Joint Korean march in Athens

Athens: South and North Korea agreed on Wednesday to march together at the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics as they did in Sydney and also to begin talks about fielding a unified team for the 2008 Games in Beijing.

“Yes, we will march in the stadium in Athens together, like in Sydney,” Jo Sang Nam, North Korea’s national olympic committee secretary general, told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of national Olympic committees. “Then there will be discussions about one common team in four years time in Beijing.”

He did not say when the talks between Seoul and Pyongyang would start about the unified team

4 AAFI units disaffiliated

New Delhi: The Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) has decided to disaffiliate four of its units for not conducting their annual meet and sending athletes for participation in national-level meets.

The decision to disaffiliate the four units - Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Food Corporation of India - was taken at its AGM in Pune on February 21, an AAFI press release said on Wednesday.

Bengal eves lose in final

Bhopal: Defending champions Manipur retained the senior national women’s football crown edging out Bengal 6-5 in a thrilling final here on Wednesday.

Victory for the Manipur girls came via sudden death at the Tatia Tope Nagar Stadium. Neither team scored in regulation and extra-time.

In the tie-breaker, the teams were deadlocked at 2-2 after the set of five penalties each. In sudden death, Manipur nosed ahead of Bengal to keep the trophy.

Positive move by US: WADA

Athens: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Wednesday the United States, criticised for not acting swiftly in doping offences, was now committed to eradicating the problem.

A day after British sprinter Dwain Chambers received a two-year ban for testing positive for THG, WADA president Dick Pound said that US athletics officials would now want to show they have no tolerance for doping offenders.

“The United States are determined to get out from under the suggestion that they are not strong on doping,” Pound said. “The science is right, the results are clear and there are positive cases.”

Fastest hattrick

London: Bournemouth striker James Hayter notched the fastest hattrick in the history of the English Football League during his team’s 6-0 rout of 10-man Wrexham in a second division match on Tuesday.

Hayter, 24, came on as a substitute with six minutes remaining and struck three quickfire goals in two minutes 20 seconds.

The previous fastest hattrick in the Football League was scored by Gillingham’s Jimmy Scarth in November 1952. Scarth hit three goals in two and a half minutes against Leyton Orient in the old division three south.

United share

London: U.S. sports entrepreneur Malcolm Glazer has raised his stake in English champions Manchester United by buying a further one million shares in the club.

In a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday, Glazer said he had bought the shares at 265 pence each, raising his stake to 16.69 per cent.

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