Adham Sharara was re-elected as the ITTF President on Thursday. (Getty Images) The International Table Tennis Federation re-elected President Adham Sharara in elections at the ITTF’s Annual General Meeting in Yokohama, Japan on Thursday.
The General Meeting was held in conjunction with the World Table Tennis Championships, which are going on through Sunday.
Sharara won by a large majority over Alaor Gaspar Pinto Azevedo of Brazil to win another four-year term at the ITTF helm.
Sharara will be among the nine members on the ITTF Executive Committee, along with Deputy President Yang Shuan of China and Executive Vice Presidents Neil Harwood of Australia, Petra Sorling of Sweden, Thomas Weikert of Germany, Koji Kimura of Japan, Cherif Hajem of Tunisia, Khalil Al-Mohannadi of Qatar and Melecio Eduardo Rivera of El Salvador.
During the meeting, Dortmund, Germany was awarded the 2012 World Team Table Tennis Championships, while the Cayman Islands and Papua New Guinea were accepted as the new member federations, bringing the total to 207.
Madrid Guarantees Village Funding
The City of Madrid announced it will guarantee funding for the Olympic Village if Madrid wins the right to host the 2016 The City of Madrid guaranteed funding for the Madrid Olympic Village. Olympics.
In a press release, Madrid 2016 said the city would guarantee the more than $1 billion needed to complete the project. More than three quarters of the infrastructure needed for the city is done. Work on the village would begin in 2011.
The city will guarantee $132 million this year and a similar amount next year with the remainder being spread out over 2011 through 2015.
Baseball Hall of Fame Opens Olympic Exhibit
Visitors to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. will get an opportunity to view the sport’s history in the Olympic Games at a new exhibit the museum is opening on Friday.
The exhibit, called Olympic Baseball, includes more than 50 artifacts that span the history of the game in the Olympics from its time as a medal sport from 1992-2008 as well as from the various times it was included as a demonstration sport. The items are from the U.S., Japan, Australia and Italy.
Olympians Mike Epstein, Jim Abbott and Doug Mientkiewicz are among the baseball players who have loaned items for the exhibit, along with 2008 Beijing Olympic participants Matt LaPorta, Brian Barden and Brandon Knight.
The exhibit will run through January, 2010.
Russia, Canada Early Qualifying Round Leaders at IIHF Worlds
Defending champion Russia and last year’s runner-up Canada lead their groups after three games of Qualifying Round action at the IIHF World Hockey Championship in Switzerland.
Russia has all three of its games, two in regulation play and one in overtime, to lead Group E with a total of eight points, while Canada has won all three games in regulation to garner nine points and take the top spot so far in Group F.
The U.S., Latvia, Sweden and Switzerland each have four points and France has none in Group E. Finland (6), Belarus (4), Czech Republic (3) and Slovakia and Norway (1 point each) are the other teams in Group F.
The Qualifying Round will conclude on Monday, with the results determining the seeding for the quarterfinals on Wednesday and Thursday.
Meanwhile, Austria, Denmark, Germany and Hungary will play regulation round games on Friday, Sunday and Monday. The top two teams from the regulation round will retain their eligibility to play in the 2010 world championships in Germany, while the bottom two will be regulated to Division I. Germany is exempt from regulation as the host of the 2010 worlds.
Briefs…
…Olympic triple gold medal sprinter Usain Bolt of Jamaica will miss the Jamaica International Invitational athletics meet in Kingston on Saturday as he recovers from a minor injury to his left foot suffered in a car accident on Wednesday. Bolt, who won the gold in the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay in world-record times at the 2008 Games in Beijing, is recovering well from his injury, according to his agent Ricky Simms.
…Ella Kovacs Szabo, who was a member of the U.S. Olympic exhibition team for synchronized swimming at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, died of breast cancer. She was 81.
…Chris McCarthy, who competed in race walking at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, died of complications from a brain tumor in Chicago on Wednesday. He was 77. McCarthy finished 21st in the 50K men’s race walking event in Tokyo.
…Jose Brasa, who coached Spain’s women field hockey team to the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, is India’s new men’s field hockey coach. Brasa has signed up for a two-year term through the 2010 Asian Games, with the possibility of coaching the Indian squad for the 2012 Games in London.
...Water features in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, including the Fountain of Rings,will return to operation by September. The flow of water at the park was shut off in October, 2007 after the state of Georgia implemented water restrictions due to the drought that afflicted the southeastern United States at the time.
Written by Ed Hula III and Greg Oshust.
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