China Daily - 07.08.2019

SPORTS

24 | Wednesday, August 7, 2019 CHINA DAILY

Digest

BADMINTON

Lin facing tough

test to open worlds

The draw
for the Bad-
minton World
Federation
champion-
ships in Basel,
Switzerland,
was released
on Monday at
the BWF head
office in Kua-
la Lumpur.
In men’s singles, five-time cham-
pion Lin Dan of China will meet last
year’s winner Kento Momota of
Japan in the opening round.
The men’s first-round match-ups
also include Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia
against Brazilian Ygor Coelho and
second seed Chou Tien-chen of Chi-
nese Taipei taking on Hans-Kristian
Vittinghus of Denmark.
On the women’s side, top seed
Akane Yamaguchi of Japan could
face a quarterfinal clash against
2013 champion Ratchanok Intanon
of Thailand, while second seed Tai
Tzu-ying from Chinese Taipei is
seeded to meet with two-time run-
ner-up Pusarla Sindhu of India in
the last eight.

SOCCER

United makes Maguire

a historic signing

Harry Maguire has become the
most expensive defender in soccer
history after completing a $97 mil-

Lin Dan

lion move to

Manchester

United on

Monday.

The fee for

Maguire, who

arrives at Old

Trafford from

Leicester City,

breaks the

record $85

million that Liverpool paid South-

ampton for Virgil van Dijk in Janu-

ary 2018.

Maguire, 26, has agreed a six-year

contract at United, with the option

of a further year. He becomes the

second most expensive signing in

English top-flight history after new

teammate Paul Pogba ($108 mil-

lion), and the second most expensive

British player after Wales winger

Gareth Bale, who joined Real

Madrid from Tottenham for $102

million in 2013.

“Harry is one of the best center-

backs in the game today and I am

delighted we have secured his signa-

ture,” United manager Ole Gunnar

Solskjaer said.

Rooney in talks over

Derby player-coach role

Former England captain Wayne

Rooney is in advanced talks with

Derby County about joining the

English second-tier club as player-

coach, Sky Sports News reported on

Monday.

Derby’s new Dutch manager Phil-

lip Cocu declined to comment on the

reports but Sky said England’s

Harry Maguire

record goalscorer was due to fly to

the Midlands to discuss the details

of the deal.

The 33-year-old ex-Manchester

United and Everton striker Rooney,

who has two years left on his con-

tract with Major League Soccer club

DC United, has previously spoken of

his desire to go into management.

The BBC reported that Derby

owner Mel Morris believes Rooney

could help to get the club back into

the Premier League.

“At the moment I can’t say any-

thing,” Cocu told Sky Sports after the

Rams beat Huddersfield Town 2-1 in

their opening fixture of the new

Championship campaign on Mon-

day night.

ATHLETICS

Hurdles champion

Pearson calls it a day

London 2012 Olympics hurdles

gold medalist

Sally Pearson

announced

her retire-

ment from

elite track

and field on

Tuesday after

failing to

recover from

a series of

recent leg

injuries.

Pearson, who won the 100m hur-

dles at London four years after tak-

ing silver at the Beijing Games, also

won gold at world championships in

2011 and 2017.

Sally Pearson

The 32-year-old Australian had

hoped to qualify for next year’s

Tokyo Olympics and was preparing

to defend her world title in Doha

next month when she had another

injury setback.

“I have prided myself on always

being on the start line ready to win,”

Pearson said. “I no longer believe I

can achieve this. I have come to the

conclusion that it is time to retire

from this phase of my life and move

on to the next.”

Lewis backs ‘fair and

equal’ pay for women

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist

Carl Lewis

said on Mon-

day that

female ath-

letes deserve

fair and equal

pay.

Lewis was

speaking in

Peruvian cap-

ital Lima,

where he will

present the 100m and long jump

medals at the Pan American Games.

He also said he became an athlete

thanks to his mother, who competed

in the first Pan Am Games in Buenos

Aires in 1951.

“If I didn’t have a strong woman

in my life, I wouldn’t be sitting here

today,” the American said at a media

conference with Leroy Burrell, a

former world-record holder in the

100m. “My mother was a pioneer.”

The US national team has long

Carl Lewis

Los Angeles Clippers.

TENNIS

Tsitsipas knocks Zverev

out of world’s top five

Washington Open semifinalist

Stefanos Tsit-

sipas of

Greece has

climbed into

the top five of

the ATP

world rank-

ings.

The

20-year-old,

who has

already won

tournaments in Marseille and Estoril

as well as reaching the final of the

Masters 1000 in Madrid, is the

youngest player in the top 20 rank-

ings released on Monday. He leap-

frogged Germany’s Alexander Zverev,

who dropped two places to No 7.

It could be a brief breakthrough

for Tsitsipas, with lots of points up

for grabs at this week’s Montreal

Masters and Japan’s Kei Nishikori

just five points behind him in sixth.

