IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Soccer

Van Nistelrooy extends contract with Real to 2010

MADRID: Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has signed a one-year contract extension that keeps him with the Spanish champions until 2010, the Primera Liga club said on Wednesday.

"I am delighted to be staying here for two more years. It's an honor for me to be a part of the history of Real Madrid," Van Nistelrooy told the club's website (www.realmadrid.com).

The Dutch international joined Real from Manchester United in 2006 and fired in 25 league goals in his debut season to lead the side to their first Primera Liga title in four years in June.

Manchester City keen on Roma's Mancini

LONDON: Manchester City coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has confirmed that the Premier League club want to buy AS Roma's Brazilian midfielder Mancini.

"Mancini is an ideal reinforcement for the team, he could become our Cristiano Ronaldo," he told Italian sports daily Il Romanista. "I know that negotiations to renew his contract with Roma are at a dead end, but we have not spoken to his agent Gilmar Veloz yet.

"The money is not a problem for us, we'll have to see if Roma will sell him."

Arsenal fan Henry hopes for return to club in future

ROME: Thierry Henry would love to return to former club Arsenal in some capacity in the future, the Barcelona striker said on Wednesday.

"It does not matter what will happen with my new team, I'll never find the affection I was shown at Arsenal," Henry said.

"In part that's because I don't think my legs will let me play for another club for eight years.

"You always return to the place you belong to and so I hope one day to be able to work with that club. I have this club in my blood."

The 30-year-old said he had followed Arsenal's games since leaving for Spain in the offseason.

"I'm proud to have played for Arsenal and to be a fan of theirs," he added. "Before I was not a fan of any club, but I have become an Arsenal fan and it's difficult for me to not watch their matches".

Swimming

Ex-Olympic champ Kovacs to skip Beijing Games

BUDAPEST, Hungary: Hungary's former Olympic champion Agnes Kovacs said she would not compete at the Beijing Olympics because a doping controversy had tarnished her reputation, state news agency MTI reported.

The 26-year-old was cleared of doping charges in November last year.

"Doping tests are of course necessary to keep sports clean, but this needs to be done humanely," Kovacs told a news conference on Wednesday. "But I think that in my case, the assumption of innocence was not there."

"I will not take part in the Olympics as a competitor, however, it would also be odd for me not to compete anymore."

Cycling

UCI says biological passport taking shape

LILLE, France: The creation of a biological passport for all professional riders is taking shape, the International Cyling Union (UCI) said on Wednesday.

The UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced last October that they were planning to collect blood samples from all professional riders to create a medical profile that would then be compared to the data registered in doping tests.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said at the time the sport's governing body wanted the teams and riders likely to take part in cycling's premium events to be the first to benefit from the biological passport.

"Each rider will be tested as many times as necessary by the end of June," the UCI said.

(China Daily 01/11/2008 page24)