Olympic Newsdesk -Iraqi Taekwondo Murder Suspect Nabbed; Vancouver Olympic Truce Activities

A suspect in the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi taekwondo team has been arrested. (Getty Images)Iraqi Taekwondo Murder Suspect Arrested

A suspect in the 2006 kidnapping and murder of the Iraqi taekwondo team has been arrested by Iraqi commandos and U.S. forces, according to a statement released by the U.S. military on Sunday.

In the statement, the U.S. military said the suspect was captured by Iraqi troops working with American military advisors in Anbar province.

However, the statement didn’t say when the arrest took place and didn’t identify the suspect it had in custody. Meanwhile, the Iraqi military has yet to comment.

All 15 members of the taekwondo team were kidnapped when their convoy was halted on the highway in Anbar, 70 miles west of Baghdad. The remains of 13 of the team members were found more than a year later near a highway leading to Jordan.

The team was among a number of athletes and sports officials who were kidnapped or murdered during the height of the civil conflict in Iraq in 2006 and ’07.

Olympic Truce Activities in Vancouver

Canadian governor general Michaelle Jean was named the patron for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic truce . (Governor General of Canada)VANOC continued its preparations for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic truce as it named Canadian governor general Michaelle Jean patron of the truce. Organizers also will hold a day-long youth forum on the truce with a group of young people from British Columbia on Monday.

In her role as patron, Jean will promote the Olympic truce throughout Canada.

“The Vancouver 2010 Olympic truce provides us all with a wonderful opportunity to expand the circles of peace and solidarity in communities across Canada and abroad. Through a call to action, it challenges us to channel our creative energy towards ensuring that respect and tolerance prevails in our families, our schools and our neighborhoods. I encourage all Canadians to get involved,” said Jean in a statement.

At the youth forum, VANOC chief executive officer John Furlong will speak to the group of young people, ages 16 to 22. Furlong will discuss building peace through sport and culture and will introduce Vancouver 2010’s grassroots “Make Your Peace” initiative.

Jean will also speak to the youth group on the importance of building peace in communities.

Baseball World Cup Wraps Up

The Baseball World Cup ended its month-long run in Europe on Sunday as the United States defeated Cuba 10-5 in the championship game in Nettuno, Italy.

The 22-team tournament began on Sept. 9 and was played in seven countries throughout Europe.

A sell-out crowd of 5,000 attended the U.S.-Cuba title game in Nettuno.

Italian baseball federation president Riccardo Fraccari declared the tournament a success, stating that it proved the growing worldwide popularity of the sport, despite its rejection by the IOC for reinstatement in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“This has really been the first world championship of baseball in every sense of the word ‘world’. We’ve never had this many countries involved, this many teams and this many cities,” said Fraccari to the Associated Press. “This has been quite a response and the Olympic Movement should take notice. This sport is alive and growing, even in Europe where we all know football is the top sport.”

Briefs…

Australian Cadel Evans wins the men’s road race at the UCI road world championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland. (Getty Images)…The IOC announced Vanessa Lee of Canada and Lee Kang-Eun of South Korea won a video contest in which entrants predicted the future of the Olympics. The two winners will be awarded a free trip to the IOC Congress in Copenhagen. More than 200 people uploaded videos on the IOC Congress site on YouTube for the contest.

…Australia’s Cadel Evans won the men’s road race on the final day of the UCI road world championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland on Sunday. Italy’s Tatiana Guderzo was the winner of the women’s road race on Saturday.

…Turkish wrestlers Selcuk Cebi and Nazmi Avluka won the 74 and 84 kg weight classes respectively in the Greco Roman competition as the FILA world wrestling championships came to an end in Herning, Denmark this weekend. Other Greco Roman winners were Iran’s Hamid Soryan Reihanpour (55kg), Russia’s Islam-Beka Albiev (60kg), Azerbaijan’s Farid Mansurov (66kg), Hungary’s Balazs Kiss (96kg) and Cuba’s Mijain Lopez Nunez (120kg).

Written by Greg Oshust.

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