Lifters to depart

KATHMANDU: A four-member Nepali team is on Sunday leaving for Uzbekistan to participate in the 10th Asian Senior Inter-club Men and Women’s Weightlifting Championship to be held in Tashkent from September 25 to October 2. Lifters Kamal Bahadur Adhikari of Tribhuvan Army Club and Gopal Bahadur Shrestha of Ramechhap along with team manager Amar Chandra Anil and coach Sunil Lal Joshi are in the team. Adhikari will participate in the 69kg section, while Shrestha will take part in the 105kg category. This is the second time the Nepali lifters are taking part in the championship after the 2008 edition held in Busan,

South Korea. National Sports Council Member Secretary Hari Babu

Chaudhary bade farewell to the team on Thursday. — HNS

Kirilenko in quarters

SEOUL: Defending champion Maria Kirilenko of Russia advanced to the Korea Open quarter-finals on Thursday by beating Francesca Schiavone, who retired with an injury early in the second set. Kirilenko was leading the third-seeded Schiavone 6-1, 1-2 in the second set. Kirilenko will next play seventh-seeded Vera Dushevina of Russia, who beat Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia 7-5, 6-1. Top-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia also advanced, defeating Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 6-1, 6-1. Hantuchova will next face Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan, who eliminated fifth-seeded Alisa Kleybanova of Russia 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3. — Agencies

Newspapers apologise

LONDON: Fabio Capello has not only knocked England’s football players in line he has also made an impressive start on an even tougher challenge-getting the nation’s tabloid press to dance to his tune. The Italian took exception to being photographed with his wife on a beach holiday earlier this month but, despite complaining to newspaper editors at the time, pictures subsequently appeared in the News of the World and Daily Mail. After the FA took up the issue with the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) both newspapers accepted that “internal procedures had failed” and that the pictures were published in error, the FA said. They have apologised to Capello, given undertakings for the future, and, at the request of the England boss, made substantial donations to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. — Agencies

FA told to reform

LONDON: The Football Association, the governing body of English football, was on Thursday warned to urgently implement reforms recommended four years ago or risk losing government funding. The threat came in a letter from Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe which demands that the FA act on recommendations made in a structural review of the organisation in 2005, notably in relation to transforming the ageing, white and male profile of the organisation. The review, known as the Burns Report, resulted in the appointment of Lord Triesman as the FA’s first independent chairman but Sutcliffe is frustrated at the lack of progress on its other proposals aimed at increasing the representation of women, ethnic minorities and fans in the organisation’s decision-making bodies. — Agencies