Papers hail Yao Ming for improving national image

Chinese mainstream newspapers on Thursday gave wide coverage to Yao Ming's retirement, recalling Yao's professional career, reviewing his Wednesday press conference, and on top of that, praising Yao for improving the national image and soft power.

In a commentary titled "Great times and Chinese dream" carried on Thursday by the People's Daily, Yao Ming is commended as having projected a wholesome image of today's China and boosted China's soft power.

Yao's humor, modesty and tolerance shown in the game, has impressed the world and helped resolve misunderstanding across different cultures, says the commentary.

"Yao uses basketball, an 'international language' to introduce China to the outside world, and his cultural influence matters far greater than victory on the basketball courts."

The Xinhua Daily Telegraph, a newspaper run by Xinhua News Agency, in a rare case, put Yao's story and a picture of him center of Thursday's front-page, pushing political news to the side.

In a commentary, written by staff reporter Xu Jicheng who was also the moderator of Yao's Wednesday conference, the paper praises Yao for having won the dignity and respect for China's young generations, and for helping open up China.

Xu writes, even though China and the west have opened their doors to each other, there are still many hurdles and obstacles in between, but Yao's achievements can help overcome them and through him, the western world can see the true Chinese faces.

By serving as a bridge of communication, Yao has helped to allay misconceptions, continues Xu.

Xu says that Yao Ming has, with his own efforts, interpreted the slogan of Beijing Olympic Games, "One World, One Dream," an ideal that cannot be realized in a world of mutual denials and finger-pointing.

"Yao has brought the Chinese younger generations a renewed confidence." Xu adds, some people went to the United States and Europe before Yao but returned with blind worship of the west, loosing their own cultural identity. However, Yao has kept asserting that he is a "Shanghai boy," and Chinese, while enjoying and learning from the west.

The Thursday China Youth Daily quotes Jin Shan, an expert on sports studies with Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, as saying Yao Ming is more a cultural ambassador of China, a window to display China to the outside world.

Jin says, competition sports in China are overwhelmed by worship of gold medals, however, Yao has become one of the most successful players in China without any Olympic Games or other international games championship titles.

"Yao, who has impressed the world by his humor, perseverance and sense of responsibility, has helped many foreigners to better understand China and the Chinese people," the former director of the Chinese Basketball Administrative Center (CBAC) Li Yuanwei was quoted as saying by the China Youth Daily.

"Yao is undoubtedly a basketball legend in China with his international reputation far beyond the sports world and has played such a big role in improving the image of China in the world," Li said.

Yao, who will turn 31 this September, officially announced his retirement from professional basketball on Wednesday.

Yao, played for eight seasons in the NBA after being the top overall pick in the 2002 draft. He averaged 19 points and 9.2 rebounds and has been named in the NBA All-star team eight times.

Yao made the cover story of the Asian Edition of Time Magazine twice, and was selected by the magazine as one of its "100 most influential people in the world today" twice.

China snatches 18 swimming golds to spearhead Military World Games

Chinese swimmers maintained their momentum in swimming at the Military World Games on Wednesday, grabbing four more gold medals and obtaining 18 in total out of 36 available in the pool.

After four days' competition at the Military World Games, which is set to close on July 24, Chinese military athletes altogether collected 18 golds from swimming and piled up 22 gold, leading the medals table with 52.

Brazil followed up with 16 golds and 44 medals thanks to the support of top athletes in the host country. Italy and Germany finished temporarily in third and fourth places respectively in medals ranking, with a far less eight and four golds.

China's Olympic medallist Jiao Liuyang, who is planning a back trip to China on Thursday for participating the swmimming worlds in Shanghai, broke the championships record in her win of the women's 100m butterfly in 57.75 seconds, which came as her fourth gold here.

Chinese women swimmers, comprised of Liu Lan, Yang Li, Yu Yao and Liu Yiru, refreshed another championships record in 4X100m freestyle relay. Zu Lijun and Li Jiaxing added the other two of the day in men's 400m freestyle and women's 200m backstroke.

Italy's Martina de Memme also marked a new record in women's 400m freestyle in 4:11.60, which is her second remarkable performance as the Italian had put out a galant victory in 800m freestyle with a new championships best time on Sunday.

The other three gold medals in swimming went to Brazil's Gabriel Mangabeira in men's 100m butterfly, Germany's Felix Volf in men's 200m backstroke and Italy in men's 4X100m free relay.

China's fifth win was from the shooting arena. Jin Yongde, a lieutenant colonel from Chinese army, scored 587 in men's 25m center pistol. World Youth champion Li Wanhui and China's national champion Zhang Hua contributed another two gold medals to the tally.

European marksmen prevailed in the other three contests. Norway's Ole Bryhn seized the victory in men's 300m standard rifle 3 positions; Sweden's lieutenant Anna Normann won the women's 50m rifle prone and Germany's sergeant Sand Hornung outperformed in women's 25m pistol.

