Cuban Erick Hernandez set another world record for ball control when he hit a ball only with his feet for six hours and four seconds at the Hotel "Central Park" in Havana, local media reported on Monday.
According to the reports, Hernandez hit a ball made of solid rubber about 40,000 times, without letting it fall.
Hernandez said he wanted to break his own mark of hitting a ball seated for three hours in July.
Hernandez holds several world records on ball control, including the most hits in one minute and longest time hitting the ball with whole body.
Source:Xinhua
Newcastle are on the verge of securing an immediate return to the Premier League after a 2-0 win over promotion rivals Nottingham Forest on Monday.
Shola Ameobi returned from injury to fire Newcastle into the lead midway through the second half and Jose Enrique\’s first goal for the club, in injury time, sealed a win that makes automatic promotion a virtual formality for the Magpies.
If Newcastle win at Peterborough on Saturday, they will be promoted if third-placed Forest lose at Bristol City.
Ameobi, who came on for the injured Andy Carroll, was making his first appearance in seven weeks and he showed what Newcastle have been missing when he received Kevin Nolan\’s pass with his back to goal with 19 minutes left.
The big striker turned and fired a low left-foot shot in off the far post to break the deadlock.
Newcastle had further chances to kill off the match but it was not until injury time that Enrique sealed the win.
Source:China Daily
The Boston Celtics are back in the playoffs. They want to be playing their best when those games start.
They were very good on Wednesday night.
Paul Pierce scored 27 points, Kevin Garnett added 20 and Rajon Rondo had a triple-double as Boston clinched a postseason berth with a 113-99 win over the Denver Nuggets.
It was the Celtics\’ fifth win in six games and began a six-game stretch at home where they\’re just 22-12 worse than their 24-13 road record.
"We have been able to get the job done on the road, but this is where we eat. This is where we set our table," Pierce said. "Hopefully, we can just start playing well in this building and gather some momentum going into the playoffs."
Pierce, who missed 10 games with knee, foot and thumb problems, and Garnett, sidelined for 10 with a hyperextended right knee, have been healthy for a while. Pierce scored just five points in a 114-105 loss in Denver on Feb 21 while playing with a sore thumb.
"The Paul Pierce you saw out in Denver wasn\’t the Paul Pierce that usually shows up to play," he said. "Right now I\’m as healthy as I\’ve been all year and this is our time to start playing well."
The Celtics remained tied with Atlanta for third place in the Eastern Conference.
Carmelo Anthony led Denver with 32 points and J.R. Smith had 21.
Source:China Daily
Fluminense\’s star striker, Fred, began his physical rehabilitation on Monday after suffering a strain in his thigh muscles.
On March 17, Fred injured his upper right thigh when stretching out to reach a ball during a match against Uberaba.
"Fred is up and walking without any pain. He is recovering just fine and within the time frame we speculated. Today, he began some basic exercises in the pool. We expect that he will be ready to play in time for the semifinals of the second half of the Rio de Janeiro state championship," said Fluminense\’s team doctor, Michael Simoni.
In Fred\’s absence, both Alan and Andre Lima have stepped up to take the roll as the goal scorers. In Fluminense\’s last match against Resende, Lima marked both of his team\’s goals in a 2-1 victory.
Fluminense and Flamengo are tied for first place with 13 points in Group A of the Rio de Janeiro state championship. However, Flamengo holds the advantage due to goals scored.
As to date, Flamengo scored 10 goals, compared to 9 from Fluminense. Still without Fred, Fluminense will travel to play Madureira on March 24 in the sixth round of play in the second half of the Rio de Janeiro state championship.
Only three rounds of play remain before the playoffs begin.
Source: Xinhua
China\’s Olympic champion Chen Ruolin secured the gold medal of the women\’s 10-meter platform at the FINA Diving World Series in QINGDAO on Saturday.
Kang Li, also a Chinese diver, got the silver medal while Meaghan Benfeito of Canada took the third place.
Chen, winner of this event at the Beijing Olympics, reached the final with the highest of 419.40 points and established her lead from the very beginning of the final.
Source:Xinhua
Former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson was appointed Sunday to lead Cote d\’Ivoire to the World Cup in South Africa.
Souleymane Alex Bamba, a member of Cote d\’Ivoire\’s Football Federation (FIF), made the live announcement on national television exactly one month after FIF president Jacques Anouma fired the previous coach, Vahid Halilhodzic.
