Liu to run: Coach

AGENCIES

LONDON: Liu Xiang’s pullout from the final of the 110m hurdles at the London Grand Prix on Friday was just a precautionary measure and the back problem that forced the withdrawal does not pose any threat to his Olympic campaign, his coach said. The 2004 Olympic champion pulled out of the final after tweaking his back while warming up but coach Sun Haiping said Liu was feeling well after a night’s rest. “It’s just a slight problem. Liu Xiang felt a little uncomfortable in his back after the heat round. We decided to pull out of the finals just for the sake of caution,” Sun was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency.

Rubin win Super Cup

SAMARA: Rubin Kazan won the season-opening Russian Super Cup, beating league winners Zenit St Petersburg 2-0 thanks to first-half goals from Salvatore Brocchetti and Vladimir Dyadyun. Rubin took the lead inside 30 minutes with Salvatore Bocchetti powering into the box and heading Roman Eremenko’s cross into the bottom corner Saturday. Striker Vladimir Dyadyun doubled the score 10 minutes later, beating Nicolas Lombaerts to the near post to steer in Alexander Ryazantsev’s low cross.

Man Utd offer rejected

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian football club Sao Paulo has rejected a 33 million euro offer from Manchester United for winger Lucas Moura. Sao Paulo, which owns 80 per cent of the player’s economic rights, is requesting 30 million euros for its share of the transfer, reported Xinhua. For the deal to go ahead, Manchester United will need to raise its offer to 37.5 million euros or Moura, who holds the remaining 20 percent of his economic rights, must forgo his cut of the deal. Earlier this month, Sao Paulo rejected offers of 25 million euros from Inter Milan and Chelsea for the youngster.

DFB to use goalline

BERLIN: The German football federation DFB will use goal-line technology rather than additional assistant referees in the future, DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach said on Saturday. “The DFB and the football league (DFL) are in favour of the introduction. We agree with our referees that we, unlike UEFA, don’t want the goal-line referees,” Niersbach said at a referee event in Altensteig-Wart. Niersbach said that goal-line technology will be not applied before the 2013-14 season, and that it won’t be used in the German Cup because it is to expensive to install.