TEHRAN, Feb. 17--Iran’s National Judo Team will leave for Germany this week to participate in an international Judo tournament scheduled for February 23-24 in Hamburg.
According to Mehr News Agency, the seven-member team will also attend a training camp prior to the Asian Championship as well as the 2008 Beijing Olympic qualifiers to be held in Kazakhstan. The team for the camp in Germany includes Arash Mir-Esmaeili, Vahid Sarlak, Mohammad Reza Roudaki, Masoud Haji-Akhounzadeh, Zakaria Moradi, Ali Maloumat and Ehsan Rajabi. Only Sarlak and Roudaki will compete in the tournament.
Alireza Amini will supervise the team which will be headed by Mohammad Reza Haj Yousefzadeh as head coach.

TEHRAN, Feb. 17--Esteqlal Football Team defeated rock-bottom Shirin Faraz of Kermanshah 2-1 in the 21st week of Iran Professional League here at Azadi Stadium on Sunday.
Farhad Majidi gave the giants a lead in the 13th minute, IRNA wrote.
Both teams had chances in the first half but the game ended in victory for Esteqlal.
Saeid Bayat scored Esteqlal’s second goal six minutes into the second half. Darioush Mikaeili’s header flew past Esteqlal’s goalie Vahid Taleblou in the 74th minute. Ramin Mohammad-Pour of Shirin faraz was sent off in the 84th minute by referee Alborz Haji-Pour.
Esteqlal jumped to sixth place in the table with 29 points and Shirin Faraz remained at 17th with 17 points.
This victory not only boosted Esteqlal’s hope for a higher position in the table, but also reduced some media pressure on the team.

TEHRAN, Feb. 17--Peikan-e Tehran cycling team is set to leave for Dubai on February 21 to compete in UAE road cycling tournament.
The six-member team includes Qader Mizbani, Hossein Asgari, Hossein Nateqi, Alireza Haqqi, Mehdi Sohrabi and Alireza Rajablou.
The team will be accompanied by Parviz Mozleqani and Hamid Sajjadi as supervisor and coach, respectively, IRNA reported.
The four-day tournament will kick off on February 22.

TEHRAN, Feb. 17--Iran’s weightlifting training camp will be held in Kish Island on Wednesday.
The team is preparing for the Asian championship scheduled for May and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Mehr News Agency wrote.
The 20-day training camp is to take place in Kish Island with 10 lifters. Participants are as follows:
69 kg: Seyyed Mehdi Panzovan
77 kg: Sohrab Moradi, Mohammad Ali Falahatinejad
85 kg: Shahrouz Qorbani
94 kg: Asqar Ebrahimi
105 kg: Mohsen Beyranvand, Hamed Ebrahimi
+105 kg: Hossein Rezazadeh, Rashid Sharifi, Mohammad Salehi
The team will be trained by Bahman Zare Majd while two Chinese coaches will assist him.

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Feb. 17--Roger Federer the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award for an unprecedented fourth straight year here on Monday.
The Swiss star took the honor in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and in the last 12 months he has added three more Grand Slam titles to his name at Wimbledon and in the Australian and US Opens.
That leaves him just two short of the all-time Grand Slam titles record of 14 currently held by Pete Sampras, according to AFP.
His five-set win over Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon final emulated Bjorn Borg’s five titles in a row almost 30 years ago, whilst his fourth straight US Open title is the longest winning stretch since Bill Tilden won six in a row from 1920 to 1925.
It was also the third straight year that he won three out of four Grand Slam titles with only the French Open crown missing from his repertoire.
Short-listed to oppose Federer for the Laureus award is two-time former winner (2000, 2001) Tiger Woods.
Golf’s world No.1 won only one Major championship in 2007 at the US PGA, but he tied for second at the Masters and US Open and won seven times on the US Tour including the season-ending Tour Championship event.
The others short-listed are US world championship sprinter Tyson Gay, Brazil’s World Footballer of the Year Kaka, outstanding US swimmer Michael Phelps, and Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen of Finland.
There could be a repeat winner in the women’s section also with Russian pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva once again short-listed.
She continued to dominate her event last year winning the world title in Osaka. She also broke the world indoor record in Donetsk clearing 4.93 meters--her 20th world record.
The Russian will have strong competition, however, from the world No.1 tennis player Justine Henin.

Manchester United's Wayne Rooney (c) scores against Arsenal during their FA Cup fifth round match at Old Trafford in Manchester, northern England on Saturday.

aLONDON, Feb. 17-- The eagerly-awaited FA Cup fifth-round clash between England’s two top teams turned out to be a one-sided affair on Saturday as Manchester United thumped 10-man Arsenal 4-0 at Old Trafford.
United were 3-0 up after 38 minutes through Wayne Rooney, Darren Fletcher and Nani as Arsenal’s injury-hit side looked badly off the pace and short of motivation.
United, also without some leading players, were just as dominant after the break and Arsenal suffered a further setback five minutes after the restart when Emmanuel Eboue was sent off for a wild challenge on Patrice Evra, Reuters said.
Both teams then made substitutions to rest players for midweek Champions League games but United remained on top and got the fourth with another Fletcher header after 74 minutes.

