The World Cup countdown kicks off on Wednesday night as the competition's favourites begin their warm-up matches a little over three months before the start of Germany's football extravaganza. Brazil, Argentina, France, England, Germany and Italy are all in action on a night of international friendlies.
Han Xiaopeng made history by becoming the first Chinese skier to win Olympic gold with his sensational victory in the men's freestyle aerials final on February 23, 2006. This is China's second gold at the ongoing event.
It was the first time for China to win a Grand Slam final in any discipline and capped a breakthrough 12 months in which Yan and Zheng won two other doubles championships, at Hobart and Hyderabad last year.
Chinese top distance runner Sun Yingjie has finally been handed two-year suspension for doping and her coach Wang Dexian suffered a life ban on second violation of antidoping rules.
The China Football Association (CFA) denied it was holding out for an 800,000-yuan (99,000-dollar) appearance fee to meet France in a soccer friendly, but said talks for a match were ongoing.
There were goalmouth melees at both ends in the closing minutes while Arsenal had a penalty appeal waved away when Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas went down under a challenge by United's England defender Gary Neville.
As Chinese swimmer Zhou Jie had been tested positive for the banned substance Clenbuterol, the Chinese Swimming Association (CSA) officials claimed here Tuesday they will pay relentless efforts to fight against doping.
"It has been processing and resulted in a much easier way than I expected," said Zhang, who had to enter the 240,000 US dollars event with a wildcard after playing less than enough games in this season's professional tour.
That signal is relayed by up to 12 antennae positioned in the corners of the pitch to a computer which then sends a message to a watch worn on the referee's wrist in less than one second.
Dominik Hrbaty had pulled Slovakia even at 2-2 by defeating an ailing Ivan Ljubicic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Ancic then downed Mertinak to clinch the best-of-five series between two first-time finalists.
Houston Rockets' Tracy McGrady said after the morning shootaround that he remains a game-time decision Tuesday night against Atlanta, reports from Houston said.
Yao scored 14 of his season-best 30 points in the final period, but fouled out and could not prevent the Rockets from taking their seventh straight defeat, a 94-89 loss to the Chicago Bulls.
Limping on an injured right foot, Federer managed tiebreaker wins from both of the first two sets, but obviously ran out of energy before losing it on decider, 6-7 (4), 6-7(11), 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (3) in four hours and 34 minutes.
Australia, Trinidad & Tobago, Switzerland, Spain and the Czech Republic completed the 32-team lineup for the World Cup finals after a day of unrelenting drama and tension brought qualifying to a close on Wednesday.
Federer squandered three match points at 5-3 and 5-4 in the third before sealing victory 7-4 on a tie-break to stay on course for a third straight Masters Cup title.
Yao scored 10 points in the first 8 minutes of the game to help the Rockets take the lead for good. His dunk on a fast break tied the game for the final time at 13-13, and his free throw 15 seconds later gave Houston a one-point lead.
Tim Duncan finished with 24 points and 16 rebounds, and Tony Parker scored eight of his 22 in overtime to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 104-95 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Monday night.
Chinese Sunday extended its dominance in swimming at the East Asian Games as what it had done since the kick-off of the races to clinch four out of last seven events, piling up total 33 golds from 40 races.
The relegation system will be restored during the 2006 new season while the Super League Cup will be abolished and more teams be invited to the CFA Cup.
In fact, on his way through the draw and into a Sunday showdown with Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, Spain's teenaged Roland Garros winner has taken time to check in with the competition.
Getafe, in only their second season of top flight football, beat Real Zaragoza 5-2 while Real's four-game winning streak came to an end with their home defeat.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Real Madrid secured wins on their way to the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League while Inter suffer a 2-0 upset at the hand of Porto on Wednesday.
Ferrari's seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher was first to end the season, colliding on the way to the starting grid and spinning off during the race when following the safety car.
But there was no equalizer for China who have failed to qualify for the World Cup finals and must now concentrate on hosting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Chen Yanqin bettered the world records in the jerk and total of the women's 58kg category weightlifting at the 10th National Games Tuesday afternoon. Chen Yanqin, from Jiangsu province, jerked 142.5kg and totaled 255kg en route to winning the gold medal of the division.
Barry Opdam of the Netherlands headed the second in the 37th and though the home side made most of the running after the break it was the massed ranks of orange-clad visiting fans celebrating at the end.
While Li has been sidelined, he has watched Everton plummet to the foot of the Premiership table and also suffer early exits in the Champions League and UEFA Cup.
Two Americans lost bouts - Muhammed Lawal in the quarterfinals to Russia's Sazhid Sazhidov, and Daniel Cormier in the round of 16 in the 212-pound freestyle category.
