Sport - Gulf Times

CRICKET | Page 5
TENNIS | Page 9
De Villiers,
Kohli blast
tons in
RCB win
Murray
storms
into first
Rome final
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Sha'baan 8, 1437 AH
FOOTBALL
GULF TIMES
Hat-trick hero
Suarez leads
Barcelona to La
Liga title glory
SPORT
Page 4
CONFIDENT
SETBACK
Qatar can compete
with any team we
play against: Carreno
‘I know my players better now. I also see that there’s greater harmony and
cohesion. We have improved a lot tactically. The Qatar team is a real
competition for any team that we play against. I have seen a positive difference’
By Joe Koraith
Doha
R
ound 3 of the 2018 World Cup
campaign will kick off in September and it will be time for
reality to meet the huge expectations that Qatar will carry into that phase
of the qualifying campaign. The Maroons
breezed through Round 2, with just one
loss in six games.
Qatar coach Jose Daniel Carreno has
done a great job with the team but securing what would be a historic qualification
would put him on an even higher pedestal.
With just two spots available from each
group, Qatar, grouped with teams like
South Korea and Iran, will have to punch
above their weight to earn qualification.
Yesterday, Carreno announced a list
of 27 players who have been shortlisted
for this crucial phase of qualifying campaign. The list will be trimmed after reviewing the performances of the players
in the training camps and the final 23 will
tune up for their campaign with a series of
friendly matches.
The first of those will be played against
Albania in Austria on May 29. And Carreno is confident that the ‘new and improved’ Qatar will be a threat to any opposition. “I know my players better now. I
also see that there’s greater harmony and
cohesion. We have improved a lot tactically. The Qatar team is a real competition
for any team that we play against. I have
seen a positive difference,” Carreno told
media persons yesterday.
With the friendly match coming at
the end of the football season, player fatigue can be a concern but Carreno feels
that this match will be more about finetuning the tactical aspect rather than
looking for a result.
“The game against Albania is very important. We will look to use to work on
our tactics. We’re not worried about losing. We know it’s the end of the season
and players are exhausted. But we have to
prepare. We have to spend time as a team.
It’s important to gather all our players and
do well as a group,” said the Uruguayan.
“With this primary list we have tried to
select players who have been consistently
performing at a high level. Some players
may not be in their best shape right now
but we have selected them considering
the future,” he added.
After the Albania friendly, Qatar aim to
play four friendlies in the month of August. Two of them will be in Doha and two
in Europe.
As of now the only one that is confirmed is the one against Thailand on August 24, which will be the last one before
Qatar head for the qualifying campaign.
“We will play two games in Europe in
August. Our focus will be to play against
teams whose style of play will match the
teams that we will face in the qualification
campaign,” said Carreno at the national
team’s headquarters in Aspire Zone.
Carreno was hoping to get two rounds
of the Qatar Stars League matches to be
held in August, so that the players could
get some match practice. That hasn’t
happened but Carreno believes that they
still can get enough preparation for their
first match against Iran.
“Two games in August would have
been important. We were not able to get
that. But we have a whole month to prepare from August 1 till the end, which is
enough time to prepare for the game again
Iran,” said the 53-year-old.
The Qatar coach also informed that
they were working closely with QSL
teams to ensure that the clubs were able to
release the players for national duty.
“Nobody can criticise us and say that
we are not supporting the clubs. For our
game against Hong Kong, we welcomed
the players just 48 hours before the game.
We want to keep the players as long as
possible with the teams. We want to support the league without compromising
the national team,” said Carreno.
“When we look at any schedule we will
find many obstacles. What’s certain is
that we will always have people who will
disagree with it. We understand the criticism that we get. But we have to focus on
the national team,” he added.
FIFA reformer Scala
quits his post over
loss of independence
Reuters
Mexico City
D
omenico Scala, a
Swiss businessman
who led reforms to
clean up scandalplagued FIFA, quit his post at
the global soccer body yesterday, saying its watchdog committees had lost their independence and members would
be under threat of dismissal.
Scala, head of the audit and
compliance committee, said
the reform of FIFA, which is attempting to recover from the
worst graft scandal in its history,
had been undermined following
a resolution by the FIFA Congress on Friday.
However, FIFA later said that
Scala had “misinterpreted” the
decision and the committees
would remain independent.
The resolution, passed by
186 votes to one, gave the FIFA
Council power to appoint or
“dismiss any office holders” of
its independent bodies such as
the ethics committee and the audit and compliance committee.
It effectively gives the Council,
which has replaced the former
executive committee and is
headed by the new FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, the right
to fire ethics judge Hans-Joachim
Eckert, ethics investigator Cornel Borbely and Scala himself.
The ethics committee, which
was reformed in 2012, has
played a key role in cleaning up
FIFA. It has investigated and
banned more than a dozen top
officials for ethics violations.
These have included former
FIFA president Sepp Blatter and
ex-secretary general Jerome
Valcke as well as former executive committee members.
Scala, responsible for monitoring FIFA’s spending, played
a big role in implementing reforms aimed at avoiding a repeat of the corruption scandal
that has seen 42 football officials and entities indicted in the
United States.
He said the new rule “undermines a central pillar of the
good governance of FIFA and it
destroys a substantial achievement of the reforms”.
“It will henceforth be possible
for the Council to impede investigations against single members
at any time, by dismissing the responsible Committee members
or by keeping them acquiescent
through the threat of a dismissal,” added Scala. “The bodies
are factually deprived of their
independence and are in danger
of becoming auxiliary agents of
those whom they should actually
supervise.”
Scala told the Congress on
Friday he had “made enemies”,
without giving further details.
Previously, committee members could only be sacked by the
Congress, which is held annually and where each of FIFA’s 211
member associations hold one
vote. FIFA Council meetings can
be called at short notice. The vote
was passed among a raft of administrative measures and was
not the subject of any discussion.
FIFA said it was intended to
allow the Council to appoint new
members while the system of
committees was re-structured
over the course of the next year.
“FIFA regrets that Mr Scala
has misinterpreted the purpose
of the decision taken by the FIFA
Congress,” it said, adding that
the ruling would allow “for the
swift removal of members who
have breached their obligations”.
“The Council fully respects
the independence of the Audit
and Compliance and the Ethics
committees, and any suggestions to the contrary are without merit,” it said, describing
Scala’s comments as baseless.
Eckert and Borbely, in a joint
statement, said the move would
not have any impact on their
work. “Both chambers will
continue to exercise this work
in full independence,” it said.
However, Mark Pieth, a
criminology professor at Basel
university who headed an earlier FIFA reform group in 2011,
said the move was a “complete
breakdown” of the FIFA reforms.
“The independence of the
(committee members) is the
centrepiece of the reforms, that
is what we needed to do to get
away from Blatter,” he said. “It’s
more of the same, it’s what we
were used to in the old days.”
2
Gulf Times
Sunday, May 15, 2016
FOOTBALL
SPOTLIGHT
FOCUS
FIFA finds it hard to give
up five-star lifestyle
FIFA President Gianni Infantino (R) speaks with FIFA authorities during the 66th FIFA Congress in Mexico City, Mexico. (Reuetrs)
A
few steps from the
entrance to Mexico
City’s imposing Presidente Hotel, where
FIFA delegates are staying during this week’s Congrees, a boy
of around 10-years-old sells
tamarind balls covered in chilli
powder from a cart for 10 Mexican pesos ($0.55) each.
The spicy, tangy sweets are a
local speciality yet are unlikely
to have been tasted by the FIFA
delegates.
The guests of world soccer are more likely to be inside
sipping lattes for eight times
the price. FIFA has often been
known for lavishing a five-star
lifestyle on its delegates and officials.
When former president Sepp
Blatter went to an event in Zurich with the city’s mayor, he
arrived in a chauffeur-driven
limousine while the politician
came and went by tram.
But after Gianni Infantino
was elected president of soccer’s scandal-plagued body
in February, one of his first
pledges was to make FIFA more
humble, suggesting, among
other things, that federation
officials no longer wore suits to
matches.
The early signs were promising as he flew to Britain for his
first official engagement by a
budget airline rather than the
private plane favoured by his
predecessor.
But this week’s Congress in
Mexico City has looked as extravagant as any held under
Blatter.
FIFA confirmed that it paid
all the expenses for each of
its 209 member associations
to bring a three-man delegation, flying business class and
staying in five-star accommodation. Each delegate was
also given $1,000 in spending
money.
LEAVE THE BUBBLE
Rooms at the Presidente are
booked for about $400 a night.
Members of the FIFA Council, the world governing body’s
board, are staying at the plusher Four Seasons hotel where
rooms typically cost $675 a
night, according to hotel booking websites.
FIFA sources told Reuters
that efforts were being made
to persuade delegates to leave
their bubble but having them
walk a few hundred yards took
some effort.
Some were seen walking the
500 metres from their hotel to
Thursday’s opening ceremony
at the city’s 10,000-seat National Auditorium, considered
one of the world’s best entertainment venues.
It was seen by FIFA as a step,
albeit it a small one, in the right
direction, although others insisted on taking a luxury bus.
The night before, FIFA
seemed as detached as ever
when their so-called Legends
team of former international
footballers took part in an exhibition match at Mexico City’s
historic Azteca stadium.
FIFA billed it as a “football fiesta” and said it was “engaging
more with the football world
and getting football back to the
heart of FIFA,”. It was closed to
the public.
It was witnessed only by
specially invited guests who
spent most of the evening in a
tent built onto the pitch, where
they were pampered with wine,
AFP
Jakarta
I
‘I think it’s always been the case that they are paid $1,000 as a fee for the delegates’
Reuters
Mexico City
Indonesia
applauds
lifting of
FIFA ban
champagne and canapes, while
traditional Mexican dances
were performed on a stage.
Privately, FIFA sources said
the event had been hastily arranged and had not been what
they intended.
Infantino, who has vowed to
cut costs, was somewhat vague
when asked about it at a media
conference on Friday, though
he said it was something FIFA
could look into.
“I think it’s always been the
case that they are paid $1,000
as a fee for the delegates, it’s
part of the budget approved
by the finance committee,” he
said.
“It’s good that it’s been raised
and we might have a look at it.”
ndonesia yesterday welcomed FIFA’s decision to
end the country’s year-long
ban from world football over
government interference, saying
it hoped for more transparency
in the sport.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced Friday that
Indonesia had been reinstated
after Jakarta sent a letter notifying that it had lifted sanctions on
national football body, the PSSI.
Indonesia has been without
a national football competition
for the better part of a year, after a feud between the PSSI and
its sports ministry saw the topgrade tournament suspended.
“We hope the lifting of the
ban will push the nation to improve its national football, especially in regards to revamping
its organisational management,
increasing transparency, accountability and enhancing a
more harmonious relationship
with the various stakeholders,”
Indonesia’s sports ministry said
in a statement.
It suggested that FIFA’s decision was the result of the “good
relationship” that has developed
between Indonesia and football’s
world governing body since Infantino took charge. Asian Football Confederation president
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim alKhalifah also applauded the move.
“We welcome them (Indonesia) back into the Asian football
family,” he said in a statement.
“However, the AFC executive
committee reiterated this week
their continued stand against
government intervention in
sport generally and football in
particular.”
AFC officials will meet their
Indonesian counterparts to discuss next steps regarding competition matters, the statement
said. Indonesia launched an interim eight-month competition
in April, but the sports ministry
said this was not a replacement
for its top-flight league.
FIFA admitted Kosovo and Gibraltar as new members, allowing them to play qualifiers for
the 2018 World Cup, but Serbia
vowed to take legal action to reverse its former province’s admission.
Kosovo and Gibraltar became
the 210th and 211th members of
the world football organization
in votes taken at FIFA’s annual
congress in Mexico City.
