IN BRIEF (Page 22)

Badminton

Six-month community competition ends in Beijing

The inaugural SOTX Cup Beijing Community Badminton Tournament ended on Sunday at the Beijing Guanghua Badminton Hall.

More than three hundred people from 10 preliminary groups took part in the final. Citychinese.com Team, Citychinese.com Badminton Club, and Special Education Institute Team B took the top three places.

Thousands of citizens from 500 Beijing communities and 200 businesses participated in the six-month event. The youngest player was 10 years old and the oldest was 72. Competitions included men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles and mixed doubles.

Shenzhen SOTX Sports Equipment Co Ltd is an active supporter of badminton and sponsors China's army, Hubei and Sichuan provincial badminton teams and has hosted more than 1,000 badminton competitions.

Table tennis

Amateur paddlers enjoy festive tournament

The grand final of the second Minlong Cup, a Beijing community table tennis tournament, was held in Minlong in Beijing's Chaoyang District over the weekend.

Forty-five teams made up of players from the community, army, public police, government and countryside took part in the event, Beijing's biggest amateur table tennis tournament. Retired professionals and sports school students also participated.

The event was an effort to answer China's national fitness call, which urges citizens to keep fit by doing more sports activities. It also added to the Chinese capital's sports atmosphere in the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games next August.

Bowling

Journalists take to the bowling alleys

The Helianqing Cup Ten-Pin Bowling Competition for Journalists was held on Sunday at the Beijing Gongti 100 Bowling Center.

Journalists from Beijing's 20 news organizations took part in the event to promote China's national fitness call and to cheer for Beijing hosting the 29th Olympic Games.

The event was organized by the People's Daily Sports Department and the century-old Chinese writing-brush producer Helianqing, which is eager to express its excitement for the Olympics and to add Chinese flavor to the Beijing Games.

Before the competition, the sports writers and editors also discussed how to deliver better coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games.

(China Daily 12/25/2007 page22)