IN BRIEF (Page 23)

Extreme sports

X-Games kick off in May

The annual X-step China X-Games, China's highest-level and extreme sports competition, will begin next month in six Chinese cities.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the event has become the most important ranking tournament for the China X-Sports Association.

The competition, featuring skateboarding, inline skating, BMX and obstacle climbing, will hold preliminary rounds in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and Shenyang for nine stops beginning May 31. The best athletes from the preliminary rounds will reach the finale in Beijing on Oct 17 and 18. The top three finishers in the final will represent China in the All-Star Games where they will challenge top X-sports athletes from the US and Europe.

Fans can log on to usee.com and ku6.com for the latest news and video shows.

Gymnastics

World Cup comeback for Li

TIANJIN: Former Olympic champion Liao Xiaopeng will lead the Chinese team in the Gymnastics World Cup in Tianjin from May 14-15.

Li, 27, who won two gold medals in the men's parallel bars and team events in the 2000 Sydney Games, has been out of the game since 2006 with injuries and has not competed in international competitions since then.

But head coach of the Chinese national gymnastics team Huang Yubin said Li has regained his form and fitness.

"He is now in Germany to compete in the Stuttgart World Cup stage, which is his first competition in two years," Huang said. "It will be a test for him."

Also on the squad for the Tianjin World Cup are Olympic and world all-around champion Yang Wei and world pommel horse champion Xiao Qin.

Gymnasts from 30 countries and regions, including Russia, Japan, South Korea and Belgium, will participate in this competition featuring six men's and four women's categories.

(China Daily 04/11/2008 page23)