London 2012: Football tickets and fixture confirmed

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has confirmed the dates of Team GB’s group stage fixtures ahead of London 2012 Olympic Football tickets going back on sale on 29 November 2011.

The men’s team, coached by Stuart Pearce, will begin their London 2012 campaign at Old Trafford on Thursday 26 July, followed by Wembley Stadium on Sunday 29 July and their final group game will be at the Millennium Stadium on Wednesday 1 August.

The women’s team, coached by Hope Powell, will begin the tournament on Wednesday 25 July at the Millennium Stadium, followed by Saturday 28 July also at the Millennium Stadium. Their final group stage match will take place on Tuesday 31 July at Wembley Stadium.

Tickets for the London 2012 Olympic Football Tournaments will go back on sale from 11am on 29 November 2011 on a first come, first served basis at www.tickets.london2012.com or via telephone on 0844 847 2012.  In recognition of Visa's longstanding support of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, only Visa (debit, credit and prepaid) can be used to purchase tickets.

The Official Draw for the Olympic Football Tournament will take place on 24 April 2012 at Wembley Stadium.

LOCOG Director of Sport Debbie Jevans commented, ‘The prospect of Team GB taking part in the Games has captured the imagination of the public and we are pleased to be able to confirm their group stage fixtures ahead of tickets going back on sale.  With teams like Spain and Brazil already qualified and fantastic venues across the country, the Olympic Football Tournaments promise to be a great family day out at the Olympic Games next summer.’

Hugh Robertson, Minister for Sport and the Olympics said:  ‘I am really looking forward to watching Team GB men’s and women’s football teams compete in 2012, and there are no greater football venues anywhere than our host stadiums.  There are still tickets left, so I encourage everyone to try and get one and support the team in 2012.’

Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt said, ‘We are delighted that the group fixtures for Team GB in both men’s and women’s football will allow fans from throughout the United Kingdom to experience the spirit and energy of the Olympic Games while showing their support for Team GB.’

There are more than 1.5 million Football tickets still available across all sessions, with limited availability at matches taking place at Wembley.

Fixtures:

Men's team:

Thursday July 26, Old Trafford

Sunday July 29, Wembley Stadium

Wednesday Aug 1, Millennium Stadium

Women's team:

Wednesday July 25, Millennium Stadium

Saturday July 28, Millennium Stadium

Tuesday July 31, Wembley Stadium

Football at London 2012: Egypt withdraw as tournament hosts

Egypt have cancelled plans to host the inaugural African Under-23 Championship due to security concerns, just six weeks before the tournament is due to begin.

The competition is designed to decide the continent's representatives at next year's London Olympics but the clash of dates with planned Parliamentary elections on November 28 have sparked safety fears.

Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and former Olympic gold medal winners Nigeria are the nations in contention for places at London 2012.

The top three finishers will secure a place at the men's football tournament at the Games, with the fourth-placed side playing off against an Asian country for potential qualification.

The Confederation of African Football's Heba Abdallah said: "We received an official letter from the Egyptian federation, and it has been a day only, so nothing has been confirmed on the new hosts for the tournament.

"Nigeria and Algeria were initially interested in hosting the tournament, and as it stands, we don't know if they are still interested in hosting at short notice. We will be waiting for a reply from both countries. At the moment, we are hoping so."

NBA pre-season cancelled

The NBA cancelled the remainder of pre-season games on Tuesday and will wipe out the first two weeks of the regular season if there is no labour agreement by Monday.

Four weeks before the scheduled November 1 start of the 2011-2012 campaign, the latest negotiations broke off between NBA players and club owners on Tuesday with all 114 pre-season games wiped out.

NBA Commissioner David Stern and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver made the announcement after owners and players met for about four hours but came no closer to ending the lockout.

Bargaining committees failed in a last-ditch bid to solve a shutdown over financial issues that have lasted for 96 days, since owners locked out players after a prior deal ended July 1.

"By Monday we will have no choice but to cancel the first two weeks of the season," Stern said.

NBA owners had previously called off pre-season training camps and wiped out 43 pre-season games through to October 15.

With Tuesday bringing two more lost weeks of exhibitions, Stern estimated the NBA has already lost $US200 million ($A210 million).

"We're looking down the barrel of losing regular-season games," Stern said. "There's an extraordinary hit coming to the owners and the players."

Billy Hunter, executive director of the NBA players association, said talks might not resume for a month or two.

If true, it would most likely mean no NBA games until next year at the earliest, he said.

