The Champs are set to defend their title. The B.C. Lions are certainly hoping that the 2012 season gets off to a better start than 2011 did. Then again, if the result is the same they probably wont complain. With a championship roster that remains largely intact, the Lions enter the season as favourites to once again hoist the Grey Cup in Toronto this November. If they are going to reach the pinnacle once more it will be under the guidance of rookie head coach Mike Benevides who took over from the CFLs All-time winningest coach Wally Buono in the off-season. The transition has been fairly smooth as Benevides worked for the past several years under Buono and had long been considered the heir apparent for the job. On the fiels, Travis Lulay was handed the reins last season and really came into his own throwing for 4,815 yards and a CFL-best 32 touchdowns against just 11 interceptions. While its tough to imagine that his production could be much better, the sky is really the limit for Lulay and this year with his skills and the quality of the Lions receivers. First and foremost among Lions receivers is, as always, Geroy Simon. Simon is just 68 yards shy of surpassing Milt Stegalls record of 15, 153 career receiving yards. Simon is among the best to ever play the game and is showing nbo sings of slowing down. Add in the likes of Arland Bruce and young Canadians Akeem Foster and Shawn Gore and the Lions receiving corps is one of the leagues most dangerous. At running back the club will once again look to Canadian Andrew Harris to lead the way. The Grey Cups Most Valuable Canadian brings alot of versatility to the Lions backfield with his quoickness and ability to catch passes. The club also brought in veteran Roughrider fan favourite Stu Foord to spell Harris and keep it Canadian at running back. One of the biggest surprises for the team on offence is that Jovan Olafioye will be back on the line. Olafioye signed a contract with the St. Louis Rams and was not expected to be back until at least August. He was released because of an unspecified medical issue though and the All-Star tackle was gladly welcomed back into the den. Defensively the club is also happy to bring back defensive tackle Khalif Mitchell. Mitchell was also expected to join Solomon Elimimian in the NFL this season and actually came close to agreeing to a deal with Miami. Ultimately he decided that the security he felt with the Lions was worth more than the insecurity offered by the Dolphins. The loss of the hard-hitting Elimimian is certainly a blow, but the Lions feel they have the pieces to mask the loss. Looking at the secondary, one of the teams goals was to get bigger and more physical. 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The 26-year-old Spaniard is set to play an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 27, his first action since being sidelined with tendinitis in his left knee following a second-round loss to then 100th-ranked Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon in June. The injury prevented Nadal from defending his Olympic singles gold at the London Games, where he was supposed to be Spains flag bearer in the opening ceremony. He also had to pull out off the U.ddddddddddddS. Open and Spains Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic, which his teammates lost without him. The 11-time Grand Slam winner and former No. 1 said his knee has improved over the last two months after making frustratingly little progress during the summer. Even so, he acknowledged that he may have to skip some more events in order to get back to full speed. "Im prepared to accept that at the start my knee might not respond well and I may have to take it easy, mixing periods of play and rest for the first three months," he said. Nadal said that he wanted to play at Indian Wells and Miami with the goal of being completely fit by April to play at Monte Carlo, a clay-court tournament he has dominated for eight consecutive years. The Abu Dhabi tournament features a six-man field that includes top-ranked Novak Djokovic and No. 3 Andy Murray of Britain. ' ' '