Digest

SOCCER

Beijing Guo'an retains name after share sale

Beijing Guo'an announced on Monday that it can retain its 28-year-old name because CITIC Guo'an no longer holds any shares in the club.

Last December, the Chinese Football Association introduced regulations requiring clubs to remove references to sponsors or investors in their names. The rule change is an attempt to avoid situations in which teams are changing their names as they change sponsors.

According to a Beijing Guo'an statement, the Sinobo Group has completed its purchase of shares previously owned by CITIC Guo'an.

The capital club has been known as Beijing Guo'an since it was founded in December 1992, two years before China's professional league was launched.

CITIC Guo'an was previously the club's second-largest shareholder, holding a 36-percent stake.

TRACK AND FIELD

Bolt welcomes twins－Thunder and Saint Leo

Sprint legend Usain Bolt and his partner, Kasi Bennett, on Sunday announced the birth of twin boys, who have been named Thunder Bolt and Saint Leo Bolt.

Bolt revealed the news on Instagram with a Father's Day family photo, showing a lightning bolt emoji next to each of his children's names in the caption, without stating when the twins were born.

Bennett also posted a shot of the couple posing with the twins and daughter Olympia Lightning Bolt captioned: "Happy Father's Day to my forever love! @usainbolt You are the rock of this family and the greatest daddy to our little ones. We love you world without end!"

Olympia Lightning was born in May 2020 but the name was only announced two months later.

Messages of congratulations poured in from fans and athletes－including fellow Jamaican track star Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, American sprinter Wallace Spearmon and Britain's 200m world champion Dina Asher-Smith, who posted: "Congratulations so adorable!"

VOLLEYBALL

Jersey campaign to promote equality

Volleyball World on Monday launched the 'Equal Jersey' campaign, which will see the sport's top players champion gender equality by wearing a special jersey featuring their own name and that of a player of the opposite gender.

Male and female players who share the same jersey number will wear each other's names on their jerseys for the first time at the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) 2021 Finals from June 25-27. The jerseys will be worn during the finals to highlight how the sport of volleyball, the players and the fans all strive to challenge the inequality which frequently exists between genders in the sports world.

"By launching the Equal Jersey campaign, we aim to showcase that volleyball is universal. It brings people together and players and fans cheer for all, championing equality, diversity and inclusion as a limitless strength," said Volleyball World CEO Finn Taylor.

BASKETBALL

Captain Zhou wants tougher Team China

Team China captain Zhou Peng says improving the squad's physicality and ball handling will be key to developing the men's national squad in the future.

China booked a spot in the FIBA Asia Cup later this year after notching a perfect record of four straight wins in their recent qualifiers in the Philippines.

"From the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers, we found that as a team in a transition process, we need to improve our physical competitiveness in international matches and become more mature with better communication in our ball movement," he said.

The Chinese team will remain in the Philippines before heading to Canada for the Olympic qualifying tournament, where they will square off against Canada and Greece.

"Both sides are strong. We need to keep a stable mindset and go all out to challenge them," Zhou added. "Hopefully, we can produce high-quality games and achieve better results."

China Daily - Agencies