What will be gone by Monday, if Stern makes good on his threat and talks do not make a surprise resumption, are the first two weeks of the NBA season, the first games lost to a financial dispute since the 1998-99 NBA season.

Stern said talks collapsed after players showed no interest in a possible 50-50 split of basketball-related revenues. Players had received 57 per cent of such income in the previous contract.

Owners wanted a hard salary cap rather than the current exemption-filled system and a greater share of revenues from what last season was a $US3.8 billion ($A4billion) business.

They claim losses of $US300 million ($A315 million) last season, saying only eight of 30 teams made a profit.

London 2012 athletics track inaugurated

The athletics track at London's Olympic Stadium, which will host next year's games, was inaugurated on Monday.

The red synthetic rubber track, made by an Italian firm, was tested by several athletes including middle-distance runner Hannah England, who won a 1500m silver medal at the recent world championships.

"It's a great moment," said organising committee president Sebastian Coe, himself a former elite middle-distance runner.

"The Olympic Stadium is starting to take shape and people now have a glimpse of how it will look in less than 10 months."

The 80,000-capacity stadium, situated in London's East End, is expected to have cost £486 million ($753m) to build when completed.

It will host the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2012 Games, on July 27 and August 12.

Wang Meng expelled from team for drunken brawl

China’s most decorated Winter Olympic athlete has been expelled from the national team for a drunken brawl with an official, throwing the successful short track speed skating program into disarray.

Wang Meng went out drinking and failed to return to the team hotel before a curfew, China’s sports governing body said in a statement released late Thursday. When she was confronted by the team manager, she assaulted her, it said.

The 26-year-old Wang was expelled from the national team and banned from international competitions because her conduct “has violated the team’s disciplines and jeopardized the sport’s image,” China’s General Administration of Sport said in the statement.

Wang, who won three golds at the Vancouver Games last year, and one gold, a silver and a bronze at Turin, Italy, in 2006, had been suspended since the incident during a summer training camp in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao on July 24.

State-run Xinhua News Agency said Wang punched team manager Wang Chunlu after being criticized for failing to meet a curfew after a night out with five other teammates.

China’s General Administration of Sport said Wang and male speed skater Liu Xianwei assaulted the team manager and damaged hotel property. Liu was also expelled for his role in the incident.

The other four squad members—Zhou Yang, Liu Qiuhong, Han Jialiang and Liang Wenhao—were allowed to keep training with the national team.

At the time, Xinhua reported that Wang accidentally cut her hands on glass and needed dozens of stitches after the incident.

In a video posted on the website of China News Service, an angry Wang, her arms in bandages, was shown amid a throng of reporters at the Winter Sports Management Center on Thursday night.

It was unclear what she had been asked, but Wang was shown insisting that she be quoted verbatim on TV and threatening to hold a news conference if she wasn’t quoted in full.

“Can you not report the voice from the heart of an ordinary person? … To report the voice from the heart of an ordinary person,” she said. “I am no longer an athlete. I have been expelled.”

Xinhua said Wang is famous for her fiery temper and it is not the first time she has landed herself in trouble.

She was expelled from the national team for six months in 2007 after criticizing her coach’s tactics at the Asian Winter Games, Xinhua said.

In June, Wang and her teammates reportedly clashed with security guards who accused them of making too much noise during a night out in the southwestern Chinese city of Lijiang. That incident led to the 10 p.m. curfew being imposed during last month’s summer training camp.

Source: AP

Oscar Pistorius = Daegu 2011 + London 2012 : experts say South Africa's 'blade runner' gains advantage from his technology

Four years after the Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared Oscar Pistorius to compete in able-bodied athletics, South Africa's "blade runner" yesterday qualified to run the 400m at next month's world athletics championships in Daegu, South Korea.

A double below-knee amputee almost from birth, Pistorius, 24, ran a personal best of 45.07sec to win in Lignano, Italy. His time betters the stiff IAAF entry mark of 45.25sec, which no Australian has clocked this year.

Pistorius' time would have won the Australian title in April by about 3m. So now, with intersex Caster Semenya to defend the women's 800m title captured two years ago in Berlin, and Pistorius to race in the men's 400m, the world championships are set to be overwhelmed by South Africa's controversial causes celebre.

It is not that Pistorius should not be cheered for his courage and persistence, but the scientists whose work convinced CAS judges to support him because he has "no significant advantage" through the technology of his carbon fibre limbs have changed their minds.

Exercise physiology professors Peter Weyand and Matthew Bundle provided the scientific proof which persuaded CAS to clear the Cheetah blades worn by Pistorius.