The Serbian football federation’s vice president vowed to
legally challenge the decision
even before the congress voted
141-23 to admit Kosovo.
Kosovo’s admission raises
the question of whether players
born in the former Serbian province, such as Swiss star Xherdan
Shaqiri, will be allowed to switch
to the Kosovar team.
Normally, a player with dual
nationality who has played for
one national team cannot switch
back to his second country. FIFA
says that in the case of Kosovo,
it will look at individuals on a
case-by-case basis.
INTERVIEW
Samoura vows to improve football’s ‘tarnished image’
AFP
Lagos
F
IFA’s new secretary general
Fatma Samoura yesterday
vowed “to help football restore its tarnished image”
following a spate of scandals within
the game’s world governing body.
“My goal is to support the programme of president Gianni (Infantino) and to help football restore its
tarnished image,” the Senegalese UN
diplomat, named Friday as FIFA’s
first ever female secretary general,
told AFP.
“And to those who speak of my
lack of experience, I say give me the
time to prove myself,” she added in
a telephone interview from Abuja,
Nigeria, where she is representing
the United Nations Development
Programme at a summit to discuss
efforts to defeat Islamist militant
group Boko Haram.
“FIFA is the United Nations of
football and I bring 21 years of experience in the private sector and
the UN in terms of good governance
and transparency, and the obligation
to make the different federations
and FIFA accountable,” added the
54-year-old.
“We must try to restore football to
what it was, the most popular sport
that breaches social divides.
“And one of the things I am going
to try to do is bring greater support
to women’s football.”
Samoura, who was named as the
successor to the disgraced Jerome
Valcke at a FIFA congress in Mexico
on Friday, will take her post by midJune after undergoing an eligibility
check administered by an independent review committee.
She said she met Infantino, who
was appointed as the successor to
Sepp Blatter in February, for the first
time in November last year.
“I was in Madagascar at the time
and it was during a match between
Madagascar and Senegal,” in a qualifier for the 2018 World Cup, she said.
“But we did not speak at all about
the secretary general post. At the
time he was not yet a candidate for
the FIFA presidency and was preparing Michel Platini’s campaign.
“After dinner somebody told me
about what he had said. And Gianni
Infantino had apparently said: ‘If
one day I am president of FIFA this is
my secretary general’.
“When he was elected it was me
who went to talk to him. I sent him
a mail and he called me. He then offered the post to me. But I had just
arrived here (in Nigeria), in a country where a lot of challenges await
me.
“He made me an offer and he convinced me!”
Other observers agree that Infantino’s decision to appoint Samoura
represents a coup in terms of good
publicity.
“She will not be there to make
him look good, she is not a gimmick.
She will be loyal to Gianni Infantino
but she will change things,” Francis
Kpatinde, a close friend of Samoura
and a former editor of the weekly Jeune Afrique, told AFP.
“This is not a puppet who has
been put in there.”
Gulf Times
Sunday, May 15, 2016
3
FOOTBALL
SPOTLIGHT
FOCUS
Guardiola signs off at
Bayern with league title
‘Now we’ll celebrate for a day before getting ready to play Borussia Dortmund next Saturday’
Four-star
Lewandowski
is Germany’s
top-scorer
AFP
Munich
R
obert Lewandowski netted his
30th Bundesliga goal of the season
yesterday to finish as the league’s
top-scorer for the second time
having sent four records tumbling last September.
The Poland hot-shot reached the 30goal landmark in giving Bayern Munich an
early lead at the Allianz Arena as they beat
relegated Hanover 3-1 on Pep Guardiola’s
swansong as head coach.
The result meant Bayern finished ten
points clear in Germany’s top flight as they
became the first club to win the Bundesliga
titles four times in a row.
Lewandowski’s tally saw him finish five
goals clear of nearest rival Pierre-Emerick
Aubameyang, who scored 25 league goals
for second-placed Borussia Dortmund.
Lewandowski, who will lead Poland at
Euro 2016 in France next month, is the first
foreign striker to score 30 goals in the German league.
It is also the first time a player has reached
the magic mark since Cologne’s Dieter Mueller scored 30 in the 1976/77 season.
Lewandowski receives the Bundesliga’s
Golden Cannon for the second time in his
career having scored 20 goals for Borussia
Dortmund in the 2013/14 season.
The 27-year-old broke four Bundesliga
records last September when he netted five
times in just under nine second-half minutes last September in Bayern’s 5-1 rout of
Wolfsburg.
It was the first time a player has scored
five goals off the bench in Germany’s top
flight, was the fastest hat-trick, the fastest
four goals and was the fastest to five goals.
Ex-Manchester United striker Javier
‘Chicharito’ Hernandez finished fourth,
just behind Bayern’s Thomas Mueller, as he
scored 17 goals in his first season at Bayer
Leverkusen.
Peru striker Claudio Pizarro of Werder
Bremen, who will be 38 in October, finished
joint sixth, alongside Hertha Berlin’s Salomon Kalou, with 14 goals.
Bayern Munich’s defender Philipp Lahm holds the Bundesliga trophy aloft celebrating with teammates after the German first division Bundesliga match against Hannover 96 in Munich yesterday. Bayern
Munich won the German league for a record 4th time in a row. (AFP)
AFP
Munich
P
ep Guardiola signed off his
three years in the Bundesliga
yesterday as Bayern Munich
lifted a fourth straight German league title after yesterday’s 3-1
win over bottom-side Hanover.
Bayern’s 28th win in 34 league
games triggered party scenes at the
Allianz Arena as the Bavarians celebrated their 26th German league title.
This was Guardiola’s 20th trophy
as a coach after 14 in four years with
Barcelona and now six in three years
in Munich before leaving to coach
Manchester City next season.
It was only a matter of minutes
after the final whistle before he was
soaked in beer as his players emptied
over-sized glasses over the Spaniard
in the traditional title celebrations.
“It’s been a great day,” said Guardiola. “Normally games like this are
unpleasant and boring, because the
concentration is lacking a bit, but
that was a great game with lots of intensity. Now we’ll celebrate for a day
before getting ready to play Borussia
Dortmund next Saturday.”
Guardiola’s final game as Bayern
coach is next Saturday’s German Cup
final against Borussia Dortmund in
Berlin where his side could send him
off with the domestic double.
Standing ovation
The Spaniard received a standing
ovation after a presentation from the
75,000 sold-out crowd at the Allianz
Arena as Bayern became the first club
to win the German league four times
in a row.
Poland hot-shot Robert Lewandowski finished as the Bundesliga’s top
scorer after claiming his 30th league
goal of the season. No other foreign
striker has ever scored so many goals
in a single Bundesliga season. Mario
Goetze then netted twice in what
could be his last Bundesliga game for
Bayern.
According to reports, the German
World Cup winner has been told to
find a new club by Bayern’s in-coming coach Carlo Ancelotti, who will
replace Guardiola next season.
Lewandowski opened the scoring on seven minutes before Goetze
doubled the hosts’ lead on 28 minutes
when he beat the Hanover defence,
then chipped home to get the party
started. He claimed his second after
the break after Hanover made a hash
of defending a corner.
Hanover, playing their last game
before relegation, pulled a goal back
when Poland international Artur Sobiech got in behind the Bayern defence on 66 minutes. Bayern finish
10 points clear after second-placed
Dortmund drew 2-2 at home to Cologne, with Germany winger Marco
Reus equalising for the hosts.
Stuttgart go down
VfB Stuttgart, the 2007 champions, were relegated, joining Hanover
in the second division next season,
after their 3-1 defeat at Wolfsburg.
Andre Schuerrle boosted his
chances of making Germany’s Euro
2016 squad on Tuesday with two
goals as Wolfsburg caught Stuttgart
on the counter-attack.
Stuttgart forward Daniel Didavi
sparked a late fightback with a 78th
minute goal but his side finished
17th—second from bottom.
Werder Bremen stay up after Senegal defender Papy Djilobodji, on
loan from Chelsea, scored their dramatic 88th-minute goal to seal a 1-0
win at home to Eintracht Frankfurt.
It marked the end to a turbulent week
for the Senegal international, who is
being investigated by state prosecutors for making a cut-throat gesture
at an opponent during a Bundesliga
game in March.
The result saw Bremen move up
to 13th while Frankfurt finish 16th
and now face a two-legged play-off
against Nuremberg, who finished
third in the second division. The first
leg will be held in Frankfurt on Thursday with the return leg on Monday
May 23 in Nuremberg.
Schalke will play in next season’s
Europa League, along with Mainz and
Hertha Berlin who drew 0-0, after
their 4-1 thumping of hosts Hoffenheim.
It was Andre Breitenreiter’s final
game as Schalke coach, after only one
season in charge, as he announced
before kick-off that he is leaving a
year before his contract ends.
EPL
Bayern’s striker Robert Lewandowski holds
the Bundesliga top scorer trophy.
Van Gaal admits future uncertain
AFP
London
L
ouis van Gaal claims it was
unrealistic to expect Manchester United to win the
Premier League and admits
his job security is uncertain heading into the final game of the season.
United can still qualify for the
Champions League with a top four
finish, but only if fourth placed Manchester City fail to collect a point at
Swansea and van Gaal’s fifth placed
team beat Bournemouth at Old Trafford today.
Defeat at West Ham in midweek
took the chase for fourth place out
of United’s hands and left them
facing the prospect of a season out
of Europe’s top tier competition.
But, frustrated by United’s long
injury list, van Gaal feels their run
to next week’s FA Cup Final against
Crystal Palace and involvement
in the battle for a European berth
should be enough to keep him in his
job for the third and final year of his
contract.
“We can win the FA Cup,” said
van Gaal. “How many are still in
the race?
“It’s not so many, so of course if
we don’t qualify ourselves, then we
haven’t reached our aim. “That is
true because our aim was to qualify,
but we are in the final of the FA Cup
and we are in the race in the last
match - mathematically, we can
qualify ourselves still.
“How many teams can say that?
Not many. Of course you can say
Manchester United need to be
champions.
“Yes, I know the expectations are
like that but I don’t think that is realistic.
“And I have said I shall be here,
that is my opinion, so the board has
to decide if it is like that. That is a
different way of looking to the situation.”
Unrealistic
Van Gaal’s claim that hopes of a
United title success are unrealistic
ring somewhat hollow in a season
in which low-spending Leicester
have won the league with comparative ease.
But there have been few indications from within the United hierarchy over the identity of their
manager next season amid speculation Jose Mourinho could be set
to take charge. On Friday, executive
vice chairman Ed Woodward spoke
with investors on a telephone conference call and failed to mention
van Gaal or his fate even once.
However, consensus has grown
that should van Gaal finish fourth,
and lead United to their first FA Cup
success since 2004, that will be
sufficient to keep him in the job, not
that the manager himself wished to
talk about the hypothetical possibilities of his situation.
“That is ‘if’ and I want to stick to
the facts,” he said.
“Also when it is positive for me
it’s not good, you can only talk
about the facts, and the facts are
that we are still fighting for Champions League qualification.
“We are still fighting and for the
FA cup, and then we shall see what
the board is doing.
“We are dependent on Manchester City, that’s the difference, that’s
also frustrating when you had the
chance, two matches before the
end, to keep that advantage.
“We were 2-1 ahead with 15
minutes to play and then we gave
it away, but still it is possible. We
fight until the end.”
Bournemouth’s refusal to be
dragged into the relegation fight
was an impressive feat in their first
ever top-flight campaign and manager Eddie Howe is convinced his
players will not let up despite having little to play for.
“We won’t need motivating for
this one,” Howe said.
“Whenever you play Manchester
United it’s a historic occasion, so I
am sure the players will be chomping at the bit to get out there.
“It’s nice to be involved in games
that mean something. We are a
competitive team and relish that
side of it, so it’s a game we are all
really looking forward to.”
