TEHRAN, Dec. 19--Iran’s junior football team will travel to Brazil to take part in a training camp ahead of the Asian U16 Championship.
“The competitions will be held in Singapore in October 2008. Therefore, we planned to hold a preparatory camp in Brazil as its climate is similar to that of the competitions’ venue,“ ISNA quoted Mehdi Mohammad-Nabi, football federation’s secretary-general, as saying.
Noting that the two parties have reached an agreement on holding the camp, Nabi said, “We will also participate in tournaments that will be held with some other countries in Brazil.“

Ehsan Haddadi

Hamid Sorian

Hadi Saei

Hossein Rezazadeh

TEHRAN, Dec. 19--Beijing 2008 Olympic Games’ organizers agreed to include five Iranian champions in their documentary film.
Following the Chinese organizers’ decision to make a documentary film on the best Olympic champions, Iran’s Olympic Committee introduced nine athletes on Wednesday, ISNA reported.

Arash Mir-Esmaeili

Five athletes were eventually accepted by the Olympic officials.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Hossein Rezazadeh (weightlifting), Olympic gold medalist Hadi Saei (taekwondo), world youth champion Ehsan Haddadi (athletics), world champion Hamid Sorian (wrestling) and world champion Arash Mir-Esmaeili (judo) are Iranian sportsmen who will be filmed.
A group of directors and cameramen will arrive in Iran soon for making the documentary film.

TEHRAN, Dec.19--German Bundesliga club Hansa Rostock will soon play a friendly match against Iran’s National Football Team in Tehran.
Announcing this, Hansa coach Frank Pagelsdorf said further arrangements for the event are yet to be made and the two teams will probably play on January 5, IRNA quoted the local Rostock media as saying.
“It would be a great experience to play in front of 70,000 spectators in Tehran,“ he said.
Hansa Rostock will hold their winter training camp in Dubai, UAE, during January 13-23.
The team, which includes Iranian footballer Amir Shapourzadeh, ranks 15th in the Bundesliga table.

NEW YORK, Dec. 19--Former world number one Lindsay Davenport’s tennis comeback continued on Tuesday with a recall to the US Fed Cup team to face Germany.
According to Reuters, Davenport, 31, a three-times grand slam tournament winner, returned to the court in September after an 11-month absence while she gave birth to her first child.
The February quarterfinal tie against Germany in La Jolla, California, will be Davenport’s first singles appearance in the States since the 2006 US Open.
“I am honored to represent my country on the US Fed Cup team once again,“ said Davenport.
“My Fed Cup appearances have given me some of the best memories of my career and I look forward to La Jolla and helping our team advance to the semifinals,“ she added.
US Fed Cup captain Zina Garrison said she had been impressed by Davenport’s comeback.
“Lindsay is such a great Fed Cup competitor and her return to tennis last season proved her love for and commitment to the game,“ said Garrison.
“We are thrilled to have her back on the US Fed Cup team. It will be exciting to watch her compete for her country once again.“
Davenport made her Fed Cup debut in 1993 and has led the US to five finals and three titles-- she has not lost a match in Fed Cup competition since 1994 and has not appeared on a losing team since 1995.

LONDON, Dec. 19--British athletes have been warned that appeals against lifetime Olympic bans for missed drugs tests will be harder to prove in future.
World 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu successfully appealed against her ban, the third British athlete to do so, BBC said.
Problems with the testing system and athlete education issues were cited as mitigating circumstances.
But the British Olympic Association said such excuses were becoming less plausible as a defense against a ban.
“The panel observed that it becomes increasingly difficult for athletes to rely upon teething problems within the (testing) system and lack of education in the same way that Ohuruogu and other successful appellants have done,“ read the statement.
“In future, athletes might well need to brace themselves for the serious possibility of rejection of their appeals and lifetime ineligibility for the Olympic Games.“
The panel which heard Ohuruogu’s case argued that, in the past, athletes were provided with “insufficient training and instruction“ regarding their responsibilities in relation to drug tests and this was a mitigating circumstance.
But it insisted that athletes were now well aware of the consequences of missing a test, and that future appeals similar to Ohuruogu’s could well fail.
The BOA has a by-law which hands out an automatic lifetime Olympics ban to any athlete who misses three out-of-competition drugs tests.

TEHRAN, Dec. 19--Isfahan will be hosting an international futsal tournament in March 2008.
Speaking to IRNA, Ali Akbar Abarqouei-Nejad, the head of Isfahan Football Committee, noted that the four-day tournament will be held at the Pioruzi Stadium in Isfahan.
“The event will kick off with four teams, including Iran, Thailand, Uzbekistan and another team that has not been named so far,“ he said.

New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) loses the puck as Pittsburgh Penguins winger Gary Roberts intervenes in the second period of their NHL game in New York on Tuesday.

