TEHRAN, Jan. 22--Head coach of Iran’s Wheelchair Basketball Team has expressed optimism about the team’s performance in the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.
“We will hold a number of warm-up games to prepare the team for the prestigious tourney. Iran’s team will do its best in the Paralympics,“ IRNA quoted Ghaffur Kamrava as saying.
Stating that four training camps have already been held with 20 players, he said: “We started the fifth training camp on Tuesday and it will last eight days. Superior players will be selected in these camps. Twelve players will eventually be chosen for the Paralympics.“

NamjooÕs bust

RASHT, Gilan,
Jan. 22--The 18th death anniversary of the weightlifting legend Mahmoud Namjoo will be held on Thursday in his hometown Rasht.
The 56-kg lifter was born in 1916 in Rasht and took two silver medals in the 1948 London and 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, Mehr News Agency reported.
Namjoo took the bronze in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics breaking his own record by 25 kg. The lifter won four gold medals in world championships.
His bust has been installed in Rasht and a street was also named after him in the city after his death. Namjoo passed away in 1986 in Tehran. Iranians will pay tribute to him on Thursday.

LONDON, Jan. 22--Premier League clubs have spent a record amount on January signings, with more than a week still remaining before the transfer window closes.
Clubs in the top flight have spent £93m on players this year compared to £63m last season and £81m in 2006, BBC said.
Chelsea have been the biggest spenders, signing Nicolas Anelka for £15m and capturing Branislav Ivanovic for £9m.
Liverpool have also bolstered their ranks with the £6m signing of Slovak defender Martin Skrtel.
John Williams, director of the Centre of Sociology of Sport at the University of Leicester, believes the record spending can be attributed to the continual rise in television revenue.
“Consistently since 1992, pundits have speculated that the next television deal must be lower. And every year since 1992 the television deal has actually been higher“,Williams said.
The latest television pay deal negotiated by the Premier League, covering seasons up until 2010, brought in £1.7billion which is two thirds more than the previous deal.

TEHRAN, Jan. 22--Iran’s Fencing Team will leave for Kuwait on January 25 to take part in the Fencing Grand Prix.
The team will include Ali Yaghoubian, Hamed Sedaghati, Mohammad Rezaei, Siamak Feiz Askari and Mohammad Hossein Abedi who will compete in the epee category, according to IRNA.
The event is recognized as Olympic qualifiers.
The Fencing Grand Prix is open to all fencers holding a FIE license.

TEHRAN, Jan. 22--Iranian referee, Masoud Moradi, has been selected to attend FIFA Referees Seminar in Spain as part of the first stage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup official selection process.
According to Mehr News Agency, 54 top referees and assistant referees worldwide will be tested for physical fitness and educational knowledge at the seminar which is slated for February 12-15.
The referees with higher points in the tests will have greater chance to officiate the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Seven other Asian referees will also participate in the event. They include Ravshan Irmatov from Uzbekistan, Japanese Yuichi Nishimura, Subkhiddin from Malaysia, Mark Shield and Matthew Breeze from Australia, Oman’s Abdullah Mohamed Al Hilali and Khalil Ibrahim Al Ghamdi from Saudi Arabia.

NEW YORK, Jan. 22-- Tony Dungy quashed speculation he was going to retire by announcing on Monday he would remain the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
According to Reuters, Dungy, who led Indianapolis to a Super Bowl triumph last year, said after his team’s 28-24 divisional playoff loss to San Diego last week he would take some time to ponder his future.
“I’m somewhat flattered to be having this press conference just to announce that nothing has changed,“ the 52-year-old Dungy told reporters in Indianapolis.
“I appreciate the attention and interest, but really, for me, the process was not a whole lot different than the last three years. I’m happy about being back.
“My whole family’s happy and hopefully our whole team and everybody here is happy.“
Dungy has a career 127-65 win-loss record coaching the Colts and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for six seasons apiece.
Colts owner Jim Irsay said on Monday assistant Jim Caldwell will become the team’s head coach when Dungy decides to retire.

MADRID, Spain,
Jan. 22--Real Madrid have been rocked by the news that defender Pepe will be out for at least three and possibly six weeks with a leg injury, Goal wrote.
Madrid have already been facing plenty of injury worries, particularly with defenders Gabriel Heinze and Christoph Metzelder both having moved from one injury to another this season.
It has just become worse, with Pepe now being ruled out for a month. The defender hobbled off during the early stages of Real Madrid’s 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid - a game many believe he should never have started in.
Madrid rushed him back, and have paid the price, as scans have revealed a torn right soleus muscle, which will take a minimum of three weeks to heal.
The club’s website mentions that the period of recovery is between three and four weeks, but what is worse is that such muscular injuries have an unfortunate way of resurfacing if a player is rushed back, meaning that the spell on the sidelines could extend to up to six weeks unless he is rushed back again.
There has been some finger-pointing, according to reports, with the coaches suggesting that he should not have been cleared, and the medics hitting back by insisting that medical clearance is not equivalent to match fitness.
The Merengue medics are now said to be focusing on having the player ready for the first leg of the Champions League last sixteen clash against Roma in late February - five weeks away.
During the period, Sergio Ramos will have to partner Fabio Cannavaro unless Heinze or Metzelder return to full fitness. They have no other centre-halves, though Miguel Torres has played in that position in the past.

