Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, cialis the government official in charge of Olympic construction facility development in Sochi, advice  has claimed that all construction work ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics will be completed by the end of 2012.

Kozak revealed that 131 Games venues were already finished, while 182 others were still under construction, stating at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin: “We are completely sure that we are capable of finishing the sports facilities next year.

“All the Games sports facilities in the mountain cluster will be completed by the end of 2011, while the Black Sea shore cluster venues will be ready in the summer of 2012 at the latest,” Kozak added. “According to the expert estimations we have finished around 70% of the preparation works for the Olympics.”

Kozak added that the Games organising committee is planning to stage 19 national and international competitions in nine disciplines at Sochi Olympic venues in 2012 to test out the facilities: “We are planning a tough testing of Olympic venues, including a leg of the alpine ski World Cup in 2012,” he said.

The IOC will allow Saudi Arabia athlete Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani to compete in the Olympics in a headscarf after a compromise was reached that respects “cultural sensitivities” in the Muslim kingdom.

Judo officials had previously said they would not let Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani compete in a headscarf because it was against the principles of the sport and raised safety concerns.

But an agreement was reached after several days of IOC-brokered talks between the international judo federation and the Saudi Olympic Committee that clears the way for her to compete Friday in the women’s heavyweight division.

“They have a solution that works for both parties, all parties involved,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said. “The athlete will compete.”

Saudi Arabia, which had never sent women athletes to the Olympics before, brought its two first female Olympians to London on condition they adhere to the kingdom’s conservative Islamic traditions, including wearing a headscarf.

Shahrkhani’s participation was thrown into doubt last week when judo officials said a headscarf could be dangerous because the sport includes chokeholds and aggressive grabbing techniques.

Without giving precise details of the headscarf agreement, Adams said it is in line with rules of judo in Asia and is “safety compliant but allows for cultural sensitivity.'”

“In Asia, judo is a common practice so they asked for something that would be compliant with that, and the judo federations have reached a compromise that both are happy with,” he said.

Asian judo federations have previously allowed Muslim women to wear the headscarf, known as a hijab, during major competitions. Headscarves are allowed in taekwondo, but taekwondo fighters also wear a headguard, which covers the headscarf.

Shahrkhani may be the first judoka to fight at the Olympics who does not hold a black belt in judo, a Japanese martial art.

She did not qualify for her Olympic spot like the majority of other judoka. The IOC extended a special invitation for her to compete as part of negotiations to bring Saudi women to the Olympics for the first time.

The other Saudi female athlete scheduled to compete in London is 19-year-old Sarah Attar, a California-based 800-meter runner.

Major League Soccer’s (MLS) San Jose Earthquakes and Aurasma, the world’s leading augmented reality platform, have partnered to transform the team’s 2012 logo and promotional materials into cross-media experiences that will draw fans closer to the Major League Soccer team.

Using the free Aurasma Lite app for iPhones, iPads and Android devices, fans can aim their device at the San Jose Earthquakes logo anywhere in the world and view a special video message from top scorer, Chris Wondolowski, followed by game highlights.

Using the app, the Quakes logo transforms into a video of Wondolowski before the fans’ eyes, bringing sports promotion into the bold new world of augmented reality. Wherever the Quakes logo is seen, whether it is a magnet on a fridge, a poster in a bedroom or someone wearing a player’s jersey, fans can unlock game highlights and access exclusive promotions. The videos, called an “Aura,” and promotions will change over the course of the season to keep fans engaged.

Also, fans attending Quakes game will be able to aim their device at the San Jose Earthquakes player cards distributed to attendees in the free game program to view a special player video. Every game, the collectable player card features a different team member, and the Aura will bring that player to life on the fan’s mobile device or tablet, allowing the player to personally share his hobbies, history, hopes and aspirations.

“The San Jose Earthquakes have some of the most devout fans in Major League Soccer, and we want our promotions to match that passion while also meeting the fans’ thirst for more engagement with the players,” said Earthquakes President Dave Kaval. “This partnership with Aurasma brings entertaining, interactive media to our club and allows our fans to connect with our players in revolutionary ways.”

Jennifer Rapp, general manager at Aurasma, added: “The forward-thinking Earthquakes organization understands that its loyal fan base craves engagement with players beyond game day. Since sports teams’ logos are seen on all types of merchandise it is really fun and easy to transform a poster, sweatshirt or even coffee mug into another screen to watch game highlights and engage with the players. We are excited to power the first U.S. Major League Soccer team’s augmented reality experience.”

The San Jose Earthquakes celebrates its home opener against the New England Revolution this Saturday, May 10, 2012 at 7:30pm PST.

by Ismail Uddin

According to The Guardian, Valcke stated: “Contrary to some media allegations I want to make it very clear that neither I nor anyone else at FIFA have asked Mr Mohammed bin Hammam at any point to withdraw his candidature for the upcoming FIFA presidency election.

“The last time I met the AFC [Asian Football Confederation] president was at the Conmebol Congress in Asunción on May 1, where we simply greeted each other. Again these allegations are totally untrue.”

The refute by Valcke came after Qatari 2022 bid officials had denied the allegations of corruption and sought to discredit an “embittered” whistleblower who is set to give evidence to FIFA on Wednesday, May 24.

In a lengthy statement, Qatari officials called the claims of payments to FIFA Executive Committee members in return for votes during the tender for the 2022 World Cup as “distressing, insulting and incomprehensible”.

