Sports news and information

SHANTOU, South China, May 10 (Xinhua) — The Olympic torch relay in China’s Guangdong province concluded as Shantou leg went off in spells of rain on Saturday.

Shantou’s relay started at 8:05 a.m. local time, marking the last stopover in Guangdong province. Shantou was one of the original Special Economic Zones of China in the 1980s. The launching ceremony overcame the rainstorm in the morning, with a former weightlifting world champion Cai Yanshu taking over the first torch from a local official in the Dragon Bay District Square. Cai Yanshu, 44, is a world champion himself before training Zhang Guozheng to the Olympic champion at the 2004 Athens Games.

Cao won gold in men’s 75kg category at the 1986 Asian Games. He snatched a weight of160kg, grabbing the title of 75kg category at the 1989 World Championships,.”I have never win an Olympic medal. The experience of being an Olympic torchbearer just makes up for the regret,” said Cao.”I trained Zhang Guozheng to the top of Olympic podium at the Athens Olympics and I am now honored to pass the Olympic torch. That’s a consummation for me,” added Cao. Read the rest of this entry »

TOKYO, May 9 (Xinhua) — Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao met Friday with leading members of Japanese lawmakers’ league supporting the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which is headed by Yohei Kono, speaker of Japan’s lower house.

Expressing his thanks to the members, President Hu said the Beijing Olympics has got sincere regard and vigorous support from all circles of Japan.At the suggestion of Kono, more than 300 Japanese lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties formed the nonpartisan league to support the Beijing Olympics.Hu said the move fully displays the Japanese people’s friendly feelings toward the Chinese people as well as their efforts in upholding the Olympic spirit. Read the rest of this entry »

BEIJING, May 8 (Xinhua) — Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping congratulated Chinese climbers for successfully carrying the Olympic torch to the peak of Mount Qomolangma on Thursday morning.

“This is one of the greatest events in the history of Olympic Games and a precious gift given by the Chinese to the Olympics and people worldwide,” Xi said in a telegraph to climbers.

On behalf of the central government and the Central Committee of Communist Party of China, he congratulated and greeted all the people working for the torch relay on Mount Qomolangma and the International Olympic Committee and all foreign friends who supported the torch relay.

The Olympic flame reached the peak of the world’s highest mountain, with an altitude of 8844.43 meters, at 9:17 a.m. Thursday. Read the rest of this entry »

LAHORE: A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appellate tribunal on Sunday suspended a five-year ban on controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar for a month so that he could participate in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). The tribunal, headed by former High Court judge Aftab Farrukh, accepted a plea from Akhtar’s lawyers that the ban should be suspended temporarily so that the pacer can play in the lucrative IPL. A PCB disciplinary committee, headed by Lt Gen (r) Munir Hafeez, banned Akhtar last month for several incidents of indiscipline. It is pertinent to mention that last week the tribunal allowed Akhtar to play outside Pakistan but the Indian authorities refused to permit him to take part in the IPL unless the ban was lifted.

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(BEIJING, May 3) – The 33-day “Journey of Harmony,” the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay outside the mainland of China, came to an end on May 3 when the chartered plane carrying the flame arrived in Sanya, Hainan, at 10:25 p.m. in advance of the start of the domestic torch relay.

Since April 1, the Beijing Olympic flame has traveled 100,000 kilometers as a messenger of peace and friendship, visiting 21 cities in 20 countries en route.

The Olympic flame warmed hearts and lit up faces wherever it traveled, in spite of attempts to cause disturbance to the relay by a small number of people in Istanbul, London, Paris, Canberra, Nagano and Seoul. In Paris, Chinese wheelchair athlete Jin Jing proved to be a “Smiling Angel in a Wheelchair” when she protected the torch from a “pro-Tibet independence” activist who attempted to grab the torch from her. Read the rest of this entry »

HONG KONG, May 2 (Xinhua) — The Beijing Olympic torch relay in Hong Kong concluded at 16:56 local time on Friday as Wong Kam Po, a world champion cyclist, lit the cauldron at the Golden Bauhinia Square on the southern coast of the Victorian Harbor.

As Wong, also the last torch bearer, ran into Golden Bauhinia Square, he was greeted by hundreds of people waving red flags and chanting support for Beijing Olympics.

“The torch relay in Hong Kong has successfully completed, but the Olympic spirit of friendship, peace and harmony will pass on forever,” said Timothy Tsun-Ting Fok, president of Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, said at the closing ceremony.

“We expect a successful Beijing Olympic Games and a good performance of Chinese athletes including those from Hong Kong,” said Fok, also the second from last torchbearer. Read the rest of this entry »

Like the Five Olympic Rings from which they draw their color and inspiration, Fuwa will serve as the Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace — and good wishes from China — to children all over the world.
Designed to express the playful qualities of five little children who form an intimate circle of friends, Fuwa also embody the natural characteristics of four of China’s most popular animals — the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow — and the Olympic Flame.
Each of Fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name — a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow.
When you put their names together — Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni — they say “Welcome to Beijing,” offering a warm invitation that reflects the mission of Fuwa as young ambassadors for the Olympic Games.
Fuwa also embody both the landscape and the dreams and aspirations of people from every part of the vast country of China. In their origins and their headpieces, you can see the five elements of nature — the sea, forest, fire, earth and sky — all stylistically rendered in ways that represent the deep traditional influences of Chinese folk art and ornamentation.
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OC President Jacques Rogge welcomed the new Special Adviser to the United Nations (UN) Secretary General on Sport for Development and Peace, Mr Wilfried Lemke, to the IOC headquarters yesterday.

Lemke, a former manager of first division German football club Werder Bremen, and a former Senator of the German State of Bremen, succeeds Adolf Ogi.  Read the rest of this entry »

Olympic games are international sports event. It is segregated into the summer and winter sports. The Olympic games are held every four years. This was known as Olympiad. However, since 1992, the summer and winter sports events are subdivided into two years. In fact, the first modern Olympic was sponsored by Evangelos Zappas. Around 1894, Pierre Fredy (Baron de Coubertin) established the International Olympic Committee. And the first the IOC’s Olympic Games was held around 1896 in Athens, Greece.

Over the years, Olympic Games have undergone metamorphic change. All the nations worldwide are encouraged to participate in the games. In this regard, effective improvements in the satellite communications have been of great help. Besides, the live telecast of the Games have also aided in recognizing the importance of the games across the world. In fact, news channels and media partners have also extended their help.

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NEW DELHI:  Combative Harbhajan Singh has been suspended for slapping his Indian team-mate and IPL rival S Sree Santh just after their league match at Mohali on Friday night.

The Indian Premier League’s chairman and commissioner, Lalit Modi, announced this late on Saturday night even as the slapstick episode was threatening to overrun the league itself. ‘‘There is enough prima facie video evidence to temporarily suspend Harbhajan with immediate effect,’’ he said in a statement.
‘‘The match adjudicator and referee, Farokh Engineer, has seen and reviewed the evidence and has arrived at this decision,’’ he said in the press release. Harbhajan cannot play in the crucial IPL match against Team Hyderabad on Sunday now, pending the inquiry into the incident.
Before the evidence emerged, Harbhajan had been slapped with a show-cause notice and was given till Monday to present his case. The feisty off-spinner had barely escaped a similar ban during the recent tour to Australia when the host broadcaster couldn’t provide evidence to prove he had made racist remarks against Andrew Symonds.
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