NEW ORLEANS, USA, Feb. 17--Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard used a Superman outfit plus great creativity and leaping skills to win a spectacular National Basketball Association Slam Dunk Contest here on Saturday.
The flamboyant 22-year-old American was a runaway winner with 78 percent of the votes from viewers by internet and text messaging to defeat cupcake-aided 2007 winner Gerald Green of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the finals.
Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter were among the high-leaping heroes who excited crowds to win the slam dunk throne in past years but few stars have taken part recently. However the sparkle has returned with a vengeance, reported AFP.
It was the first time a high-tech vote system had been used to crown an NBA slam dunk king, although five former NBA greats such as Julius Erving and Magic Johnson who had judged the first round unanimously saw Howard as the winner.
Howard wore a blue Superman tunic and red cape on a first-round alley-oop dunk after having electrified the crowd by slamming in a left-handed dunk after first bouncing the ball off the rear side of the backboard.
Howard, who will start for the Eastern Conference in Sunday’s 57th NBA All-Star Game, received perfect scores of 50 for both first-round dunks to advance while Memphis’ Rudy Gay and Toronto’s Jamario Moon were eliminated.
Green opened the final with a between-the-legs one-handed slam but Howard answered with a between-the-legs pass followed by a left-handed bounce off the backboard and a right-handed grab and jam move to a thunderous ovation.

Eamon Sullivan

SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 17--Australian Eamon Sullivan broke the world record in the men’s 50m freestyle at the New South Wales swimming championships here on Sunday.
Sullivan clocked 21.56 seconds to eclipse Russian Alexander Popov’s 2000 mark of 21.64 sec by 0.08 seconds.
Sullivan, who claimed bronze in the 100m freestyle at last year’s world championships, shaved almost half a second off his personal best time in establishing the record, AP reported.
Having made the team for the 2004 Athens Olympics, the 22-year-old struggled to shake off a series of injuries before his breakthrough meet at the national championships 14 months ago.
He captured the 50m national record at that meet in Brisbane before reinforcing his growing status as a quality sprinter by collecting bronze at last year’s world championships in Melbourne in the 100m and fifth in the 50m.
It was the first swimming world record by an Australian male swimmer in an Olympic event since Ian Thorpe in the 400m freestyle at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.
“It will be good for me to have another outlook where people are worried about me,“ Sullivan said.
“It will be interesting and I will have to have a chat with a lot of people and work out my game plan because instead of me targeting people, other people will be targeting me.“

Viktor Roethlin

TOKYO, Feb. 17--Switzerland’s Viktor Roethlin underlined his Olympic credentials by powering to victory in the Tokyo Marathon in a championship best time on Sunday.
Roethlin, bronze medalist at last year’s world championships in Osaka, set a new Tokyo record with a time of two hours, seven minutes and 23 seconds, almost a minute inside his personal best.
Japan’s Arata Fujiwara was a distant runner-up in 2:08:40 with Kenyan Julius Gitahi third in 2:08:57.
Roethlin enhanced his status among the favorites for the Beijing Olympics in August, breaking away at the 35-kilometer mark to finish well clear of a high-quality field, according to Reuters.
“It’s unbelievable,“ the 33-year-old told reporters. “It’s a dream come true. To be third in Osaka and then come back to the country of marathon running and win in Tokyo...I have no words.“
Roethlin smashed his previous personal best time by 57 seconds with a flawless run over a course Tokyo plans to use if chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games.
“After this it all starts again for Beijing,“ said the European silver medalist. “I will have to ready of course but after winning here I think I’m going in the right direction.“
Some 33,000 runners entered the race, which began in the Shinjuku business district and snaked past several of the city’s tourist spots, including the Imperial Palace, temples and the glitzy stores of Ginza’s famous shopping area.

LAS VEGAS, USA, Feb. 17--American world middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik defeated former title holder Jermain Taylor by a unanimous decision in a non-title fight on Saturday.
There were no knockdowns in the contest, which the judges scored 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 in favor of Pavlik, who was not defending his WBC/WBO belts.
The fight, contested at a catchweight limit of 166lbs (75.2kg), was a rematch of a September bout, in which Pavlik recovered from a second-round knockdown to stop his compatriot in the seventh and take his middleweight crown.
The fast-paced bout saw both fighters using stiff jabs to try and set up their powerful right hands with Pavlik (33-0, 29 KOs) pressing forward throughout, while Taylor’s greater hand speed allowed him to counter with overhand rights and left hooks, reported Reuters.
As the contest progressed, however, Pavlik’s relentless pressure began to take its toll once Taylor showed signs of tiring.
“Inside pressure was the key tonight,“ Pavlik told reporters. “We both did good jobs tonight. My fight strategy was to put pressure on him, back him up.
Taylor was happy with his performance despite seeing his record drop to 27-2-1.