Who's hot, who's not in China Sports (Week 8)

Liu vs Robles: Game on

Liu Xiang leapt off to a good start in the 2012 season, claiming the men's 60 meter hurdles title at the Birmingham Grand Prix on Saturday, with a personal best of 7.41 seconds.

His old foe Dayron Robles finished a distant second with 7.5 sec, in a rematch of the pair's first meeting since last year's controversial world championships final.

The 7.41 sec is also a new Asian record, and, according to Liu's coach, it means the Chinese hurdler probably could run under 13 sec in the 110 meters event.

Liu's personal best result for the 110m hurdles is 12.88 sec. Robles is the current world record holder with 12.87 sec.

But the Cuban broke even six days later at the Stockholm leg, winning with 7.66 sec. Liu Xiang, on the other hand, disqualified after a false start.

Apple of Ding Junhui's eye

Ding Junhui won his fifth career ranking title, first in the past 26 months, on Sunday when he defeated world No 1 Mark Selby 9-6 in the final of the Welsh Open. Pleased about the result, the Chinese snooker player revealed the identity of his girlfriend, whom he had been keeping under the radar for the past four years.

"Apple [his girlfriend's English name] gives me a lot of help in daily life. She's been taking care of me, making dishes and encouraging me to train every day," said Ding.

Michael Jordan goes to court

It took Michael Jordan 12 years to find out that Qiaodan Sports, a Chinese sportswear company, is probably capitalizing on his name. "Qiaodan" is the widely recognized translation of Jordan's name on the Chinese mainland. If that coincidence is kind of OK, the fact that the company had registered over 100 trademarks containing his sons' names and his retired jersey number 23 must have thoroughly driven Jordan nuts.

Big fish takes his lumps

Yang Yimin, former Chinese Football Association (CFA) vice president, was sentenced to 10 1/2 years for taking 1.25 million yuan ($199,202) in bribes at the first trial by the Intermediate People's Court of Tieling on Saturday.

"At the beginning when I received 300 to 500 yuan from a club, I would return the money. But gradually I began to accept it from those I'm familiar with," 56-year-old Yang told Xinhua from the detention center before the trial.

Linsanity dialed down

The New York Knicks suffered their heaviest blow in the past month on Thursday night, losing 102-88 to the Miami Heat on the road. Jeremy Lin struggled with the Heat defense on him the whole game, scoring only 8 points on 1-11 shooting and produced 8 turnovers.

They were torched on Monday night by the New Jersey Nets at Madison Square Garden. Deron Williams dropped a season-high 38 points, including a career-high eight 3-pointers, single-handedly taking over the third quarter and powering the Nets to a 100-92 victory.

Lin acknowledged after Thursday's game that he'd been prepared for the reality check and he would keep it in perspective.

"I know I went out there and I played hard. Can't win `em all. Can't have a great game every game. But at the same time, I need to understand, `OK, what'd I do wrong? How can I improve?' I think that's going to be exciting."

Coronation of WCBA's new queens

Beijing Jinyu claimed their first title of the Women's Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA) on Tuesday night, after beating Zhejiang Chouzhou 89-84 and completing a best-of-seven finals sweep.