Global sport — Kasparov tops at Novgorod

FINAL RESULT: 1. Garry Kasparov (Russia) 6.5/10; 2. Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) 6, 3. Nigel Short (Britain) 5, 4. Evgueni Bareev (Russia) 4.5, 5. Vesselin Topalov (Bulgaria) 4, 6. Boris Gelfand (Belarus) 4

Recovered Johnson to compete in Paris

BOULDER: Double Olympic champion Michael Johnson has recovered from a leg injury and will make his return to competition at the Paris Grand Prix meeting tomorrow, his agent said yesterday.

“Michael has flown to Paris and will run a 400 meters tomorrow,” Brad Hunt said in a telephone interview.

It will be Johnson’s first competition since the Olympic 200 and 400 meter champion severly pulled his left quadriceps in a 150-meter fastest man showdown with world 100-meter record holder Donovan Bailey in Toronto on June 1.

Gebrselassie sets sight on record

PARIS: Ethiopian 5,000 metres world record holder Haile Gebrselassie said here today he would decide about competing in August’s World Championships after trying to reclaim the 10,000 metres world record in Oslo on July 4.

The 24-year-old, who won Olympic gold at 10,000m last year, said it was more important personally to break Moroccan Salah Hissou’s record of 26m 38.08s than to go to Athens.

“The World Championships are not that important to me as I have already been to two and won two 10,000 metres titles. My one target for this reason is to get back my 10,000 metres world record,” Gebrselassie said.

Kuwait threatens to boycott Arab Games

KUWAIT: Kuwait yesterday threatened to boycott the Arab Games to be held next month in Lebanon if Iraq sends athletes to the event.

“We will not accept any sports meeting with Iraq while there are Kuwaiti prisoners detained by the Iraqi regime,” the president of Kuwait’s Olympic Committee Sheikh Fahd al-Ahmed al-Sabah said.

Kuwait is “determined to withdraw from the Pan-Arab Games” if Iraq takes part, Sheikh Sabah said, the official Kuwaiti newsagency Kuna reported. The Games are due to run from July 12 to 27.

Susi Susanti to play in Malaysian Open

KUALA LUMPUR: Former badminton queen Susi Susanti has decided to play in next month’s Malaysian Open, belying expectations that she was about to quit the game.

It was widely believed that Susanti, regarded the greatest women’s badminton player ever, would retire after the World Championships in Glasgow following her marriage to compatriot Allan Budi Kusuma. But both Kusuma, the 1992 Olympic champion, and Susanti have entered for the $ 180,000 Malaysian Open to be played in the east Malaysian city of Kota Kinabalu from July 9-13, organisers confirmed today.

Prince Naseem escapes injury in crash

LONDON: Britain’s dual world featherweight champion Prince Naseem Hamed yesterday escaped without a scratch when the Ferrari sports car he was driving smashed into a roundabout, police said.

But the luxury vehicle was said to have been wrecked in the accident on a motorway near the northern city of Doncaster.

The 23-year-old jumped out of the damaged car — but was dismayed to see his friend travelling behind in a second car collide with another vehicle on the roundabout.