London Olympics 2012

LONDON, July 11: An amphitheater to host the best of the world’s athletes for 15 days, it is perhaps best described as a ‘Sporting Disneyland’.

It is no Aladdin’s cave, but the true reality of the Olympic Village and at London it will be no different for the 15,000-plus athletes who will be competing in the Games of the 30th Olympiad.

The Village costing £1 billion and capable of hosting 18,000 athletes with 11 accommodation blocks and 2800-plus apartments, is currently in the final stages of preparation.

The Villages’ central attraction is the “hangar-like dining hall”, which, the organizers claim, is the “world’s largest peacetime eating room”.

With various kinds of world cuisines available for athletes, the dining hall serves as the best-serviced food court in the world.

Says leading Canadian archer Crispin Duenas, who represented Canada at Beijing 2008: “You don’t want to experiment before you compete. You know McDonalds is the same the world over.”

“You have eaten there before and you are aware what it will be like. Athletes inevitably tend to go for the known rather than experimenting during the Games.”

The Indians, however, will surely want their Asian fare. Again, it is because they are used to their own cuisine and will want no variation leading up to the most important day of their lives. Vijender Singh puts it nicely, “You want to be in the best physical shape leading up to competition and just don’t want to do anything out of the ordinary.”

Athletes, for years, have done the same. When the Games were last held in London in July 1948 the Indians have been getting not only Indian food in all its courses, but in plenty. The waiters are all Indian and most of them come from Bengal.

The Olympic Village, it is of interest to note, is a product of the 1930’s Great Depression. Though first mentioned by De Coubertin in 1924 before the Paris Games, it became a reality of the Summer Games at Los Angeles in 1932.

With rising costs making it impossible for competing teams to rent or hire accommodation in and around the Games venues, it was decided on building a Village to house the world’s athletes. It was also an attempt to realize the Olympic ideal of trying to promote inter-cultural communication and understanding among the peoples of the world.

Despite the Depression, the 1932 Games Village offered a fantastic haven for the athletes.

At East London it is no different. Working against the forces of yet another serious economic depression, the Olympic Village, which isn’t ‘five-star accommodation’, will surely offer the athletes much more than they will need in the days of competition. It is now just a matter of time before the delegations start trickling in and the flag-hoisting ceremonies start.

As the tri-colour is hoisted at the Village exactly two weeks from now under the leadership of hockey legend Ajit Pal Singh, the chef-de-mission, it will be right to say that the countdown to the watershed moment in India’s Olympic sporting history will have started. Agencies

KOLKATA, July 11: Asian Games gold medallist Pinki Pramanik, released from jail on Wednesday, alleged that she was treated like an animal during gender tests and blackmailed for money by the complainant.

“When the gender tests were conducted in the hospital, I was treated like an animal,” said Pinki, who was freed after 26 days in judicial custody for allegedly raping her live-in partner, a divorcee and a mother of one.

The athlete was granted bail by the district and sessions judge of North 24-Parganas district on Tuesday.

Accusing police of harassment, Pinki said: “I was only waiting for my medical report. Police have been harassing me even after my release from the jail.”

Pinki was arrested on June 14 and remanded in judicial custody by a court the next day after the athlete’s partner filed a complaint accusing Pinki of being a male who repeatedly “raped and tortured” her.

The athlete gives a different version.

“She demanded money long back, which I could not give. So she framed me in connivance with police. She is trying to frame me further,” Pinki said.

“I confronted her when my gold chain was stolen, but she threatened me that she would make my photos with her public. So I was forced into silence.”

The athlete said she told police to conduct a gender test of the complainant too. “But they didn’t listen.”

Pinki recalled the happenings June 14 when she was arrested.

“I was forcibly put into a police van. That night, they conducted a medical test on me. I was made unconscious, and when I came to my senses I found my hands and legs tied up.”

The Asian Games gold medalist is also planning to call on Sports Minister Madan Mitra for help. “My father has already met him,” Pinki said.

Having spent 26 days in jail, Pinki is not sure whether things would be normal again. “These nightmarish memories will be there. I don’t know whether I can ever return to normal life.”

The athlete still seems in a daze after the trauma of jail custody and after being moved from one hospital to another for gender tests.

An MMS of the medical examination, showing the athlete in the nude, went viral online.