Five finals were raced in track and field. Asian champion Mutaz Barshim of Qatar overtook 2.29m comfortably to win the high jump, earning the Gulf country the first gold.

Kenya's duo finished one-two in the women's 10,000m with Doris Changeiywo winning in 33:38.93, just 0.2 seconds better than her compatriot Lineth Chepkurui thanks to a strong sprint. Maryna Arzamasava of Belarus finished top in women's 800m 2:01.39. Brazil's Raphael Fernandes ran a season best of 50.50, triumphing in men's 400m hurdles.

DPR Korea came up to fifth in medals ranking with four golds, in parity with Germany, attributing to their two victories in women's judo. South Korea and Iran both broke the gold drought through Guang Hyeon Choi's win in men's under 60kg and Mohsen Ghaffar's win in men's under 66kg.

There will be 31 finals slated to be competed on Thursday in the military games, which drew around 6,000 army athletes from 109 countries.

Ronald Koeman becomes new coach of Feyenoord

Ronald Koeman agreed to become the new coach of Feyenoord, the Rotterdam-based club announced on Thursday.

The 48-year-old former Feyenoord player will sign a one-year contract on Monday.

Koeman succeeds Mario Been, who quit last week after a breach of trust with the players. During a voting thirteen of the eighteen voting players opted for his departure. Been had been coach at Feyenoord since 2009. In his first season he finished fourth and last year he finished on a disappointing tenth place in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Previously Koeman was coach of FC Barcelona B, Vitesse Arnhem, Ajax, Benfica, PSV, Valencia and AZ Alkmaar. He is the first to represent the traditional Dutch top clubs Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord as a coach and as a player. His brother Erwin was head coach at Feyenoord between 2005 and 2007.

As a player Koeman was active for Feyenoord between 1995 and 1997 and before that the he was playing for FC Groningen, Ajax, PSV and FC Barcelona. He played for the Dutch national team 78 times.

Koeman is looking forward to his new job at Feyenoord. "Needless to say, Feyenoord is a great club to resume my coaching career," he said on the club website. "It is my firm conviction that we are able to surprise this season. There is indeed plenty of quality and talent in this young squad."

The technical staff of Feyenoord will also include former players Jean-Paul van Gastel and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

ZIFA appeals for government support over match-fixing scandal

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho on Thursday was full of praise for Cristiano Ronaldo after the Portuguese striker showed his side the way to victory against Chivas Guadalajara.

Ronaldo scored three second half goals as Madrid defeated the Mexican side 3-0 in San Diego in their second preparation game of the summer.

The win against Chivas follows on the heels of Saturday's 4-1 triumph against Los Angeles Galaxy. Ronaldo played all 90 minutes to show that even at this early stage he is in good shape for the forthcoming campaign.

"Cristiano is Cristiano," said Mourinho after the match.

"He is always ambitious, he is always motivated and happy to play, be it in China, America or wherever. He knew that we want to win and he scored the three goals. He played with the ambition that we look for and that ambition is fantastic," added the coach, who said he was not worried by minor injuries suffered by midfielders, Xabi Alonso, Nuri Sahin and Sami Khedira.

"We have the squad that we want to have and we have until the 31st of August if we want to bring in another striker. However, it has not entered my head to ask for another player for any other position," said the Real Madrid coach.

Mourinho also expressed his hope that Kaka will finally be able to show why the club spent 65 million euros on his two years ago.

"He was injured for much of last season and he didn't play the Copa America. This season he has been working since the first day and that helps him to be competitive. He has played 45 minutes in both games and I hope he will do the same in our next game in Philadelphia," said Mourinho.

Italy edges China 10-9 to get quarterfinal berth at FINA worlds

A slim lead over host China 10-9 ensured Italy a quarterfinal berth at Swimming Worlds women's water polo here on Thursday.

China trailed 7-3 after first half and almost completed a fully comeback, which being held off by Italy at the crunch time in the final period.

In Group B, Canada trounced New Zealand 11-4 to claim first after taking all three matches. Australia was second with 4 points and New Zealand ranked third. Uzbekistan suffered a 27-2 fiasco to Australia, finishing the last.

With Antigoni Roumpesi's clutch penalty shot 59 seconds remaining, Greece feasted a 6-5 win over Russia to fix a semifinal seat early as group C leader.

In the other match of Group C between Brazil and Spain, the spanish girls eased past Brazil 12-4. Keeping 6 points in hands, Greece topped the Group with Russia following by 4. Spain ranked third with one win and two lose, while Brazil bottemed without a single win after three games.

After tying with Hungary on 7-7, the Olympic Champion Netherlands handed over the first place of Group A to the United States, who grabbed a win from Kazakhstan hours later.

