Briefs-IOC to retest hundreds of Olympic athletes' samples
Dec 9 (Reuters) - Sports news in brief from around the world:
Olympics - The International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday it would start re-testing hundreds of athletes' samples from this year's Beijing Olympics for new drugs in January.
The IOC will be testing some 500 samples for CERA EPO, a new version of the endurance-enhancing hormone EPO and for Insulin. Both tests were recently developed or perfected. Initial results are expected by March.
A total of nine athletes tested positive during the Beijing Games after extensive pre-Games testing caught about 50 cheats. The re-testing programme will primarily target endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics, the IOC said.
Soccer - Manchester United will send a full-strength squad to the Club World Cup in Japan next week despite the busy Christmas schedule in the Premier League.
Manager Alex Ferguson, whose side enter at the semi-final stage, resisted the temptation to leave his top players at home when he named his squad this week, with Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Dimitar Berbatov all set to fly out on Sunday.
Soccer - Former Russia striker Vladimir Beschastnykh, the country's all time leading goal scorer with 26 goals in 71 internationals has announced his retirement.
"I decided it's time to go because I no longer enjoy the game," the 34-year-old, who played for Kazakh club Astana this season after spells at Spartak Moscow, Werder Bremen, Racing Santander and Fenerbahce, was quoted as saying by Russian media.
(Editing by Padraic Halpin)