“I can’t say where I stand now,” said Pinki, who is from Tilakdi in Purulia district and who brought laurels to the country by winning gold in the 4x400 metres relay at the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar and a silver at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games the same year. IANS

SEOUL, July 11: South Korea will send 245 athletes to compete in 22 events at the London Olympics, officials said on Wednesday, the smallest number since 210 attended the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

But the Korea Olympic Committee (KOC) remained upbeat about its target of securing at least 10 golds and a finish inside the top 10 in the overall medal tally.

“We have trained and prepared very hard to achieve our goal,” said team chief Lee Ki-Heung as he was presented with the national flag in a ceremony at Olympic Hall in eastern Seoul.

The South failed to qualify in basketball, tennis, equestrian events and canoeing. Its national sport, baseball, was dropped as an Olympic event.

The KOC said the flag-bearer at the opening ceremony would be Yoon Kyung-Shin, a veteran of the men’s handball team who will be attending his fifth summer Olympics.

The 39-year-old, who will be the oldest South Korean athlete in London, was also the flag-bearer at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian games.

South Korea has ranked among the top 10 in medal standings in five of the past six summer Olympics. AFP

NEW DELHI, July 11: Little known Garima Chaudhary from Meerut, the sole judoka representing India at the London Olympics, feels winning a gold medal is not a far-fetched dream for her.

The 22-year-old qualified for the Olympics in the 63 kg weight category, based on the latest rankings released by International Judo Federation (IJF) on May 6.

Garima, who is ranked 88th in the world, secured the continental quota spot along with Turkmenistan’s 63rd ranked Gulnar Hayytbaeva.

Garima qualified for the London Games after consistent performances at the international level, beginning with the Paris World championships last year, followed by an impressive showing in the World Cup in Warsaw and the Asian championship in Tashkent this year.

“It is a dream come true for me but it doesn’t stop here. Now my aim is to return home with an Olympic medal.

“The 24 judokas competing in my weight are more or less of the same calibre. In recent months I defeated some of the top judokas from Belarus and Australia in the World Cup and they will all be there in London. “Looking at the field and my recent performances, I am confident of my chances in the Olympics,” said Garima before leaving for a three-week training stint in Germany and France. The general perception that Garima should get a medal is reinforced by her confident interaction with the media.

“For me the Olympics are another sporting event and I am not gripped by any fear or excitement. I have quietly studied the videos of all my opponents and I know exactly what I should do when I face them.

“So there is absolutely no pressure. Yes, I am excited that I will be India’s lone judoka there,” said Garima.

Judo, a sport not too highly popular in India, saw Tombi Devi and Divya Sharma represent the country at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Garima said due to the anonymity of the sport in India, she had absolutely no pressure and that would be a advantage for her when she faces tougher opponents.

“Not many people know about the sport or me yet, so I go into the event with hardly any pressure. The pressure will be on the big-name athletes of Japan and other countries,” said Garima, who won her first medal at the sub-junior nationals in Odisha.

Asked about the reasons behind her taking up the sport, a sly smile enveloped the Olympian’s face.

“As a kid I use to fight a lot and used to beat up my friends. My parents looking at this pushed me into the sport and I joined the centre of excellence in Patiala at a very young age.

“From that point on, I have never looked back. I am very lucky that I met Jiwan Sharma sir (her coach), who works at the Centre of Excellence at Patiala. He has played a huge role in grooming and developing my skills,” she said. Speaking about her training, Garima said, due to a lack of world class talent in the country, she had to rely on fighting against the boys to prepare for the London Games. “There aren’t any world class fighters here, so it gets a little difficult to train. I have been fighting against the boys to prepare myself.”

She feels she still needs to make some changes to get ready for an event like the Olympics.

“Earlier my style of fighting was very aggressive and it lacked control. However, now I have learnt to play the waiting game and look for the opponents to give me an opening.” IANS

Nathan Stephens

Nathan Stephens has this year showcased why is one of Great Britain’s gold medal hopes at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.

The Welsh athlete highlighted his enormous potential and versatility when he finished fourth in the javelin, eighth in the shot put and 11th in the discus at his debut Paralympic Games in 2008.

But Stephens demonstrated his world class status as an elite javelin thrower when the 23-year-old started the year in style by winning gold at January’s Paralympic Athletics World Championships  in New Zealand.

Then his stellar 2011 got even better when Stephens broke the F57 javelin world record  with a throw of 41.37 metres to win the Czech Athletics Open in August. “Obviously we targeted the world title in New Zealand,” Stephens had said. “This is when I need to peak for the Paralympic Games in London next year and we wanted to replicate that process so we altered my training.”

Stephens lost both legs after being run over by a freight train when he was nine years old.

