IN BRIEF (Page 22)
Motor sports
Drivers set for grueling Euro-Asia auto rally
A 17-day, 10,000-km marathon auto rally from St Petersburg to Beijing will roar off next June, the organizers announced in Beijing on Tuesday.
The grueling event, called Trans Orientale, organized by the Rene Metge Concept, Sportfive and IEC In Sports, will pass through three countries - Russia, Kazakhstan and China between June 12 and 28. The race will feature cars, trucks and motorcycles driving mostly through the Gobi desert and on wild roads.
More than 200 vehicles and 1,000 drivers, riders and officials are expected to take part.
The Europe-Asia auto rally began one hundred years ago with the Beijing-Paris Auto Rally. In 1992, the inaugural Paris-Moscow-Beijing cross-country rally was held and then again in 1995, laying a solid foundation for the Trans Orientale.
One of the organizers, Rene Metge, was also one of the minds behind the 1992 Paris-Moscow-Beijing Rally. He had earlier helped organize the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1987 and 1988. As a driver, he won the car category title in the Paris-Dakar Rally three times - in 1981, 1982 and 1986.
Sports Science
China to host convention on sports science in 2008
Experts in areas of sports science, sports medicine and physical education will have a chance to share their thoughts and knowledge when they meet in August of next year at the Olympic Scientific Congress in the south Chinese city of Guangzhou.
The convention, with the theme of "Sport Sciences and Harmonious Society in the 21st Century", will cover a wide range of topics such as sports for the disabled, sports medicine, nutrition science, sports education, physical chemistry, training science and so on. Some 2,500 researchers and professionals from all over the world are expected to take part.
The convention, organized by the International Paralympic Committee, the International Olympic Committee, the International Council for Sport Science and Physical Education, and the International Federation of Sports Medicine, will run from August 1 to 5, a week prior to the start of the 2008 Olympic Games.
"We have done great research work in the sports field in recent years, but due to some historical problems and communication obstacles, no Chinese scientists have previously served as keynote speakers at the convention," said Jiang Zhixue, director general of the Science and Education Department of China's State General Administration of Sports.
(China Daily 11/30/2007 page22)