The statement also raised doubts about the “credibility of the reporters, their motivations and extent to which…the evidence in any way can be relied upon”.

The first major event to be staged by an Olympic venue after the 2012 Games has been confirmed as the 2015 Canoe Slalom World Championships – to be staged at London’s Lee Valley course.

The host to the 2012 Olympic canoe slalom events beat competition from Bourg-Saint-Maurice in the French Alps with London’s Olympic venues having already failed in bids to host the 2015 World Athletics and 2014 Hockey World Cup.

The Lee Valley White Water Centre was the first brand new London 2012 venue to be completed, at a cost of £31m (US$50.4m) in December 2010 and Britain’s top slalom canoeists have had exclusive use of the course since then, before Lee Valley opens to the public – and foreign rivals – on April 22.

Bringing major events in Olympic sports to Britain after the Games have concluded is a cornerstone of the London 2012 organising committee’s ambition to deliver what it calls a ‘legacy’ after the Olympics. However, London’s bid to stage the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was withdrawn in November 2010 as continued uncertainty over the future of the Olympic Stadium meant the bid team could not even guarantee a running track would remain in place.

The UFA sports agency has extended its operations to Asia, pilule opening a new office in Singapore.

UFA Sports Asia will be the new business run from there, healing and is a joint venture with Asian sports rights experts Tom Housemean and Jeff Chue.

Houseman, managing director at UFA Sports Asia, said: “We can hit the ground running. We already enjoy a strong network of pan-Asian relationships, which we can now enhance with a range of attractive new offerings, and these compliment perfectly with the growing portfolio of properties and rights-holder relationships which UFA Sports has developed in Europe.”

Tencent, the leading online media company in China, today announced that the most discussed topic in China over the course of the Opening Ceremony was the Queen’s entrance via helicopter alongside James Bond.

According to Tencent Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, posts of support for China’s athletes were overtaken by the sight of the Queen leaping from a helicopter before entering the stadium to announce the start of the Games. 

“What touched me most about the London ceremony is that they made the 500 construction workers of the Olympic stadium the guardians of Olympic torch.”

Discussions in support of Chinese athletes were the second most discussed topic trending on Weibo via Tencent’s online media platform. The third most discussed topic was the flag bearers representing each country and which of them was the most attractive. According to posters on Tencent Weibo, the winner was Maria McQueen Dunn, representing Guam in the Women’s Freestyle Wrestling.

The fourth highest trending topic focused on which athlete would win the first gold medal of the Games. Chinese web users predicted that shooting athlete Yu Dan would get the first gold medal of the Games, but it was another of China’s shooting experts Yi Siling who won the first gold with victory in the women’s 10m air rifle.

Ma Yankun, Head of Tencent’s Frontline Reporting Team for the London Olympics, commented that, “The Games themselves have started very well, and we saw a huge level of interest in both the Opening Ceremony and the athletes across our services, with over 25,000,000 posts and 93,989,290 visits to our portal during and after the Opening ceremony. The Ceremony itself sparked a lot of debate, from comparison of the London Games with Beijing 2008 through to the National Health Service, British history and how those responsible for building the many new stadia that are now in place were involved in the Ceremony as well. The Weibo users also had a lot of fun on the service discussing how the event was put together, from the role that David Beckham played through to which country had the most attractive flagbearer.”

According to data provided by China’s Qinghua University Media Research Lab, Tencent and its portal for online services led the overall demand for content around the Olympic Ceremony. Tencent was ranked first as the online media platform used to access content around the Olympic Opening Ceremony with more than a quarter of all respondents, followed by Sina and Baidu. In the same research, more than 90 per cent of all respondents used PCs or laptops to access content, while just under 30 per cent used tablets or mobile devices.

Deputy Editor-in-chief of Tencent portal and the director of Tencent London Olympics Project, Wang Yongzhi, said “The research that we have seen around the Chinese audience during the opening of the Olympics is that they are accessing a mix of services in order to get content. This included video, Weibo and material created by the journalists that we are supporting at the event, while a significant number used both mobile and PC devices. With audiences acting in this way, it requires a truly integrated approach in order to reach them, whether this is for the purposes of delivering content or for marketing purposes.”

ArbiterSports, treatment the established leader in referee management solutions, check have announced that the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA) has selected its online referee management system to assign football officials across the state.

During 2012, the association will expand the online assigning capability to handle additional high school sports in Louisiana where officials are needed.

“We had been assigning officials in football and other sports using a manual paper-based environment for years,” said Keith Alexander, Assistant Director of LHSAA. “With this move to ArbiterSports, we can not only streamline our processes dramatically, we can also deliver targeted feedback to each official after each game.”

Each local assigner in Louisiana will use ArbiterOne to assign officials over the Internet. In addition, coaches can use the same ArbiterOne system to evaluate officials using a format designed by the LHSAA. At the LHSAA headquarters in Baton Rouge, managers will use Arbiter360 to constantly monitor and review the entire statewide ArbiterSports system and provide the necessary feedback to continually improve the quality of officiating in the state.

Clark Evans, Vice President of Sales at ArbiterSports, said: “Louisiana was facing significant scheduling challenges as its sports programs continued to grow. Now with ArbiterOne and Arbiter360, the LHSAA can alleviate its assigning burden and keep an eye on how well the system is being adopted around the state.”

by Ismail Uddin