Tsitsipas reached the final in

Montreal last year while Nishikori

bowed out in round one.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic remains

at No 1, the 263rd week of his career

that he has occupied the position.

That is still 47 weeks short of Swiss

record holder Roger Federer (310)

who remains in third behind Spain’s

Rafael Nadal.

XINHUA — AGENCIES

Stefanos

Tsitsipas

championed equal rights. Players

collectively filed a lawsuit earlier

this year that alleges discrimination

by the US Soccer Federation and are

seeking the same pay as the men’s

national team.

BASKETBALL

Grizzlies hire NBA’s

ninth female coach

The Memphis Grizzlies on Mon-

day hired Nie-

le Ivey as an

assistant

coach, mak-

ing her the

ninth female

to fill that role

in the NBA.

Ivey most

recently

served as

associate

head coach and recruiting coordina-

tor for Notre Dame’s women’s team.

The Fighting Irish went 385-55 with

one national championship (2018),

six title games and seven Final Four

appearances during her 12 seasons

with the program.

In Memphis, Ivey will join the

staff of first-year head coach Taylor

Jenkins.

Several other teams recently add-

ed female assistants, including the

Cleveland Cavaliers (Lindsay Gottli-

eb) and the Sacramento Kings

(Lindsey Harding). Other female

assistants include Becky Hammon

with the San Antonio Spurs, Kristi

Toliver with the Washington Wiz-

ards and Natalie Nakase with the

Niele Ivey

SOCCER

By HE QI in Shanghai

[email protected]

Chinese Super League club

Shanghai Shenhua has

launched a women’s team in

partnership with Shanghai

University of Sport.

The new outfit, officially

called Shanghai Greenland

Shenhua and Shanghai Uni-

versity of Sport Team, com-

prises 25 players and will

compete in the China Wom-

en’s Third Division later this

year. With an average age of

20, all the players are stu-

dents at the university.

The move is part of wider

efforts to promote the wom-

en’s game in China.

Head coach Ye Zhijing said

over the next few years the

team will strive to gain pro-

motion to the top-tier Super

League, where former Paris

Saint-Germain playmaker

and national team star Wang

Shuang currently plies her

trade.

“We have always planned

to form a female team, but we

started to prepare early this

year because the Chinese

Football Association has

mandated that each club

needs to have a female team

by 2020,” said Zhu Junwei,

deputy general manager of

Shenhua.

According to Zhu, there are

benefits for both institutions

— the student players will

have access to logistical sup-

port, professional coaching

and high-quality facilities,

while the club will be able to

tap into the university’s rich

knowledge base.

“We used to be an amateur

team, but joining Shenhua

has allowed us to upgrade

ourselves in all aspects. We

now have more coaches and

the training is becoming

more specialized,” said Ye,

who formerly played profes-

sionally for the Shanghai

women’s team.

Defensive midfielder Song

Huijie plans to remain with

the squad after graduation as

she pursues her dream of

turning pro.

“I hope to be able to play at

higher levels with the team

someday. Making the nation-

al team is a dream many of us

have, as representing the

country is the highest honor

there is,” said the 20-year-old.

All the players attend col-

lege courses in the morning

and train in the afternoon for

two hours, six days a week.

“The college team players

are facing pressure on two

fronts — academic study and

training. This makes them

very different from profes-

sional players who solely

focus on training,” said Ye.

“Another issue is continuity

— players might leave the

team after graduating so the

squad might be constantly

changing. This is something

we will address. But I hope

this partnership will encour-

age more players to stay on

after graduation.”

Reigning CSL champion

Shanghai SIPG told China

Daily it is also preparing to

form a women’s team in part-

nership with another local

college.

Following studies on how

professional men’s teams in

Europe play an important

role in promoting and devel-

oping women’s soccer, the

Chinese Football Association

has ruled that each CSL club

must invest between 15-30

million yuan ($2.1-4.2 mil-

lion) to establish a women’s

team.

The move comes at a time

when attention on women’s

soccer is growing, with this

summer's Women’s World

Cup and European club lea-

gues enjoying increased cov-

erage and television ratings.

“The increasing media cov-

erage, the new policies and

cooperation formats, and the

comments from fans have

illustrated that women’s soc-

cer is growing in popularity,”

said Ye.

“However, the number of

women playing professional

soccer in China is still too

small. In Japan, the women’s

League Two already has more

than 20 teams. Here in China,

the number is much smaller.”

One of the biggest obstacles

to development is the mind-

set of parents.

“A lot of parents only let

their daughters play soccer as

a form of physical condition-

ing. They would never allow

them to become professional

players because it doesn’t

appear to have good career

prospects,” Song said.

“Also, female players might

have to consider things like

marriage and motherhood.

This is another barrier to

entry.”

Moving forward, Ye hopes

to see more female coaches in

China.

“About 80 percent of wom-

en’s soccer teams in foreign

countries are headed by

females,” Ye said.

“This is important as

female coaches better under-

stand how to manage and

train women’s teams.