The 24-year-old Spaniard became the series' youngest champion by finishing third in the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday, having already been the youngest race winner and pole position winner.
After that breathless start, the scoreline stayed the same until the 98th minute when Li scored his second of the game to send the southern Chinese team into the last four.
Liaoning's main scorer, Xu Liang, shone on the field, putting away three goals in the heavily one-sided match, while teammate Qu Xiaohui added another two more for the victors.
Brazil's 5-0 rout of Chile on Sunday left the five-time world champions in second place in the South American qualifying group, one point behind Argentina but mathematically assured a berth in the 2006 Cup in Germany.
Andre Agassi became the fourth man over 35 and the first in 14 years to make the U.S. Open quarterfinals Monday, outlasting Xavier Malisse 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 4-6, 6-2. Two points from a straight-sets win, Agassi couldn't find answers when Malisse cranked up the intensity and evened the match.
John Olerud homered twice and drove in six runs Thursday night as the Boston Red Sox came from behind for the third consecutive game, beating the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 7-4 to complete a four-game sweep.
Unseeded South Korea ruled out a clean sweep of China at the 17th Asian championships as they surprisingly rallied past the table tennis giants 3-2 in front of no more than a hundred local fans here on Sunday to reach the women's team final.
There was no celebrating in the stands after Inter Milan's Champions League qualifier on Wednesday. Inter's 1-1 draw with Shakhtar Donetsk, which gave the Italian team a 3-1 aggregate win, was played in an empty San Siro stadium because of a ruling that bars fans from Inter's first four Champions League matches.
The world's top-ranked player for the last 81 weeks, Federer heads into the U.S. Open fit, relaxed and on a roll. He took time off after winning his third straight Wimbledon, looking to recharge and rest a sore foot.
Pele strummed a song on a guitar and Maradona sang the lyrics to a tango amid flashing strobe lights and the applause of a raucous studio audience in Maradona's debut Monday night as a weekly television variety show host on a local network.
Federer worked off the rust from a five-week layoff caused by a sore foot, and Roddick compensated for an undependable serve during their first-round wins Monday in the $2.45 million tournament.
A couple short strips of fabric dangling from Discovery's belly may require an unprecedented repair by spacewalking astronauts, if engineers determine there's even a possibility that the problem could endanger the shuttle during descent, NASA said Sunday.
American wunderkind Michael Phelps emerged bruised but unbowed from his seventh-place finish in the 100m freestyle final at the World Swimming Championships, calling it another step on the road to Beijing.
The world's most comprehensive, broad-based health care company Johnson & Johnson will join the Games with the category covering consumer and personal care products, medical and diagnostic products and non-prescription medicines.
Powell, 22, already had the world's fastest time this year, a run of 9.84 seconds at the Jamaica International Invitational on May 8. He also ran a 9.85 on June 9 in the Czech Republic. His run Tuesday came with a tailwind of 1.6 metres per second, well below the legal limit of 2.0.
Mr. Glazer - owner of the 2003 Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers - last week went public with a $1.5 billion buyout, and mopped up the last few shares needed to control the club on Monday.
Police fired tear gas at dozens of angry fans who ran onto the field after the goal, and state television immediately cut its live transmission. Dozens of people passed out after inhaling the gas.
Fossett, who failed five times before successfully circumnavigating the globe solo in a balloon, needed just one try to make the trip in a plane. He holds many other records as a balloonist, pilot and sailor.
Nike, the multinational athletic shoe and sportswear giant, issued an apology to Chinese customers Friday, not long after China banned its new television commercial "Chamber of Fear" for insulting Chinese national dignity.
USC and Oklahoma finished atop the final Bowl Championship Series standings Sunday and will meet in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 4 in a title game that - again - might not end the argument over who is No. 1.
China's Dutch-born head coach Arie Hann is ready to take whatever the consequence at the eve of the team's do-or-die World Cup qualifying battle against Hong Kong of China.
Kuwait beat China 1-0 in a World Cup Asian zone Group 4 match on Wednesday. The two teams played to a goalless draw in the first half. The only goal came two minutes into the second half as the host team opened the scoring with their first attempt at the goal of the second half.
More fancied racers were relegated to secondary positions as Paul Kirui of Kenya and Yingjie Sun of China won the men's and women's titles respectively in the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships here in Delhi today.
The Paralympic Games have been overshadowed by a tragic road accident that claimed the lives of seven high school students who were travelling to Athens to attend the competitions. Yesterday's Closing Ceremony was therefore limited to protocol segments, such as the entry of athletes, the speech by the IPC President, Phil Craven, the handover of the Paralympic flag to the Beijing Organising Committee and the extinguishing of the flame.