Beckenbauer’s grandson quits
Bayern after tragedy
Luca Beckenbauer, the teenage grandson
of Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer, is
leaving Bayern Munich’s youth academy
for Schalke after the tragic death of his
father.
The 15-year-old defender will play for
Schalke’s Under-17 team next season,
leaving Bayern, where his grandfather
won three European Cup titles and played
more than 400 Bundesliga games.
Stephan Beckenbauer, son of the 70-yearold legendary defender and Luca’s father,
died of a brain tumour in July 2015, aged
just 46, having worked as a coach in
Bayern’s academy.
His grieving son now wants to make a
fresh start away from the Bavarian giants.
“Luca has been toying with the idea for
some time,” Franz Beckenbauer told German daily Bild on Saturday.
“It was his wish to move to a new environment. That will certainly help him in his
development.”
Schalke’s youth academy has produced
the likes of Germany stars Mesut Ozil and
Manuel Neuer.
“Luca is a very consistent defender and
his attacking game is sure to improve at
Schalke.”
Franz Beckenbauer captained and
coached West Germany to the 1974 and
1990 World Cup titles respectively.
Beckenbauer was the chairman of the
2006 World Cup’s organising committee
hosted by Germany.
He is one of several figures being
investigated over allegations that the
right to host the finals was bought by the
Germans from FIFA.
4
Gulf Times
Sunday, May 15, 2016
FOOTBALL
LA LIGA
Hat-trick hero Suarez leads
Barcelona to title glory
‘We have won six of the last eight titles, which shows the club has a winning mentality. We must value each title win’
Barcelona’s Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez (2nd left) celebrates after scoring his second goal with Dani Alves (3rd left), Lionel Messi (L) and Ivan Rakitic (3rd right) during the Spanish league match against Granada in Granada yesterday. (AFP)
AFP
Madrid
B
arcelona sealed their 24th La Liga
title as Luis Suarez took his tally
for the season to 59 goals with
a hat-trick in a 3-0 win at Granada to hold off Real Madrid’s late-season
surge.
Real registered their 12th consecutive
La Liga win, 2-0 at Deportivo La Coruna
thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo’s double, but
finished a point behind their bitter rivals.
Suarez’s treble also sees him become
the first player in seven years other than
Ronaldo and Barca teammate Lionel Messi
to win the Pichichi award for La Liga’s top
goalscorer with 40.
Barca had seemed set to cruise to the title until a run of three consecutive defeats
for the first time in 13 years last month.
However, they bounced back like champions as, inspired by Suarez’s 14 goals,
they scored 24 times without reply in the
last five games to win the title.
“We played very well over the course of
the season. We were top for many weeks
and the most consistent team wins the title,” said Barca boss Luis Enrique.
“We have won six of the last eight titles, which shows the club has a winning
mentality. We must value each title win
because each one is very difficult.”
Barca were put under pressure early on
as Ronaldo struck after just seven minutes
to put Madrid in front in La Coruna.
Gerard Pique was twice denied by Andres Fernandez from corners, whilst the
Granada goalkeeper also tipped over Mes-
Barcelona’s supporters celebrate their team’s 24th La Liga title at the Canaletes fountain
on Las Ramblas in Barcelona yesterday. (AFP)
si’s driven effort from the edge of the area.
Barca’s nerves were settled by a brilliant
team move on 22 minutes as Neymar freed
Jordi Alba down the left and his low cross
was turned into an empty net by Suarez at
the back post.
Suarez then doubled Barca’s advantage
when he nipped in ahead of Fernandez to
head in Dani Alves’s cross at the near post.
Fernandez made excellent saves from
a Messi free-kick that was arrowing towards the top corner and Neymar to keep
Granada in the game after the break.
And the Andalusians had the chance
to set up a nervy finish but former Barca
winger Isaac Cuenca’s shot was beaten
away by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
However, fittingly Suarez sealed a stunning season when he completed his hattrick from Neymar’s unselfish square pass.
“Six leagues from the last eight speaks
of the cycle of success we continue to
maintain and have to try to extend as long
as possible,” added Barca captain Andres
Iniesta. Madrid’s record 12-game winning
streak to end the season wasn’t enough to
overcome the 12-point deficit they faced
to Barca back in March.
“I am very proud of the players and
what we have done,” said Madrid boss
Zinedine Zidane.
“We never gave up and we fought until
the end.”
However, victory secured second place
ahead of Champions League final opponents Atletico Madrid, whilst Ronaldo moved past the 50 goal mark for the
sixth consecutive season. The three-time
World Player of the Year opened the scoring as he swept home Karim Benzema’s
mishit effort at the back post. Ronaldo’s
second was slightly fortuitous as his
header was deflected past the helpless
Stipe Pletikosa by Pedro Mosquera.
However, the Portuguese could have
had four before he was replaced at halftime with one eye on the Champions
League final on May 28 as he also hit the
post and the crossbar before the break.
Zidane also withdrew Gareth Bale 15
minutes from time to keep the Welshman fresh as the visitors played out the
second-half in the knowledge Barca were
in command in Granada.
5 GAMES THAT WON BARCA TITLE
Atletico Madrid 1 Barcelona 2, September 12, 2015
Barca faced a huge test just three games into the defence of their
title with a visit to Champions League finalists Atletico. Lionel
Messi started only on the bench the day after the birth of his
second son, but the World Player of the Year came on to score
the winner after a stunning Neymar free-kick had cancelled out
Fernando Torres’s opener.
Real Madrid 0 Barcelona 4, November 21, 2015
Messi watched on from the bench once more for the first hour on
his return from knee ligament damage, but Barca still landed an
early blow in the title race from which Madrid and, in particular,
beleaguered coach Rafael Benitez never recovered. Suarez and
Neymar starred with the Uruguayan opening and rounding off the
scoring, whilst the Brazilian slotted home the second just before
half-time and teed up Andres Iniesta’s stunning strike for the third
with a cheeky backheel.
Barcelona 6 Celta Vigo 1, February 14, 2016
Barca blew open a tight game with a magnificent 20-minute spell
to score four goals of stunning quality to see of a valiant Celta
Vigo. The easiest finish was the most talked about as Suarez slotted
home Messi’s pass from the penalty spot in homage to the late
Johan Cruyff ’s famous effort for Ajax 34 years previously. That was
part of a second-half hat-trick for Suarez, whilst Neymar and Ivan
Rakitic chipped home classy finishes late on to add to Messi’s inchperfect first-half free-kick.
Deportivo la Coruna 0 Barcelona 8, April 20, 2016
Having suffered three consecutive league defeats for the first
time in 13 years, Barca bounced back in stunning fashion with a
demolition of Deportivo inspired by four goals and three assists
from Suarez. Messi, Neymar, Rakitic and Marc Bartra also netted
as the confidence flowed back to start a run of five wins to end the
season by a combined score of 24-0.
Granada 0 Barcelona 3, May 14, 2016
Suarez was the hero once more as he struck a hat-trick to take his tally
for the season to 59 and become the first player other than Messi or
Ronaldo to win the Pichichi trophy as the top scorer in 7 years.
SERIE A
Dybala double as five-star Juve rout Sampdoria
AFP
Milan
P
aulo Dybala hit a brace and provided an assist as Italian champions Juventus capped their
sterling Serie A season with a
5-0 rout of 10-man Sampdoria yesterday.
Juventus secured a record-equalling
fifth successive title without kicking a
ball last month thanks to Roma’s late 1-0
win at home to Napoli.
In their final home match of the league
campaign, Massimiliano Allegri’s men
were looking to put the cherry on the
cake—and the Bianconeri delivered in
style.
Sampdoria, missing striker Antonio
Cassano amid reports he’d been sacked
following a row with management, came
close in the early stages but secondchoice Juve keeper Norberto Neto got
down low to stop Ricky Alvarez’s volley.
Minutes later, Juve got in front when
French wing-back Patrice Evra sent a
diving header into the top corner from
Dybala’s free-kick, despite appearing to
be in an offside position.
Dybala opened his account from the
penalty spot on the quarter-hour when
Mario Mandzukic was hauled down by
Martin Skriniar, who saw red as he was
the last man.
It was the Argentine’s 22nd goal of the
season and meant he overtook the 21goal tally set by compatriot Carlos Tevez
in his debut season with the Turin giants.
Juve could have had more, Dybala
forcing Serie A debutant keeper Alberto
Brignoli into action before Stephan Lichtsteiner’s glancing header came off the
crossbar.
A Mandzukic shot was deflected just
wide of Brignoli’s upright and after
sending a great chance over the bar Dybala hit his second, and 23rd of the season, with a great left-foot strike from
outside the box.
It was all one-way traffic and after
Paul Pogba shot wide, Juve’s celebrations
were complete when defenders Giorgio
Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci added
their names to the scoresheet in the final
quarter hour.
Chiellini, making his first start since
April 2, sent a half-volley from a deflected corner past Brignoli in the 77th
minute, with Bonucci tapping home
from close range three minutes from the
end after striker Alvaro Morata nodded
on a corner.
Juventus, who finish the season on 91
points, hold a 12-point lead on secondplaced Napoli.
Napoli are two points ahead of Roma
in third and will look to hold on to the
league’s second automatic Champions
League qualifying place when they host
already-relegated Frosinone later Saturday.
Maurizio Sarri’s men have extra incentive as they failed to qualify for Europe’s premier club competition this
season after a summer play-off defeat to
Athletic Bilbao.
A slip-up at the San Paolo would be
welcomed by Roma, who face Europa
League-chasing AC Milan at the San
Siro.
In Saturday’s other match Sassuolo, in
sixth place with a one-point lead on Milan, host Inter Milan.
Juventus’ forward Paulo Dybala celebrates a goal during the Serie A match against Sampdoria in Turin. (AFP)
Gulf Times
Sunday, May 15, 2016
5
CRICKET
IPL/ BANGALORE vs GUJARAT
De Villiers, Kohli hit
centuries in RCB’s
decimation of Lions
Riding on blistering knocks of 129* and 109 from de Villiers and Kohli, Bangalore post a
mammoth 248-3, and then bowl out Gujarat for 104 to win by record margin of 144 runs
Royal Challengers Bangalore
batsmen AB de Villiers and Virat
Kohli (left) in full flow during their
century knocks against Gujarat
Lions yesterday. (AFP)
Shanaka sparks SL revival
in final England warm-up
D
asun Shanaka’s unbeaten 91 helped Sri Lanka
recover from a tricky position on the opening day
of their final warm-up game against Leicestershire
before next week’s first Test against England. The tourists
were in trouble at 173 for six when Shanaka, batting at
number eight, struck nine fours and three sixes to share
a century stand with Rangana Herath (28 not out) as Sri
Lanka reached stumps at 318 for eight. Opener Dimuth
Karunaratne was bowled by Atif Sheikh for a duck with
the fourth ball of the day. Kaushal Silva (38) and Kusal
Mendis (65) both looked in good touch before falling to
Rob Sayer. Dinesh Chandimal, captain in the absence of
Angelo Mathews, was bowled by Sykes for 30. The first
Test of the three-match series begins at Leeds, Yorkshire’s
Headingley headquarters, from Thursday.
Tri-series in the Caribbean
set to make floodlight history
T
he upcoming tri-series between the West Indies,
South Africa and Australia will be the first series
in history to see all matches played under floodlights. All 10 one-day internationals will be day/night
affairs, with the first match on June 3.
“This is a major series with three very attractive
teams featuring some of the world’s best players,” West
Indies Cricket Board (WICB) operations manager Roland
Holder said. “They are accustomed to playing under
lights all over the world so we look forward to some
very entertaining cricket. We looked at ways to enhance
the appeal and the spectator experience and it is accepted that fans like the day/night matches.”
