Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers finally won the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the 2007-08 NBA Most Valuable Player after 12 years of hard word in the most competitive basketball league in the world.

Bryant averaged 28.3 points, 5.4 assists and 6.3 rebounds a game this season for the Lakers, whose 57-25 record was the best in the Western Conference.

The 1.98m Bryant, named four times to the All-NBA First Team, helped the Lakers win three successive NBA titles from 2000.

"This is a beautiful day, a special day for me," a beaming Bryant, 29, told a news conference after being presented with the trophy. "I'm just deeply, deeply honored to be here.

"This is a team award. This is not an individual award," he added with a nod toward his teammates, who attended the news conference.

Yi Jianlian

NBA rookie Yi Jianlian joined the Chinese national team's training camp in Beijing on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old from Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, returned to Beijing after participating in the Olympic torch relay in Sanya, Hainan but he is likely to take another two weeks off to give his injured right wrist time to heal.

"I have enough time," he said. "I am confident that both Yao Ming and I will be able to recover our best form ahead of the Games."

Yi, the No 6 overall draft pick last year, plies his trade for the Milwaukee Bucks. He is the key man to assist Houston Rockets' all-star center Yao in China's bid to improve upon its eighth-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The 2.12m power forward started 55 games in his rookie season, averaging 8.7 points and 6.1 rebounds then crashing into the dreaded 'rookie wall' as the NBA's grueling season finally took its toll.

"After spending a whole season in the NBA, I am a lot stronger and I have a better understanding about the game," he said. "I am so happy to have a second chance to play the Olympics. I think that right now I'm just preparing my heart for it."

Guo Jingjing

The diving queen again underlined her dominance in the sport by claiming two gold medals at the Canada Cup this week.

The 26-year-old Guo led China to a 1-2 finish on the 3m springboard followed by Wu Minxia on Monday. She pocketed the 3m synchro gold with Wu a day later.

"I feel good as the Olympics approaches," Guo said after winning the event, the fourth stop on the FINA Grand Prix diving circuit. "Winning some matches with four months to the Games is really important for me, because it gives a lot of confidence."

Guo, defending Olympic gold medalist at the 3m springboard and 3m synchro, is in sizzling form right now. She picked up another two titles at the Mexico Cup last month.

Peng Shuai

China's Peng Shuai won her first match in two months as she beat American Jill Craybas 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-0 in the first round of the German Open in Berlin.

The world No 66 has not won a single match since her second-round finish in Bangalore in early March. She then fell in the first rounds in Miami and Amelia Island before withdrawing from Charleston with a left hamstring injury.

Peng lost two singles' matches in China's 4-1 loss to Spain in the semifinals of the Fed Cup in Beijing in recent weeks.

"I want to concentrate on the court to get back my form," she said. "I used to think too much because the Olympics give me a lot of pressure, now I just want to release myself from it and try to enjoy the game rather than to suffer from it."

Peng is expected to be China's No 2 singles player at the Beijing Olympics following Li Na. She also hopes to join Athens gold medalist Sun Tiantian in the doubles tournament.

Ronnie O'Sullivan

Ronnie O'Sullivan clinched a third snooker world title on Monday with a resounding 18-8 win over Ali Carter in the final at The Crucible.

With Carter struggling to find his best form in his first appearance in a ranking final, O'Sullivan established an 11-5 lead at the close of play on Sunday. He then moved to within two frames of victory at 16-8 at the end of the penultimate session.

Carter provided little resistance as fellow Briton O'Sullivan took less than half an hour to win the first two frames of the evening to land the title.

Despite the margin of victory, O'Sullivan said he was far from happy with his performance.

"I played really good in the semifinal but I didn't feel at ease in the final," he said.

"I never really got going so it was just a matter of sticking in there. The best I felt in the whole match was in the first three frames and the last two frames."

O'Sullivan, who also triumphed at The Crucible in 2001 and 2004, acknowledged it would be a tall order to overhaul Stephen Hendry's record of seven world titles.

He said: "It's nice to have got the third one and I'd like to think I could win a few more, but there are a lot of hungry players who put pressure on you if you're not on your game."

(China Daily 05/09/2008 page4)