players
Manchester United’s Welsh winger Ryan Giggs has been included as one of the three over-age players in the British Olympic soccer squad announced by manager Stuart Pearce yesterday.
Wales striker Craig Bellamy of Liverpool and Manchester City right back Micah Richards are the other two in an 18-man squad predominantly made up of Premier League players.
Former England captain David Beckham said last week that he had missed out on a place.
Britains men open their Olympic campaign against Senegal at Old Trafford on July 26th.
SQUAD: Joe Allen (Swansea City), Craig Bellamy (Liverpool), Ryan Bertrand (Chelsea), Jack Butland (Birmingham City), Steven Caulker (Tottenham Hotspur), Tom Cleverley (Manchester United), Jack Cork (Southampton), Craig Dawson (West Brom), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal), Micah Richards (Manchester City), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Scott Sinclair (Swansea City), Marvin Sordell (Bolton Wanderers), Jason Steele (Middlesbrough), Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea), Neil Taylor (Swansea City), James Tomkins (West Ham).
Phelps to compete in seven events
Fourteen-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps has dropped the 200 metres freestyle from his programme at London 2012.
The 27-year-old is the defending champion and edged out team-mate Ryan Lochte at the USA trials this weekend in Omaha, Nebraska.
The four-length event had been one of the three anticipated duels between the two at the Aquatics Centre in London but they will now meet in the 200m and 400m individual medley, with both men set to contest up to seven events.
Phelps’s coach Bob Bowman announced on Twitter: “ MichaelPhelps will be removing the individual 200 freestyle from his Olympic program. This will give him a full slate of 7 events . . . This change will allow him to focus more energy on relays for Team USA.”
The Baltimore swimmer will now contest both the 200m and 400m individual medley and the 100m and 200m butterfly as well as three relay events.
Should he win the 400m individual medley, Phelps will become the first male swimmer to twice successfully defend an Olympic title following his triumphs in 2004 and 2008.
Leamy to coach at Young Munster
Former Irish international Denis Leamy said he is looking forward to pursuing a coaching role after being appointed to look after the forwards in Young Munster next season.
The 30-year old, who retired in May from a persistent hip injury, will be assistant to forwards coach John ‘Paco’ Fitzgerald at the Limerick club where his former Munster colleague Mike Prendergast is head coach.
Leamy said that the role would help him decide whether or not to pursue a coaching career as he adjusts after being a professional player.
“In many ways it will be a nice gentle way to ease into coaching and it will give me an insight into whether I want to go down that road and make a career out of it.
“It will be completely different for me but I have done bits and pieces of coaching and have worked with Cashel seconds over the years. I always found it a good way to stay involved when I was injured.
“But I will be looking at a game completely different now. I’m looking forward to that but I know I have a lot to learn,” said Leamy, who will start his coaching badges in August.
Political career may see Vitali Klitschko hang up his gloves
World heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko will defend his WBC crown against little-known 27-year-old German Manuel Charr in Moscow on September 8th in what could be the last fight of his career.
The 40-year-old, whose younger brother Vladimir holds the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO belts, said he would focus on parliamentary elections in Ukraine after the fight against undefeated Charr and election to office could spell the end of his boxing career.
“Depending on the outcome of the elections (in October) I will decide on the future of my sporting career,” said Klitschko in a statement. “Holding a political office and being heavyweight champion at the same time are not compatible.”
Klitschko has won 44 of his 46 professional fights and his last bout was a points victory over Briton Dereck Chisora in February.
He had said that his next fight would be against former WBA champion David Haye, who retired in October after losing his title to Vladimir in July 2011 but the bout has failed to materialise.
Khan wanted rematch with 'positive' Peterson
Amir Khan admits his desire for revenge almost convinced him to fight Lamont Peterson in a world light-welterweight title rematch despite the Philadelphian’s positive drugs test.
Khan’s second fight with Peterson was called off in May when the American tested positive.
Khan, controversially outpointed by Peterson in their first fight last December, had to be convinced by members of his team not to take the rematch in light of the drug test.
Instead, Khan will fight unbeaten Danny Garcia for Garcia’s WBC light-welterweight title in Las Vegas on June 14th.
Khan said: “I would have preferred to have had the chance to settle the score properly and fight him even when he got caught by testing positive. “
