Queen Visits Irish Olympic Leader
IOC member Pat Hickey on Thursday met Queen Elizabeth on the third day of her historic visit to the Republic of Ireland.
Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland and the European Olympic Committees, presented some of the Irish athletes who will be competing at the London 2012 Olympics at a Dublin ceremony.
The Queen is making her first trip to the country by a reigning UK monarch for 100 years.
Table Tennis Final Tops TV Ratings
Sunday’s men’s singles final from the table tennis world championships is 2011’s most-watched sporting event in China.
The International Table Tennis Federation announced Thursday that almost 100 million Chinese watched Zhang Jike beat defending champion Wang Hao, both from China. Average audience was a bit less at 27 million.
"With a new sponsor from China, the GAC GROUP, we are delighted to continue to be one of the leading sports on the Chinese Television and ensuring high value for all of sponsorship partners," ITTF marketing director Steve Dainton.
"With such a wonderfully staged event in Rotterdam, fantastic TV images and production and most importantly table tennis at the absolute highest level these results have been possible."
The year’s previous high came in women’s tennis when Li Na lost to Kim Clijsters in the finals of the Australian Open back in January.
100 Days to Go for Daegu
A countdown concert at Daegu Stadium will celebrate 100 days until the athletics world championships.
"As we move ever closer to the championships, the eyes of the sporting world are turning towards your host city and Korea," IAAF president Lamine Diack told the people of Korea on Thursday in a statement to mark the milestone.
"While we must never forget that this part of the race is always the most challenging, I am certain that with energy, hard work and dedication we will successfully reach the finish line together in a victory for Daegu, Korea, and the sport of athletics."
Diack also took the opportunity to hype the host city’s state-of-the-art blue track installed back in December and put through a trial run during last week’s official test meet.
Roughly 2,000 athletes from 200 countries and territories are expected to enter what will be the largest single-sport competition of the year.
Events run from Aug. 27 through Sept. 4.
Written by Matthew Grayson and Mark Bisson.
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