OLYMPIC BRIEFS
Table tennis stars being traded for millions
Table tennis stars are being traded by Chinese clubs during this year's transfer window for record sums that far exceed what average football or basketball players are sold for. Ma Lin smashed records this week when Shaanxi bought him from Guangdong for more than five million yuan. Bayi, the PLA's team, sold Wang Hao to Shandong Luneng for more than four million yuan. Under the table tennis association's terms, the players only receive a fraction of the money. If the contract is less than 1.25 million yuan the player keeps 80 per cent while his old club gets 20 per cent. For anything above, the old club keeps 50 per cent of the excess and the balance is divided among the other teams in the league.
Wheelchair tennis player returns positive dope test
An Israeli wheelchair tennis player has been suspended for one month after testing positive for a banned substance at the US Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships. Ilanit Fridman tested positive for terbutaline, a drug used to treat asthma. A tribunal ruled that she committed a doping offence, but found no intent on her part to use the drug to enhance performance, an offence which carries a two-year ban.The player was at fault for not having a 'therapeutic use exemption', which would have allowed her to take the drug.
Germany seeks to cancel drugs-aided world marks
Germany is proposing to cancel all the national athletics records that were set before the fall of the Berlin Wall, in an effort to make a clean break from the systematic doping programmes that helped propel East German athletes to Olympic success. Athletes will be invited to attend a tribunal to defend their careers or volunteer information on doping programmes. Five East German world records still stand. The investigation was initiated after a women's 4x100 metres relay team requested that their record be struck from the books, saying the 'vitamins' their coaches gave them while they were training turned out to be steroids.