“You cannot just transplant

the training approach for

men onto a women’s team. It’s

not very effective.”

Shenhua launches new women’s team

Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai University of Sport have established a new women’s

team in an effort to find more talent in the colleges.GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY

By SUN XIAOCHEN
[email protected]

Already conceding two
strikes against baseball’s niche
status on the national sports
landscape, China’s pro league
is stepping up to the plate for a
third swing at respectability.
After twice suspending
competition due to lack of
funding and exposure, the
Chinese Baseball Association
on Monday announced a
relaunch of the league as part
of a long-term reform to grow
the competition, created in
2002, into a full-fledged pro-
fessional program rebranded
as the China National Baseball
League.
With baseball returning to
the Olympics at next year’s
Tokyo Games, the Chinese
governing body is optimistic
the league’s reboot will draw
attention back to the game in a
market that shows signs of
being ready to embrace it.
“After years of the sport
being popularized at the grass-
roots as part of pop culture
and now re-entering the Olym-
pics, it’s time to try to build the
top of the pyramid,” Chen Xu,
president of the CBA, said at
the league’s launch ceremony
in Beijing on Monday.
It won’t be easy.
Eighteen years after its
debut, the league’s 2019 mem-
bership still features the same
four original teams: Beijing,
Tianjin, Guangdong and
Jiangsu.
Even with baseball catching
on with Chinese youth on
campus, stagnant player
development at the elite level,
both in the State-run system
and the private sector, has
forced the CBA to maintain
the status quo, with each of the
four clubs having built rela-
tively mature talent develop-
ment, marketing and
management systems.
The new CNBL becomes the
league with the fewest teams
in any sport in China — one
short of the five-club Chinese
Ice Hockey League, which was
launched last week.
To make the CNBL more

than just a weeklong tourna-

ment, the CBA will have the

four teams play home and

away for 18 rounds over seven

weeks, starting with Tianjin

hosting Beijing in the season

opener on Aug 15.

The top two teams after the

regular rounds will square off

in a best-of-five championship

final in late October.

“We’re starting from scratch

again, but this time we’re more

serious and more confident

that it’s going to be different,”

said Chen. “Over the next 15

years we are looking to build

the CNBL into a mature league

with a modern professional

system that appeals to talent

from neighboring countries.”

Chen’s confidence comes

from the establishment of an

independent company

encompassing the CBA, the

four clubs and Shougang

Sports, the CNBL’s operating

and marketing partner, as

stakeholders to model the

league on Major League Base-

ball in the United States.

The previous two incarna-

tions, halted in 2011 and 2017,

were run by the CBA as cham-

pionship tournaments with

little involvement by the teams

in marketing and promotion.

“Now with a league system

in place, we will work on

building sound player devel-

opment and transfer pro-

grams to guarantee a high

level of play, a steady revenue

stream to fund operations and

a branding strategy to pro-

mote the sport’s image,” said

Qin Xiaowen, commissioner

of the CNBL and CEO of Shou-

gang Sports.

Although now preparing for

the Olympic qualifiers to try to

join baseball’s comeback party

in Tokyo, the CBA said the ulti-

mate goal is to make the

league mature enough to

stand on its own, without rely-

ing on the Olympic exposure.

A major hurdle will be over-

coming the sharp decline in

investment and media cover-

age that followed baseball’s

last Olympics appearance at

the 2008 Beijing Games,

where the host finished in

eighth place, inspiring a brief

surge of interest in the game.

On the plus side, the busi-

ness expansion of MLB into

Asia Pacific has provided a

helping hand in maintaining

the domestic talent supply

through its three development

centers in East China’s Jiangsu

province.

Since the first DC opened in

Wuxi in 2009, a total of seven

Chinese prospects have gradu-

ated through the system to

sign tryout or minor league

contracts with MLB clubs,

including Itchy Xu Guiyuan

(by the Baltimore Orioles in

2015) and Sea Gong Haicheng

(by the Pittsburgh Pirates in

2017).

While none of the Chinese

prospects have seen MLB

action, their experience in

navigating the pro pipeline

have helped bolster China’s

future hopes in the sport.

Including the facilities in

Changzhou and Nanjing, the

three DCs now host about 100

student athletes aged 12-19 in

a program combining

advanced baseball training

and academic education. The

CNBL now has about 20 play-

ers from the centers and

expects to receive more.

“With the development cen-

ters running into a 10th year, a

small but increasing number

of players have come through

to suit up in the domestic

league and for the national

team,” said Pan Guanghai, gen-

eral manager of CNBL club

Jiangsu Huge Horse.

“It helps bolster not just our

own team but the rest of clubs

in the league ... and we look

forward to welcoming more.”

BASEBALL

CBA pitching

to a full count

Governing body has high hopes

for revamped domestic pro league

We’re starting

from scratch

again, but this

time we’re more

serious and more

confident that it’s

going to be

different.”

Chen Xu, Chinese Baseball

Association president