Saudi fans hold a poster of Saudi player Sami al-Jaber during Al Hilal- Manchester United match on Monday.

XRIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 22-- Bader al-Kharashi scored on an overhead kick in the 73rd minute to give Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal a 3-2 victory over England’s Manchester United in a friendly on Monday.
Calgary-born Owen Hargreaves missed an equalizing penalty attempt in injury time, giving the host club a victory for its tribute match to former Saudi Arabian national team hero Sami al-Jabar before a capacity crowd of 80,000 at King Fahd Stadium, AP wrote.
Manchester United used several regulars for the game, including a starting lineup featuring goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar, Rio Ferdinand, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. Hargreaves and Wayne Rooney were inserted at halftime. Yasser al-Qahtani gave Al-Hilal the lead in the 10th minute, but Tevez tied the game six minutes later.
Ronaldo restored Manchester United’s lead in the 32nd before Al-Jabar - who came out of retirement for the match - equalized for his former club team in the 40th.
Mohammad al-Shlhoub missed a penalty for Al-Hilal in the second half, before al-Kharashi scored his eventual winner.
Al-Jabar retired from international soccer in June 2006 and from Al-Hilal - a two-time Asian champion and 10-time Saudi league winner - a year later. He was the first Asian player to score in three World Cups, scoring first in 1994, when Saudi Arabia advanced to the second round, its best achievement to date.

ROME, Jan. 22--Inter Roma boss Luciano Spalletti has admitted his deep sense of disappointment following the “suspect incidents“ during Inter’s game against Parma on Monday.
According to Goal, the Giallorossi, who won 2-0 against Catania earlier in the day, had seemed set to close the gap on leaders Inter to just four points, as the Nerazzurri trailed 2-1 to Parma going into the closing stages.
However a hugely controversial penalty award for a handball by Fernando Couto, led to a dramatic late turnaround, as Inter ended up winning 3-2.
A number of Roma players, including Daniele De Rossi and Francesco Totti have bemoaned the fact that Inter never seem to drop points, and Spalletti clearly felt that last night would be the time.
“I was so disappointed because this was the round where we could’ve closed the gap on Inter,“ Totti complained. “We deserved to claw our way back and reduce the gap and we need the stimulus of Inter dropping points. “But we can take heart that this side can keep pace with Inter even without the high-profile stars.“

Tiger Woods

LONDON, Jan. 22--World number one Tiger Woods has forgiven a television anchor who joked his rivals should “lynch him in a back alley“ to curb his domination of golf.
Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman made the remark to British golfer Nick Faldo earlier in January when talking about credible challengers to Woods. Tilghman was suspended for two weeks by Golf Channel for her remarks.
“It was unfortunate. Kelly and I did speak. There was no ill intent. She regrets saying it,“ Woods told BBC. “In my eyes, it’s all said and done.“
Following Tilghman’s remark Golfweek magazine put a noose on the cover of the 19 January issue, which was criticized in several quarters, including US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. Dave Seanor was the editor responsible for the cover and he was fired by Golfweek.
The use of the word lynch is a sensitive topic as it stirs graphic reminders of the American South in which 3,466 blacks were lynched from 1882 to 1968. Woods will return to action for his first action of the year at the Buick Invitational in San Diego, which starts on Thursday.

MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan. 22--Third seed Jelena Jankovic outfought defending champion Serena Williams in an enthralling match to win 6-3 6-4 and reach the Australian Open semi-finals, Reuters wrote.
With Williams restricted by a huge blister, Jankovic recovered from a poor start to run away with the first set. Jankovic’s thigh was also proving troublesome and both players needed lengthy treatment in the second set.
Williams initially raised her game when the match restarted but it was Jankovic who dug deepest to triumph in the end. The Serbian will play the winner of Tuesday’s late match, between top seed Justine Henin and the 2007 runner-up Maria Sharapova, in the last-four.
When Williams beat Sharapova to win her third Australian title 12 months ago, she breezed past Jankovic in the fourth round. And, briefly, a similar outcome seemed probable when the seventh seed easily broke the Serb to move 2-0 ahead in the first set.
Jankovic had come into the match nursing a bad back, knee and shoulder, not to mention the baggage of some hard-fought victories earlier in the tournament. And such was the ease with which Williams moved clear, you feared those battles were beginning to take their toll.
Instead, it was the American who began to falter, with her usually formidable serve non-existent and proving as much of a handicap as her puzzling inability to move freely around the court.
Jankovic did not stop to wonder why her opponent was playing so poorly and took eight of the next nine games, clinching the first set without meeting much opposition.
Only in the second set, when Williams gingerly removed her right sock to reveal her painful big toe, was the source of her discomfort clear.