Global sport

The Annual General Meeting of the ATP Tour is taking on added importance in the run-up to Monday’s start of the $ 7.5 million Australian Open with Korda expected to try and convince his professional colleagues of his innocence after testing positive for steroids at last year’s Wimbledon.

The meeting is deemed so important that any top player missing it automatically cops a fine of $ 10,000.

Players Association president Todd Martin will be catching a plane from Sydney after facing Alex Corretja in the afternoon final of the $ 750,000 Adidas International to chair the closed-door session.While little about the complex case is expected to be resolved, the venue will give Korda a chance to present his side of the matter to at least 200 fellow pros — some of whom havecalled for him to be banned from the game for a year as per the rules.

Alex Popov to get back in the pool

SYDNEY: Olympic gold medallist and World record holder Alex Popov said today he would be back in the pool inside a week after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his knee.

The 26-year-old Russian was forced to watch a World Cup short course meet in Sydney from the stands with a heavily bandaged knee after undergoing surgery yesterday.

Popov, who trains at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, said he planned to avoid cycling and gym work for six weeks but would be back in the pool within a week.

“It’s a bit swollen, but not too painful,” Popov said of his knee.Popov said his knee troubles, ongoing since he dislocated his knee cap when he was 15, had become worse over the previous six months.

US swimmer misses mark by whisker

SYDNEY: Five-time Olympic champion Jenny Thompson of the United States won the 100-metre freestyle at the World Cup short-course swim meet today,finishing 33-100ths of a second outside the world record.

Thompson clocked 53.34 seconds to beat German Katrin Meissner and Alison Sheppard of Britain. South African Penny Heyns made it two wins from two races, again beating Samantha Riley of Australia win her second breaststroke event at the meet.

She won the 50-metre sprint in 31.29 seconds, with Helen Denman of Australia second in 31.27 and Riley relegated to third in 31.81. Australia’s Ian Thorpe won the 200-metre freestyle.

Former mayor says 1996 bid was clean

ATLANTA: There was no bribery involved in Atlanta’s Olympic bid for the 1996 Summer Games, former Atlanta Mayor and United Nations ambassador Andrew Young said as the scandal involving pay-offs for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City widens.

Humanitarianism, not bribery, motivated Atlanta’s assistance to Third World athletes and Olympic officials before and after the 1996 Games, Young told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in today’s editions. “Absolutely no money changedhands,” he said of Atlanta’s winning bid.

China emerge on top at Disabled Games

BANGKOK: China emerged winner of Asia’s Disabled Games, but the handicapped of host Thailand reaped the off-field gains from this competition among 2,400 athletes from 34 nations.

Often called “invisible people” because they are seldom seen in public, the plight of Thailand’s disabled was spotlighted by spectators and the media as they cheered the courage of the Games’ athletes. On the eve of the closing ceremony, officials announced braille textbooks are to be produced at every educational level and that Bangkok’s new mass transit system would offer facilities for the handicapped.

Chinese athletes repeated the success of their compatriots at last month’s Asian Games by capturing 206 gold medals at the 7th Far East and South Pacific Games for the disabled.

Thailand ranked second in the week-long medals race with 70 gold followed by Australia with 34 and South Korea with 32.