Karichal Chundan' snake boat of Kollam Jesus Boat Club lifted the coveted Nehru Trophy in the boat race held at Punnamada lake here on Saturday. Thousands of people including a large number of foreign tourists witnessed the 56th edition of Nehru Trophy boat race here. The Nehru Trophy Boat Race on the Punnamada lake in Alappuzha is one of the most popular boat races in Kerala.

Opening ceremonies kick off for real next Friday, August 8th. A South Korean television crew filmed a rehearsal of the show earlier this week at the massive Bird’s Nest national stadium, leaking the first video from a show so closely guarded that practice sessions have been protected by three rings of checkpoints. Cast and crew were required to sign confidentiality agreements.

As it began, the main mixed martial arts event in front of an announced crowd of 13,998 at the Honda Center between heavyweights Fedor Emelianenko 6-foot-1, 230 pounds and Tim Sylvia two-time former Ultimate Fighting Championship champ at Affliction Banned ended almost as soon as it started.

Congress in Kerala floated a new organisation, national sports forum, 'Desiya Kayika Vedi', to encourage budding sports talent in the state. This was purely for sports and had nothing to do with politics, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Oomen Chandy said inaugurating the forum.

Sports and arts clubs would be started in each grama panchayat under this forum, he said.

Cheerleaders will not be banned during IPL cricket matches in Mumbai but they may have to shed their skimpy outfits with police today warning of action against the organisers if their shows are found to be vulgar.

The Olympic torch today arrived in Japan on the latest leg of a worldwide relay hit by protests. The chartered Beijing Olympic plane, emblazoned with the slogan "Journey of Harmony," flew into Tokyo's Haneda airport at 0230 IST (2100 GMT Thursday) welcomed by some 30 people holding Chinese and Japanese flags.

A quiet but warm celebration marked Sachin Tendulkar's 35th birthday as the master batsman cut the cake surrounded by his cheerful Mumbai Indians team-mates at a city hotel here today.

leader George Fernandes and author Arundhati Roy will join hundreds of Tibetans in a torch relay parallel to the Olympic flame run here on Thursday. The five-kilometre parallel relay will begin from Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, and end at Jantar Mantar with the organisers expecting participation of about 5,000 people.

You help us in cricket and we will help you in soccer! This was the message as President Pratibha Patil visited this soccer-obsessed, Latin American country as part of her 13-day, three nation tour to Brazil, Mexico and Chile. Under an understanding arrived between Brazil and India, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will soon send a coach to train the cricketers here.