■ CYCLING
Senator ordered to pay fine
Belgian Senator Jean-Marie Dedecker was ordered to pay a symbolic 1 euro (US$1.44) fine on Monday for making doping allegations against three unidentified cyclists. Dedecker said last year that three well-known Belgian riders had doped in Italy to prepare for the upcoming season. He didn't disclose names, but the Quick-Step team of former world champion Tom Boonen and several other top Belgian riders felt targeted and sued. Team leader Patrick Lefevere demanded 25,000 euros in damages but was still pleased with the symbolic fine. "I don't care about the euro, but it is important that they proved me right," he told VRT network. Dedecker said he would appeal.
■ SOCCER
Goalkeeper admits drug use
Former Chinese international goalkeeper Jiang Hong has admitted taking illegal drugs during his career, saying his addiction to the potent stimulant methamphetamine nearly ruined his life. Jiang, 40, whose brother, Jiang Jin, also played in goal for the Chinese national side, said that he only gave up drugs in August after realizing how close he was to wrecking his health and his happiness. "I realized the great harm that the drug was doing to me," he wrote on his Internet blog. "So I decided once and for all to rid myself of this devil." Jiang quit soccer two years ago after his club Shaanxi Guoli were kicked out of the league for failing to pay players' salaries. At the time, the club publicly accused the goalie of taking drugs. Jiang played for several top Chinese clubs and also appeared in the national squad during the 1990s.
■ OLYMPICS
Striker suspended by team
A Chinese Olympic squad member has been suspended by his team for one year for crashing his car while under the influence of alcohol, a month after the player's club denied he had been drinking. Cui Peng (崔鵬), a 20-year-old striker for Chinese Super League club Shandong Luneng, crashed his car last month while driving at night with two young women in the northeast city of Dalian. The three were taken to hospital with light injuries. Shandong later denied Cui had been drinking, citing road conditions and other reasons for the crash in a report posted on its Web site last month. Police, however, had found that Cui had alcohol in his system and the player served a mandatory detention period at home due to his "special identity", a local newspaper report reproduced in the Beijing News said.
■ OLYMPICS
Brazil unveils 2016 bid
Rio de Janeiro on Monday unveiled its bid logo for the 2016 Olympics -- the famed Sugar Loaf mountain shaped as a heart to represent the Brazilian people's passion for sports. The logo -- in the green, yellow, blue and white colors of the Brazilian flag -- has the writing "rio20!6," with the exclamation point replacing the numeral 1 to symbolize Brazil's heightened expectations with the chance of hosting the event. "The Sugar Loaf in the shape of a heart represents the Brazilian's indisputable passion and vibration for sports," logo designer Ana Soter said. A Brazilian Olympic Committee panel chose the logo from a list of four finalists. "[The logo] replicates the Brazilians' energy, happiness and ability to serve as hosts," Brazilian Olympic Committee president Carlos Arthur Nuzman said. "These values represent Rio's 2016 Olympic bid.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS