|
|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Sports
Sorry, but there are no more tags available to filter with.
-
 Zheng Jie This roundup of the last week's sporting news is from China Sports Today.
Zheng Jie of Sichuan Province, a wild card entry to Wimbledon, made tennis history when she reached the semifinals at Wimbledon last week (report).
On Monday, China released the head coach of the men’s national soccer team after a fruitless World Cup qualifying run (report).
Hours before the NBA draft, Chinese basketball player Yi Jianlian was traded to the New Jersey Nets in a deal that sent Richard Jefferson to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks then drafted Joe Alexander, a Taiwan-born, Chinese-speaking American (report).
The Chinese Swimming Association banned Olympic hopeful Ouyang Kunpeng for life after he failed a drug test (report). Days later, seven other Chinese athletes, including Olympic wrestler Luo Meng, were also found to be doping (report).
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Hu Jia: gold medal bellyflop • Chinese media reports say diver Hu Jia, who won gold in the men’s 10-meter platform at the 2004 Olympics, will not compete in Beijing due to injuries (see full report).
• Liu Xiang didn’t run in either of two events he was scheduled for in the United States. A sore hamstring kept him out of the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, and he was disqualified from the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, for a false start (report).
• USA Basketball announced it will bring its star-studded team to Macao and Shanghai for exhibition games in the weeks before the Olympics (report).
• The NBA Playoffs resumed broadcast in time for the finals after a two week suspension that still lacks a clear explanation (report).
• China's women’s national football team beat Japan 3-1 (report), and then advanced to Sunday’s Asian Cup final in Ho Chi Minh City, where they lost 2-1 to North Korea (report).
• One week before the Dragon Boat Festival, China’s rowing team showed it is a force to be reckoned with, taking five golds at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland (report).
• The Chinese men’s national team beat the University of Memphis basketball team (this year’s NCAA tournament runners up) in three exhibition games in Guangdong. The games were the first in China between the national team and an American university (report).
• The All-China Gaelic Games were held in Beijing over the weekend, with Beijing taking the women’s cup, Shanghai taking the men’s, and everyone enjoying plenty of Guinness and an evening with Ireland’s ambassador to China (report). This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Yin Hualong wins 4X100 relay for Sichuan • Liao Guiming held off the challenge from Zhang Lianwei and James Su Dong to win the Sofitel Golf Championship in Nanjing. The win, which comes with a 150,000 yuan purse, bumps Liao into second place ahead of Li Chao in the Omega China Tour Order of Merit.
Liao's win demonstrates how competitive the field is this year on the Omega Tour, China's main professional golf circuit. He is the fifth different champion in five events for the 2008 season (report).
• Any chance at truth in the rumors circulating in Chinese media that Guo Jingjing is pregnant and leaving the national team were laid to rest as she joined the team at the FINA Diving World Series in Sheffield, England, and took the gold medal in the 3-meter springboard competition (report on rumors and report on win).
• The NBA Playoffs were blocked in China for reasons that are unclear. Some Chinese media reports are saying broadcasts will resume on June 6. (danwei coverage and China Sports Today report).
• A surprise victory by the Sichuan relay team in the 4x100 meter race at the Bird's Nest during the Good Luck Beijing Athletics Open provided an emotional highlight to the weekend's events.
The 4x100 final was supposed to be a run-off between the Chinese national team and Japan, and toward the end of the third leg it looked like that was exactly what would happen. But the Chinese team fumbled the last baton handoff, leaving Japan in the lead with Guangdong (province) in second. In the final leg, though, Yin Hualong from Sichuan overtook the Japanese front runner from two meters behind, winning the race for Sichuan with a time of 39.45 seconds.
Yin reportedly pointed to the name of his province on his jersey and proudly declared "I'm from Sichuan!" at the finish (report).
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Liu Xiang in full cry This weekly sports news roundup is from China Sports Today.
• The first day of the Good Luck Beijing Athletics Open saw 110-meter hurdler and world record holder Liu Xiang head into the semifinals with a time of 13.63 seconds in his first heat yesterday (full report).
• The China sports world has been affected by the Wenchuan earthquake, with venues in Sichuan destroyed and athletes forced to relocate to other cities for training (report).
Athletes and sports organizations were some of the first to pledge donations to the relief efforts in Sichuan (report).
Stars from Yao Ming to snooker player Ding Junhui, have found a variety of ways to dedicate their time, money and celebrity to earthquake relief efforts (report).
• China’s men’s and women’s badminton teams asserted their dominance in the sport by winning the Thomas and Uber Cups in Jakarta (report).
The table tennis team also had a big week, sweeping all four golds in the ITTF Table Tennis China Open (Xinhua article).
• Earlier this week, the disappointing news came out that 10,000 meters champion Xing Huina will not defend her Olympic gold in Beijing, due to a leg injury (report).
• China Sports Today took a walk down Wangfujing pedestrian street to gauge the current state of sports advertising in Beijing, and couldn’t get away from Kobe Bryant’s mug (report and photos of billboards).
• The Olympic gymnastics draw was held in Tianjin last week in conjunction with the FIG World Cup of Gymnastics. China’s women were unhappy with their draw, which includes a 10 a.m. start time and being grouped with Romania (report). This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Netease Poll Early this morning Beijing time, Manchester United beat Chelsea 6-5 in the penalty round of the final match of the annual European Champion League. But would you have connected the victory of MU to the 5-12 earthquake? Some did.
Pictured at left is a screen shot of a poll about the match by Netease's news. It is translated below.
Why did Manchester United win the game? (Respondents were given the following options:)
- Strength and performance of MU was superior.
- Something was wrong with the order of Chelsea's penalty shots.
- Good luck.
- They were blessed by the ghosts of the MU heroes who died in the 1958 Munich air crash.
- They were blessed by Wenchuan earthquake victims who used to be MU fans.
The results show that most people chose the first option, but nearly 20% of respondents believed the MU victory was due to the blessings of Wenchuan earthquake victims. This last option was subsequently replaced and now reads "Other reasons."
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Torch on the roof of the world This roundup of the week's sports news is by China Sports Today
• The week in sports got off to a rough start for most people who tried to buy tickets in Phase 3 of Olympic ticketing. The BOCOG ticketing site didn't crash like last time, but seemed somewhat challenged by the traffic spike. And procedures at Bank of China outlets were a bit unusual. Tickets to all Beijing events were declared sold out two days later (full report).
• A doping test confirmed that 11 Greek weightlifters have taken banned substances. The national team coach has resigned and maintains that a Shanghai lab sold him tainted supplements (report).
• The Chinese diving team continues racking up medals at international events this spring. This Discovery Channel video attempts to explain why.
• In November 2006, Australian bank / securities firm Macquarie Group created a basket of Olympic stocks, whose values Macquarie expected to get a boost from the Games. The basket is not doing so well. Many of the 23 stocks in the basket, including Air China and Beijing International Capital Airport Co., are tumbling and still overvalued, according to a Bloomberg article (report).
• From mountain biking at Huangshan to football in Beijing and tennis in Shanghai, there are plenty of reasons to get off the couch this weekend if you want some exercise (report).
• Finally, the Olympic Torch has reached Mainland China, and the flame has already made it to the summit of Everest (report). This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 On sale from May 5 to 9 This is a roundup of the past week's Chinese sports news from China Sports Today.
• Want to buy Olympics tickets? Today was the first day to line up at most Bank of China branches to apply for tickets (no guarantee you'll get what you ask for, see report).
• The CEO of NBA China and three other panelists spoke in Beijing about basketball’s future in China (see report).
• Mercedes-Benz hopes that signing Roger Federer to endorse and participate ina variety of activities will help the automaker stake a bigger claim on the Chinese market. Mercedes is also partnering with the Chinese Tennis Association on a new national youth development program (see report).
• Darren Clarke won the BMW Open in an exciting finish at Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club (see report) This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Chinese Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition This is a roundup of the week's Chinese sports news from China Sports Today, a website from the GoKunming.com people.
• The National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) and the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) have made their debuts. The Bird’s Nest hosted the finish lines of both the race walking challenge and the Good Luck Beijing Marathon. The Water Cube hosted synchronized swimming and hundreds of people waited for three hours in the rain just to get in and take a look. Both of these venues, which have gotten a lot of attention since their designs were unveiled, appeared ready for their closeup.
• The Workers’ Stadium hosted its first event since being renovated. Brazil’s women’s football (soccer) team beat Ghana 5-1 to qualify for the Olympic competition. Olympic draws for men’s and women’s soccer were announced the next day (complete list of groups here).
• Last weekend also saw the conclusion of the Volvo China Open golf tournament in Beijing, in which Irishman Damien McGrane held onto his lead to claim the rain-soaked silk yellow jacket and a purse of US$366,660 (full report).