International cricket will return to Guyana for the first
time in two years, to coincide with the country’s 50th anniversary of independence, for the opening fixtures. After
three matches in St Kitts, the last group games and the
final will be held at the Kensington Oval, Barbados. The
announcement comes at a time when South Africa have
raised concerns about Australia’s proposal to play a Test
match on their tour this summer under lights.
Ambrose replaced by Estwick
as West Indies bowling coach
W
est Indies great Curtly Ambrose has been replaced as bowling consultant for the Caribbean
Test nation by Roderick Estwick, the West Indies
Cricket Board said on Friday. Estwick, the Barbados Pride
bowling coach, joins the West Indies technical team in
time for the upcoming Tri-Nations one-day series against
Australia and South Africa. A former West Indies A international, Estwick is due to join the West Indies camp this
Thursday. Ambrose’s last involvement with the team was
during the World T20 in India in March and April.
IANS
Bengaluru
R
oyal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) smothered
Gujarat Lions (GL) to a
144-run defeat in a lopsided Indian Premier League (IPL)
contest at the M Chinnaswami
Stadium in Bengaluru yesterday.
Requiring 249 runs in 20 overs
with an asking rate of 12.45 runs
per over, Gujarat Lions could only
manage 104 runs by the 19th over,
losing all 10 wickets.
Royal Challengers have thus
added two more points to their tally and now have a total of 10 points.
They are at the unchanged sixth
position in the points table while
Gujarat Lions hold on to their second position with 14 points.
Out of 11 encounters, RCB have
won five and lost six. Gujarat Lions added a loss to their record,
which includes seven victories in
12 encounters. South African superstar Abraham de Villiers was
adjudged the man-of-the-match
for his scintillating century for
RCB.
Royal Challengers demolished
the top order of the visiting team
by the eighth over, reducing Gujarat Lions to 47/5. Except for Aaron Finch (37), Ravindra Jadeja (21)
and captain Brendon McCullam
(11), all the other Gujarat batsmen
fizzled out with single digit scores.
Yet again, Royal Challengers bowling mainstay Yuzvendra
Chahal produced an excellent effort with the ball. He went 3/19
in four overs with an economy of
just 4.75 while Sachin Baby took
two wickets in just four balls of his
only over.
Chris Jordan emerged as the
most successful Royal Challengers bowler, claiming four wickets
in three overs for just 11 runs.
Earlier, Royal Challengers batsmen de Villiers (129) and captain
Warner warning on pink ball
Virat Kohli (109) pummelled the
Gujarat Lions bowling attack to
blast electrifying centuries, powering the team to 248/3 in 20 overs.
De Villiers, who remained unbeaten, smashed 12 sixes and 10
fours while Kohli blasted eight
sixes and six fours. Kohli hit a 55ball-109 while de Villiers smashed
a 52-ball-129.
Altogether, RCB cracked 17 fours
and 20 sixes. Of the total 248 runs
scored, 188 emerged from boundaries alone. Other than the two centurions, only Chris Gayle hit a four.
De Villiers and Kohli built a
partnership of 229 runs off just 97
balls. At one time in the last stages
of the innings, the duo plundered
47 runs off a mere 14 balls.
Some of the sixes hit by de Villiers were so unique that only he
could have hit them. Some of the
shots demanding extreme flexibility included a couple of deep
sixes near the third man position,
rarely seen before.
Not just boundaries, quick running between the wickets also
helped Royal Challengers greatly
in grabbing many quick singles
and exploiting some sloppy fielding by Gujarat Lions at times.
Hell-bent on ending his run
of poor form, Chris Gayle kept it
slow, trying to steal quick singles.
Despite exhibiting great discipline, Gayle succumbed to an inside edge off Dhawal Kulkarni in
the fifth ball of the fourth over.
Enter de Villiers, and the face of
the innings changed with regular
boundaries all over the ground
with all possible shots. Despite
starting his innings much later
than Kohli, de Villiers reached his
half-century in 25 balls in the 12th
over with a four off Kulkarni.
Until the fall of Kohli in the second
last ball off the match, RCB did not
lose a wicket after the dismissal of
Gayle in the fourth over, manifesting
the hard-hitting determination of
the centurions in the match.
Interestingly, Kohli reached the
milestone of scoring 3,000 IPL
runs in this match, to join two
other Royal Challengers batsmen,
de Villiers and Gayle.
Except for Ravindra Jadeja
who had figures of 0/34 in four
overs, all the other Gujarat Lions bowlers conceded expensive
economy rates ranging between
11 to 16.66.
Though Praveen Kumar leaked
45 runs in four overs, he claimed
two wickets while Kulkarni (1/33)
was the only other bowler to claim
a wicket.
Brief scores
Royal Challengers Bangalore
248/3 in 20 overs (Abraham de
Villiers 129 not out, Virat Kohli
109; Praveen Kumar 2/45, Dhawal
Kulkarni 1/33) beat Gujarat Lions
104 all out in 20 overs (Aaron
Finch 37, Ravindra Jadeja 21; Chris
Jordan 4/11, Yuzvendra Chahal
3/19) by 144 runs
IPL/ KOLKATA vs PUNE
Pathan stars in KKR’s 8-wkt win
IANS
Kolkata
C
AFP
Melbourne
A
ustralia vice-captain
David Warner has voiced
concerns about the pink
ball used for day-night Tests,
amid a stand-off with South
Africa over a proposed fixture.
Cricket Australia want day-night
Tests against South Africa and
Pakistan in their 2016-17 home
season but have admitted that
player concerns about the experimental format mean the Proteas’
match has not been locked in.
Aggressive opening batsman
Warner told The Australian newspaper that players want the pink
ball improved. “The concept is
fantastic and it is a great spectacle,
but for those of us who play it, the
most important thing is getting
the ball right,” he said from India
where he is playing for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the ongoing IPL.
“It’s always going to be an issue
because it is not a red ball. You
can’t shine it up like you do a red
ball and Test cricket has always
been about using the red ball
properly when you’re in the field.
Looking after it to get swing is a
key and we can’t do that with a
pink ball because it will not shine
up,” the Hyderabad captain added.
Warner, who played in the
inaugural day-night Test against
New Zealand in Adelaide last
year, said batsmen and fielders
struggled to see the pink ball
at times. “It’s still hard to see
during the twilight period,”
he said. “The guys on the side
boundaries have trouble picking
it up. You have to get that right.
With the ball they used last year,
there was no chance of seeing
the seam. If you’re a batsman it
is critical to be able to see the
seam as it gets closer to you so
you can work out which way it is
going to swing—if it does.”
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Yusuf Pathan celebrates after hitting the winning runs
against Rising Pune Supergiants in Kolkata yesterday. (AFP)
hasing a revised target of 66 in 9
overs via the Duckworth-Lewis
method, Kolkata Knight Riders
(KKR) cruised home with eight
wickets and 24 balls to spare against Rising
Pune Supergiants in a rain-affected Indian
Premier League (IPL) tie at the Eden Gardens
yesterday.
Earlier, rain had halted play with the Supergiants struggling at 103/6 in 17.4 overs.
With this win, KKR go second on the points
table with 7 wins from 10 games, while Pune
stay at the bottom.
For the Knights, Yusuf Pathan and Manish
Pandey remained unbeaten on 37 and 15 runs
respectively.
The hosts had a disastrous start to their
run chase with their openers Gautam Gambhir (0) and Robin Uthappa (4) both falling
prey to Ravichandran Ashwin in the first over
with the score reading 8-2.
However, Pandey and Pathan were unfazed by the situation and started off on the
highest gear. Pandey first plundered 13 runs
off the second over and then Pathan followed
it up with a massive 22-run over against Ravichandran Ashwin.
Murugan Ashwin too faced the wrath
of Pathan as he belted him for a boundary
and then a huge six down the ground in the
fourth over.
In the first innings, from the outset, the
Knights were able to make early inroads into
the Supergiants unit even though they had
elected to bat. First to depart was Ajinkya
Rahane (2) who tried a wild slog and lost his
wicket in the process.
Next to head back to the dug out was
Australian batsmen Usman Khawaja whose
sweep was gobbled up by Suryakumar Yadav
at the deep square-leg boundary.
In between there were a few hits which
travelled to the ropes and after six overs,
Pune were placed at 37/2.
Thereafter, Bailey and Saurabh Tiwary
slowly but steadily tried to stitch a stand,
pinching the ones and twos and clubbing the
occasional boundaries. However, debutant
Ankit Rajpoot broke the 41-run partnership
as Tiwary edged one through to wicketkeeper Robin Uthappa in the 10th over.
Chawla then deceived Bailey (33) with a
flighted leg-spinner as Uthappa whipped the
bails off in a flash.
It was a hostile welcome given by KKR to
rival captain Dhoni as his counterpart Gautam
Gambhir surrounded him with men around
the bat, a sight not often seen in T20 cricket.
The ploy almost worked for the home side as
Dhoni nearly played one onto his stumps.
Runs came in singles as KKR further tightened their grip on proceedings. Thereafter
Irfan Pathan fell short of his crease as Dhoni
called for a cheeky run. The 100 finally came
up in the 17th over as Thisara Perera lofted
Chawla into the stands, but the very next ball
he was out holed out at long on.
Brief scores
Rising Pune Supergiants: 103/6 in 17.4
overs (George Bailey 33; Piyush Chawla
2/21) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders: 66/2
in 5 overs (Yusuf Pathan 37; Ravichandran
Ashwin 2/30) by eight wickets
6
Gulf Times
Sunday, May 15, 2016
SPORT
SPOTLIGHT
Heat’s Dragic, Wade force
Game 7 with 103-91 win
Goran Dragic scored 30 points with Dwyane Wade adding 22. The Heat have now won the last six times they have faced
elimination at home, with the Raptors dropping to 1-5 all-time with the opportunity to close out a series on the road
Miami Heat guard Goran Dragic (7) prepares to shoot the ball during the
third quarter in game six.
Dwyane Wade #3 of the Miami Heat in action during Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against Toronto Raptors.
MCT
Miami
T
o the limit. Again.
Seemingly fuelled by adversity this entire postseason, the
Miami Heat upped the ante
Friday night with a 103-91 victory over
the Toronto Raptors at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Having battled back from a 3-2 deficit in the first round against the Charlotte Hornets, the Heat will have the
opportunity to do so again Sunday at
3:30pm EDT at Air Canada Centre.
No team in NBA history has overcome more than one 3-2 deficit in the
same postseason.
The Heat seem to scoff at such challenges.
Just as they have by getting to this
stage after losing forward Chris Bosh
at midseason for the second consecu-
tive year due to blood clots.
Just as they have by pushing to this
point after losing centre Hassan Whiteside to a serious knee injury in the
Game 3 loss that dropped them to a 2-1
deficit in this series.
At stake Sunday will be berth in the
Eastern Conference finals against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers,
a series that opens for Sunday’s survivor starting Tuesday night at Quicken
Loans Arena.
For the Heat, the itinerary to Cleveland goes through Toronto, with the
team having to pack for six nights and
three games, hoping to return with
plenty of dirty laundry.
Friday’s victory was fuelled by 30
points from guard Goran Dragic, with
Heat guard Dwyane Wade adding 22.
A late 3-pointer from guard Joe Johnson helped the Heat put it away. Those
performances were needed with Kyle
Lowry scoring 36 for the Raptors and
backcourt partner DeMar DeRozan 23.
The Heat have now won the last six
times they have faced elimination at
home, with the Raptors dropping to 1-5
all-time with the opportunity to close
out a series on the road,
With his 14th point, Wade passed
Hakeem Olajuwon for 12th place on the
NBA’s all-time postseason scoring list.
With Whiteside again out, Heat
coach Erik Spoelstra this time blew up
his rotation, not only giving swingman
Justise Winslow his first career playoff
start, but by opening with him defensively at centre. The move came after
Winslow had been benched for all of
Game 3.