The Bridgend athlete showed promise early when he won the discus, shot and javelin competition at the 2006 World Junior Games in Dublin before finishing fifth in the shot and discus at the 2006 World Championships. And he started his dream of sporting success when he was told about Paralympic sport when Stephens was in hospital recovering from his accident. Stephens won back-to-back javelin titles at the 2009 and 2010 World Junior Games before he stepped up to senior level in emphatic fashion.

The sports coaching student has competed in numerous disciplines at international level as the Bridgend athlete finished fourth at the 2003 London Mini Marathon and seventh playing sledge hockey at the 2006 winter Paralympic Games.

Sushil Kumar

As the nation prepares to head to London for the 30th edition of the Olympics, India will hope to add to the tally of the two bronze medals the sport has won for the country so far.

Sushil Kumar ended India’s 56-year wait for a wrestling medal at the last Olympics in Beijing.

After 2008, the sport of wrestling has progressed by leaps and bounds. The high-points definitely being the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Hosts India had set themselves a target of 100 medals from the CWG and were lent a big hand by the wrestlers. The CWG build-up for the grapplers was turbulent to say the least, with four of them testing positive for Methylhexaneamine (MHA), but once the Games got underway, it was a different story. The wrestlers brought home a rich bag of 19 medals - 10 of them gold to raise hopes of a splendid show in London. Four out of those CWG medalists - Sushil, Yogeshwar Dutt, Narsingh Yadav and Geeta Kumari - will be part of the team of five leading India’s challenge in London.

The man who set off the winds of change in the sport though was Sushil Kumar, who went on to win the World Championship gold in Moscow in 2010. In London too, the medal favourites will definitely be Sushil, along with Yogeshwar.

Sushil will be competing in the 66kg category and has his task cut out in London. Iran will be one of the strongest competitors in the Olympics and their biggest medal hope is 2011 world champion, Mehdi Taghavi Kermani, who is in Sushil’s weight category.

CHANDIGARH, July 11: With a view to motivate the people, especially the youth to take interest in sports, Haryana government has decided to launch a media campaign as a build up to London Olympic games 2012.

A BOL India bus having photographs of Olympic qualifiers and the Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda would move throughout the State as per a pre-publicized programme to create awareness about sports, said an official release issued by Haryana Sports and Youth Affairs Department.

The release said that as part of media campaign, ‘Best of Luck (BOL) India’ programme would be organized from July 17 to 27, 2012 to provide a common platform to the people to wish Indian Olympic contingent best of luck.

Though, BOL could be good be goodwill gesture on the part of State Government but the concept may not go down well with opposition parties who had been accusing Hooda forcefully attaching himself with sports.

“Except for getting the pictures clicked with outstanding sports persons is not enough. Whether boxers or athletes or hockey players or any other sport all the players have been selected in their individual capacity and their selection is a result of their hard work,” Abhay Singh Chautala, and office bearer of Indian Boxing Federation had said last month.

At the same time, the Government on the other hand released Haryana Government’s plans of BOL campaign.

Official of sports department said that an interactive module having components such as on the spot quiz on Olympics schedule involving Indian athletes, knowledge about international players and Haryana Government’s sports promotion programmes would be delivered at district sports complexes and places with significant footfalls. Speaker’s corner would also be provided where one can express his or her views on sports. Good orators would be given awards like T-shirt, caps and certificate. Life size cutouts of players would be placed at the venue so that people might get themselves photographed with them. It would also have a banner where people might write best of luck messages for Olympians.

The district administration would arrange the visits of school children to the programme. The modules would also be taken from school to school in order to ensure its success in terms of participation. People would be encouraged to send best of luck messages to their favourite Olympic qualifiers by typing ‘BOL’. Stories on daily trend which player has got how many BOL messages would be carried, he added. TNN

MANCHESTER, July 11: Australia captain Michael Clarke admitted he hadn’t seen a 4-0 one-day campaign defeat by England coming after his side made some unwanted history on Tuesday.

England cruised to a seven-wicket in a rain-affected fifth and final one-day international, triumphing in convincing style under the Old Trafford floodlights as they made it 10 straight victories in this format.

But for Australia this was their heaviest series defeat in the 40-year history of one-day internationals.

Indeed it was only ‘Pommie rain’, in a washed out clash at Edgbaston last week, that denied England the chance of a 5-0 series clean sweep which would have seen them replace Australia at the top of the 50-over world rankings.

