Iran to take part in US wrestling tournamentTEHRAN: Iran will take part in the World Cup freestyle wrestling championships in the the United States next month, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported yesterday. Iranian sports teams have visited the United States before, but such exchanges have been boosted by the success of the visit by US wrestlers to Iran last month.
The wrestlers, who participated in an international tournament in Tehran, were the first American athletes to go to Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In April, the Iranian wrestling team will take part in the World Cup at Oklahoma State University, IRNA quoted the Iranian Olympic Committee as saying.
Iranian-US relations have been hostile since the revolution overthrew the US-backed Shah. But Iran's president Mohammad Khatami, who took office in August, has been trying to engineer a detente.
Junxia recovers
BEIJING: Wang Junxia, China's 10,000 m women's world record holder, has fully recovered frominjury and is training normally, the state-run Xinhua news agency quoted a sports official as saying today.
``Wang, who won gold at 5,000m at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, returned to the track only late last year and is now training under a normal schedule,'' said Cui Dalin, head of sports for the north-eastern Chinese province of Liaoning.
Wang used to train under flamboyant coach Ma Junren, who is now putting a new stable of promising runners together. ``Cui said that if the new runners continue working hard, the 2000 Olympics in Sydney will be the right place for them to emerge as glittering stars,'' Xinhua reported.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