With Winslow opening defensively at centre, it allowed the Heat to
keep Luol Deng, who played through
the wrist issue that took him out of
Wednesday’s Game 5, as the primary
defender against DeRozan.
The Raptors, who again were with-
out centre Jonas Valanciunas because
of his ankle injury, stayed big with
their first five, with Bismack Biyombo
against starting at centre.
That had Biyombo and Deng contesting the opening jump.
Spoelstra further scrambled his rotation by playing Tyler Johnson as his
first wing off the bench.
The Heat did not have a true power
player on the court until Josh McRoberts entered with 2:39 to play in the
first quarter. It turned into McRoberts’
most impressive performance of this
postseason.
The Heat caught a break when Lowry was called for a rebounding foul
with 6:56 to play, forcing him to the
bench with his fifth foul. Wade then
converted a jumper for a 92-82 lead.
Raptors coach Dwane Casey then
quickly rushed Lowry back into the
game, as the Heat’s lead remained in
double digits.
The Heat went into the fourth quarter up 82-72, with Dragic already with
28 points to that stage.
Winslow was forced to the bench
with his fourth foul with 5:57 to play
in the third period, which in this game
mattered a lot. He then reentered in the
fourth quarter, again cast in a power
role.
After the Raptors had trimmed their
nine-point halftime deficit to four
early in the fourth, Dragic then converted a 3-point play for a 71-60 Heat
lead with 5:08 to play in the third, their
largest lead to that stage in the entire
series.
The Heat went into halftime up 5344, with Dragic up to 19 points on 7-of10 shooting to that stage, as well as four
of the Heat’s 10 first-half assists. Wade
added nine first-half points, with no
other Heat player with more than five
over the first two periods.
Dragic’s 19 points were the most
he has ever scored in the first half of a
playoff game. He once scored 26 points
in the second half of a playoff game
with the Phoenix Suns in the 2010
playoffs.
DeRozan had 15 points for the Raptors at halftime, including nine in the
second period. DeRozan shot 5 of 5
from the line in the first half, with the
rest of the Raptors 3 of 9 to that stage.
Both teams struggled early, with
the Heat 3 of 7 on 3-point attempts in
the first period and 4 of 14 on all other
shots, as they took a 21-20 lead into the
second period. Still, it was a cleaner
than usual period for the Heat, with
only one turnover in the quarter, by
Dragic.
Just as Deng returned from his wrist
injury, so did Raptors starting small
forward DeMarre Carroll. Carroll,
though, was limited in his early action
after he was called for a pair of firstquarter fouls.
BOTTOMLINE
Warriors star Curry on his many quirks
Funny how that’s evolved. Just a nice little routine for me to get ready for the game.
MCT
Oakland
Q: The chewing of the mouthpiece, half
out of your mouth, as you’re dribbling
up or doing whatever in the game. Are
you conscious you’re doing this?
A: Still, no. I mean, sometimes when
you’re on the court thinking, it’s kind of
my weird habit of chewing and thinking, and then the play starts and I forget
to put it back in.
S
tephen Curry does preposterous, astonishing, prodigiously
valuable things on a regular basis, and he does a lot of quirky
little things, too.
The quirky things just as regularly,
or even more so. Because the Warriors’
superstar point guard is a proud and
predictable creature of many, many
habits, in and around basketball games,
his soaring career and happy family life.
Here’s what he had to say...
Q: Yeah, it’s dangling out of your mouth.
A: It is not on purpose, most of the
time. As good as my hand-eye coordination is, my mouthpiece-to-mouth
coordination is ... not.
Q: Let’s start with the famous “lock in!”
pregame tweet. Do you do that every
game now?
A: It’s supposed to be every game.
Hopefully I don’t forget.
Q: What does it mean to you?
A: It started ... I don’t know exactly
when it started, but it was basically my
term for, simple, lock it in or focus all
my energy toward the game and what I
need to do to help my team win.
It pretty much encompasses everything I need to get ready for a game.
And I love tweeting it because now it’s
almost like some of the fans get excited.
After games I’ll go back and read some
stuff, and people are like waiting for
that tweet - that means it’s game time.
There’s a Warriors game coming on.
Q: The tap on your chest and point to the
sky after a 3-pointer at a big moment ...
A: Back in college my freshman year,
my mom and I started that. Every time
after the national anthem stopped, I’d
find her in the stands whenever she
came to my game and we’d do the sign
to each other.Basically means “have a
heart for God.” It keeps the perspective
for me why I play the game and where
my strength comes from.
I started to do it just to her and then
it became a thing after I made it. After
each play, after I made a shot.
It’s been a good kind of grounding.
File picture of Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors.
Q: Seems to frame the moment mentally
for you.
A: I’ll have a celebration or whatnot
for a clutch-time play, but at the end of
it you’re going to see that sign, because
it does keep my perspective; as (teammate) Anderson Varejao would say,
keeps me humble.
me and D. Lee’s second year here together, he noticed I started to do it
every game, and so he’d be standing at
the top of the circle right there and we’d
race, basically.
I’d always win, though.
Q: In the player introductions, you don’t
wait for your name to be called, you run
right behind Klay Thompson as soon
as he runs out there. Is there a point to
that? You’re impatient?
A: No, that’s on purpose, and I don’t
know ... think it was like (former coach)
Mark Jackson’s first year (in 2011-12),
when Klay got here and was in the
starting lineup, I think it was because
he waits until everything’s said about
him.
He’s sitting on the bench, he’s
waiting for everything to be said
about him and then he gets up and
goes.
I do the sign, basically put my hands
in the air and then start the run down
the aisle right before ... I don’t know
why I started, but I just make sure I do.
Q: Your sprint down the tunnel back to
the home locker room at Oracle after
your early warm-ups ...
A: That’s the same thing, kind of just
get my heart rate going. It’s a lot of time
in between getting to the game and the
game starting, so kind of want to have
something that kind of sparks my body.
Q: The run from half-court to the opponents’ basket right before opening tipoff.
You used to do it with (former teammate) David Lee and now ...
A: Me and David did that. I wanted
something to get my heart rate going
before the game started. So that little
run helped me.
And then probably halfway through
Q: And you go fast.
A: Yeah. I’ve got to make sure I’m
loose so I don’t pull anything. And
maybe as I get further down the league,
I might have to slow it down a little bit.
But right now I’m good.
Q: A weird one - do you file your nails
on the bench sometimes? You’re doing
something there.
A: No, no, I’ve been biting my nails
forever. My mom hates it, my wife hates
it. But it’s kind of just my pass-thetime knack.
Q: You do it all the time everywhere or
just during games on the bench?
A: Everywhere. Well, most of the
time now it’s saved for the bench so I
have some nails left, because if I did it
all the time, I’d be down to the nub.
Gulf Times
Sunday, May 15, 2016
7
SPORT
SPOTLIGHT
REVERSAL
Angels rally to top
Mariners, 7-6
Puig the star in
Dodgers’ 8-4 win
over Cardinals
Puig completed his first three-hit game since April 6 as the Dodgers (19-17) capitalised
on a slew of Cardinals mistakes in the series opener
File picture of C.J. Cron #20 of the Los Angeles Angels.
MCT
Seattle
T
St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Stephen Piscotty can’t reach a home run by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig in the sixth inning at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
MCT
Los Angeles
O
n Friday afternoon, a few hours
before he contributed three hits
in an 8-4 victory over St. Louis, Yasiel Puig staged a photo
inside the Los Angeles Dodgers’ training room. Slump-ridden for weeks, Puig
chose to cloak his discontent with humour. So he snapped a picture of Enrique
Hernandez with a pair of bats strapped
up to one of the team’s electronic stimulation devices.
“Trying to extract hits,” Puig wrote on
Twitter. “Puig’s bat is next.”
The amateur witchcraft, combined
with a more tempered approach at the
plate, bore fruit on Friday night. Puig
completed his first three-hit game since
April 6 as the Dodgers (19-17) capitalized
on a slew of Cardinals mistakes in the
series opener. The offense scored more
than seven runs for just the fourth time
this season.
Puig notched an infield single in the
second inning. He drove in a run with a
single in the single in the fourth. Two innings later, he muscled an opposite-field
home run over the low fence in the rightfield corner.
The Dodgers used five relievers to protect Ross Stripling’s first big-league victory. Stripling outlasted Michael Wacha,
his former teammate and roommate at
Texas A&M, for five innings of four-run
baseball. The Dodgers scored six runs
while Wacha was on the mound, though
only two of them were earned.
As it has so often since his debut in
2013, the pregame discussion concerned
Puig. He hit .184 during the first 10 games
in May. He looked vulnerable to offspeed
pitches, unable to stop himself from
swinging away at balls. Manager Dave
Roberts insisted Puig had heard the club’s
message about the value of patience.
“He’s not going up there trying to
swing at balls out the strike zone,” Roberts said before the game. “That’s not his
intent. I’m certain of that.”
Results
Cardinals............................. 4 Dodgers ................. 8
Angels.................................... 7 Mariners................. 6
Roberts reported confidence in Puig’s
progress this week. Puig recorded only two
hits during a four-game series against the
Mets, but he did sting several balls that
found gloves instead of grass. On Friday,
he experienced the opposite phenomenon,
when he was graced with good luck.
The Dodgers stoked a three-run rally in
the second after Cardinals shortstop Aledmys Diaz bobbled a grounder from Adrian
Gonzalez. Puig ripped a groundball up the
middle, where it ticked off Wacha’s glove.
He was credited with a single, and Joc Pederson loaded the bases with a walk.
Up came Trayce Thompson. He had
not batted since Tuesday, when he came
off the bench for a walkoff home run. He
kept the baseball in the park this time,
but he did splash a two-run single into
centre field.
Wacha was drifting toward oblivion,
until A.J. Ellis lined out to Diaz. Pederson lost track of Diaz behind him, and allowed himself to be thrown out. The double play appeared to squash the rally, with
Stripling stepping into the box.
Stripling had yet to record a hit in the
majors. He never hit in high school, never
hit in college and rarely wielded a bat in
the minor leagues. Yet during the week,
as he traded barbs with Wacha, the majority of their verbiage centred on who
could hit better against the other. Stripling wanted to win the contest.
Wacha flung a 94-mph fastball, high
and away. Stripling dumped the pitch
into right for an opposite-field single.
Howie Kendrick copied his approach
in the next at-bat, driving in a run by
shooting another outside fastball into
right.
The Dodgers kept hounding Wacha in
the third. Gonzalez cracked a one-out double. Two batters later, Pederson smashed a
94-mph fastball off the centre-field wall
for a double to score Gonzalez.
he ball blooped into
short centre field, carrying with it the remains of
a six-game losing streak.
With one flick of C.J. Cron’s bat,
the Angels avoided their longest
losing streak in six years.
On Friday night, they came
from four runs behind to beat
Seattle, 7-6, at Safeco Field, one
night after they came from five
runs behind to put the winning
run on base but did not complete
the comeback against St. Louis.
Early on, Friday’s game granted clues the outcome would be
close. In the first inning, with
Kole Calhoun on base, Albert
Pujols received the pitch he
wanted in the location he hoped
it would be, or close to it. But he
did not lower his bat as he intended, and lofted the ball five
feet short of the warning track.
He pounded his fists together
as he jogged back to the Angels’
dugout, knowing he’d missed an
opportunity. It proved to loom
large.
Calhoun was caught stealing
two pitches into Daniel Nava’s
subsequent at-bat, and the Angels did not muster another
baserunner off Mariners starter
Nate Karns until the fourth inning, when Mike Trout walked
with one out. He stole second
base and then scored when Nava
ripped a two-out single up the
middle.
