Sports round-up

Badminton: World number one Lee Chong Wei trounced Indonesia’s Simon Santoso 21-10, 21-15 yesterday as he stepped up his bid for a fourth consecutive World Superseries Finals crown. The Malaysian ace buried 15 smash winners as he sent Santoso packing in just 34 minutes at the season finale in Liuzhou, southern China, after taking three games to beat Japan’s Sho Sasaki on the opening day. The World Superseries Finals sees the top eight in each of the singles and doubles categories playing in a round-robin system to reach the weekend semis and finals.

Basketball: Richard Hamilton, who won an NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons, has signed a contract to join the Chicago Bulls. The veteran guard reportedly has a three-year contract worth $15 million to join the Bulls where he will team up with the league’s most valuable player Derrick Rose in the back court. “We are excited to welcome a player, and person, with the credentials of Richard Hamilton to our organisation,” general manager Gar Forman said.

2012 Olympics: Britain will have 13,500 troops on duty for the 2012 London Olympics, and will also deploy two warships, warplanes and ground-to-air missiles, the defence minister announced yesterday. Philip Hammond said the games were a “once in a generation” event for the country and that Britain wanted them to be secure for athletes coming from around the world. He said the military would deploy 5,000 personnel to support police and civil authorities.

Athletics: Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake head the list of athletes nominated for Jamaica’s Sportsman of the Year award. Blake, the 100 metre champ at the World Athletic Championships in Daegu, South Korea, was recently named the winner of the Jamaica Track and Field Association’s top athlete award. Bolt won the 200 metres at the same worlds. Others in contention for the award include West Indies cricketer Marlon Samuels, Pan American 100 metre champion Lerone Clarke, IAAF Diamond league winner Asafa Powell and boxer Nicholas Walters.