SENDAI, Japan, 20 January 2004 — China successfully defended its Asian women’s basketball crown yesterday as beaten finalists Japan and third-placed South Korea also booked their places at this year’s Athens Olympics Games.
The Chinese women, also the Asian Games gold medalists, chalked up a commanding lead in the first three quarters before quashing a late challenge to beat Japan 92-80 in the final.
South Korea bounced back from their surprise semifinals defeat to Japan to overwhelm Taiwan 88-59 in the third-place playoff.
Beckenbauer Joins Leipzig
2012 Olympic Bid
In Leipzig, German football great Franz Beckenbauer is joining a special committee to support Leipzig’s bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. Beckenbauer, a World Cup winner as a player and coach and who is in charge of the organizing committee for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, will join the 21-member ‘brains trust’ which includes three members of the International Olympic Committee and the chairmen of Siemens and Porsche. “We have his agreement but he is not sure yet whether he will be able to come to the first meeting,” said the president of Germany’s National Olympic Committee, Klaus Steinbach.