2003 saw a drop in Rubens' performances and his finishing position in the Drivers' Championship, despite team orders not coming into play throughout the year. Although he clinched two victories, and six other podium finishes, his performances were erratic and the season yielded only 65 points, leaving him down in fourth place.
More than 3,800 disabled athletes, including 144 Canadians, gathered Friday for the opening ceremony of the largest Paralympics in the games' 44-year history.
World soccer governing body, FIFA, has released its latest rankings Wednesday. China rose to 48th place with 572 points, 3 ranks up from August. Top 10 teams remain unchanged since few A-level international games were held in the past month, when the Athens Olympics took center stage.
Everyone knew the marathon was going to be tough, but having to dodge a would-be tackler in a kilt, green beret and matching knee-high socks wasn't an expected obstacle. It was definitely a bizarre way to end the Olympics. Even the highly unusual fact that an American won a silver medal paled in comparison.
Fireworks and spectacular lighting kicked off the closing ceremony Sunday night, a two-hour extravaganza of folk dancing and music in the Olympic tradition that summed up the glee and relief the games brought to Greece. Afterward, thousands of athletes marched into Olympic stadium, waving their arms and flags, snapping photos of each other, hugging, and basking in the cheers of 70,000 fans.
I don't think this is going to sink in. I think it's going to take four years for it to sink in. I'm devastated. I was ready to run that race. I was ready to do this.
Wang Xu, a teenaged high school student from China, completed a mission-impossible when she defeated five-time world champion Kyoko Hamaguchi of Japan en route to winning a women's freestyle wrestling gold medal at the Olympic Games on Monday.
China advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women's Handball competition after beating Brazil 28-23 in their Group A clash today. …They（Brazil）were ignited by Zhai Chao (CHN), the best player in the world last year, who scored four goals in a row to put China ahead. Following her example, the other Chinese players clamped down on the Brazilians and went on a goal frenzy of their own.
Li/Sun,seeded No.8 in the Olympic tennis tournament, held a steady mind during the match against the Spanish veterans, making less unforced errors when playing long rallies along the baselines.
Yao Ming scored 27 points and pulled down 13 rebounds to lead China past world champion Serbia and Montenegro 67-66 here, advancing China into the Olympic men's basketball quarter-finals.
Teng Haibin, the youngest in the star-studded Chinese men's gymnastics team, jumped out of his black week and clinched the first Olympic gold medal for his team on pommel horse here on Sunday night.
Carly Patterson upstaged Russian diva Svetlana Khorkina to become the first American in 20 years to win the women's Olympic gymnastics all-round gold medal on Thursday.
Paul Hamm of Waukesha did just that Wednesday night at the Olympic Indoor Hall. He won a gold medal in the men's all-around gymnastics in electrifying fashion when nobody, including Hamm, thought there was much chance of winning.
An angry Yao Ming took his frustrations out on New Zealand at the Olympic men's basketball tournament on Tuesday, pouring in 39 points as China beat the Kiwis 69-62.
Chinese Su Hui, in men's single sculls, together with Li Qian and Xu Dongxiang competing in women's lightweight double sculls, made it to the semis in the repechage here on Tuesday.
Australian Ian Thorpe beat arch-rival Michael Phelps in a nail-biting Olympic men's 200-meter freestyle final on Monday between the four fastest swimmers in history.
The Chinese pair lead for four of the five rounds to push defending champions Yulia Pakhalina and Vera Ilyina of Russia into the silver medal position with veteran Australian duo Irina Lashko and Chantelle Newbery taking bronze.
The curtain rises on the Athens Olympics on Friday but Greek pride was overwhelmed with embarrassment after their two most famous athletes faced expulsion from the Games over drugs.
If we have a strong day in Athens, I see us ahead of China. I feel this is a special team, an amazing group of guys. We have the potential to win the Olympic gold medal, and if we just have a good day, we'll be on the medals podium.
Goalkeeper Liu Yunfei saved the decisive spot kick from Iran defender Yahya Golmohammadi for China to win the shootout 4-3 after extra time had failed to break a 1-1 deadlock.
As the scandal from the U.S. investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative continues to shake track and field, Jim Scherr, the chief executive of the USOC (United States Olympic Committee), said he was disturbed that the drug-related issues had dominated pre-Games attention and taken it away from athletes who rarely find the spotlight.
Adrian Beltre hit his 25th homer and drove in three runs, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to their eighth straight win Tuesday night, 7-5 over the slumping Houston Astros.
Defending champion France surged back in stunning fashion with two goals by Zinedine Zidane during second-half injury time to beat England 2-1 Sunday at the European Championship.
