Bohemians manager Roddy Collins has confirmed the release of winger Brian Mooney after the veteran midfielder lost his first-team place during the second half of last season, writes Emmet Malone. The Dalymount club has already parted company with first-team coach Terry Eviston, who moved as manager to Dundalk, as well as left-sided defender Tommy Byrne, who played for Shelbourne against St Patrick's Athletic in the Super Cup final on Sunday.

Finn Harps, meanwhile, have confirmed that central defender Gavin Dykes will become Charlie McGeever's assistant for the coming season, with Trevor Scanlon taking charge of the club's reserve team. The appointments follow the departure of Declan McIntyre who was last week confirmed as one of the FAI's 10 regional coaches.

Rugby: The Irish Colleges party returned from their three-week tour of South Africa yesterday after winning three of their five games. In their final game on Sunday, they defeated West Coast Province Academy 41-18, with Marks Woods accumulating 16 points in the game. The side also visited townships in East London where they conducted coaching sessions for children in the local schools.

Athletics: Double Olympic champion Michael Johnson said yesterday that the 400 metres world record meant more to him this season than the world title. Johnson, who will run over 200 metres at a Golden League meeting at Rome's Olympic stadium tomorrow, said his ideal would be to break Butch Reynolds's record of 43.29 seconds in the world championship final in Seville in August. But he acknowledged that if he had to sacrifice one for the other he would ditch the title in favour of the record.