This week in Asian Sports - August 5

SPORTSTICKER ASIAN SPORTS REVIEW

By V Krishnaswamy SportsTicker Contributing Editor

NEW DELHI, India (Ticker) - In yet another Asian-dominated world meet, China grabbed three of the five titles at stake in the World Badminton Championships in Birmingham.

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The performance, coming a year ahead of both the Olympics and Thomas Cup finals, means China will once again be the team to beat.

Xia Xuanze, bronze medalist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, kept his cool and won the men's singles beating Malaysia's Wong Choong Hann, 15-6, 13-15, 15-6, in the long-drawn final.

The Malaysian, however, etched his name in history books by becoming the first man from his country to reach the World Championships men's singles final. Zhang Ning, making light of her 28 years, outplayed teammate and defending champion Gong Ruina, 11-6, 11-3, to win the women's singles.

The third title for the Chinese came when third seeds Gao Ling and Huang Sui turned the tables on world No. 1 pair Wei Yili and Zhao Tingting, 15-8, 15-11, in the women's doubles final.

Three years ago at the Sydney Olympics, China claimed four of the five gold medals. This time it lost the men's doubles title, which went to Indonesians Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan.

But the Chinese showed firepower in doubles, too. They had two pairs in the semifinals in Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng, and Sang Yang and Zheng Bo.

Cheng Rui and Wang Wei reached the quarterfinals, all pointing toward China emerging as a threat to South Korea and Indonesia in the doubles.

The Chinese depth in singles was also evident, but Xuanze had to cross paths with teammates Lin Dan and Bao Chunlai on way to the final.

Chen Hong lost, 15-5, 14-17, 9-15, in the quarters to South Korean Shon Seung-mo.

In the men's singles final, Wong, who had lost seven times to Xuanze, seemed to be awestruck and attempted to play safe rather than attack. Still he won the second game. For his efforts, Wong will receive nearly $10,000 as an incentive.

The current world No. 5 and 2000 All England champion, Xuanze became the sixth Chinese player to bag the prized men's singles crown after Han Jian (1986), Yang Yang (1987 and 1989), Zhao Jianhua (1991) and Sun Jun (1999).

Wong Choong Hann beat Keita Masuda of Japan, 15-5, 15-11, in the first round, then brushed aside Indonesia's Budi Santoso, 15-6, 15-13, and Dane Anders Boesen, 15-8, 15-2.

In the quarterfinals, he produced one of his best games to destroy another Indonesian, Sony Dwi Kuncoro, 15-8, 15-5. In the semifinals, he scored a 15-4, 15-5 win over South Korean Shon Seung-mo, who had upset top seed Chen Hong in the previous round.

China will play a friendly with the Malaysian national men's team on August 16 in Kuala Lumpur. The format will be based on the Thomas Cup - best-of-three singles and two doubles.

The match is part of the Chinese shuttlers' preparations for the three back-to-back Southeast Asian meets on the Grand Prix calendar - Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia Opens.

China will be the second national team to travel to Malaysia for badminton matches after South Korea. The Koreans played friendly matches against Alor Star, Kota Baru and Kuala Lumpur in the Trasnasional Invitational Badminton Challenge last month.

The Chinese singles lineup is expected to include current world No. 1 Chen Hong, Xia Xuanze, Bao Chunlai and Lin Dan. Chen Hong will be defending his title in the Singapore Open.

For Malaysia, the friendly team match will be part of its preparation for the Vietnam SEA Games in December. Malaysia wrested the men's team gold from Indonesia in the last SEA Games held in Kuala Lumpur two years ago. Malaysia last won the gold in 1991.

CRICKET: A fine double-century by opener Wasim Jaffer (218) helped India A keep its unbeaten record on the tour to England which ended last week.

The double-century came at a time when India A was dismissed for 181 while replying to Warwickshire's first innings total of 537. India A was 356 runs in arrears and Jaffer batted for nearly 6 hours, making 218 out of India's healthy 449 for 2.

He added 151 for the first wicket with his captain, Shiv Sunder Das, who was eventually caught and bowled by Collins Obuya for 65, and 247 with Sridharan Sriram, who finished unbeaten on 104.

India A players played 11 matches and did not lose any, and many of the players like Jaffer, Shiv Sundar Das and Hemang Badani among others could be fighting for places on the senior team, which will face New Zealand in a two-Test series at home. India seniors also play a tri-series with Australia and New Zealand.

Meanwhile, poor ground conditions at Kanpur may result in one of the two Test matches against New Zealand being shifted to Ahmedabad. The buzz is that Kanpur was not very keen on the match, as a bad report on conditions could even result in its losing international status for the future under the new and stringent rules of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Interestingly, on its last tour, New Zealand suffered its only defeat at Kanpur. The Indian Board will soon officially be announcing the two venues for the Tests and they are likely to be Ahmedabad and Mohali.

FOOTBALL: A Vietnamese player from the team Hoang Anh has accused two of his teammates of trying to fix a match against Indonesia last year.

In an interview with a local newspaper, midfielder Nguyen Manh Dung was quoted as saying Nguyen Viet Thang and Luong Trung Tuan had let their teammates know they could earn $5,000 each if Indonesian side Perista won the Asean club championship game in July by one goal.

Hoang Anh is Vietnam's richest club and is the 2003 champion in the domestic V-League series.

Football betting is illegal in Vietnam, but rumors of large-scale gambling persist all the time.

David Beckham, whose transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid engaged the football world, enthralled his Japanese audience when he arrived last week with Real Madrid. More than 1,200 fans came to the Narita Airport to welcome him.

The Spanish club also includes Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Raul, but the center of the frenzy has been Beckham, who has a fanatical following in Japan, especially after the 2002 World Cup.

Real Madrid is on an Asia-wide promotional tour, playing exhibition games in Kunming, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Bangkok. The Spanish club expects to make more than $9 million from its tour.

CHESS: India's leading young chess players continue to dominate the Asian scene as for the second successive year they registered a grand double triumph at the 26th Asian Junior chess championship. It turned out to be a clean sweep for India in both the girls' and boys' section with all three medals being bagged by its players.

Y Prathiba and P Magesh Chandran lifted the girl's and boy's titles, respectively, at Negombo, Sri Lanka last week. Pratibha finished with 9.0 points after a quiet draw against compatriot N Vinuthna in the final round. There was more cheer in store for the Indian camp when Magesh took the title on tiebreak ahead of fellow countrymen S Poobesh Anand and Prathmesh S Mokal.

In the girls' section, the silver medal went to J E Kavitha, who worked hard to beat Mahima Rajmohan in her final-round game. Saheli Nath got the bronze.

Last year, Indians enjoyed a double, with Tania Sachdev and Deepan Chakravarthy walking away with the titles in the girls' and boys' sections.

GOLF: Tourism and sport received a big boost in India's northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, which hosted the season's first professional golf tournament last week.

The Indian professional tour, the largest one in Asia, has 25 to 28 events each year with a purse of almost $500,000. The season begins in July and extends to April the following year.

Jyoti Randhawa, India's top star and Asia's No. 1 last season, was the main attraction of the event, which had almost $48,000 in prize money.

Duly Randhawa won the 2003 Kashmir Open title with a brilliant bogey-free final-round of 5-under-par 67. It was his first title at home in more than two years as he plays mostly on Asian and Japanese tours. Randhawa picked up nearly $6,400 for his win.

Playing at the picturesque par-72 Royal Springs Golf Course, Randhawa reached 13-under 275, one stroke better than two other leading stars, Harmeet Kahlon and Arjun Singh.