Angels right-hander Nick
Tropeano began the game with
a clean first inning. In the second, Tropeano yielded a double
to Kyle Seager and drilled Seth
Smith in the buttocks. In a 2-2
count against ex-Angel Chris
Iannetta, Tropeano delivered a
slider that broke behind Iannetta’s head. He walked him with his
next pitch to load the bases, and
then stretched the count to 3-2
on Leonys Martin.
On Tropeano’s fifth straight
fastball, Martin weakly grounded out to end the inning. The
25-year-old hurler shook his
head repeatedly as he walked off
the mound.
He escaped more trouble in
the third and teetered the line in
the fourth, when Smith walked,
Adam Lind lined a single down
the left-field line, and Iannetta
walked on a questionable call.
Martin drove a ball deep to rightcentre, and Trout and Calhoun
converged on it _ both men calling for it, neither man hearing it.
Calhoun’s glove scraped Trout’s
face, but Trout’s glove captured
the ball.
A run scored on the sacrifice
fly. With his 88th pitch, Tropeano then struck out Norichika
Aoki to end the inning. He gave
up a solo home run to Nelson
Cruz and a double to Seager, but
struck out Smith with his careerhigh 104th pitch to end the inning and his night.
Left-hander Jose Alvarez
loaded the bases on two groundball singles and a walk in the
sixth, and Mariners shortstop
Ketel Marte sliced a ball to right.
Calhoun dived for it and missed
by two inches, allowing Marte to
take third and all three baserunners to score.
Geovany Soto and Johnny Giavotella began the Angels’ half of
the seventh with singles. New
Angel third baseman Jefry Marte
struck out swinging, but another
new Angel, infielder Gregorio
Petit, pinch-hit for Brendan
Ryan and ripped a single to left.
That brought out Mariners
Manager Scott Servais to remove
Karns in favor of left-hander Vidal Nuno. He threw one pitch, a
slider that Calhoun drove to right
for a sacrifice fly.
Out came Servais, and in came
Nick Vincent, who got Trout to
pop up a ball to short right field.
Smith chased it down but not
quickly enough, and another Angels run scored as Trout galloped
to second. Pujols approached the
plate. If he could knock a single, the game would be tied, but
instead he struck out on three
pitches.
Next, the teams traded solo
barbs, as Iannetta launched one
to left off Angels rookie Greg
Mahle, and Cron boomed one to
right off Mariners veteran Joel
Peralta. Iannetta did not make
an out in four plate appearances
against the team that did not offer to re-sign him last winter.
The Angels added their final run on back-to-back doubles from Giavotella and Marte.
Presented with the opportunity
to single in the tying run in the
eighth, Petit tapped out to first.
But, in the ninth, Calhoun singled, Pujols singled, and Nava
walked, loading the bases for
Cron, who popped up a firstpitch fastball right in between
three Mariner defenders.
Two runs scored. The streak
was over.
NHL
Bishop injured as Lightning beat Penguins
legs of goalie Matt Murray at 18:46.
Killorn’s goal, though, was all but
overshadowed by a series of lost-time
incidents.
The first came at 2:50 of the first,
when Lightning right winger Ryan Callahan drove his elbow into the neck of
Penguins defenseman Kris Letang,
knocking Letang into the glass headfirst.
Callahan was assessed a five-minute
penalty for boarding, but did not receive a game misconduct.
The NHL’s Department of Player
Safety will review the hit to determine
whether it was worthy of a suspension.
Letang appeared to be knocked out for
a few seconds and eventually went to the
locker room, returning to the bench just
as Bishop was leaving the game with an
apparent injury to his left knee.
MCT
Pittsburgh
T
ampa Bay has a history of starting slowly in playoff series.
That’s bad news for the Penguins, because the Lightning
still were good enough to win Game 1
of the Eastern Conference final, 3-1, at
Consol Energy Center Friday.
And to do it despite losing No 1 goalie
Ben Bishop to an undisclosed injury in
the 13th minute of play.
The victory was just Tampa Bay’s
fourth in 10 all-time Games 1 on the
road, and improved the Lightning’s
overall record in series openers to 8-12.
Game 2 will be Monday at 8:10pm at
Consol Energy Center.
This is the second consecutive series in which the Penguins, who had a
four-game winning streak on home ice
snapped, have lost the opener.
Tampa Bay scored the only goal of
the opening period, as defenseman
Victor Hedman threw a long pass to
Alex Killorn, who got around Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta on the
left-wing side, then cut to the net before tossing a backhander between the
File picture of Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop (30) making a block.
BISHOP LEAVES ON A STRETCHER
Bishop went down in the crease without
being touched while trying to scramble
back into position during a Penguins
flurry at 12:25, and eventually was taken
off the ice on a stretcher.
There was no immediate word on the
nature or severity of Bishop’s injury.
He was replaced by 21-year-old An-
drei Vasilevskiy, who made just his second appearance in these playoffs but
who is a highly regarded prospect.
During the final minute before intermission, Tampa Bay center Tyler Johnson was hurt on a hit - possibly kneeto-knee - by Penguins left winger Chris
Kunitz along the boards behind the
Lightning goal line.
Johnson, who turned into the hit just
as Kunitz was about to make contact,
was helped to the locker room after appearing to injure his right knee.
Kunitz was not penalized, and Johnson returned in the middle of the second period.
Those first-period injuries left the
Lightning, already missing No. 1 center
Steven Stamkos (blood clots) and toppairing defenseman Anton Stralman
(leg), seriously undermanned, but the
Penguins weren’t able to take advantage.
And when Penguins center Evgeni
Malkin took an offensive-zone hooking
minor at 1:46 of the second period, the
Lightning needed only 47 seconds to
take advantage.
Left winger Ondrej Palat made it 2-0
at 2:33, backhanding a rebound past
Murray.
The victory was just Tampa Bay’s
fourth in 10 all-time Games 1 on
the road, and improved the Lightning’s overall record in series
openers to 8-12
Jonathan Drouin seemed to put
the game away for Tampa Bay when
he capped a three-on-one break by
beating Murray from inside the right
circle at 18:25, but the Penguins finally broke through with less than
a minute to go before the intermission.
Patric Hornqvist got the goal during
a power play at 19:05, as he got a feed
from Sidney Crosby and beat Vasilevskiy from near the right dot. Phil Kessel
received the second assist.
The goal was Hornqvist’s sixth in
these playoffs and his eighth in nine
career playoff games at Consol Energy
Center.
Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin was shaken up when Palat shoved
him face-first into the glass behind the
Penguins’ net at 15:14 of the third period. Palat was given a minor penalty
and Dumoulin was helped to the locker
room.
Now to see what happens next.
8
Gulf Times
Sunday, May 15, 2016
SPORT
FORMULA 1
OPINION
Happy Hamilton
back on pole for
Spanish GP
‘Hopefully everything comes together. I’ve been working on the starts... I will try and
get off on the right foot and tomorrow could be the day’
F1 engine deal is
‘weak agreement’,
says Horner
Reuters
Barcelona
F
ormula One’s new power
unit agreement from
2017 is better than nothing but still far from what
might have been achieved, according to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.
While the four major manufacturers welcomed the guarantee of stable rules, and highlighted efforts to reduce costs
and performance gaps, Horner
sounded a discordant note at the
Spanish Grand Prix.
“It’s a very soft agreement between the manufacturers and the
FIA,” he told reporters.
“It tickles the price, deals a little bit with convergence, the obligation to supply doesn’t really
apply, so it’s a very weak agreement.
“Unfortunately it’s a shame
more couldn’t be done, but I
suppose if you look on the bright
side it’s better than nothing.”
The sport announced last
month a deal to ensure all teams
have access to an engine supply,
with prices cut over three years
and a move to make performance
more equal.
The wording of the deal also
contains what one team principal
dubbed a “Red Bull Clause” that
prevents teams and their engine
suppliers from publicly denigrating each other.
Red Bull, whose engine now
carries Tag Heuer branding, are
still supplied by Renault despite
a falling out with the French
manufacturer last year.
The former champions tried in
vain to find an alternative supplier before patching up a rela-
Red Bull’s Christian Horner.
tionship that appeared to have
reached a terminal point.
Force India deputy principal
Bob Fernley, whose team use
Mercedes engines, said he would
reserve judgement on the agreement.
Renault, Honda, Mercedes and
Ferrari were more positive, however.
“We achieved a major price reduction over two years. We have
opened up development scope
for others to catch up. We have
designed an obligation to supply
so no team runs out of an engine
contract,” said Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff.
“We have found a mechanism
how performance convergence
could be triggered. Lots of good
things, many months of hard
work in trying to get everybody
on the same page, I think it’s a
good step forward.”
Renault F1 managing director
Cyril Abiteboul added: “No-one
can guarantee performance...
but we all know what we have to
do. It’s good, it’s a relief, because
we know what we have to do and
we can make plans for the future.”
SWIMMING
Park turns to CAS in
bid to overturn ban
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team’s British driver Lewis Hamilton celebrates in the parc ferme after the qualifying session at the Circuit de Catalunya yesterday.
Reuters
Barcelona
T
riple world champion Lewis
Hamilton looked forward to ending Mercedes teammate Nico
Rosberg’s seven-race winning
streak after denying the Formula One
leader pole position at the Spanish Grand
Prix yesterday.
The Briton’s stunning performance,
with a fastest lap of one minute 22.000
seconds on a sunny afternoon at the Circuit de Catalunya, put a smile back on his
face after power unit problems in the past
two races.
“Hopefully everything comes together,” he said of today’s race. “I’ve been
working on the starts...I will try and get
off on the right foot and tomorrow could
be the day.”
Rosberg qualified second, 0.280 slower, and has a real fight on his hands if he
is to become only the third driver after
compatriot Michael Schumacher and
Britain’s Nigel Mansell to win the first
five races of a season.
“Fortunately it’s the race that counts,”
said the disappointed German, who leads
Hamilton by 43 points overall. “There are
still a couple of opportunities tomorrow,
for sure.
“The start, for example, and then
strategy wise. It’s not going to be an easy
race tomorrow so I will try and take my
chances there.”
The pole was the 52nd of Hamilton’s
career, and third of the season. For Mercedes, it was their 11th in a row.
Hamilton considered it to be three out
of three in real terms since the champion
was ruled out of qualifying in China due
to a power unit failure and missed the final phase in Russia for the same reason.
“Obviously Nico has been really strong
all week so it was crucial...bit by bit, one
step at a time, I have been trying to bring
the pace together,” said Hamilton. “The
car was great.
Starting grid (Top 10)
1. Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg
Mercedes
3. Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull
4. Max Verstappen
Red Bull
5. Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari
6. Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
7. Valtteri Bottas
Williams
8. Carlos Sainz Jr
Toro Rosso
9. Sergio Perez
Force India
10. Fernando Alonso McLaren
Hamilton damaged a set of tyres when
he locked up and also had to contend with
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen pulling out of
the garage in front of him before his final
run.
“All of a sudden he appeared and I
thought he was going to hit me,” said
Hamilton, who had to lift off the throttle.
Red Bull filled the second row, with
Australian Daniel Ricciardo a jubilant
third while Dutch teenager Max Verstap-
pen was a stunning fourth on his debut
weekend with the team after moving up
from Toro Rosso.
The decision to draft him in as a replacement for Russian Daniil Kvyat,
demoted back to Toro Rosso, looked far
more logical.
Verstappen’s grid position was the best
by a Dutch driver in Formula One and he
had been third in the first two phases of
qualifying, slower only than the Mercedes duo.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were a disappointing fifth and
sixth with the pressure mounting on the
team.
Finland’s Valtteri Bottas starts seventh
for Williams, with Brazilian team mate
Felipe Massa only 18th, while Spaniard
Carlos Sainz qualified eighth for Toro
Rosso.
