Yao sustained an injury in his left foot in Houston Rockets’ 108-94 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on May 8. Team doctors said he had to rest for 8-12 weeks.

    The newly Chinese team was formed for the 2009 Asian Men’s Basketball Championships slated for August 6-16 in Tianjin, China.

    ”We don’t expect Yao Ming to be ready in August. He needs at least two months to nurse the injury and another month for a full recovery. I don’t think he can make it (for the championships),” said Hu Jiashi, vice president of

    the Chinese Basketball Management Center, on Friday.

    Most of the members of the 2008 Beijing Olympic

    Games were registered in the new national team. The 34-year-old Guo Shiqiang was named the head coach of the team last week.

    The CBA announced a backup national team on Wednesday, which Hu said, concluded most of the young stars of the domestic league.

    ”Players of the second national team have chances to make into the first team, if they work hard enough,” Hu said. “We set up a backup national team in 2007 when three of the team made into the first team eventually. It’s a good way to

    help the young players being mature and being ready for bigger assignments.”

    ”Both teams are the preparation for the 2012 London Olympics. The final squad for the Olympics will be selected from members of the two teams,” Hu added.

    Zhao Jing shattered the women’s 50m backstroke world record with a time of 27.06 seconds to win the world title.

    ”It’s my first world championship and this gold was beyond my wildest dreams,” said Zhao, who bettered the previous mark of 27.38 seconds set by Anastasia Zueva in the semifinals.

    Germany’s Daniela Samulski claimed silver in 27.23 seconds and China’s Gao Chang placed third in 27.28.

Chinese swimmers swept two titles out of five at stake on Thursday to raise their swimming gold tally to three at the world championships in Rome.

    Zhao Jing shattered the women’s 50m backstroke world record with a time of 27.06 seconds to win the world title.

    ”It’s my first world championship and this gold was beyond my wildest dreams,” said Zhao, who bettered the previous mark of 27.38 seconds set by Anastasia Zueva in the semifinals.

    Germany’s Daniela Samulski claimed silver in 27.23 seconds and China’s Gao Chang placed third in 27.28.

    Cheered on by raucous home spectators at the Beilun Sports and Arts Center, the Chinese women scored a lopsided 25-15, 25-21, 25- 14 victory.

    Six-time world champion Russia joined China as the undefeated team in the competition after fending off a spirited challenge from the Dominican Republic for a 25-21, 25-27, 19-25, 25-11, 15-10 win.

    China and Russia will renew their rivalry when they meet on Sunday to decide the winner of the four-team, round robin competition. The Russians lost to China twice in the past two Olympics – the gold medal match in Athens and the quarterfinal in Beijing.

    China’s Wang Yimei was the star of the match, scoring a game-high 18 points. Ma Yunwen added 11 points and Xue Ming 10 points for the Chinese. Kime Yeon-Koung top-scored for South Korea with 11 points.

    Wang was highly efficient in the first set, where she won 10 points through her hard-hitting spikes.

    ”She (Wang) was very powerful in attack, and we could not find a solution,” said South Korea coach Lee Sung-hee.

    China’s coach Cai Bin said he was not satisfied with his young team despite the comfortable victory.

    ”My players were not fully focused in the third set when leading by a big margin. It was dangerous. I will not allow that to repeat in future,” said Cai.

    China battled it out with Australia all the way before Li Zhesi touched home in three minutes, 52.19 seconds to shatter the mark of 3:52.69 set by the Australians at the Beijing Olympics.

Australia had to settle for silver in 3:52.58, with Germany taking bronze in 3:55.79.

    American Michael Phelps won a showdown with Serbian Milorad Cavic to claim the men’s 100m butterfly gold.

    Phelps clocked 49.82 seconds to snatch the world record back from Cavic, who shattered the American’s mark in Friday’s semifinals.

Cavic finished 0.13 seconds behind for silver and Spain’s Rafael Munoz was third in 50.41.

    Kirsty Coventry took the women’s 200m backstroke in a world record time of 2:04.81.

    The Zimbabwean beat Russia’s Anastasia Zueva by 0.13 seconds. The bronze medal went to American Elizabeth Beisel who clocked 2:06.39.

    The men’s 50m backstroke world record fell in the semifinals when Britain’s Liam Tancock touched in 24.08 seconds, shaving 0.25 seconds off the old standard held by Randall Ball.

    Thailand is hosting the first Asian Martial Arts Games under the supervision of the Olympic Council of Asia from Aug. 1 to 9.

    After the debut of the contest, it was the first day that China took the gold medals.

    The first two gold medals were from the Taekwondo contest in the women’s feather weight of 55-59 kilograms and the women’s light weight of 59-63 kilograms.

    The third gold medal was from the contest in the men’s Duilian Apparatus Combat of the Wushu and Kungfu contest.

    Also, by Wednesday China had totally taken seven medals, including a silver medal from the Judo contest and three bronze ones from the Taekwondo game.

    The seven medals sent China to rank 4th from the total country participants that have been taking part in the games.

    Meanwhile, South Korea had remained the top one as the country’s athletes won totally nine gold medals, four silver and two bronze medals. The South Korea’s total 15 medals were from the Taekwondo and Judo competition.

    Kazakhstan ranked 2nd as the country’s athletes won five gold medals from the Judo and Taekwondo competition.

    Totally, Kazakhstan got 12 medals, including four silver medals and three more bronze medals from the Judo and Taekwondo games.

    Japan ranked 3rd as the country’s sportsmen gained five gold medals, one silver and two other bronze medals from the Judo contest. Japan’s total eight medals were from the Judo and Taekwondo games.