• The Chinese national team got off to a good start at the Good Luck Beijing women’s basketball test event, the first competition at the new Wukesong Basketball Arena. China had four consecutive wins before falling to the US team on Thursday night (full story).
• There was a lot to learn from all of the Good Luck Beijing test events from the past week, including that selling scalped tickets, usually standard practice at cultural and sporting events in Beijing, could currently lead to trouble with the law, and that buying them could lead to an inconvenient afternoon.
• In the sports world beyond Beijing, the GoKunming.com guys took to the skies, and came back with a detailed report of their first paragliding experience in Yunnan Province.
• Finally, the Chinese edition of Sports Illustrated has published its swimsuit issue (pictured). This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Dangerous subversive element We can always count on China. Just when the place seems filled with normal people going about their happy business, the government reminds us that its paranoia reaches every aspect of our lives.
Take the baseball game in Beijing last Saturday. It was the first in China between two American pro teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. Even though the contest was an exhibition, it was historic. Baseball is America's national pastime because it's a link between generations and a touchstone of the nation's culture. That baseball wants to extend to China, that China welcomes the game, and that 12,000 baseball fans could gather in a stadium on a lovely spring day, are all signs of harmony under heaven.
One especially excited group was Cub Scout Pack 3944, which is comprised mostly of American kids under the age of 10. About fifty of them arrived at the game in blue uniforms bedecked with American flags and merit badges, accompanied by their den mothers and scout masters. The night before, they'd learned that the Dodgers had invited them onto the field after the game to meet the players.
But just before the game, the Haidian district police barred the scouts from the field. Why? Because thousands of kilometers away, in the Himalayas, monks and others in Tîbet had launched protests against Chinese rule. The government apparently feared that the young Americans would use their moment on the grassy infield to agitate for Tîbetan independence. This fear that a pack of cub scouts would politicize a baseball game drove the government to politicize the event more effectively than any Tîbetan splittist could hope for, and disappointed a group of bright-eyed kids in the process.
Don't worry too much about the Cub Scouts – they had a grand time anyway, and the Dodgers dispatched a couple of players into the stands afterward to sign autographs. But it's worth considering the thoughts that went through the heads of the Haidian district police.
Your correspondent suspects they ran something like this: Tîbet is in turmoil. Foreigners support Tîbet. Foreigners want to embarrass China. If foreigners embarrass China on our watch, we'll lose our jobs. So we'd better assume the worst of these foreigners, even if that means taking some fun out of the game.
For those of you who thought China could pull off a great Olympics, the exhibition on Saturday was cause for pause. This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Image from The First On June 17, with the approval of the China Baseball Association, the New York Yankees baseball team signed two Chinese players - catcher Zhang Zhenwang and left-handed pitcher Liu Kai - to minor league contracts. They'll play for the Yankees' farm system and work their way up to the majors.
Liu Kai, from Guangdong province, and Zhang Zhengwang, from Tianjin, are both 19 and are members of the China national team. The general manager of Yankees, Brian Cashman, said: "This is an exciting opportunity for us to integrate Chinese players into the organization."
This contract is based on a memorandum of cooperation, which was signed between China Baseball Association and the NY Yankees. The memorandum states that they will work together to popularize baseball in China and improve influence of this sport at the coming Beijing Olympic Games.
Links and Sources
|
-
At a soccer match between Real Salt Lake and the Chinese national team last week, protesters waving the flags of Taiwan and Tibet were thrown out of the stadium after the Chinese manager threatened to halt the match.
The story is available at Deseret News.
One fan blogged about his own experience (with photos here):
The Chinese team was about to walk off the field if I did not put my flag down and I was asked nicely by Trino Martinez to put it down. Since I had my five-year-old daughter standing next to me (my wife was sitting in the next section over with my two-year-old daughter), and I did not want to get hauled off. So I put it down.
In about the 89th minute, Colin [Coker], another member of RCB started back with waving the Tibet flag...He was asked to stop and refused and was escorted out of the stadium.
Discussion on fan BBSs centers around the what happens when free speech runs into the desire to conduct a "friendly" game free of disruptions DN reports:
Coker admits that he displayed the flag partly to distract and annoy the visiting team, but he said it was mostly a "form of expression about the plight of the people of Tibet."
Both articles have links to video clips of the incident.
|
|
|
|