Shuttlers begin play in Jakarta Open

The 18th Yonex Sunrise Jakarta Open 2004 badminton championship, featuring about 1,000 players from 74 clubs in Indonesia and four foreign countries, began here on Tuesday.

The six-day championship at the Asia-Africa Badminton Hall in South Jakarta features Under-14, U-16 and U-19 divisions, as well as an open class, with a total of Rp 30 million (US$3,200) in prizes on offer.

The visiting teams come from Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland.

Only a few national players from Indonesia's training center are playing in the tournament, a fact that has been criticized by the organizing committee.

The national training center has sent only two men's doubles teams to the tournament, Stevanus Ricky/Suherlan and Ardian Kusmanto/Raymond Dimas Lesmana, as well as the mixed doubles pair of Mega Berlian/Olivia.

"It is very disappointing that the training center has not sent more players to this championship. It is held in Jakarta, so they don't have to spend much money," Retno Kustijah, vice chairman of the tournament's organizing committee, said. -- JP

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Australian athletes pose nude for calendar

SYDNEY: Swimmer Michael Klim and basketball player Lauren Jackson were among 35 Australian Olympic athletes who posed nude for a calendar released on Tuesday.

The Athens Dream, a 220-page special issue of Black+White magazine, retails at A$32.95 (US$22.74). Australian athletes also shed their clothes for the Olympic edition of the magazine in 1996 and 2000.

Shaven-headed Klim is a former 100 metres butterfly world record holder but has only qualified for the 50 metres freestyle relay at the Athens Games in August. Klim posed with fish in warm water.

"They were smelly and slimy. At the end of the day I felt quite liberated. I was ready to go again," said the 26-year-old, who won two relay golds at the Sydney 2000 Games. -- Reuters

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Armstrong heads cycling selections

COLORADO SPRINGS : Five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong heads the list of cyclists named to the US Olympic team for the Athens Olympic Games, a spokesman for USA Cycling said on Monday.

Armstrong, who is aiming for his sixth Tour de France crown next month, will compete in his fourth Olympics. He has a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Games.

In Athens, Armstrong will be accompanied by Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Bobby Julich and Jason McCarthy.

Armstrong and Hamilton were selected on the basis of their first and fourth place finishes in last year's Tour de France, while Julich and Hincapie qualified based on top five finishes at the Paris-Nice cycling race in March. -- AFP

;REUTERS; ANPAs..r.. Putbrief-Soccer-Liverpool Thai media mogul to use own money in Liverpool bid JP/11/brief

Media mogul pushes for Liverpool bid

BANGKOK: Thai media mogul Paiboon Damrongchaitham would pay for a stake in English soccer club Liverpool using his own money rather than that of his company, GMM Grammy, the music firm said on Tuesday.

The chairman of Thailand's biggest music company is putting together a private consortium to bid for a 30 percent stake in the club after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government withdrew from the negotiations last week.

"The company hereby would like to clarify that a decision has been reached that the said investment opportunity will be Mr Paiboon Damrongchaitham's personal investment and GMM Grammy PCL will not be involved in any possible ways," Grammy said in a statement.

Grammy shares have dropped 5.5 percent this week to three-week lows after broker reports questioned where the company would find the cash for a Liverpool investment and suggested it could affect Grammy's ability to pay a dividend. -- Reuters

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Dutch firm gets Athens seats contract

ATHENS : Greek organisers have handed a disputed contract for vandal-proof seats for the Athens Olympic stadium to a Dutch firm, a company spokesman said on Monday.

Galvanitas, who also make school furniture, said they would deliver 75,000 seats that had undergone special testing.

The announcement followed a May decision to ditch an Australian supplier in a move that was linked by some news media to tensions between Athens and Australia over Olympic security issues. The contract had been worth a reported $2.4 million.

The main Olympic stadium featuring a 150 million euro ($181 million) hi-tech roof by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrva is expected to be used as a soccer stadium after the Games. -- Reuters