Only George Bailey, who gave Australia a glimmer of hope with a valuable 46 not out on Tuesday, among the tourists could look back on this series with much pride and Clarke said: “I certainly didn’t expect to lose 4-0 that’s for sure.”

“We need to play better cricket. We need to sit down as a team and have a look at our performances over the last 12 months and areas we need to get better,” he added.

“It certainly wasn’t preparation. I thought our training was outstanding and we played some really good cricket in the couple of warm-up games but we have no excuses,” Clarke insisted.

“I think a lot of credit needs to go to England as well. They’ve outplayed us in all four matches, they’ve been very consistent, their bowlers have bowled with good patience and discipline and their batters have made runs.

“We haven’t done both. We didn’t have anybody make a big score as a batter, we lost a lot of early wickets throughout the series and we didn’t execute our skills as well as you need to.”

However, Australia have made it clear they are now looking to use one-dayers as a means of finding out whether players are up to the demands of international cricket rather than pitching them into high-profile Test series such as next year’s campaign in England, where they will try to regain the Ashes.

“It’s been good to have a look at guys, no doubt,” Clarke said. “It’s good to give them a taste of international cricket.

“I know it’s a different format but for me I guess I got my opportunity in Test cricket through one-day form.

“Any chance you get to play for Australia in one-day cricket you’re pushing for Test selection I guess.” England, as well as pushing hard for top spot in the one-day rankings, are also currently at the summit of the International Cricket Council’s standings for Test and Twenty20 cricket. But the bold Clarke insisted: “I think we have enough good players in the country, we are going to have to work our backsides off but I think we have enough talent to be No.1 in all three forms of the game.” AFP

BERLIN, July 11: Bayern Munich have not won any silverware in the past two seasons but that has not deterred supporters from snapping up every available ticket for the club’s 17 home games in the Bundesliga that kicks off in six weeks.

Bayern said on Wednesday it had sold every single ticket in their 69,000-capacity Allianz Arena, including almost 40,000 season tickets, and expected total attendance for the home league games to exceed 1.1 million fans.

The Bundesliga has the highest average attendance per game in the world with over 42,000 spectators. Bayern, who lost to Chelsea in the Champions League final in May, also said season tickets sales were stopped at 39,500.

“I want to thank the fans for this magnificent interest,” said Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on Wednesday. “This shows how attractive and well supported Bayern are.”

Bayern, also beaten in the league title race and German Cup final by Borussia Dortmund last season, pride themselves on having made a profit for 19 years in a row.

The club posted a $1.59 million profit in the 2010-11 season on turnover of 290.9 million euros compared to 312 million in 2009-10, and a jump in merchandising revenue of more than 10 per cent to 43.9 million, up from 38.9 million.

Bayern are also looking forward to at least 20 million more in cash per year once the cost of their stadium has been paid off by 2020. Reuters

ST PETERSBURG, July 11: Zenit St. Petersburg football coach Luciano Spalletti has backed ex-Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola or veteran midfielder Sergei Semak for the vacant Russia job.

The Russian Football Union on Tuesday published a list of 13 coaches it considered to be candidates to replace Dick Advocaat as national coach.

Advocaat announced before Russia’s failed Euro 2012 campaign that he would rejoin PSV Eindhoven immediately afterward.

Guardiola was one of the highest-profile names on the FA’s list, along with former England boss Fabio Capello, ex-Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp and former Italy coach Marcello Lippi.

But Zenit coach Spalletti, who was left off the list despite taking the club to back-to-back league titles, named Guardiola and his own midfielder Semak as ideal choices.

“From my point of view, the best trainer for Russia is Guardiola. It would be nice if Guardiola became our coach. I say ‘our’ because I feel a little bit Russian,” Spalletti said.

Guardiola, 41, stepped down as Barcelona coach in June after winning 14 titles in four years at the Camp Nou.

“But if your making bets on the future, then I’d choose a coach who would do a lot of work in organising football in the country, who is devoted to his country heart and soul, and I would name Sergei Semak,” Spalletti added.

He acknowledged that backing a useful player for the club “perhaps goes against my own interests.”

“Semak is a person of immense character, of the top level, who has a lot of ideas in his head.” Spalletti said Semak, 36, still has two seasons left in him at Zenit, after which “all the top clubs will want to see him as the coach.”

Semak has 66 league appearances for Zenit since joining from Rubin Kazan in 2010, and 65 caps for Russia. IANS

PALLEKELE, July 11: Azhar Ali’s second century of the series lifted Pakistan to 299-8 but an overall lead of only 188 runs against Sri Lanka after four days of the third Test on Wednesday.

