TEHRAN, Sept. 11--Iran beat the Qatari handball team in the Asian youth event in Hyderabad, India on Friday.
According to IRNA, Isfahan's Sepahan, which is representing Iran extended its winning streak, defeating Qatar 26-21. Playing its opening match, the Iranian team stunned the Asian heavyweight China 30-16 and snatched its second victory with a 26-21 win over the United Arab Emirates. Sepahan meets South Korea Sunday.

BERLIN, Sept. 11--German football icon Franz Beckenbauer will attend the upcoming friendly football game between Germany and Iran scheduled to take place at Tehran's Azadi Stadium on October 9, sources close to the German public television network ZDF told IRNA in Berlin on Saturday.
Beckenbauer will be covering the match as a sports analyst for ZDF which will air the game live to Iran and Germany.
ZDF will be the first-ever foreign television station to broadcast live a football match to the Iranian audience.
According to the ZDF source, Beckenbauer and the German national team will be staying at Tehran's Esteqlal Hotel which will be cordoned off to the public.
The friendly will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Tehran local time, according to the German Football Federation (DFB). A portion of the match proceeds will be donated to the survivors of last December's devastating Bam earthquake, the DFB added.
Germany faced Iran only once before during the first round of the 1998 World Cup in the French city of Montpellier, beating the Iranian side 2-0.

New Zealand batsman Scott Styris (r) hits half-century against the US at the ICC Championship Trophy on Friday. New Zealand won by 210 runs. (AFP Photo)

LONDON, Sept. 11--New Zealand crushed a plucky United States team by 210 runs as the ICC Champions Trophy got off to an explosive and predictably wet start on Friday, reported Reuters.
Hosts England were restricted to 198 for five from 38 overs by Zimbabwe in their Group D match in Birmingham before play was abandoned to send the game into a second day.
Nathan Astle hit 145, the second highest one-day score by a New Zealander, to power his side to 347 for four at a near deserted Oval before Jacob Oram took five for 36 to wrap up the Kiwis' biggest one-day win.
Craig McMillan earlier struck seven sixes in a brutal 64 from just 27 balls and Scott Styris made a fluent 75. The United States were far from disgraced in their first major tournament match, however, 42-year-old Charles Reid producing an economical spell with his peculiar bowling action.
Fellow 42-year-old and former West Indies batsman Clayton Lambert also entertained the spartan crowd with his eccentric stance and a top score of 39. New Zealand play Australia in what looks certain to be the deciding game of Group A, also at The Oval next Thursday, and captain Stephen Fleming said his team might be able to take advantage of the conditions again.
"There are some interesting characteristics in the wicket that we might be able to exploit next week," he said, referring to the dead grass on the wicket that assisted spinners Daniel Vettori and Chris Harris.

NEW YORK, Sept. 11--France's Amelie Mauresmo became the new world women's number one player on Friday without having to lift a racquet, reported AFP.
Lindsay Davenport's defeat to Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals of the US Open meant the American squandered her chance to take over top spot from Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne.
Instead Mauresmo, 25, who was knocked out of the US Open in the quarterfinals by Russia's Elena Dementieva, will officially take over the top spot when the next rankings list is released on Monday.
"This is just reward for Amelie's brilliant results on the circuit this season," said Christian Bimes, the president of the French Tennis Federation (FFT), in a statement released in Paris.
Mauresmo reaches the top spot despite never having won a Grand Slam crown. The closest she has come was in 1999 when she was runner-up at the Australian Open.
This season, she made the semi-finals at Wimbledon as well as the last eight at the Australian Open, French Open and US Open. She has won three tour titles in 2004 and was silver medalist behind Henin-Hardenne at the Olympics last month.

Robby Gordon (55) makes a move past Casey Atwood (14) and Martin Truex (8) in turn four of lap 236 of the NASCAR Emerson Radio 250 Busch series race at Richmond International Raceway on Friday. (AP Photo)

RICHMOND, USA, Sept. 11--Robby Gordon went from third to first in a three-car battle with 15 laps to go Friday night and held off Casey Atwood's charge the rest of the way for his first NASCAR Busch Series victory, said AP.
Gordon, running third as Atwood and series leader Martin Truex Jr. dueled for the lead on the 235th lap, slid under both for the lead when Truex's Chevrolet wiggled into Atwood's, sending both wide in the turn.
Atwood regained his command and quickly pulled up onto Gordon's bumper, but Gordon repeatedly closed off Atwood's favored outside lane on lap after lap and won the Emerson Radio 250 by 0.177 seconds.
The victory came in his 23rd career start in the Busch Series.
"This is our first win, but there should have been about five or six of them," Gordon said in Victory Lane before thanking his team.
"You can't say enough about guys that want to win."
Truex was third, followed by Jason Leffler, Kyle Busch, Mike Bliss and Kevin Harvick, giving Chevrolet the top seven spots.
David Stremme, in a Dodge, finished eighth to end the Chevy run.
The race appeared to be shaping up as a duel between Atwood and Truex, both of whom moved to the front when the leaders pitted with 98 laps left.
But when Truex pulled inside Atwood in the fourth turn of Richmond International Raceway, his car slid into Atwood's, and the veteran Gordon seized the opportunity, blasting past both in the lower groove.
"It's just tough short-track racing. You get up under somebody and it's so hard not to get loose down there on the bottom, especially on cold tires," Truex said. "I got a run on him, got loose and I want to apologize to him. He had an awesome car and probably should have won the race."
"I'm so disappointed. I thought we were going to win tonight," said a dejected Atwood, who has two career victories, but none since 1999.