Cote d\’Ivoire, led by Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, are in Group G with Brazil, Portugal and DPR Korea at the World Cup.
Halilhodzic was sacked after a disappointing performance at the African Cup of Nations earlier this year, when the team lost in the quarterfinals to Algeria. Halilhodzic won 23 consecutive matches before the loss to Algeria.
Eriksson took England to the last two World Cups and reached the quarterfinals in 2002 and 2006, and being knocked out by Brazil and Portugal, before ending his stint as the country\’s first foreign manager.
Source:Xinhua
The Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organizing Committee (SYOGOC) said on Thursday that singers from five continents have been assembled to sing the theme song for the first-ever Youth Olympic Games (YOG).
Coming on board to perform the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (Singapore 2010) theme song are Jody Williams representing Africa, Sean Kingston representing America, Tabitha Nauser representing Asia, Steve Appleton representing Europe, and Jessica Mauboy representing Oceania.
The singers are in Singapore this week to record the theme song and film the music video. They will come together once again to perform the theme song at the Opening Ceremony of the Games, which will be held on Aug.14.
Teo Ser Luck, Singapore\’s Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports said, "Singapore 2010 is a global event. By engaging singers from five different parts of the world to sing the theme song, we hope to increase the song\’s international appeal and convey the spirit of inclusiveness for the Games."
Singapore will be hosting the inaugural Youth Olympic Games from Aug.14 to 26, 2010. The Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games will receive some 5,000 athletes and officials from 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), along with estimated 1,200 media representatives, 20,000 local and international volunteers, and more than 500,000 spectators. Young athletes – aged between 14 and 18 years – will compete in 26 sports and take part in a Culture and Education Program.
Source: Xinhua
Lithuanian center Zydrunas Ilgauskas remained his stay in Cleveland Cavaliers after extending his NBA contract for the remainder of the season on Tuesday.
Ilgauskas, who was traded to Washington but took a buyout deal to leave the Wizards, will likely play for the Cavaliers at New Orleans on Wednesday. The Cavaliers released forward Darnell Jackson to make room on the roster.
The Cavaliers sent Ilgauskas to the Wizards in a trade-deadline deal that brought Antawn Jamison and Sebastian Telfair to Cleveland, which has the NBA\’s best record at 56-15.
Ilgauskas, who is expected to seek free agency following the season, played his entire NBA career with Cleveland before the trade.
He has averaged 7.5 points and 5.3 rebounds a game this season.
Source:Xinhua
Pittsburgh Steelers\’ spokesman Dave Lockett said the quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is not to join his teammates this week for voluntary offseason workouts that begins Monday, according to media reports.
It is uncertain when Roethlisberger will join his teammates, but it appears Steelers\’ management and Big Ben himself believe his presence would be too much of a distraction for the rest of the team.
Team president Art Rooney said the Steelers are "in a situation (where) we\’re going to let this investigation play out and then go from there."
Roethlisberger has been accused of assaulting a 20-year-old Georgia college student on the night of March 5, but no criminal charges have been filed. The investigation is ongoing.
Moreover, Roethlisberger has been sued by a woman who claims he raped her in 2008 at a Lake Tahoe hotel. The Steelers star denies those allegations and has asked for counter-damages.
Roethlisberger, 28, has led the Steelers to two Super Bowl championships in the six years.
Source:Xinhua/Agencies
Former China\’s women\’s volleyball team head coach Cai Bin had lost control of his players, an insider told the Southeast Express.
"The head coach lacked strategy and the players were not even listening to him. How could you expect a team to be successful in such circumstances?" a former national team player, who was reluctant to give her name, told the paper recently.
"The team gave everyone the impression of being disorderly and it was really very depressing."
After one year and two days in charge, Cai stepped down last Thursday following a series of disappointing results, including losses to Japan twice and to Thailand for the first time in the Asian Championships final.
Having won five consecutive world titles in the 1980s, the women\’s volleyball team was renowned for its strong will and dogged defense and was considered the embodiment of national spirit and thus enjoyed great popularity in China.
The team reached another peak, under the guidance of Cai\’s predecessor Chen Zhonghe, when it won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
However, Chen was edged out by the then 43-year-old Cai in March 2009, which aroused great controversy among fans.
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