The Beijinger Blog - Sport

Just For Kicks: Skating to Tian'anmen

thebeijinger — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:00:49 +0800

Beijing has had its very own Olympics, it's got its very own cuisine so what else could it possibly need? The people over at Nike thought they had the answer to that conundrum when they commissioned the city’s very own sneaker. You heard right, Beijing has got it’s very own Nike shoe to confirm its place on the world map.

Talking Balls: Car Racing, China Super League and Ice Skating

thebeijinger — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:00:21 +0800

It’s official, pop open the champagne, Beijing Guo'an have won the league. As likely as that could be in the strangest season of Chinese football’s bizarre history, it’s not exactly what you’re thinking.

It is the same Beijing Guo'an but they have won the SuperLeague Formula championship not the Chinese Super League. Still not entirely up to speed? They did so in a car in a recently set up rival to Formula 1. This was the first year of the competition in which professional football clubs sponsor the cars and over the course of six race meets Davide Rigon representing Beijing took the title. Will he be able to defend it next season when it expands to nine races, including one outside of Europe? Will Beijing get that non-European race, or will it go to the fast money and faster lifestyle of somewhere like Dubai? Most importantly, will the fact that Beijing Guo'an have finished in a league table above Liverpool, AC Milan and Corinthians appease fans of the football team?

Talking Balls: Football Punks, Women’s Dunks and Olympic Junkies

thebeijinger — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:00:49 +0800

The biggest story of the week regards everyone’s favorite football club, our very own Bejing Guo'an. Not content with appearing in the match that led to Wuhan Guanggu quitting the league entirely, or with inflaming Shangai Shenhua fans so much that they torched a Guoan mascot, last week Beijing’s finest excelled even themselves. How? By getting involved in what has variously been described as a “brawl” and “handbag waving” the majority deciding that the fracas was toward the tote-carrying end of the violence spectrum. That’s right, a wee bit of pushing and shoving with Tianjin Teda was all it took for domestic television’s powers-that-be to decide that there will be no more Chinese Super League broadcasts.

Fight at the Football

thebeijinger — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:00:22 +0800

"Brawl“ at Beijing v. Tianjin Match

Tempers flared at last night's match between Tianjin and Beijing Guo'an out at Fengtai Stadium. Although the sports pages of today’s papers are calling it a brawl (斗殴) , if you watch the video below, you’ll see it was really just a bit of pushing and dramatic falling on the ground. However, things did get a little chaotic as substitutes and trainers rushed on to the field to get involved. After the situation had calmed down, the Saudi referee’s decision to give the Guo’an player who had been pushed to the ground (Zhang Yonghai) a red card for “diving,” led to further troubles and complaints of incompetence.

Talking Balls: Go Guo'an, Peasant Olympics and NBA Players Join the Beijing Ducks

thebeijinger — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:00:44 +0800

Xinhua dubbed them the "National Peasants' Games" (though they called it the 7th not the 6th) but a lot of foreign media have taken to calling the 6th National Nongmin Sports Meeting the "Peasant Olympics." The games wound up on Saturday in Fujian's Quanzhou and attracted more attention than you would expect due to the presence of non-typical sporting events such as rice transplanting and even rice throwing. AFP have done a nice little video roundup here. The event, like the Olympics, is held every four years, the first was held in Beijing in 1988.

Talking Balls: NBA, Beijing Guo'an on a Roll and Beijing to Bid for the 2018 World Cup?

thebeijinger — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:00:59 +0800

Last week Beijing was lucky enough to be host to visitors from the NBA. The Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors played out an exhibition game before basketball zealots at Wukesong. The lack of stars on show may have disheartened some fans but it meant there were bargains to be had from the scalpers. After the Bucks got the best of the Warriors in the earlier game in Guangzhou, the team from Golden State were looking for revenge and that's exactly what they got - Rob Kurz hit a three at the buzzer to snatch the game 109-108. The crowd included winners of our NBA China Photo Competition - you can view the winning photographs here.

Vote for the winner of our NBA China Game Competition

thebeijinger — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:43:29 +0800

We've selected the shortlist for our China NBA Game Competition and now it's up to you to vote for your favorite image. The person who sent us the photo that manages to garner the most votes as of 2pm tomorrow afternoon (Friday, Oct 17), will win 4 tickets to Saturday's NBA game at the Wukesong Indoor Stadium.

You can choose to either select the one image that you like the best or rank some or all of the images. Please be sure to make sure that you don't give the same ranking to more than one image, this will invalidate your vote.

To vote, click here.

Talking Balls: Golf, Shooting and Free Tickets to the NBA

thebeijinger — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:00:33 +0800

Lots of balls this week, and if you want to see some live NBA action absolutely free you’re going to have to grab your own balls and show us a photograph. To be more exact, our competition to win tickets for the game between the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks on Oct 18 is now underway. To win four tickets all you have to do is send in a photo to us at blog@thebeijinger.com of you somewhere in this lovely city with a basketball. It doesn’t even have to be your basketball so all you need is a camera. More details about the competition can be found here, and you can view the current entries here. The cut-off date is 6pm this evening, so get snapping.

Competition: Win Tickets to the NBA China Game

thebeijinger — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:00:49 +0800

Update: Voting is now open. To rank your favorite of the 8 images we've chosen, click here.

Olympic Venues for Hire

thebeijinger — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:00:25 +0800

Olympic sporting venues located inside the National Olympic Sports Center, just south of the Bird's Nest, are now open to the public - and we're not just talking about tourists poking their noses around. According to a report in Sunday's Beijing News, as part of a plan to put the Olympic venues to good use, the National Olympics Sports Center Stadium, National Olympics Sports Center Gymnasium, the Yingdong Natatorium of National Olympic Sports Center, National Olympic Sports Center Hockey Pitch, National Olympic Sports Center Comprehensive Training Gymnasium, National Olympic Sports Center Handball Training Gymnasium and National Olympic Sports Center Football Training Pitch are now all available for hire. The National Olympics Sports Center is not a new venue, but it under went renovation from 2005 to 2007 in preparation to host the Olympic Handball, Water Polo and Modern Pentathlon events.  