IN BRIEF (Page 23)

Soccer

Ronaldinho not for sale, says Barcelona president

BARCELONA: Barcelona president Joan Laporta said on Sunday that Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho was not for sale and quashed reports that the club was negotiating with English giant Chelsea or European champion AC Milan.

Speaking after Barcelona's 2-1 win over Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday, Laporta said: "We are not going to sell Ronaldinho. We are not in contact with Chelsea, Milan or any other team.

"We are counting on Ronaldinho and you could see tonight that he fought like all the rest of the players."

Chelsea, bankrolled by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, has been mooted as potential suitors along with Milan which has several of Ronaldinho's Brazilian international teammates in its ranks.

Ronaldinho has cut a forlorn figure this season as the 27-year-old Brazilian, contracted until June 2010, has struggled to recapture his form and Barcelona's demanding fans have jeered their idol.

Leverkusen racks up fifth successive league win

BERLIN: Bayer Leverkusen stretched its winning run in the Bundesliga to five matches when it overwhelmed Hansa Rostock 3-0 at the BayArena on Sunday.

Leverkusen took an early lead through Simon Rolfes and second-half goals from Paul Freier, a penalty, and Theofanis Gekas saw it to another comfortable victory.

The result helped it make up further ground in the title race, after the top three all dropped points on Saturday.

With one round of matches to go before the long mid-season break, Bayern Munich continues to lead the standings with 35 points from 16 games, despite being held to a goalless draw at home to Duisburg.

Werder Bremen, beaten 4-3 at Hanover 96, is second on 33, with Hamburg SV third on 31 after its goalless draw at home to bottom club Energie Cottbus.

Leverkusen stays fourth on 30 points.

Alpine skiing

Austria's Hosp wins slalom to lead World Cup standings

ASPEN, Colorado: Austria's Nicole Hosp won the women's World Cup slalom race in the Rockies on Sunday to take over at the top of the standings.

Hosp completed the two runs in one minute 34.60 seconds with Finland's Tanja Poutiainen 1.19 seconds behind and Austrian Kathrin Zettel third.

The victory allows Olympic slalom silver-medalist Hosp to replace compatriot Marlies Schild at the top of the World Cup slalom standings. Schild failed to finish the second run.

Poutiainen had taken an advantage of 0.03 seconds over Hosp into the second leg but the Austrian produced a blistering run in difficult, soft snow to ensure victory.

Hosp, who was second in slalom at Aspen in 2006, has now won 10 World Cup races in her career.

Sweden's triple world champion Anja Paerson was one of eleven racers not to finish the first run.

Motor racing

Schumacher tells brother it might be time to quit

BERLIN: Michael Schumacher has advised his brother Ralf that it might be better to retire from Formula One rather than crawl around in an uncompetitive car.

Ralf, younger brother of the seven-time world champion, suggested this week that he could be about to leave the sport after an unsuccessful test with Force India in Spain.

Michael, who retired last year as Formula One's most successful driver after winning 91 grands prix, made clear he would support that decision.

"I don't know what his ambitions are, but crawling around in this car, I don't even know what it's called... He should not do that to himself," Michael Schumacher told Auto Motor und Sport magazine in Jerez, where he was testing for Ferrari last week.

Schumacher, winner of six grands prix with Williams from 2001 to 2003, left Toyota at the end of the season in October and has yet to find a drive for 2008.

(China Daily 12/11/2007 page23)