IN BRIEF (Page 22)

Badminton

Tough tussle for women's singles players

The competition for the three Olympic singles berths is very close among the Chinese players, said Li Yongbo, head coach of the Chinese national badminton team.

"The placements change after every Olympic ranking tournament and up to now, nobody can predict which three will represent China at next year's Olympics," Li said.

Li was speaking at a press conference last week where it was also announced that the China Badminton Masters - an International Badminton Federation Super Series and the Olympic-rankings tournament - will move to Changzhou next year and will stay in the Jiangsu city until 2012.

Li said the tussle for the women's singles berth is fiercer than that of the men's singles and doubles, women's doubles or the mixed doubles. "Besides defending champion Zhang Ning and world champion Xie Xingfang, there are Zhu Lin, Lu Lan and Jiang Yanjiao," Li said.

Diving

Olympic qualifying competition wraps up

The last competition for China's diving Dream Team ended last week after the conclusion of the two-day 2008 Olympic diving qualifying competition in Hefei of Anhui Province.

After a tough tussle between China's best divers in springboard and platform events, Zhou Luxin won the men's and Chen Ruolin won the women's platform titles, edging their national teammates Lin Yue and Wang Xin, respectively.

In the three-meter springboard, He Chong defeated Qin Kai and Wang Feng to win the men's title. As expected, world and Olympic champion Guo Jingjing won the women's springboard title, beating teammates Wu Mingxia and He Zi.

The event - sponsored by Nokia and organized by the International Swimming Federation and the China Swimming and Diving Administrative Center - attracted about 50 divers.

Miscellaneous

Cheerleading competition aims to train civilized fans

The second Beijing civilized cheerleading competition, known as the Jinglongyu Cup, which kicked off in May, has enjoyed a wave of popularity as the city attempts to add excitement to the atmosphere while encouraging more civilized fans during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

So far more than 200 teams have registered to take part in the competition, which features both field and platform cheerleading events. The fans are grouped into different categories: Kindergarten, Elementary, High school, University and Social.

Event organizers include the Beijing Sports Bureau, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, and China Communist Youth League Beijing Committee. The sponsor is Kerry Oils and Grains (Shenzhen) Co Ltd, whose Jinglongyu brand is the official cooking-oil for the 2008 Olympics.

(China Daily 10/30/2007 page22)