Li crashes out at first hurdle

China's Li Na crashed out of the Olympic tournament in the first round as the world No 11 was beaten 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 by Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova at Wimbledon on Saturday.

Li had been China's best hope of taking a medal in the singles, but the former French Open champion struggled to find any momentum against the big-hitting Hantuchova and was knocked out in one hour and 42 minutes.

The defeat completed a dispiriting month for the 30-year-old, who also suffered a surprise Wimbledon second round exit against Sabine Lisicki.

Li, who became the first Chinese player to win a Grand Slam when she triumphed in Paris in 2011, made 24 unforced errors and served five double-faults.

British bookie refunds all bets

The perfectly kept surprise about who would light the Olympic cauldron caught out even the savvy British bookmakers.

So much so, that a leading oddsmaker is refunding all wagers because it was too tough for gamblers to guess the identity of the seven young athletes who had the honor Friday.

William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams says "the result was all but impossible to predict".

Adams says the betting operator is giving back "a five-figure sum" wagered by its clients.

Five-time rowing gold medalist Steve Redgrave was the longtime favorite. His role was carrying the torch into the Olympic Stadium to hand it to the seven young people.

Albanian weight lifter banned

The International Olympic Committee has formally excluded Albanian weight lifter Hysen Pulaku from the London Olympics after he failed a doping test.

The IOC said on Saturday that Pulaku tested positive for a banned steroid, stanozolol, on July 23. It said a backup "B" sample confirmed the result.

The announcement came a day after Albania dropped the 19-year-old from its weight lifting team over doping suspicions. He was supposed to have competed in the 77-kilogram category.

Two Turkish lifters were also dropped by their federation at the last minute after failing doping tests.

IOC probes Irish athletes' gambling

The IOC is investigating reports that an Irish athlete cashed in bets on an opponent to win at a pre-London Games event.

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said the athlete is said to have "bet against themselves prior to the Olympics". The IOC was working with the Irish Olympic Committee to gather information, he added.

He did not identify the athlete or the sport.

IOC rules bar athletes from betting on Olympic events, though the case appears to have "no effect so far on the games," Adams said.

The Irish Independent reports that an athlete made a 3,900 euro ($4,800) profit, and withdrew 3,600 euro ($4,435) in cash from an account with a gambling operator.

Brazil to invest in individual sports

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has outlined plans to focus investments in individual Olympic events to lift the country's medal tally at the 2016 Rio Games.

Among the initiatives is the construction of 6,000 new multi-purpose sports courts with an additional 4,000 facilities already in existence to benefit from undercover protection.

"Brazil is very strong in team sports but it's in the individual events that most of the medals are won," Rousseff said. "We need to improve in that area because it could make a big difference."

The leader declined to put an estimate on how many gold medals she expected Brazil to win in London.

Agence France-Presse-Associated Press-Xinhua

(China Daily 07/29/2012 page7)