TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 SPORTS China defend basketball with a new ‘Great Wall’ INCHEON: China are hoping a new version banned their standout US import, the 6ft of their famous “Great Wall of China” can 11in (2.11m) Andray Blatche, a former star help maintain their Asian Games basketball with the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. The centre, dominance as they come under heavy who became a naturalized Filipino in June, attack from rivals.China, with players like did not meet a three-year residency towering NBA superstar Yao Ming, have requirement, the Games Organizing won seven of the last nine men’s gold Committee ruled. Despite the blow, the medals stretching back to their first tri- Philippines still harbor realistic medal umph in Bangkok in 1978. But since their chances having brought in the 2.10 meter 2010 Asiad victory on home soil in (6ft 11in) Marcus Douthit, another US-born Guangzhou, China have seen the retire- naturalized Filipino, as a replacement for ment of Yao, and have also lost former NBA Blatche. Iran, ranked 20th by FIBA, are players Wang Zhizhi and Yi Jianlian. potentially the surprise package of the tour- Now, under threat from hosts South nament and rated by many observers as Korea, Iran and the Philippines, they arrive favorites. Their main weapon is the former in Incheon with two of the Games’ tallest Phoenix Suns NBA star Hamed Haddadi and players who can forge a reputation of their team-mate Mohamed Samad Nikkhah own. Zhou Qi, 18, will tower over the oppo- Bahrami was in confident mood as the team sition at 2.17 meters (7ft 1 1/2in), while prepared in Tehran. “We are going to win Wang Zhelin is equally intimidating at 2.14 the Asian Games for the first time. Without a meters (7ft 1/4in). They are among the doubt, the Iranian basketball team will par- players drafted in as part of China’s rebuild- ticipate in the Asian Games to win the gold ing program under coach Gong Liuming medal,” he said, according to the Tehran after their defeat to South Korea at last Times. The basketball tournament will be year’s FIBA Asian Championship. split between the 7,406-seater Samsan Only five players of the 12-man 2013 World Gymnasium and the 5,5158-seat Asian Championship squad have been Hwaseong Sports Complex. There are 16 selected for Incheon. China, 12th in world teams in the men’s competition and 11 in governing body FIBA’s rankings, have the women’s. Eight men’s teams-China, INCHEON: South Korean weightlifter Seo Jeong-Mi competes during the women’s 58kg group A at the Moonlight Festival Garden Weightlifting reached the final at every Asian Games South Korea, Iran, Japan, Qatar, Philippines, Venue yesterday. — AFP since their first win 36 years ago, but on the Jordan and Taiwan-are seeded straight last occasion South Korea hosted the Asiad, through to the 12-nation group stage in Busan in 2002, the host nation pipped which begins on September 23. Before then Commotion as North Korean China to the prize with a dramatic 102-100 the eight unseeded nations-Mongolia, overtime victory. Among their squad that Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, day was centre Kim Joo-Sung. Now 34, the Kuwait, Palestine, India and the Maldives- lifters break record in South 6ft 9in (2.05m) talisman is only survivor will fight it out in a qualifying competition. from that golden generation and will be The women’s tournament has been hit INCHEON: The exuberant antics of North Korea’s been happy to exploit. First on Saturday it was Om with several in the stands and riot police and police looking for a glittering swansong. by a clash of dates for the leading nations record-breaking weightlifters are causing a stir at Yun-Chol, 5ft 0in (1.50m) and weighing just under commandos outside the venue. South Korean fans Kim first took part in the Games 16 years with the FIBA women’s world champi- the Asian Games as they are cheered on by pro-uni- 56kg, who got the party started by breaking his have already been warned they face arrest if they ago as a gangly teenager, taking home a sil- onship, starting in Turkey this weekend. It fication supporters with the police turning up en own world record, leaping high to punch the air in breach the strict National Security Law at the Asian ver medal as Korea lost in the final to China means China, winner of the last three golds, masse. With rock music blaring and the crowd on its celebration and milking the applause. Games by waving North Korean flags. Nevertheless, and was forced to settle second again four and Japan will send only ‘B’ teams to feet and