IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Olympics

Germany books Beijing spot

BERLIN: Germany won a tense five-set final against Spain on Sunday to clinch an Olympic men's volleyball place.

Germany won the first two sets in the final match of the round-robin tournament, which also featured Cuba and Taiwan, before Spain hit back to force a decider.

The host won to complete a 25-23, 25-23, 23-25, 22-25, 15-10 victory and seal Germany's first men's volleyball appearance at the Olympics since the 1972 Munich Games.

Three of the 12 remaining places will be decided in Portugal from May 30 to June 1, when the winners go through, and Japan from May 31 to June 8, with the winners plus the best Asian team qualifying.

China, Brazil, Russia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Serbia, the United States and Venezuela have already qualified.

Soccer

Chievo returns to Serie A

MILAN: Chievo Verona won immediate promotion back to Serie A on Sunday after drawing 1-1 at Grosseto.

Serie B leader Chievo, relegated from the top flight last year having been in the Champions League qualifiers at the start of that season, is four points clear of third-placed Lecce with one round of games left.

Bologna, which could still snatch the Serie B title, remains in the second and final automatic promotion spot after winning 1-0 at Mantova to move three points behind Chievo.

Lecce stays a point behind Bologna after winning 3-1 at Messina. Lecce hosts struggling Vicenza in next Sunday's season finale while Bologna entertains Pisa.

Fourth-placed Albinoleffe lost 4-0 at home to Rimini and will have to settle for the playoffs where Pisa and Brescia are also assured of berths.

Iraq suspended by FIFA

SYDNEY: Iraq faces a year in the soccer wilderness after FIFA suspended it from all international competitions yesterday and issued an ultimatum to Baghdad.

The executive board of world soccer's governing body announced it had imposed the ban after the Iraq government dissolved its National Olympic Committee and national sport federations in breach of FIFA and Olympic regulations.

The board will recommend that the FIFA Congress, which meets in Sydney on Friday, suspends Iraq from all tournaments for 12 months, but left the door open for a reprieve if Baghdad reversed its decision by 1400 GMT on Thursday.

"The FIFA Executive Committee decided to suspend the Iraqi Football Association (IFA) as of today .... following the governmental decree passed on May 20 which dissolved the Iraqi National Olympic Committee and all national sport federations, including the IFA," FIFA said in a statement.

Baseball

Yankees even record

NEW YORK: The New York Yankees crawled back to the .500 mark by defeating the Seattle Mariners 6-5 on Sunday for their season-high fifth win in a row.

An RBI double by Jose Molina capped a four-run eighth inning for the Yankees and helped extend the Mariners' losing streak to six games.

"We got contributions from everyone, especially there in the last inning with walks and with timely hits," New York shortstop Derek Jeter told reporters. "We pretty much did a lot of things right."

The fourth-place Yankees (25-25) had a total of eight hits by seven players and now trail the front-running Tampa Bay Rays by five games in the American League East.

Seattle (18-33) squandered a 5-2 lead and now heads home to begin a series with the World Series champion Boston Red Sox.

(China Daily 05/27/2008 page24)