IN BRIEF (Page 23)

Basketball

Yao to return in July

Yao Ming, China's most popular sportsman, will make his return from foot surgery to play for his country against Iran in next month's Stankovic Cup, local media has reported.

The 2.29m Houston Rockets center had his NBA season cut short by a fractured foot in February and faced a race to be fit to lead China's challenge for basketball gold at the Aug 8-24 Beijing Olympics.

"Yao Ming will definitely play the match and this will be his first match after returning from injury," the organizer of the Stankovic Cup told Sohu.com.

As well as China and Asian champion Iran, the Stankovic Cup will also feature European champion Russia and African champion Angola. It will take place in Hangzhou, China, from July 17-20.

Tennis

Zheng Jie earns wild card

LONDON: Australia's Samantha Stosur and China's Zheng Jie have been handed the final two wild cards for Wimbledon, which gets underway at the All England Club on June 23.

Stosur, a former world top 30 player, has seen her ranking slump to 162 after missing the second half the 2007 season with a viral illness and returning to the tour in May this year.

Zheng, the world No 133, was also sidelined for the latter part of the 2007 campaign with a left ankle injury, but enjoyed a solid French Open coming through qualifying to reach the third round.

Badminton

Shuttlers capture just one title

SINGAPORE: China seized only one title at the Aviva Singapore Badminton Open here on Sunday.

Chinese women's doubles pair Du Jing/Yu Yang fought a quick battle against their Chinese Taipei rivals Cheng Wen-hsing/Chien Yu-chin in the final, winning 21-16 and 21-19 to claim the title.

Zhou Mi, a former Chinese national team player who now represents Hong Kong, lost 19-21 and 17-21 in her contest against Denmark's Tine Rasmussen for the women's singles gold.

Malaysia underlined its strength in men's doubles as its two pairs met in the final where Zakry Abdul Latif/Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari upset their teammates Gan Teik Chai/Lin Woon Fui 21-18 and 21-17.

Malaysia also bagged the men's singles title. Malaysia's world No 2 Lee Chong Wei beat Indonesia's Simon Santoso 21-13 and 21-5 to win the title.

Indonesian Nova Widianto/Liliyana Natsir beat England's Anthony Clark/Donna Kellogg 17-21, 21-14 and 21-9 to snatch the gold medal in mixed doubles.

Athletics

China dominates junior meet

JAKARTA: China emerged as the overall champion while host Indonesia's medal drought continued through to the closing day of the Asian Junior Athletics Championship in Jakarta over the weekend.

China finished the four-day event with 14 gold medals, leaving Japan in a distant second place with seven and Indonesia's regional rival Thailand in third place with four.

On Sunday, the champion added to its gold tally by taking the women's 800m, long jump, 5,000m, 4x400m and the men's relay, the Jakarta Post reported Monday.

China took the silver and gold in long jump, as Sha Bao jumped 6.32 m and Yan Meili right behind at 6.28 m. Chan-Mi Bae of South Korea took third with 6.10 m.

(China Daily 06/17/2008 page23)