All the 28 sports in August's Olympics have successfully completed trials in venues in and outside Beijing after the marathon swimming test event finished last Sunday. The 10-km open water swimming event at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park was the last of 43 test events at 35 venues.

Bulgaria's Petar Stoychev won the men's qualifying race while American Chloe Sutton won the women's in the 32,000-square-meter, man-made lake in northeastern Beijing which staged rowing and canoeing events soon after completion last year. All the venues will be closed until the Games begin on August 8.

Handball berths

Former world champions France, Spain, Croatia and Russia booked places for the Beijing Olympics men's handball competition after finishing in the top two in qualification tournaments. Twelve teams battled for six places in tournaments in Paris, Wroclaw and Zadar from Friday to Sunday to join the six teams who had already qualified. Host China, world champion Germany, PanAmerican champion Brazil, European champion Denmark and African champions Egypt were exempted from the competition. Four-time world champions Sweden will not go to Beijing after finishing third in Wroclaw's tournament.

(Shanghai Daily June 5, 2008)