But they claim to have made their conclusions based on incomplete evidence at the time. They have since concluded - and published their findings in the Journal of Applied Physiology - that Pistoriusw' prosthetics provide a significant advantage. They calculate the artificial limbs take as much as 10 seconds off the 400m time he could have run had he been born with lower legs.

"We are pleased to be able to finally go public with conclusions that the publishing process has required us to keep confidential," Bundle and Weyand stated. "We recognised that the blades provide a major advantage as soon as we analysed the critical data."

The scientists have found Pistorius' blades enable him to reach speed while applying 20 per cent less ground force than an able-bodied sprinter.

He also has a stride rate advantage, turning his levers over "15.7 per cent more rapidly than five of the most recent former world record-holders in the 100m dash".

They further found that his blades "reduce the muscle forces Pistorius requires for sprinting to less than half of intact-limb levels".

With the command of his blades he now has, and the speed he can generate with the superb economy of energy, Pistorius could win a 400m medal in Daegu. Trinidad's Renny Quow won bronze in Berlin in 45.02sec. Pistorius' 45.07sec ranks him 15th fastest man in the world this year.

NBA: Yao Ming retires from basketball

Yao Ming has made it official Wednesday, telling a packed news conference in his hometown that a series of foot and leg injuries have forced him to retire from basketball.

"I will formally end my career," said Yao, the 7-fooot-6 center who became a household name in China before starting his NBA career with the Houston Rockets as the top draft pick in 2002.

Yao played eight seasons in the NBA, but missed 250 regular-season games over the past six years.

"Today is an important day for me and holds a special meaning for both my basketball career and my future," Yao said in comments translated into English. "I had to leave the court since I suffered a stress fracture in my left foot for the third time at the end of last year. My past six months were an agonizing wait. I had been thinking (about my future) over and over. Today I am announcing a personal decision, ending my career as a basketball player and officially retire. But one door is closing and another one is opening."

Houston general manager Daryl Morey attended Yao's farewell conference Wednesday, and NBA Commissioner David Stern sent a message via video link. Morey had to get permission from the NBA to be attend because the lockout prohibits contact with players.

"Yao Ming has been a transformational player and a testament to the globalization of our game," Stern said in a statement. "His dominant play and endearing demeanor along with his extensive humanitarian efforts have made him an international fan favorite and provided an extraordinary bridge between basketball fans in the United States and China."

Yao said he will return to work with his former Chinese team, the Shanghai Sharks, with the possibility of becoming general manager. He plans to continue his philanthropic work with his Yao Foundation.

Yao entered the conference room at a five-star hotel dressed in a dark suit, after the master of ceremonies led a count down to his arrival.

Yao's wife, Ye Li, and their young daughter, Yao Qinlei, and Yao's parents were in the room. Qinlei was dressed in a red qipao, a traditional Chinese dress. He later appeared with his family on the stage to the applause and cheers of the room.

He thanked his family, friends, coaches in China and in Houston and fellow competitors such as Shaquille O'Neal "for making me a better player".

"I will be always with you," Yao said. "Thank you."

Despite news of Yao's pending retirement being out for several weeks, the actual announcement was treated with the pomp that Yao's appearances in China bring. Media were asked to sign up weeks in advance for the conference and show up two hours early to pass through airport-style security checks.

The Grand Shanghai Ballroom was crammed at the back with dozens of television cameras and black-suited security men outnumbered the hundreds of media. China Central Television planned to carry five continuous hours of Yao coverage beginning at 1 p.m. local time, including 90 minutes live from the media conference.

Yao's contract expired after last season, and the Rockets said they were interested in re-signing him if he came back healthy. Yao said in April in China that his professional future depended on his recovery from a stress fracture in his left ankle.

Selected to the NBA All-Star team eight times, Yao averaged 19 points and 9.2 rebounds. More importantly, his impact expanded the NBA's influence in Asia into lucrative merchandise sales and TV ratings.

After his rookie season, Yao helped the Rockets reach the playoffs in the next two seasons.

Yao played in 77 games in the 2008-09 season, when Houston reach the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 1997.

But Yao broke his left foot in a playoff game against the Los Angeles Lakers, and underwent complex surgery that sidelined him for the entire 2009-10 season. He lasted only five games at the start of the 2010-11 season, before breaking his left ankle. He had surgery in January, and was lost again for the season.

Yao had played six years with the Chinese national team before joining the Rockets, and was already a star in his home country. He carried the Olympic torch through Tiananmen Square and his country's flag during the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He also donated $2 million and set up a foundation to rebuild schools in the wake of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan.