IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Doping

Walk champion tests positive

LONDON: Greece's 2004 Olympic 20 km walk champion Athanasia Tsoumeleka tested positive for the blood booster CERA at last year's Beijing Games, sources close to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) investigation said.

Tsoumeleka, 27, who finished ninth in Beijing, was a surprise winner in Athens after finishing only seventh in the Paris world championships the previous year.

The sources told media on Wednesday that Tsoumeleka was one of the six athletes who had tested positive for CERA after the IOC re-tested their samples.

Schumacher's sample positive

STUTTGART: German cyclist Stefan Schumacher also tested positive for the banned substance CERA in a re-testing of samples, the German cycling federation (BDR) said on Wednesday.

"The federation has passed on to Mr Schumacher documentation of a positive re-test stemming from the Beijing Games. He can now request the testing of the B sample. Further details will be announced in a statement," a BDR official told Reuters.

He was the second cyclist named on Wednesday as having tested positive for the blood-booster after the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) confirmed that Italy's road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin failed a Beijing dope test.

Athletics

Bolt escapes car crash

KINGSTON: Olympic athletics sensation Usain Bolt suffered only minor injuries on Wednesday when his BMW skidded off the road and overturned in a ditch.

"I am good," Bolt told fans as he limped away from hospital with small bandages on his feet.

Bolt's manager Norman Peart said the athlete's feet were pricked by thorns when he exited the vehicle.

Police said the vehicle was extensively damaged, after apparently skidding on the rain-slick road, but neither Bolt nor the unidentified woman traveling with him was seriously hurt.

Bolt had just returned to Jamaica from a promotional event for Puma in Boston last weekend.

The Jamaican star was scheduled to compete in an IAAF Area permit meet in Kingston this weekend, and Peart said Bolt's team would continue to monitor his health.

Wushu

Guangzhou to host kungfu event

The 2009 World Kungfu Championships will be held from July 17 to 18 at the Guangzhou New Gymnasium.

The organizers - the Wushu Administrative Center under China State General Administration of Sport, Chinese Wushu Association, Guangzhou People's Government, Guangzhou Sports Bureau and the Shijironghua International Wushu Culture Promotion (Beijing) Co - are determined to make the event a national springboard from which to launch wushu to the world.

It will feature the world's top kungfu masters from China, Japan, Thailand, Russia, Iran and Australia in free combat, Thai boxing, karate and kick boxing.

Already registered to take part in the 2 million-yuan event are Beijing 2008 Olympic Wushu Tournament free combat champion Salihov Muslim of Russia, 2005 World Wushu Championships winner Bian Maofu of China, 2009 4th International Wushu Boji Masters winner Yu Jin, reigning Japanese K-1 League champions and Thailand's Thai boxing aces.

Miscellaneous

Logo contest for Fitness Day

In response to China's National Fitness call and 100-day countdown to National Fitness Day on August 8, a nationwide selection campaign for a logo and slogan encapsulating the campaign was launched in Beijing on Wednesday.

To better use the Beijing Olympics legacy to increase people's awareness of keeping healthy through sports, Aug 8 - opening day of the Games last year - has been declared National Fitness Day by the State Council, with various activities to be held on the day each year.

Organized by the State General Administration of Sport and the Bank of China, the selection campaign will invite experts to review all designs to select a winner, who will be awarded prize money of 30,000 yuan ($4,400).

More information about the application is available on the official website http://sports.sina.com.cn/z/qmjsday.

(China Daily 05/01/2009 page11)