IN BRIEF (Page 23)

Basketball

Streetballers in Shanghai

A street basketball demonstration, featuring the AND1 Mixtape Tour players and a Chinese select team, will be held at Shanghai Luwan Stadium on May 16.

The AND1 Mixtape Tour is a traveling basketball competition and exhibition sponsored by the basketball apparel manufacturer AND1. A group of streetball players, along with announcer Duke Tango, travels from town to town and challenges local teams.

Games tend to be characterized by comedic stunts and acrobatic slam-dunks. After each game, the local amateur who gives the best performance is offered a position on the AND1 team.

The Shanghai event, organized by the Shanghai Sports Federation, the Shanghai Basketball Association and Luwan Sports Center, will see such talented hoop comedians as Grayson "The Professor" Boucher, Phillip "Hot Sauce" Champion, Tyron "Alimoe, The Black Widow" Evans, Taurian "The Air Up There" Fontenette (aka "Mr 720") and High Rizer, who threw down an in-between the legs 360 dunk at the Killa Krossover event in Toronto in 2006.

Selection has already started to decide the eight Chinese streetball players to go up against the Americans.

Miscellaneous

Huaiji hosts climbing event

The 17th Asian Climbing Championships will be held in Guangdong province's Huaiji county from May 21-25.

The event, organized by the Asian Federation of Sports Climbing, the Chinese Mountaineering Association and Huaiji County Government, will feature 10 men's and women's competition categories including "lead", "speed", "boulder", "speed relay" and "dyno".

Over 100 athletes from South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Iran, India, China. Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan province, will take part.

Huaiji has hosted a number of national and international climbing competitions in the past few years.

The Chinese Mountaineering Association has made great efforts in the last 20 years to promote sports climbing in China. Now, not only young climbers but also students from universities and schools are taking up the sport.

BMX

Worlds to be held in Taiyuan

The BMX World Championships, extreme sport's most important tournament before the Beijing Games, will be staged in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province from May 28 to June 2.

As the biggest BMX event ever held in China, the Worlds is expected to attract more than 1,500 riders and 1,000 officials and reporters from around the world.

To date, more than 600 athletes have confirmed their participation, including gold medal contenders Mike Day, Donny Robinson of the United States and Sarah Walker from New Zealand.

"The Worlds is a very important tournament for host city Taiyuan and the entire Shanxi Province, so we will do our best to make it an excellent event,?said deputy mayor of Taiyuan, Zhang Zheng.

Bicycle moto cross (BMX) started in the late 1960s in California, around the time that motocross became a popular sport in the US.

On June 29 2003, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to introduce BMX in the 2008 Olympic Games.

Asian Championships winner Ma Liyun is China's best rider at the Games.

(China Daily 04/23/2008 page23)