New Deadline for Panama; Qatar Scores Another Bidding Upset

Dispute Drags On Between Panamanian "NOCs"

Panamanian sports leaders are working to resolve differences ahead of an April deadline newly extended by the IOC.

Representatives from the Olympic Committee of Panama (COP) and Panamanian government met Wednesday in Mexico City with Mario Vazquez Rana, president of both the Pan American Sports Organization and the Association of National Olympic Committees.

Rana, also an IOC Executive Board member, was tasked by IOC president Jacques Rogge to initiate talks with two groups both claiming to be the Central American country’s legitimate NOC.

Panama faces certain suspension unless a solution is reached before the next IOC Executive Board meeting slated for April 5-6 in London.

The country’s original deadline was the Jan. 11-12 EB meeting in Lausanne, but the competing NOCs were given another 90 days to resolve their differences, according to PASO, because of the "compliance process" adopted at their Nov. 17 meeting with Rana.

In one corner Wednesday were Olympic Committee of Panama president Miguel Sanchiz and vice president Fernando Samaniego.

In the other sat tourism minister Salo Shama and Panamanian Sports Institute director Ruben Cardenas.

According to a statement from PASO, "government and Olympic officials of Panama agreed that progress has been made, but it is necessary to implement as soon as possible further steps to ensure that the COP is not sanctioned and that the process is irreversible."

Panama was suspended before the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro because of a similar conflict, but was subsequently reinstated.

Qatar Snags 2015 Handball Champs

Qatar is once again the author of a major upset in events bidding.

Less than two months after winning hosting rights to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the tiny Gulf state struck again, this time with the 2015 handball world championships.

The International Handball Federation announced the decision Wednesday after an IHF Council meeting in Malmo, Sweden.

Qatar beat out defending Olympic, European and world champs France as well as Norway and Poland. The Gulf region has never before hosted a handball world championship.

"All four presentations were very good," IHF president Hassan Moustafa said in a statement. "It was a very close decision between four top handball nations."

Also Wednesday, Denmark was rubberstamped as host for the 2015 women’s world champs after Korea withdrew its bid.

The Scandinavian powerhouse hosted the men’s world champs back in 1978 and co-hosted the women’s with Norway in 1999.

Meanwhile, the semifinals are set at the 2011 men’s world champs in Sweden. Denmark and Spain will meet Friday in Kristianstad, while the host country plays France in Malmo.

Qatar failed to qualify.

British Sport Stars Rep 2012 Tickets

Two of England’s sporting elite are urging their countrymen to buy tickets for London 2012.

Cricket star Alastair Cook and triple jump world champion Phillips Iduwo each made public pleas Thursday, exactly 18 months to go until the Summer Olympics.

‘I’m from East London so it’s literally my home Games," said the gold medal hopeful in athletics.

"It’s the perfect opportunity to win that gold medal and I hope people from across the country will Sign Up to come cheer on my teammates and I."

LOCOG announced earlier this month that the application window for 6.6 million tickets will open March 15. More than 2 million people have already registered interest.

Media Watch

Play the Game reprints this report by German Olympic journalist Jens Weinreichabout anti-corruption legislation to force accountability out of the sports federations that call Switzerland home.

In his latest post on 3 Wire Sports, Alan Abrahamson profiles U.S. sprinter Jerome Singleton, who just beat Oscar Pistorius in the 100m at the Paralympic athletics world championships in New Zealand.

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Written by Matthew Grayson.