Double world champion Fernando
Alonso put McLaren into the final phase
of qualifying for the first time this season
and will start 10th in his home race.
CYCLING
Brambilla scores a double
AFP
Arezzo
A
n audacious solo attack
on the tough white chalk
roads of the Giro d’Italia
eighth stage saw Italian
Gianluca Brambilla rewarded with
a prestigious win and the race
leader’s pink jersey yesterday.
Etixx team rider Brambilla had
been in an earlier escape of 13
riders on the tough, 186km ride
from Foligno to Arezzo.
But having earmarked the
stage, the Italian seized his
chance by pulling away from the
group of frontrunners on a section of white chalk road, with
25km remaining.
With the main peloton including overnight leader Tom
Dumoulin (Giant) and all the
race favourites over three minutes in arrears, it proved a judicious move.
As Brambilla forged on for the
finish line virtually unhindered,
Dumoulin was left tumbling
down the overall standings after
race favourites Vincenzo Nibali,
Alejandro Valverde and several
Italian cyclist Gianluca Brambilla of Etixx - Quick Step team raises his
arms as he wins the 8th stage of 99th Giro d’Italia.
other rivals left the Dutchman in
their wake.
“I can’t believe what I’ve
done. I can’t believe I have the
pink jersey,” said Brambilla, who
was quick to thank teammate
Matteo Trentin for increasing
the pace at the front of the leading group and allowing him to
keep his powder dry.
“I was the rider who initiated
the breakaway but he did most
of the work until I rode away in
the steep part of the climb. I’m
delighted.
“Everything is going well for
me this year. The birth of my
daughter Asia twenty days ago
has also changed my life. It’s
beautiful. I had targeted this
stage at the beginning of the
Giro, and I did it.”
Matteo Montaguti of the
AG2R team was second over the
finish line at 1min 06secs with
fellow Italian Moreno Moser
(Cannondale) in third at 1:27 at
the head of a three-man group.
Brambilla now leads the race
with a 23sec cushion on Russian
Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), although
the overall standings are expected
to be shaken up again on Sunday
after a time trial in the Chianti
wine-producing region.
Spanish veteran Valverde, who
crossed at 1:41 behind Brambilla,
moved up to fourth overall to sits
36secs off the pink jersey on his
maiden participation.
Nibali, the 2013 champion, is
in fifth overall at 45, with Esteban
Chaves (48), Rigoberto Uran (49)
and Mikel Landa (54) all in close
vicinity. Dumoulin crossed the
finish at 2:51 behind Brambilla to
drop out of the race’s top ten.
With two weeks remaining on
the 99th edition of the race, Dumoulin should still has plenty of
racing in his legs.
The Dutchman, who won the
opening stage time trial to take
Classification - Top 5
Road-Giro d’Italia classification after stage 8
1. Gianluca Brambilla
(Italy / Etixx - Quick-Step)
2. Ilnur Zakarin
(Russia / Katusha)
3. Steven Kruijswijk
(Netherlands / LottoNL)
4. Alejandro Valverde
(Spain / Movistar)
5. Vincenzo Nibali
(Italy / Astana)
the pink jersey for the first time
in the race, is a big favourite for
today’s 40.5km race against the
clock between Radda in Chianti
and Greve in Chianti.
Valverde admitted: “We did a
great job today, we managed to
make a big gap. We gave everything on the climb and I think
that the team did a fantastic job.
“Dumoulin
and
(Jakob)
Fuglsang got dropped but this
Giro d’Italia is long. We tried to
get as much time as possible on
Dumoulin because of the time
trial tomorrow.”
File photo of South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan.
Reuters
Seoul
F
ormer Olympic swimming champion Park
Tae-hwan has asked the
Court of Arbitration for
Sport to “mediate” with the Korean Olympic Committee, the
KOC said yesterday, after he was
left off the team due to a controversial doping ban.
Park, who has already served
an 18-month doping ban imposed by world governing body
FINA, is fighting to overturn a
KOC regulation that has tacked
on an additional three-year suspension, which would rule him
out of the Rio Olympics.
Critics of the regulation say it
punishes an athlete twice for the
same offence but the KOC says it
is aimed at keeping Korean sport
free of doping.
World sport is facing an unprecedented drug crisis and
this week’s World Anti-Doping
Agency’s (WADA) foundation
board meeting was rocked by yet
another string of doping bombshells involving Russian athletes.
“Park asked CAS for mediation,
and CAS notified the KOC and the
swimming federation that such a
request came in,” a KOC spokesman said yesterday.
He added that while Park had
requested an interview with the
KOC and a meeting had been
scheduled for May 25, the committee had not shifted its position.
“There is no change in the
KOC stance that doping should
be dealt with zero tolerance.”
Park’s management agency
said yesterday he had filed his
appeal with CAS on April 26 but
asked the sporting tribunal to
suspend it two days later until
he had received a final decision
from the KOC.
“We are still waiting,” said a
Team GMP spokeswoman by telephone, emphasising they would
only proceed if the KOC did not
provide a “positive resolution”.
OSAKA RULE
Park won gold in the 400 metres freestyle at the 2008 Beijing
Games to become the first Korean to win an Olympic swimming
medal.
But his reputation was shattered when he tested positive for
testosterone ahead of the Asian
Games in Sept. 2014.
The 26-year-old attributed
the failed test to an injection he
received at a local clinic, where
he said he was being treated for a
skin complaint.
Despite the KOC ban, Park entered national trials this month
and won all four of his races in
Olympic qualification times.
However, his name was not included on the Korea Swimming
Federation’s preliminary list of
athletes who will have a shot at
making the squad for Rio.
A recent public opinion survey by a prominent local polling
company suggested most South
Koreans thought Park deserved
a second chance, while some
experts have suggested the KOC
could be in trouble with the International Olympic Committee
if it upholds the ban.
In 2011, CAS ruled that the
IOC’s “Osaka Rule”, which
banned athletes hit with antidoping suspensions of at least
six months from competing at
the next Olympic Games, was a
violation of its own statutes.
Former World Anti-Doping
Agency boss Dick Pound told
local media last week that the
KOC, as a signatory to the
WADA Code, had to abide by
the rules laid down for international sport.
Gulf Times
Sunday, May 15, 2016
9
SPORT
TENNIS
Birthday boy Murray hoping for first Rome title
AFP
Rome
A
ndy Murray can’t remember
if he has ever won a match
on his birthday, but the British second seed is hoping to
make today’s celebrations memorable
with a maiden Rome Masters title.
The 28-year-old cruised into his
maiden final in the Italian capital after sweeping lucky loser Lucas Pouille
aside 6-2, 6-1 in a rain-interrupted
semi-final yesterday.
The Scot remains on course to meet
world number one Novak Djokovic if he
overcomes Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the
other semi-final, a week after the Serbian beat Murray in the Madrid final.
“I’d love to win the final and get
another Masters title on the clay and
my first title here,” said Murray, who
claimed his maiden clay-court title in
April last year in Munich and his maiden Masters title on the surface soon
after with victory in Madrid. “I haven’t
won many matches on my birthday
before. I don’t remember winning any,
which isn’t a good sign. Hopefully tomorrow that will change.”
Djokovic leads their ongoing 32-
game ATP rivalry 23-9, and none of
Murray’s wins have come on the red
dirt. But Murray’s clay-court game has
been progressing this year.
Beating Djokovic will be a tall order,
especially after the Serbian buried any
doubts over his form in the lead-up to the
French Open with a convincing quarterfinal win over Rafael Nadal on Friday.
Murray suffered defeat to Nadal in
the semi-finals of Monte Carlo last
month and, although he brushed off
suggestions Djokovic is not on top of
his game, he is hoping to make his 29th
birthday one to remember.
After facing statistically weaker opposition in the shape of Belgian David
Goffin in the quarters, then lucky loser
Pouille in the semis, Murray will have
to step up his game significantly if he is
to beat Djokovic for the first time in a
clay court final.
The pair’s rivalry stretches back
more than 10 years, since well before
they were fledgling professionals, and
they are known to have a strong and
friendly relationship off the court.
Djokovic has shown some chinks in
his armour in Rome, notably losing a
first set 6-0 to Brazilian Tomaz Bellucci
on Thursday before turning the match
around to cruise into the quarter-finals.
Kyrgios asks
fans to judge
his Olympic
credentials
Reuters
Melbourne
he war of words between Nick
Kyrgios and his national Olympic
committee has continued, with the
Australian tennis player launching a poll
on social media as to whether he should
be selected for the Rio Olympics.
Kyrgios and the Australian Olympic
Committee have been at loggerheads
over Rio since team chef de mission
Kitty Chiller suggested the hot-headed
21-year-old and his Davis Cup teammate
Bernard Tomic could miss out due to
their on-court behaviour.
Tomic has since opted out of playing
the Games, citing scheduling reasons,
but Kyrgios remains in the selection
frame despite the Chiller warning.
Kyrgios, who was backed by Tennis
Australia on Friday as having made
a “concerted effort” to improve his
behaviour, posted an on-court photo
of himself on his Facebook page and
asked his followers whether they
thought he should go to Rio.
“It’s hard not to read all the stuff written about me... So I want your opinion,”
he wrote. “Fiery passion and intense
competitiveness to me are the things
that represent the elite level of sport.
“If you think the Australian Olympic
tennis team would be better without
me then comment on this photo... BUT
if you were the selector and you would
want me out there battling for a medal
LIKE and SHARE this picture.”
Kyrgios has had several incidents of
poor behaviour in the last 12 months
and was given a suspended ban by the
ATP last year for an off-colour comment
directed at Swiss twice Grand Slam
champion Stan Wawrinka.
He riled the Olympic team boss
earlier this week by referring to her as
“that Kitty Chiller” on his Twitter account, while adding: “If you don’t want
two of the best players in Australia to
represent your country, so be it.”
Chiller said his comments showed
“maybe he doesn’t really know what it
means to be an Australian Olympian”.
T
Again, on Friday, the Serbian admitted he struggled at the start of both
sets before fighting his way back into
the game to beat seven-time Rome
champion Nadal 7-5, 7-6 (7/4).
But the numbers speak for themselves, and Murray said: “Maybe he
hasn’t started some tournaments well.
I saw a little bit of yesterday’s match,
and it was a very good level.
“I think Novak is playing extremely
well this year. He’s winning and that’s a
sign of someone who’s very confident.”
A win would be welcome, but Murray
said that simply the prospect of a threeset Masters final with Djokovic can only
boost what he believes has been a good
preparation for the French Open.
“Any time you play the best players
it’s great,” added Murray. “The French
Open starts in a fortnight and you don’t
get any better preparation for that than
playing the best players in the world.
My preparation has gone extremely
well leading up to Roland Garros.”
Serena sets up final date with Keys
On the women’s side, three-time
champion Serena Williams said she
can’t wait after setting up the first allAmerican women’s clay-court final in 14
years, with an Italian Open final against
Madison Keys. The last time two Americans faced off in the final of a WTA claycourt event was in 2002, when Williams
beat her older sister Venus to win her
maiden French Open at Roland Garros.
Williams, who will aim for her fourth
and second successive title in Paris in a
fortnight, said earlier this week she was
excited to see a new crop of younger
Americans emerging from her shadow. And she is now looking forward
to meeting 21-year-old Keys after she
upset Spain’s third seed Garbine Muguruza 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 earlier in the day.
“Yeah, it’s great. I think it will be
wonderful because I feel like Madison
is one of the players that really can be
great and she has that potential, and
now she’s showing that on all surfaces,” said Williams. “You know, we’re an
all-American final on the clay. That’s
just—it’s great. It’s really exciting.”
Despite Rome being Williams’ first
event of the season, the French Open
champion booked her final spot with
a comfortable 6-4, 6-1 semi-final win
over Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu as
she looks for a fourth crown in the Eternal City. “I feel like everything is kind of
coming together,” said Williams.