NEW YORK, Dec. 19--Henrik Lundqvist recorded his sixth shutout of the season that the New York Rangers rode to a 4-0 home victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
Lundqvist missed the last game with influenza and had to make only 18 saves for the shutout, just five of them in the first two periods as the Rangers ended a two-game losing streak and recorded their second win in the last seven games, Reuters reported.
“The guys played a great game, which was perfect for me (after) a couple of days with the flu,“ Lundqvist said in a televised interview. “It was a perfect game, we were sharp from the beginning.“
Coming off a 5-1 home loss to Phoenix, Rangers coach Tom Renney changed his forward line with Scott Gomez joining Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka, which paid dividends.
Gomez scored two goals, while Straka scored a goal and had an assist and Jagr added an assist. The line had 13 shots on goal.
Chris Drury also had a goal and an assist and defenseman Michal Rozsival had three assists.
The Rangers defense also ensured Pittsburgh’s top line, led by Sidney Crosby, were held in check. Crosby had just two shots on goal.
“When you shut down Crosby, you have a chance to win the hockey game. He’s 50 percent of their offense,“ said Jagr.
¥ Jason Spezza scored two goals to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins in a clash between the top two sides in the Northeast Division.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Dec. 19--No matter how meticulously a Brazilian coach prepares for the new season, his plans can be wrecked in an instant by the international transfer window.
Brazil exported a record 1,085 professional players this year, according to the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), Reuters wrote.
In addition to the traditional destinations such as Spain, Italy and Portugal, players headed for places as unlikely as Guatemala, Surinam, Vietnam and Armenia.
The trade is often lucrative for Brazilian clubs and a successful move can give the players a chance to achieve financial independence for themselves and their families.
For the coaches of the 20 first division clubs, already working in one of the most volatile markets in the football world, it is a major headache, however.
“In the old days, the boy was born and his dream was to play football and to play for Brazil,“ said Alexandre Gallo, coach of first division Figueirense, during an international football forum in Rio de Janeiro.
“Today, the boy is born and he dreams of becoming a footballer so he can turn professional and be sold to a club in Europe. The dream has changed.“
The Brazilian season runs from mid-January to early December while the European transfer window opens in January and again in July.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Dec. 18--Former Brazil striker Romario was banned for 120 days on Tuesday for a failed dope test which he blamed on a hair-loss treatment.
Brazilian football’s disciplinary tribunal suspended the 1994 World Cup winner after the 41-year-old tested positive for the banned masking agent finasteride following a match for Vasco da Gama against Palmeiras in October, Guardian wrote.
Romario, who has played sporadically since scoring what he claimed to be his 1,000th goal in May, broke the news himself earlier this month in a news conference. He blamed a hair-loss product which he had been taking for some time.
Two days after making the announcement, Romario was named as Vasco’s player-coach. He had intended to keep playing for the first few weeks of the 2008 season.
Romario was not present at the hearing where he was represented by Vasco’s lawyers. Vasco doctor Rafael Blum told the tribunal he was unaware that Romario had been using the medication.
Finasteride was added to the list of banned substances in 2005 and has already claimed several victims.

HOUSTON, USA,
Dec. 19--Roger Clemens, fighting to save his tarnished reputation as a great baseball pitcher, issued a fresh denial on Tuesday that he used steroids and urged the public “not to rush to judgment“ about him.
According to Reuters, because of the accusations in the Mitchell report issued last week, Texas high school baseball coaches may drop Clemens as a speaker at their convention next month.
Members of the coaches organization met on Tuesday to consider removing him, but said in a statement: “We feel more information is needed before a decision is reached. This decision should come in the near future.“
Clemens, 45, was scheduled to speak to the coaches on January 12 about how he prolonged his career through intense physical workouts.
The seven-time Cy Young Award winner, who grew up in Texas and lives in Houston, said he had never used performance-enhancing drugs as alleged in a report by former US Sen. George Mitchell.
“I did not take steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life,“ Clemens said.
“Those substances represent a dangerous and destructive shortcut that no athlete should ever take.“
Clemens first denied the Mitchell report charges through his Houston attorney last week.
He said he was disappointed his 25 years in public life “have apparently not earned me the benefit of the doubt, but I understand that Senator Mitchell’s report has raised many serious questions.“

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (l) drives to the basket against Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich in the first quarter of their NBA basketball game in Chicago on Tuesday.

CHICAGO, USA,
Dec. 19--The Los Angeles Lakers put on a strong team performance to register a 103-91 road win over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday, the visitors getting double-digit tallies from six players.
With Kobe Bryant struggling through a 7-for-19 shooting night while playing with a troublesome groin, Sasha Vujacic came off the bench to score 19 points and lead a balanced attack, Reuters wrote.
“People call us a one-man (Bryant) team and we don’t care as long as we’re winning ballgames,“ Lakers forward Luke Walton told reporters.
“If we start losing, then we’ll get mad and we’ll get up in arms about it.“
Bryant finished with 18 points, Lamar Odom had 17 points and 16 rebounds and Andrew Bynum also had a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds to go along with four blocks.
“As eye-popping as Kobe’s numbers are, the reason they have the record they do (15-9) is because all the other guys are playing well,“ Bulls coach Scott Skiles said.
Luol Deng had 26 points and seven rebounds and Kirk Hinrich 17 points, eight assists and five rebounds for the Bulls, who were talking to the Lakers about acquiring Bryant before the start of the season.