Focus on Asia in busy sports year 2011

By John Bagratuni Dec 21, 2010, 10:02 GMT

   Berlin - Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps are among the top attractions in the sports year of 2011 which will have a distinct Asian flavour.

   The action kicks off with football's Asian Cup in January which receives added attention now that hosts Qatar have been elected to host the 2022 World Cup.

   Bolt will aim to show his sprint skills at the world athletics championships in Daegu, South Korea, in late August, a month after Phelps seeks more swimming silverware at the worlds in Shanghai.

   Formula One sees yet another new race in Asia when the Indian Grand Prix makes it debut in late October, giving the continent eight 2011 races for just one less than Europe's nine.

   India will also host the 10th cricket World Cup - using the one-day international format - along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh between February and early April.

   In addition, the figure skating worlds take place in Tokyo and the South Korean resort of Pyeongchang hopes to come third time lucky when the host of the 2018 Winter Olympics is elected in July.

   Other major sports events in the non-Olympic year include the rugby World Cup in New Zealand and South America's football showcase, the Copa America, in Lionel Messi's Argentina.

   Back in Europe, Germany hosts the women's football World Cup and the alpine skiing worlds as well, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

   Nordic skiing returns to its cradle for the worlds at Oslo's Holmenkollen while the biathletes are effectively on Asian soil when they contest their global championship in the Siberian town of Khanty-Mansiysk.

   The election of Qatar as 2022 World Cup hosts by the ruling body FIFA was not without controversy and finally put the Gulf region and the Arab world in general on the map of planet football.

   'With Qatar, we are opening football to a new world and a new culture,' said FIFA president Joseph Blatter.

   While not really being a rehearsal, the world will have a close look at the Asian Cup and see how the Qataris run the 16-team showcase January 7-29 where Iraq are the holders from their surprise 2007 title.

   Star players will include Manchester United's South Korean winger Park Ji Sung and Japanese sensation Shinji Kagawa from Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund.

   Kagawa has risen to stardom this year while Bolt had a quiet season by his standard after taking the athletics world by storm with three titles each at the 2008 Olympics and 2009 worlds and five world records in those six finals.

   Bolt had injury problems in 2010 and suffered a first defeat against American rival Tyson Gay, but that did not matter as he clearly has a focus on the Daegu worlds August 27-September 4.

   'This is not a very hard season for me. I'm just trying to take it as easy as possible and looking forward to next season. My aim is to win championships and continue to stay on top of the world,' the Jamaican star said as early as in May 2010.

   The 21-time world champion Phelps has been pretty much in a similar situation and will have to be at his very best in Shanghai which serves as a stepping stone for the London 2012 Olympics.

   While Phelps has nothing really to prove anymore, German Sebastian Vettel will aim to follow up on his F1 world title as the youngest driver and not simply enjoy his celebrity status.

   'Performance is important and I know what I have to do. I have no intention of finishing third at the end of the next season and to realize then that all the trappings were a little too much,' he said.