World Sport Briefs Masterful Lin wins world title

KUALA LUMPUR – China’s number one Lin Dan and ?fth-seeded Zhu Lin clinched the coveted men’s and women’s world badminton crowns yesterday, as Indonesia also savoured victory with two doubles titles.

Defending champion Dan downed Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro 21-11, 22-20 in a dramatic ?nal to become only the second men’s singles player in history to win consecutive world championship titles. Lin, known as Super Dan to his legion of fans, dropped to the ?oor and pulled his shirt over his head as the 9 000-strong crowd cheered his win.Beckham starts but Galaxy fall to Bulls EAST RUTHERFORD – In his ?rst Major League Soccer start, David Beckham was instrumental in three Galaxy goals but couldn’t prevent Los Angeles from falling 5-4 to the New York Red Bulls on Saturday.New York’s Jozy Altidore and Juan Pablo Angel and the Galaxy’s Carlos Pavon all scored twice at a packed Giants Stadium.Klose, Schweinsteiger out of England friendly BERLIN – Bayern Munich striker Miroslav Klose has pulled out of Germany’s friendly against England on Wednesday due to a knee injury picked up during his club’s 4-0 drubbing of Werder Bremen.Klose played only the ?rst half of the Bundesliga match on Saturday after being sidelined by a crunching tackle from Brazilian Naldo.The knock was serious enough to seriously compromise his participation, and he will be joined in watching the match from the sidelines by Bayern teammate Bastian Schweinsteiger, who picked up a back injury in the same match.FA to explore goal-line technology LONDON – England’s Football Association are set to explore using goal-line technology after the latest refereeing blunder led to a clear goal being disallowed.On Saturday of?cials failed to award David Healy a late equaliser during Fulham’s defeat by Middlesbrough.Healy appeared to have rescued a point when Boro keeper Mark Schwarzer failed to hold the striker’s injury-time shot with replays showing the ball had clearly crossed the line.However, referee Andy D’Urso and linesman Ian Gosling refused to award the effort which left Cottagers boss Lawrie Sanchez furious as the home side went down to a 2-1 defeat.John TKOs Takemoto to defend title KOBE – Indonesian champion Chris John yesterday defended his World Boxing Association featherweight title, defeating Zaiki Takemoto of Japan by a technical knockout at the end of the ninth round.It was John’s eighth defence of the title, stretching his record to 40 wins, including 21 KOs, and one draw.Takemoto has 21 wins, including 12 KOs, seven defeats and a draw.Lee back at bowling full tilt SYDNEY – Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee says he is back to bowling at top speed ahead of next month’s Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.Lee, 30, had major surgery on torn ligaments in his left ankle four months ago after missing Australia’s World Cup triumph in the Caribbean.His recovery has been restrained but Lee was encouraged by bowling at full stretch in a net session at the Sydney Cricket Ground last week.Canada defeat defensive minded Portugal OTTAWA – Canada defeated a determined Portugal 42-12 here Saturday and said the victory still showed plenty of room for improvement as they look toward next month’s rugby World Cup.While Canada scored six tries to the two of Portugal – who are also World Cup bound – Canada coach Ric Suggitt admitted he had been looking for better things at home.”Today we met a bit of adversity against a scrappy side,” said Suggitt, whose side missed out on several chances to make the score more lopsided.Nampa-Reuters and AFPLin, known as Super Dan to his legion of fans, dropped to the ?oor and pulled his shirt over his head as the 9 000-strong crowd cheered his win.Beckham starts but Galaxy fall to Bulls EAST RUTHERFORD – In his ?rst Major League Soccer start, David Beckham was instrumental in three Galaxy goals but couldn’t prevent Los Angeles from falling 5-4 to the New York Red Bulls on Saturday.New York’s Jozy Altidore and Juan Pablo Angel and the Galaxy’s Carlos Pavon all scored twice at a packed Giants Stadium.Klose, Schweinsteiger out of England friendly BERLIN – Bayern Munich striker Miroslav Klose has pulled out of Germany’s friendly against England on Wednesday due to a knee injury picked up during his club’s 4-0 drubbing of Werder Bremen.Klose played only the ?rst half of the Bundesliga match on Saturday after being sidelined by a crunching tackle from Brazilian Naldo.The knock was serious enough to seriously compromise his participation, and he will be joined in watching the match from the sidelines by Bayern teammate Bastian Schweinsteiger, who picked up a back injury in the same match.FA to explore goal-line technology LONDON – England’s Football Association are set to explore using goal-line technology after the latest refereeing blunder led to a clear goal being disallowed.On Saturday of?cials failed to award David Healy a late equaliser during Fulham’s defeat by Middlesbrough.Healy appeared to have rescued a point when Boro keeper Mark Schwarzer failed to hold the striker’s injury-time shot with replays showing the ball had clearly crossed the line.However, referee Andy D’Urso and linesman Ian Gosling refused to award the effort which left Cottagers boss Lawrie Sanchez furious as the home side went down to a 2-1 defeat.John TKOs Takemoto to defend title KOBE – Indonesian champion Chris John yesterday defended his World Boxing Association featherweight title, defeating Zaiki Takemoto of Japan by a technical knockout at the end of the ninth round.It was John’s eighth defence of the title, stretching his record to 40 wins, including 21 KOs, and one draw.Takemoto has 21 wins, including 12 KOs, seven defeats and a draw.Lee back at bowling full tilt SYDNEY – Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee says he is back to bowling at top speed ahead of next month’s Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.Lee, 30, had major surgery on torn ligaments in his left ankle four months ago after missing Australia’s World Cup triumph in the Caribbean.His recovery has been restrained but Lee was encouraged by bowling at full stretch in a net session at the Sydney Cricket Ground last week.Canada defeat defensive minded Portugal OTTAWA – Canada defeated a determined Portugal 42-12 here Saturday and said the victory still showed plenty of room for improvement as they look toward next month’s rugby World Cup.While Canada scored six tries to the two of Portugal – who are also World Cup bound – Canada coach Ric Suggitt admitted he had been looking for better things at home.”Today we met a bit of adversity against a scrappy side,” said Suggitt, whose side missed out on several chances to make the score more lopsided.Nampa-Reuters and AFP