Golbal sports

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has selected a pool of six to eight East Timorese athletes, from which four will be chosen to participate in the Sydney Olympics, according to an IOC report released on Monday.

The pool were selected by beleagured IOC vice-president Kevan Gosper and Pere Miro, director of relations between National Olympic Committees, at the end of a two day fact finding mission to the newly independent state.

Sydney Olympic organisers put out begging bowl

SYDNEY: Sydney Olympic organisers went cap in hand to the New South Wales State government on Tuesday to beg another $ 140 million Aus (about Rs. 38 crore) to cover additional costs of staging September’s Games.

NSW Treasurer Michael Egan said the money would be sourced from the State’s 1999-2000 budget surplus. Fifty million was needed immediately to cover revenue short-falls and cost blow-outs while 70 million was reserved for contingencies.

Torch relay runner dies

SYDNEY: A Australian man died of cancer on Tuesday, the same day he was due to carry the Olympic torch through his home town of Gladstone in far North Queensland.

Accountant Peter Simpson, 43, had been ill for some time and arranged for his teenage son Daniel to do the honour, but Daniel did not run on Tuesday because he was at his father’s bedside.

Riot in LA After Lakers title win

LOS ANGELES: Scores of people set fire to two police cars, thrashed other vehicles and threw bottles at police following the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night for the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship. Lakers won 116-111.

The crowd outside the arena had been estimated at as many as 10,000 people during the game. Shortly after the game, the people gathered outside the arena began lighting bonfires, burning barricades and traffic cones, and dancing around the fires. One man burned an American flag.