LONDON, Sept. 11--Britain's Danny Williams is to challenge Vitali Klitschko for his World Boxing Council heavyweight title in the United States in December, said Reuters.
It will be Williams's first fight since he caused a huge upset by knocking out former world champion Mike Tyson in the fourth round of their non-title bout in Louisville, Kentucky in July.
"This is my reward for beating Mike Tyson," Williams told British newspapers on Saturday.
"After nearly 10 years as a professional, I have finally got my chance." After producing his shock victory over Tyson, Williams said he believed Klitschko 'will be a pushover'.
Klitschko stopped South African Corrie Sanders in April to win the title vacated by Briton Lennox Lewis a fortnight after the Ukrainian's brother Vladimir had lost his bid for the World Boxing Organization version of the title.

Italian cyclist Alessandro Petacchi celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the 170km seventh stage at the Tour of Spain cycling race in Valencia, Spain on Friday. (Reuters Photo)

VALENCIA, Spain, Sept. 11--Italian Alessandro Petacchi took advantage of flat terrain and well coordinated team work to win the seventh stage of the Tour of Spain on Friday, his third victory of the race.
Petacchi, winner in Burgos on stage two and Zaragoza on stage four, was again unstoppable at the end of the 170-kilometer run between Castellon de la Plana and Valencia, said Reuters.
German Erik Zabel finished second and Spaniard Oscar Freire, winner of stage six, third. The 30-year-old Petacchi, who crossed the line in a time of three hours, 53 minutes and four seconds, said he had felt strong.
"I knew that Freire would be very keen to win after his victory yesterday, but after suffering early on now I am beginning to feel on top of my game," said Petacchi, who now has 11 Tour of Spain wins in his career.
"I asked my teammate Guido Trenti to accelerate up until 200 meters to go before I made my move, because today I wanted to try to win on pure strength," he added.
Petacchi said he was keen to add to his 20 victories this season. "There is a time trial tomorrow and some mountainous stages immediately afterwards, but if I can get through them then I will have more chances," he said.
"I got five wins in the Tour of Spain last year, and now I have three in 2004, so even if I don't win again this year, that's already an excellent total for just one week's racing."

OAKVILLE, USA, Sept. 11--Hometown hero Mike Weir surged into the lead after an incomplete second round at the 100th Canadian Open on Friday, hotly pursued by new world number one Vijay Singh.
Weir's crowd-pleasing performance, however, was overshadowed by Singh, who roared up the leaderboard with a record-breaking display, said Reuters.
In one of the most dramatic turnarounds ever witnessed in this event, the Fijian arrived at Glen Abbey Golf Club on Friday looking as if he might miss the cut. But he finished the day one shot off the lead after firing a five-under 66 in round two.
Playing in his first tournament since replacing Tiger Woods as number one in the world, Singh made a poor start on Thursday with a triple bogey on his second hole.
But the lanky Fijian returned on Friday to complete his rain-delayed opening round in record-breaking fashion, hitting five birdies and an eagle on his back nine to vault into contention with a three-under 68.
His 28 was the lowest nine-hole total in the history of the Canadian Open, bettering the previous record of 29 set by Mike McCullough in 1984 and Andy Bean in 1983.
Weir, whose popularity in his homeland is surpassed only by ice hockey's Wayne Gretzky, returned a six-under 65 to finish nine-under on 133.

BERLIN, Sept. 11--Olympic queen of the track Kelly Holmes returns to action over the metric mile in the sixth and final leg of the IAAF Golden League here on Sunday with Christian Olsson and Tonique Williams-Darling still on course for the million-dollar jackpot.
Holmes, whose double gold in the 800m and 1500m in Athens was the highlight of a career peppered with injury and is appointment, has the chance to confirm her victory against her biggest rivals.
The 34-year-old Holmes, who comes up against 1500m silver medalist Tatyana Tomashova and Romania's Maria Cioncan, who took bronze, said, "Getting back on the track will be tough after all that has gone on but I'm looking forward to it."
Women's Olympic 400m champion Williams-Darling and Olsson, the men's triple jump winner in Athens, are still on course for the jackpot which is shared between athletes who win all six events.
Holmes completed her first track training session since her Olympics victory last Sunday. She did not appear in last Friday's IAAF Golden League event in Brussels or a Grand Prix meeting in Rieti, Italy on Sunday because of off-track commitments and celebrations since winning her double gold.
Holmes also plans to race in Monaco at the the World Athletics Final the following weekend. Berlin meeting director Gerhard Janetzky said the date played a role in attracting many successful Olympians. "I think the date of the meeting, a fortnight after the games, is a positive thing," Janetzky said. "In Brussels (last Friday), a lot of athletes were tired."

LONDON, Sept. 11--Super League leaders Leeds battled back from 6-18 down to defeat plucky St. Helens 25-19 on Friday to extend their unbeaten run to 12 matches, reported AFP.
St. Helens believed a drop goal from skipper Paul Sculthorpe with five minutes to go was enough to give them a share of the points but they were left shattered when Leeds hooker Matt Diskin went over for the match-winning try two minutes later.
Saints outplayed the title favorites for long periods but paid a heavy price for a lapse in concentration which allowed Leeds to score two tries in three minutes midway through the second half.
Meanwhile, Ben Jeffries landed a late drop goal as Wakefield came from behind to beat Huddersfield 21-20. The win officially confirmed Wakefield's place in top six.