IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Soccer

Super Mario nets hat-trick on his Stuttgart return

BERLIN: Germany's player of 2007, Mario Gomez, announced his return to form with a hat-trick in just 14 minutes to book VfB Stuttgart's place in the German Cup quarterfinals.

The 22-year-old has been out of action since injuring his ribs at the end of November, but he struck three first-half goals Wednesday as Stuttgart beat Werder Bremen's reserves 3-2 to reach the German Cup's quarterfinals.

In Wednesday's all-Bundesliga clash, Schalke 04 went down 5-3 on penalties to VfL Wolfsburg.

Bundesliga title contenders. Hamburg made light work of its third-division opponent Rot-Weiss Essen as captain Rafael van der Vaart opened the scoring in a 3-0 win.

Birmingham lines up Tskitishvili signing

BIRMINGHAM, England: Birmingham manager Alex McLeish is close to signing Georgian midfielder Levan Tskitishvili for the rest of the season.

Tskitishvili, 31, has been training with the Premier League club after being released by Greek side Panionios.

"Levan is training with us because we are very short in midfield and we are trying to do some kind of deal there," McLeish said.

Tskitishvili, capped 52 times for Georgia, has also played for Dinamo Tbilisi, Freiburg and Wolfsburg.

Bolton signs Villa defender Cahill to 5m-pound deal

BOLTON, England: Bolton signed Aston Villa defender Gary Cahill in a deal believed to be worth around five million pounds on Wednesday.

Cahill, 22, agreed to a three-and-a-half-year deal at the Reebok Stadium after weeks of uncertainty surrounding his future.

Villa's city rival Birmingham made a late attempt to sign Cahill, after matching its neighbors' valuation of the player.

But sources close to the player had indicated Cahill wanted to rebuild his career at Bolton.

"It is the right move for me to come to Bolton. I had a look around their setup and met with the manager and chairman and I was impressed with what I saw and heard," Cahill said.

Cricket

Sutherland disappointed by Harbhajan punishment

SYDNEY: Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland has expressed disappointment that India's Harbhajan Singh did not get a more severe punishment for verbally abusing Australia's Andrew Symonds.

On Tuesday, International Cricket Council (ICC) appeals commissioner John Hansen downgraded the charges against Harbhajan from racial abuse to using abusive language due to a lack of evidence.

The off-spinner consequently escaped a three-match suspension and was fined half his match fee.

"Judge Hansen says the penalty would have been different if he had had facts in front of him," Sutherland told reporters on Thursday. "From that point of view, that's disappointing, I'm disappointed, Cricket Australia is disappointed, it sounds like the judge is disappointed too."

Badminton

Singapore's No 1 on verge of quitting

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Olympic badminton hopes suffered a blow when the city-state's No 1 walked out on the national squad citing personal reasons.

"I just don't feel like playing badminton and want to take a break to rest for a while," 24-year-old Li Li said.

"I don't know if I will continue with badminton. Right now, I'm planning to return to Wuhan to spend Chinese New Year with my parents. I need time to think about my future in the sport," she told Today newspaper.

(China Daily 02/01/2008 page24)