Thanks to that easy win, USA took the Group top away from Netherland with 5 points in total by two win and one draw. Netherlands followed just one point behind. The third and fourth place went to Hungary and Kazakhstan respectively.

China expels Olympic champion Wang over brawl

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - China has kicked four-times Olympic gold medalist Wang Meng out of the national short track speed skating team and disqualified her from competitions for her part in a brawl with her team manager last month.

The fiery 26-year-old, China's most decorated Winter Games athlete, punched team manager Wang Chunlu after being criticized for coming back late to a training camp following a night out drinking with five other team mates, China's Winter Sports Administrative Center (WSAC) said late Thursday.

Wang and her team mate Liu Xianwei had "pursued and attacked the team manager and assistant coach and people who tried to intervene," the WSAC said in a statement on its website (www.winter-sports.cn).

"In the process, they damaged hotel property and harmed themselves. After coming back to the base from hospital in the early hours of the morning, they even went so far as to disturb their resting team mates.

"The incident is of great severity ... tarnishing the image of an Olympic champion, the image of China's short track speed skating team, and the image of Chinese athletes," the statement added.

Wang's team mate Liu had also been expelled for stirring up the argument between Wang and her team manager before it turned physical, state news agency Xinhua said.

The other four squad members out drinking with Wang -- 1,500 meters Olympic champion Zhou Yang, Liu Qiuhong, Han Jialiang and Liang Wenhao -- had been asked to hand in written self-criticisms, the statement added.

Wang had decried her expulsion and said she would hold a press conference later, while several of her team mates claimed they would quit in protest, Xinhua said, without elaborating.

Wang, a multiple world champion and voted China's sportswoman of the year in 2010 by state broadcaster CCTV, defended her 500m title at the Vancouver Games, and added two golds in the 1000m and team relay. She has also won a silver and a bronze at the 2006 Turin Games.

Her glittering career has been peppered with controversy, however, and she was previously booted off the team in 2007 after criticizing her coach's tactics at the Asian Winter Games.

Wang was under the spotlight for a clash with police while at a training camp in June at Lijiang, a scenic tourist spot in southwestern China.

Wang and team mate Zhou complained on their microblogs that they and a number of other team mates were beaten in a brawl with security guards when celebrating a Dragon Boat Festival at a pub.

After an investigation, police deemed the athletes had violated local regulations by singing and being rowdy after midnight.

AC Milan wins Italian Super Cup after classic derby at Bird's Nest

Source: Xinhua

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- AC Milan rallied from one goal down to beat feud Inter Milan 2-1 to win the 2011 Italian Super Cup after an exciting derby at a fully-packed Bird's Nest here on Saturday evening.

Wesley Sneijder broke the deadlock in the 22nd minute for the Nerazzurri with a powerful shot from the edge of the box to beat Christian Abbiati.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalized in the 61st minute when the tall striker headed Clarence Seedorf's pinpoint center into the empty net at the far post.

Kevin Prince Boateng netted home the winner on 69 minutes when he slided in a rebound after substitute forward Pato's sharp diagonal shot hit the near post.

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri used a 433 formation, while Inter boss Gian Peiro Gasperini took a 361 starting eleven.

The two sides had a even first half, Inter's attacking power from the left flank seemed to be more effective compared to the opposing front pair of Ibrahimovic and Robinho, with Ricardo Alvarez and Joel Chukwuma Obi threatening their rivals from time to time.

Ibrahimovic missed a good chance to level the score before the end of the first period with a header hit the post.

After the break, both teams quickened the pace. AC Milan gradually took some advantage with fine combination upfront. Gasperini brought on Pato to replace Robinho, and the in-form Brazilian tried to challenge the opposing defence with his speed and technique.

Inter couldn't find their form after Boateng's goal, and had to taste the failure before some fervent 80,000 spectators.

The Italian Super Cup will still be held in the Bird's Nest for the next two seasons before the start of the Serie A, which means the event will create more business value and sporting fever in the place where the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was held.

More and more Chinese clubs of different Chinese cities began to invite top European clubs to play friendlies in the summer break.

Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid all came to China to play with Chinese local teams this summer, and the clash between the Italian feuds was the climax one. Both the organizers and the foreign clubs can make benefits from these business matches.

According to a senior organizer of this years Italian Super Cup, the ticket sale of the game may reach an amount of more than 60 million Yuan, and the final result may likely to surpass the record high 70 million Yuan from the 2009 version Super Cup between Inter and Lazio in the National Stadium, one year after the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

More than 40 TV stations, and more than 100 companies of various kinds of media from different nations and regions covered the Milan Derby. Adding the advertisement profits, the total commercial revenue may be higher.

"We are also considering to hold the Spanish Super Cup at the Bird's Nestle in the future," said Wang Hui, a senior official of the organizing company.

"From the two Italian Super Cup held here, we think it's a successful example both in sporting and commerce."