Swim Ireland remain hopeful that an extra swimmer will be named by the Olympic Council of Ireland to compete in Sydney. Julie Douglas (20) of Alliance, Ireland's 50 metres freestyle record holder, has, along with Chantal Gibney and Colin Lowth, shown vast improvement over the past two seasons.

Douglas has been honing her talents at Loughborough College and has attained the percentage mark off the "A" standard time necessary for consideration. Swim Ireland have duly placed her on their submitted pecking order for Olympic selection.

But Douglas will have to sweat it out over the next couple of days before the Olympic Council makes its final decision on the numerical strength of its team. National coach Ger Doyle expressed the hopes of Ireland's swimming fraternity

yesterday when saying: "We would all like to think that the OCI have not given their final selection." Meanwhile, a number of Munster swimmers, competing as individuals rather than on a provincial or national basis, are poised to do well at this week's British Age Group championships in Coventry. Given that the event proved an initial platform for recently selected Olympians such as Gibney and Andrew Bree, the lack of funding to support what could be a stronger and more widely representative team this time round is lamentable. Tomorrow evening, the annual race from Ireland's Eye to Balscadden beach in Howth will start at 7.45 pm. Tomorrow is also the closing date for entries for the Millennium Irish Times Dun Laoghaire Harbour swims. The Eddie Heron 1,600 metres swim from Dun Laoghaire Pier to Sandycove is scheduled for Saturday, while the open sea racing season continues in Portmarnock on Sunday with the Caulfield Memorial Cup.

Paul Palmer will swim in four events at the Sydney Olympics, the British Olympic Association announced yesterday.

Palmer, the 400 metres freestyle silver medallist at the 1996 Atlanta Games, will compete in the 200, 400 and 1,500 metres and the 4x200 metres freestyle relay.

Palmer will head the British bid for medals in the 41-strong team. James Hickman, who won a silver and a bronze at last month's European championships in Helsinki, will compete in the 100 and 200 metres butterfly and 200 metres individual medley.

The women's bid will be headed by 1999 European 100 metres freestyle champion Sue Rolph who will swim in the 50, 100, 4x100 freestyle and 200 individual medley. Helen Don-Duncan has been selected for the 200 metres backstroke after winning an appeal last week against a lifetime ban for a doping offence.

Don-Duncan tested positive for Flixotide following an incident in March when she took an inhaler from a friend as a joke.

Synchronised swimmer Olga Sedakova, winner of three gold medals at the 1998 world championships, has opted out of the Sydney Olympics because she does not want to live and train in Russia.

"Even for the Olympic Games I will not train in Russia," the Switzerland-based Sedakova, who won solo, duet and group golds in Perth, said.