No 'Hercules' at Beijing 2008

Iran's double gold medalist and 105+ kilogram world record holding weightlifter Hossein Rezazadeh, also known as the "Iranian Hercules," will not be coming to Beijing to defend his title.
Rezazadeh, who weighs more than 161kg at 185cm tall, made the decision not to compete in this year's Olympics after doctors told him to avoid "heavy and stressful activity."
"I am sure that my young friends are very well able to repeat the national honor in the 2008 Olympic Games and therefore I accept the doctors' suggestion," said the 30-year old Olympic champion.
"Mr. Rezazadeh had eight months of heavy training while having stomach problems," said Iranian weightlifting federation public relations, Mahmoud Abdollahi.
Head of the Iran Weightlifting Federation Bahram Afsharzadeh wrote a letter to Rezazadeh saying he should "pay attention to the suggestion of the doctors and the experts."
The "Iranian Hercules" is currently the world record holder for Snatch (213kg), Clean and Jerk (263 kg) and total (472kg) in the 105+ weight class. His lifting world records surpass the records in all other weight classes, prompting many to call him "the world's strongest man."
When he won his first Olympic gold at the 2000 Sydney Games, Rezazadeh was also breaking a decades-long tradition of Soviet dominance in the sport.
Rezazadeh was also the Asian Games champion in 2002 and 2006, and won multiple golds at each of the World Championships from 2002-2006. He did not participate in the 2007 World Championships because of a knee injury sustained in a car accident driving to weightlifting camp in northern Iran last year. Latvia's Viktors Scerbatihs won the 105+kg division instead.
As one of Iran's biggest celebrities, this world-class lifter was honored with the national distinction of "Champion of Champions" in 2002 and granted a badge of courage from Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. In 2006, a 6,000-person capacity indoor arena named "Rezazadeh Stadium" was built in his honor in his hometown of Ardabil, Iran.

Phase Four Olympics ticket sales to start from 25 july 2008

BOCOG announced on July 22 the policy concerning the phase four sales of Olympic tickets to the domestic public. Beginning July 25, the remaining 820,000 Olympic tickets will be sold at venue ticket booths from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily.
Unlike the first three phases, the fourth phase of ticket sales is open to the individuals rather than groups, and the public can line up to buy tickets at ticket booths of the Olympic venues and pay with cash or a Visa card.
In order to give more people a chance to buy tickets, each person is allowed to buy at most two tickets for one session at once.
According to Zhu Yan, director of the BOCOG Ticketing Center, only tickets for competitions taking place locally will be available for purchase. Of the 820,000 remaining tickets, 250,000 are for competitions in the Beijing area. Venues in the co-host cities -- Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao -- will only sell tickets for Football matches to be held in each respective city.