Ali, who made a century in the drawn second test, scored 136 off 284 balls and featured in two productive partnerships - adding 94 with opener Mohammad Hafeez (52) and another 100 with Asad Shafiq (55 not out).

Dilhara Fernando had Ali caught behind with the second new ball and then trapped Mohammad Sami lbw for his 100th wicket in tests. But the pick of the Sri Lanka bowlers was left-arm spinner Rangana Herath with 4-64 that included the key wickets of Younis Khan and captain Misbah-ul-Haq.

After taking a first innings lead of 111 runs, Sri Lanka removed Pakistan’s opening batsman Taufeeq Umar early in their second innings on the third day of the third and final Test at Pallekele on Wednesday denting their chances of leveling the series.

The visitors will, however, feel unlucky as Umar’s lbw decision seemed contentious. They will come back to bat on the penultimate day trailing by 84 runs with nine wickets in hand. Agencies

NEW DELHI, July 11: The onset of every Olympics gives rise to bittersweet feelings among India’s vast numbers of field hockey fans, with their pride in past gold medal performances accompanied by introspection about what has gone wrong since.

The impressive record of winning eight gold medals — six in succession starting from 1928 at Amsterdam — still makes hockey the most productive sport for India in the Olympics.

India has won 11 hockey medals in all, two more than the number won by India in all other sports combined. Indeed, India has won only one non-hockey gold in its history: Abhinav Bindra’s gold in rifle shooting at Beijing four years ago.

But the country’s last hockey gold came at the boycott-marred Moscow Olympics in 1980, when the likes of Australia, Pakistan and the Netherlands were absent. That was an aberration that could not disguise the relative decline in Indian hockey since the introduction of artificial turf in the 1970s.

India has failed to win another medal since, with power and stamina becoming more important than the artistic stick-work that had been effective on natural grass.

So, when India arrives at the blue and pink turf of London after having missed the Beijing Games, the Bharat Chhetri-led team will carry more hope than expectation.

They will also carry responsibility, knowing how important the Olympic showing is to the overall health of the sport.

“They are very important because (field) hockey in India is judged by performance at the Olympics,” former India captain Viren Resquinha said. “A good performance will not only give a major boost to the game but get millions to play the game.”

Noted hockey analyst K Arumugam, who has written 14 books on the game, agreed.

“Indian hockey survives because it has done so well in past Olympics,” Arumugam said. “Producing good results in the Olympics are important because of the glory they bring to the country.”

Arumugam though does not see India making it to the semifinals.

“It will be a good performance if they finish in the top six. To make the semifinals, you have to be among the top two in your group, which will be a gigantic task considering the other teams in our group: the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, New Zealand and Belgium,” Arumugam said.

“Others in our group have settled teams and coaching staff but we’ve just got a coach (Australian Michael Nobbs) one year ago, so that makes things a little difficult as well,” he added.

Former India captain Dhanraj Pillay feels it will be very important to start well in the tournament.

“I’ve taken part in four Olympics and we invariably lost the opening game,” Pillay said at a function in Mumbai last week. “It’s crucial for the Indian team to win the first game (against the Netherlands on July 30) if they have to do well and hope to make the semifinals.”

India, which made it to the Olympics by winning a qualifying tournament in New Delhi beating France 8-1 in the final, is on a tour of Europe where it is playing games against France, Spain and South Africa. AP

AUSTIN, July 11: With Lance Armstrong digging in for a legal fight, the US Anti-Doping Agency issued lifetime sports bans on Tuesday to three former staff members and consultants on the cyclist’s winning Tour de France teams for drug violations.

Luis Garcia del Moral, team doctor; Michele Ferrari, consulting doctor; and Jose “Pepe” Marti, team trainer worked for Armstrong’s US Postal Service and Discovery Channel squads. All had been accused by USADA of participating in a vast doping conspiracy on those teams during part or all of Armstrong’s seven Tour victories from 1999-2005.

Armstrong also has been charged and has declared his innocence. Several hours after USADA announced its sanctions against the others, Armstrong’s attorneys refiled a lawsuit asking a federal judge in Austin to prevent the case against from going forward.

US District Judge Sam Sparks had thrown out Armstrong’s initial 80-page complaint on Monday, but invited him to submit a new one that was shorter, more to the point and less about his career and personal battles with anti-doping officials.

Armstrong’s attorneys refiled a 25-page suit arguing that USADA violates athletes’ constitutional rights, that the agency doesn’t have the jurisdiction to bring the charges and that it may have violated federal law in its investigation.

