Sports Digest, February 28, 2013
More than 800 players will take part in the Prudential Hong Kong Beach 5s at Repulse Bay next month, making it one of the region's biggest beach rugby tournaments.
More than 800 players will take part in the Prudential Hong Kong Beach 5s at Repulse Bay next month, making it one of the region's biggest beach rugby tournaments. The third edition of the two-day event, on March 16-17, the weekend before the Hong Kong Sevens, will feature 16 men's and eight women's rugby teams, 32 netball teams and a newly added 32-team dodge-ball tournament in a move to create a beach festival of sport. Mini-rugby teams will also compete in under-11s and under-12s tournaments, while sevens legends Ben Gollings and Waisale Serevi will lend star power to the event. Staff Reporter
A Russian wrestler says he is returning his Olympic gold medal to protest at the International Olympic Committee's decision to drop his sport from the Games programme. Sagid Murtazaliyev told Russian television it was a "tough decision" to make, but he hoped it might move Olympic officials to see "common sense". The IOC executive board voted earlier this month to drop wrestling from the 2020 Games, but the final decision will be made at the body's assembly in September in Argentina. Murtazaliyev, 38, who won gold in the 97kg freestyle class at the 2000 Sydney Games, has followed the example of Bulgarian wrestler Valentin Yordanov who last week said he would be handing his medal back to the IOC in protest at the decision, which shocked the wrestling world. AP
