Russians clean

MOSCOW: Russian Olympic Committee chief Leonid Tyagachev said he believed that Russian athletes would avoid any doping scandals at the Beijing Games. “All of our Oly-mpic athletes have passed dope tests ahead of the Games,” Tyagacgev said. “They are all clean. We have all the necessary equipment for testing and, I believe, none of our athletes will have any problems at the Olympics,” he added. Tyagachev also said he was hopeful that the Russian team would be able to overcome hosts China in the Games’ medal table to take the second overall place. — AFP

Police detain 26

BEIJING: Police in Beijing have detained 26 people for touting Olympic tickets at up to 10 times their face value, state media reported on Monday. Police, some in plainclothes, detained the touters over the weekend near one of the booths that was selling the final batch of 250,000 tickets for events in Beijing, Xinhua news agency reported. Fourteen others were also picked up but were released after being fined, Xinhua said. Authorities had already announced last week that 60 people had been detained since May for touting, and that they faced up to 15 days in jail. — AFP

Chela withdraws

LONDON: Juan Ignacio Chela withdrew from the Olympic tennis tournament because of injury. The 28-year-old Argentine — who missed this year’s Wimbledon because of a shoulder problem — was replaced by Agustin Calleri, the International Tennis Federation said. Stephanie Vogt of Liechtenstein withdrew from the women’s competition because of injury and has been replaced by Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn. — AP