Armstrong wants the court to rule by Saturday, his deadline to either accept USADA’s charges and sanctions or send his case to arbitration.

An Armstrong spokesman declined the immediate comment on the USADA bans issued on Tuesday.

Under USADA rules, Moral, Marti and Ferrari had until Monday to challenge the allegations against them in arbitration or ask for a five-day extension. If they did not respond, USADA could impose sanctions. Although none lives in the United States, USADA says the ban blocks them from participating in any sport that falls under the World Anti-Doping Agency code.

“The respondents chose not to waste resources by moving forward with the arbitration process, which would only reveal what they already know to be the truth of their doping activity,” said Travis Tygart, chief executive of USADA.

There’s been no indication from USADA that any of the three men — who each received the agency’s maximum punishment — is cooperating with investigators.

Armstrong was granted his extension while he files his court case. Also charged and granted an extension was Armstrong’s former team manager, Johan Bruyneel. Another team doctor, Pedro Celaya, also has been charged and faced the same Monday deadline. USADA filed the charges against Armstrong and the others in June, laying out what it calls a vast doping conspiracy on Armstrong’s teams when he was winning the Tour de France from 1999-2005. Agencies

MADRID, July 11: The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has decided to lift the Supercopa suspensions of Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova and his Real Madrid counterpart Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho was handed a two-game ban last year after poking Vilanova in the eye during a touchline brawl in the 2011-12 Spanish Supercopa encounter at Camp Nou, while the new Blaugrana boss received a one-match suspension for his role in the incident.

However, the RFEF has now made the decision to allow both coaches to be in charge of their respective teams during this year’s Supercopa.

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell recently stressed that he was against such a pardon, but the RFEF has nonetheless opted to lift the duo‘s bans.

The first leg is due to take place on August 21 at Camp Nou, with the return fixture scheduled one week later at the Santiago Bernabeu. Agencies

SEOUL, July 11: Park Ji-Sung’s father has revealed the South Korean was desperate for a new challenge after falling out of favour at Old Trafford but insists Manchester United opposed his move to QPR “until the end”.

The 31-year-old midfielder was officially unveiled as a QPR player on Monday, ending his seven-year career with the Red Devils.

Park’s father Park Sung-Jong spoke to reporters in Suwon and revealed the ex-South Korea international had grown frustrated with a lack of game-time at United during the back end of the 2011-12 season.

“Although he was in good condition last season, his playing time was limited by five to six games,” Sung-Jong said.

He added: “He wanted a new challenge at a different place. Manchester United opposed the transfer until the end, but his heart was already set and he made the decision on the transfer.” Park had confirmed to reporters on Monday his reasons for the move, stating: “Last season I hadn’t played as much. I would have had a good chance, an opportunity to play for Man United, but QPR made me a good offer. Their ambitions, their plan, everything was interesting for me.”

Sung-Jong cited the decisive April derby with Manchester City where Park was roundly criticized for a sub-par performance in a 1-0 defeat. Park hadn’t played for almost one and a half months before thrown in as a starter in the game by boss Sir Alex Ferguson and his father said that affected his performance, resulting in unfair criticizm. “Then came the match against Manchester City,” Sung-Jong said. “It’s like a worker at a company who, after a long break, struggles at first with a new assignment.”

“He went through many situations and he may have gotten the impression that he was being treated like a player who was going to be dumped.”

As for speculation that Park’s exit had been impacted by the arrival of another Asian talent, Shinji Kagawa, Sung-Jong insisted that wasn’t true.

“Kagawa’s deal was announced after Park decided to transfer. There was no influence whatsoever,” he said. Agencies

VILLIE-MORGON, July 11: The longtime problem of doping hit the Tour de France head-on when a French rider was arrested at his team hotel and suspended by his team on Tuesday.

Police made their move on the Tour’s first rest day in arresting Cofidis cyclist Remy Di Gregorio, with judicial officials saying two other people suspected of supplying the Frenchman with banned substances were also arrested - one along with the rider in Bourg-en-Bresse, and another in Marseille.

The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly as the investigation is ongoing.

Cycling’s premier showcase event has long been dogged by doping scandals.

Di Gregorio’s arrest comes after an investigation that began last June and is led by the French police agency responsible for doping investigations, OCLAESP, and Marseille police.

The 26-year-old Di Gregorio was in 35th place after Monday’s ninth stage. The Marseille native turned pro in 2005 with French team Francaise des Jeux, and was once considered one of the most promising young French riders. Agencies