IN BRIEF (Page 22)
American football
Inuagural China Bowl called off
The first NFL game scheduled for China, the inaugural China Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks on August 9, was called off by the league late on Monday.
The league said in a statement that it had instead decided to concentrate on its first overseas regular season game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants in London in October and that the China Bowl would now take place in 2009.
"Our assessment is that Chinese fans would be better served if our game in China is played at a later date after we have launched our international series of regular-season games and more effectively paved the way for the introduction of our game into China," NFL senior vice president Mark Waller said.
The Patriots and Seahawks had been scheduled to meet in a pre-season game at Beijing's Workers Stadium a day after the start of the one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympics.
The statement said the NFL was in the process of opening an office in Beijing and that the 2009 game would be played at the "Bird's Nest" national stadium, the showpiece venue of next year's Games.
Snooker
Ding reaps bumper harvest
China's teen snooker sensation Ding Junhui pocketed 523,000 yuan ($68,000) within 10 minutes on Monday night at an awarding ceremony hosted by Beijing Xingpai Group at Beijing Longxi Hotspring Resort.
That was for his triple gold-medal performance at last December's Asian Games and 147 break at the Wembley Masters.
Beijing News reported Ding had garnered a total of 1.8 million yuan ($233,000) for three Games gold medals.
Ding's earnings from the new season also include 30,000 pounds ($59,000) for winning the Northern Ireland Cup, 15,800 pounds for reaching the quarterfinals of the UK Championships and another 5,000 pounds from a grand prix event. A break of 147 at the Wembley Masters gave him 97,000 pounds. A first-round exit at the Malta Cup and the China Open still earned Ding 6,500 pounds, but breaking through the World Championships qualification ensured Ding 10,600 pounds.
(China Daily 04/04/2007 page22)
