A ray of hope has emerged for the Indian athletic community in form of an association between Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ). OGQ is an initiative promoted by Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone that will identify and promote talented Indian athletes and make them visible on the national and international arena.

Words of hope

Geet Sethi is hopeful of coming up with a talented pool of athletes. According to Geet, the association of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in this endeavor is a clear sign that industry is beginning to recognize the hard work put in by the athletes and is hopeful of better days for sport.

Corporate involvement

Corporate involvement in promotion of sports will be ensured through this initiative. The MoU, in this regard was signed by Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of CII and Geet Sethi. Leander Paes and Vishwanath Anand are the other directors of Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ).

Chandrajit Banerjee is quite hopeful of building the country’s image in athletics though this association. India’s performance has been rather dismal, when it comes to performing at the international events. It is hoped that this association will be able to promote the nobel venture of bringing rapid improvement in the performance of athletes in national and international events.

The list of athletes being supported by Olympic Gold Quest is exhaustive and gold medal winners as Gagan Narang, Saina Nahiwal and Mary Kom are being supported through this association. Additionally, nineteen athletes from PT Usha school of athletics are also being offered guidance and professional training through this endeavor.

Olympic Gold Quest is hopeful of supporting 100 athletes by 2012. An honest initiative on part of passionate sportsmen, the association between OGQ and CII will help bridge the gap that still exists, when it comes to clinching medals in international events.

U.S. women’s soccer team’s stunning performance over Dominican Republican has come at a price. The U.S team routed Dominican Republican by 14-0. Defender Ali Krieger was ruled out from the game after she suffered a right knee injury in the first half of the game.

The extent of the injury is still unknown and questions are being raised on her participation in the rest of the matches of the olympic qualifying tournament.

Injury status

As per Pia Sundhage, coach of the women’s soccer team the full extent of the injury suffered by Ali Krieger will be known by weekend after her MRI scan report is out.The coach was hopeful of a positive development but also a note of caution by hinting that the team may have to proceed without the ace defender for rest of the matches.

However, Krieger was not available for any official comment on her part. She suffered the injury after she slipped and fell awkwardly during the first round of the olympic qualifying match.

Teammates by her side

Her teammates have expressed their concern on the injury status of Ali Krieger and want her to get back to the field soon. Teammate Abby Wambach had some words of solace for Ali Krieger.

Abby Wambach was of the view that playing on a turf surface is always full of risks and the status of any injury suffered is difficult to judge unless proper medial diagnosis is done. Wambach herself had to sit out of the field during the second half. She fell several times suffering injury in her left knee. She was replaced by Alex Morgan for the second half of the game.

The team management is however quite hopeful of a balanced performance from the team and has a bench strength of talented players who can take over, in case of some eventuality.

Lance Armstrong, the seven consecutive times Tour de France cycling champion, has been accused of doping charges. This doping probe has been investigated by the World Anti-Doping Agency, popularly known as WADA. As the charges are not confirmed yet, the anti doping agency is still trying to get important evidence about Lance Armstrong doping issues.

The case 

The World Anti-Doping Agency has been requesting the US authorities to get the evidence about the doping charges against Armstrong. WADA believes, it would be of a great help if US Federal passes that important information about the champion. The doubt went deep as the case was not concluded properly and closed abruptly without any charge filed and explanations. The WADA has confirmed about the proceedings on the probe until it reaches a conclusion. But the federal officials have given Armstrong a clean chit on the accusation and dropped all charges. So, it is believed that the two years effort by WADA might go in vain. There are various evidences of anti-doping areas which might arise while investigating about doping. The US anti doping agency has been trying hard to find the evidence which might provide some very helpful information in this doping probe about Lance Armstrong and his cyclist team. WADA is pretty sure that the information provided by the US federal agency might help to draw a conclusion in this case as it did with American sprinter Marion Jones and others.

WADA expects the information before the London Olympics 

WADA has requested to be hand over the information about Armstrong six months prior to the London Olympics in July. It is because, there might be some athletes involved in this doping probe and preparing to move to London for the Olympics.

There should be no cheats in any athletic event to ensure the best to win. It is heartbreaking enough for the deserving if they loose an event to those athletes who use doping to succeed. Those athletes need to get punished to keep the game clean. WADA is responsible to take care of the doping issues in the sports world.

Calling the referee a ” thief” proved costly for Neymar. The young Brazil superstar, Neymar, who is just 19, posted a message on his twitter account stating that referee is a ‘thief’. Later, he revealed that he has been fined and has been ordered to pay 6000 Euros as damages for disrespecting the referee.

He was handed the order by a local court in Sao Paulo asking him to pay for ruining the integrity of the referee.

Neymar’s reply

Neymar has reacted sharply to the treatment meted to him by the court. The Brazilian superstar has decided to appeal against the court order. In a forward, written on his personal website, Neymar claimed that it was never his intention to offend the referee.

The trouble started when Santos was defeated by Victoria by 4-2 in August 2010 and a message appeared on Neymar’s twitter account calling the referee a ‘thief’.

Neymar’s lawyer claims that Neymar did not write the offending message. The message was posted by a friend of Neymar who had access to the Brazilian superstar’s account. Neymar meanwhile, agreed that he needs to be cautious while dealing with his social media presence.

He clarified that that he had deleted the message immediately after he came to know about the same. He however noted that he had not taken the necessary precautions, else the incident would not have occurred.

The judge however disagreed with Neymar’s justification and asked him to pay for the damage. The judge also asked Neymar to be cautious and ensure that anyone should not use his name in an illegal manner.

Being cautious is imperative for Neymar as he has been an international superstar. He has been linked to some of the glamorous clubs including Real Madrid. His current contract with Santos is until 2014.