dancing, North Korea’s often stern athletes Then on Sunday another flamboyant pocket- the cheerleaders’ enthusiasm was infectious and the years ago by the same opposition.He has Incheon. South Korea, however, are going are the unlikely stars as they whip up a concert rocket, London Olympic gold medallist Kim Un-Guk, rest of the crowd, and especially the athletes, were enjoyed a resurgence in form this year in all-out for home gold and will send their atmosphere, coincidentally on the site of the huge smashed world records three times in claiming gold quickly caught up in the atmosphere. the Korean Basketball League (KBL), averag- second string to Turkey. The women’s event, three-day annual Pentaport rock festival in Incheon, in the men’s 62kg. In the crowd, the Ariran Tongil Om, however, soon cooled it and after saluting South Korea. In front of the media, it’s a different (Korea unification) Cheerleading Squad, who have as the North’s anthem was played at his gold medal ing 12 points and more than 25 minutes on which begins on September 23, has six story as the weightlifters carefully stick to the party pledged to support all North Korean athletes at the ceremony, he was firmly back on-message at his court per game. The basketball-mad seeded teams-China, South Korea, Taiwan, line and confine themselves to thanking the com- Games, led the raucous applause. “We are one. You press conference. Asked what was his first thought Philippines won the first of their four Thailand, Japan and India-who automatical- munist state’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un. are one of us,” they chanted in Korean, as each lifter after he lifted more than three times his body- straight Asian Games championships in ly qualify for the quarter-finals. The five With a large North Korean delegation making a from north of the heavily fortified border took to weight to set a new world record, he said: “I thought 1951, but have only managed one silver unseeded teams-Mongolia, Hong Kong, rare trip south for the Games, political sensitivities the stage. On Sunday, shouts of “Kim Un-Guk, Kim of Kim Jong-Un.” and two bronzes since-their last coming in Kazakhstan, Nepal and Qatar play in a pre- are raw between two ideologically opposed coun- Un-Guk” rang around the arena as they held up “With our leader Kim Jong-un’s teachings in 1998. Their hopes of ending that 16-year liminary round to decide the other two tries which remain technically at war. The weightlift- placards proclaiming “Kim Un-Guk is the best” in mind, I pledged to do my best,” he added. “I wanted barren run were dented when organizers quarter-finalists. — AFP ing, a North Korean forte, has attracted a vocal Korean. to break the record, and I worked hard to bring suc- group of red-clad cheerleaders yelling support for One cheerleader, Ha Jun-Tae, who described cess to Kim Jong-un.” Kim also stuck to the script on their “brothers”-as well as police wary of skirmishes himself as a local government official said: “We are Sunday. “Everybody aspires to a world record,” Kim with rival activists. It has made for a heady mix at here to support North Korean athletes because they said. “But it is all thanks to love and care by General Incheon’s Moonlight Festival Garden arena, and an are our brothers.” By the second day of the competi- Kim Jong-Un. “Only athletes like me can bear the atmosphere the visiting North Korean lifters have tion on Sunday, police had descended in numbers national flag in their bosom.” — AFP Pakistan squash star raises voice for equality INCHEON: As a child Maria Toorpakay Wazir had to same region. But Pakistan’s number one women’s squash player dress as a boy to be able to play sport in Pakistan and As a child in the deeply conservative tribal area, believes the tide cannot now be turned back. now as the country’s number one women’s squash Toorpakay trained and competed as a boy. Girls were Toorpakay said her rise in international squash should player she says there is still too much resistance. forbidden in sport. Competing without a veil and in be an example to other young women in Pakistan. “I Toorpakay, competing at the Asian Games in South shorts was perceived as un-Islamic and the have to give them the same opportunity so that they Korea, vowed not to stop helping girls in Pakistan Toorpakays were threatened. Toorpakay at first com- become champions too,” she said. Toorpakay turned overcome discrimination and cultural obstacles even peted in weightlifting, frequently beating the boys at professional in 2006 and came third in the World though she has received threats for her work.