The 34-year-old American has won
three titles in the Italian capital, in
2002, 2013 and 2014 and she pulled out
of the tournament last year with an elbow injury after his first match.
Speaking before Williams won her
semi-final, Keys admitted “it would
mean a lot for me” to be facing Williams for the third time in her career.
“If it’s Serena, I’m going to go out and
do my best. You know, I’m really excited for it,” she said.
Williams has beaten Keys twice,
both times during Grand Slams. But
Keys said she won’t be bowing to her
more successful and more experienced
compatriot. “I played her pretty close
the first set of the Australian Open. So
(it) definitely made me realise that I can
stay in it,” she said. “I think if you’re
kind of able to weather the storm and
stay with her, that, you know, every
once in a while you get one or two opportunities and it’s (all about) taking
those opportunities.”
GOLF
Day three ahead at
weather-hit Sawgrass
‘The biggest thing for me is to focus on trying to extend the lead. The moment that I lose a
little bit of focus and make a few mental errors and mistakes, that’s when I let the field back in’
Australian golfer Jason
Day tees off from the 18th
green at the Players Championship yesterday. (AFP)
Reuters
Los Angeles
J
ason Day extended his overnight lead
to three shots after 14 holes in the
Players Championship second round
on Friday before play was suspended
for the day in fading light at the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
The Australian world number one again
took advantage of a receptive Stadium Course
with very little rough and barely a breath of
wind, recording birdies at the second, fourth,
seventh, 13th and 14th to get to get to 14-under overall.
That put him three ahead of Ireland’s
Shane Lowry, who was the leader in the clubhouse at 11-under 133 after shooting a 68 that
included an albatross two at the par-four
18th, where he holed out with a wedge from
120 yards in the fairway.
“It’s not fun stopping and starting,” Day
told Golf Channel after his round was disrupted for just over two hours due to the
threat of lightning when he had completed
just eight holes. “I came back out not as sharp
as I was this morning.”
Out in three-under 33, Day picked up further shots at the par-three 13th, where he
drained a 40-foot putt, and at the par-four
14th, where his approach settled within
three feet of the cup, to strengthen his grip
at the top.
“I feel good about my game but the big-
gest thing for me is to focus on trying to extend the lead,” said the 28-year-old, who has
long coveted a first Players title to add to his
already impressive golfing resume.
“The moment that I lose a little bit of focus
and make a few mental errors and mistakes,
that’s when I let the field back in,” he added.
Jonas Blixt of Sweden (67), Germany’s Alex
Cejka (67) and American Cameron Tringale
(69) were all at 10-under while American
Colt Knost and Rory McIlroy made the biggest moves of the day to finish at nine and
eight-under respectively.
Just 24 hours after Day became the fifth
player to fire a record-low 63 at the event
widely regarded as the most prestigious outside the four majors, American Knost followed suit with a 10-birdie display.
Knost had a chance to card a 62 and make
history, but three-putted from long range on
his final hole, the par-four 18th, for his only
bogey. Soon after, McIlroy was in good position to at least match Knost with a 63 as he
teed off on his last hole, the par-five ninth, at
nine-under for the day but he wound up with
a bogey to settle for a 64.
“I don’t feel like I played that much differently today than I did yesterday but it’s an
eight-shot difference,” McIlroy said. “I’m in
a good position even though I finished a little bit frustratingly, but these things happen.”
The cut was projected to fall at two-under
142 with defending champion Rickie Fowler
(71) and world number two Jordan Spieth, also
at one-under after 14 holes, likely to miss out.
Ace earns Wilcox biggest roars of the day
Reuters
Los Angeles
W
ith his homespun
swing and unorthodox follow-through,
Will Wilcox does not resemble
a golfing superstar but the
little-known American sparked
the loudest roars at the Players
Championship in Florida on
Friday with a hole-in-one.
The 29-year-old from
Alabama, who has never won
on the PGA Tour, aced the
infamous par-three 17th during
the second round at the TPC
Sawgrass, his bright yellow ball
pitching five yards short of the
hole before rolling into the cup.
As the massive galleries
erupted with deafening applause, Wilcox dropped his
club in celebration, then leapt
into his caddie’s arms before
dancing across the 17th tee in
unbridled excitement. It was the
first ace on the 147-yard hole at
the Players Championship since
Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez
achieved the feat during the
first round in 2002.
“I was just trying to luck it
up there on the green,” Wilcox
told Golf Channel after the
second round was disrupted by
a weather delay. “The wind was
perfect for that club and when
it came out drawing a little bit, I
thought, ‘That’s right at it’.”
“I was kind of hovering around
the cutline at that point and for
it to happen right there on 17 is
pretty surreal. My whole family
is here ... I just can’t believe that
happened. To have everybody
there with me is really cool. In
the last 10 years, I have come
a long ways and this is another
stepping stone ... maybe a couple more people know who I am
now,” he grinned.
Wilcox, who was introduced
to the game by his golf professional mother, recorded his
first ace on the PGA Tour on his
debut appearance at the prestigious Players Championship.
“It’s pretty cool,” said the
long-haired Wilcox, whose best
finish on the US circuit was a
runner-up spot at last year’s
Barbasol Championship. “I’ve
made some money this year so
I’ve almost got my (PGA Tour)
card locked up and being in this
field is massive.”
As for his homespun swing?
“Through the ball, it’s good but
look at that follow-through,”
Wilcox smiled as he watched a
television replay of his hole-inone. “It’s a little different, and
I’ve already gotten some grief
on Twitter about it (his followthrough). If you don’t like it,
then whatever ... watch another
sport. But it (that shot) went in.”
10
Gulf Times
Sunday, May 15, 2016
SPORT
BADMINTON
FOCUS
China seek Olympic
boost with Cup titles
China won the Thomas Cup five times in a row until their defeat to Japan last year
Lin Dan’s China will look to reassert their dominance
ahead of the Olympics by resuming their
stranglehold on the Thomas and Uber Cup titles on
home ground in Kunshan, China from today. (AFP)
AFP
Beijing
L
in Dan’s China will look to reassert their dominance in Badminton ahead of the Olympics by resuming their stranglehold on the
Thomas and Uber Cup titles on home
ground from today.
The sport’s pre-eminent nation suffered a blip at the last Thomas Cup in
2014 when Lin’s team were stunned in
the semi-finals by Japan, who then beat
Malaysia in the final. But Japan axed
star man Kento Momota in April over a
gambling scandal, and the signs are that
normal service will be resumed when the
world team championships convene in
Kunshan.
China’s men won the Thomas Cup five
times in a row until their defeat to Japan,
while their women have collected eight of
the last nine titles in the concurrent Uber
Cup. Uppermost in their minds will be
the Rio Olympics in August, where China
will attempt to match their performance
at the last Games where they swept all
five gold medals.
“China always makes a strong point
to prove their strength in team matches,” Raphael Sachetat, chief editor of the
online magazine badzine.net, told AFP.
“Players always give their best for their
country and this will be especially true
for the men’s event.”
Lee Chong Wei could be one stumbling
block. The Malaysian star, who led Malaysia to the 2014 final, beat both Lin and
top-ranked Chen Long to win the Badminton Asia Championships earlier this
month. “The team is definitely ready for
the challenge. We are all well prepared,”
Lee, the world number two, told Malay-
sia’s The Star newspaper.
Winning the Thomas Cup would be a
significant boost for Lee, 33, as he aims
for a still-elusive Olympic gold medal in
Rio. But experts warn that pressure is already mounting on the veteran as he gears
up for the Olympics—after losing the
2008 and 2012 finals to his nemesis, Lin.
“The pressure is on Lee Chong Wei to
deliver the nation’s first ever (Olympic)
gold medal,” Rizal Hashim, a Malaysiabased sports analyst, told AFP.
China will have an early chance for revenge against Japan in Group A, where
they will also play France and Mexico,
while Malaysia face South Korea, England
and Germany in Group C.
In Group D, second-seeded Denmark
are drawing inspiration from Japan’s 2014
run as they take on Taiwan, New Zealand
and South Africa.
“If Japan can win the Thomas Cup, I
think we can win as well,” fifth-ranked
Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark told the Badminton World Federation website. “Two
years ago was an eye-opener for many
teams.”
In the Uber Cup, defending champions
China are favourites to secure their 14th
crown with three former world number
ones, including Olympic champion Li
Xuerui, at their disposal.
However Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, and
top-ranked doubles pair Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi, could cause
them problems, as could Thailand’s world
number two Ratchanok Intanon.
“Japan will be their main threat, led
by Nozomi Okuhara, who has beaten top
Chinese players recently and (has) very
strong women’s doubles,” said Sachetat.
Both competitions feature 16 teams divided into four groups, with the top two
in each qualifying for the quarter-finals.
SPOTLIGHT
Russia denies state-run doping at
showcase Sochi Winter Games
AFP
Moscow
R
ussia yesterday denied what it
called unsubstantiated claims
of a vast state-run doping programme during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi seen by many as
a triumph for Vladimir Putin. Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed
the allegations that dozens of Russian
athletes, including at least 15 medallists,
took performance-enhancing drugs
during the showpiece games as Russia
boasted of its efforts to clean up sport.
“These look like absolutely unsubstantiated claims,” Peskov told journalists in response to the claims by Grigory
Rodchenkov, the former head of Russia’s
anti-doping laboratory. Peskov called
the allegations “the slander of a defector,” using a Cold War term for Soviet
citizens who fled to the West.
Deputy
sports
minister
Yury
Nagornykh yesterday said: “We have
not carried out any state programme,
any special programme, any measures to
distort the results of doping control nor
will we do so. We are committed to zero
tolerance on athletes using banned substances and methods.”
In a separate statement the sports
ministry said that Rodchenkov’s claims
looked like an attempt to shift responsibility following his resignation. “We are
convinced that under a worldwide antidoping system that exists today mass
manipulations are impossible,” the ministry said.
The sports ministry however urged
an investigation if any of Rodchenkov’s
claims were based on facts. Rodchenkov,
fearing for his safety and currently living
at a secret location in Los Angeles, made
the sensational claims to the New York
Times on Thursday.
Russian Deputy Sports Minister Yuri Nagornyh (left) and cross-country skier
Alexander Legkov attend a news conference in Moscow. (Reuters)
He headed Russia’s anti-doping laboratory from 2006 to November 2015
when he resigned after the World AntiDoping Agency (WADA) accused the
laboratory of being part of a state-sponsored doping programme. In his first interview, Rodchenkov described a massive, tightly-organised doping operation
involving Russia’s FSB security service
and the sports ministry.
“I would not rely on such unsubstantiated claims,” Peskov said, asked
to comment on alleged involvement by
the ministry and the security service.
Peskov added that the Kremlin would
support those willing to sue Rodchenkov
or any media outlets publishing these al-
legations. Nagornykh said Russia would
nevertheless act to verify Rodchenkov’s
claims. “All the incidents that could be
the subject of an investigation, based
on information made public yesterday—
those actions will be taken by the Russian
side.”
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko
has condemned the latest allegations as
“absurd,” calling them “a continuation of
the information attack on Russian sport”.
The claims come as a huge blow to
Russia after it spent billions turning Sochi from a rundown resort to a gleaming
showcase for the games. Putin personally
backed Russia’s bid, even giving an emotional speech in English to the Interna-
tional Olympic Committee (IOC).
After dire results at the previous Winter Games in Vancouver, Russia topped
the medals table at Sochi with 13 golds
in an apparent turnaround for its sporting fortunes. “The results show that the
difficult period in the history of Russia
sport is over,” Putin said after the games.
“Everything that was done and invested
in our sport has not been in vain,” he
boasted.
Russia has always insisted that the
Sochi Games were clean. WADA in its
damning report on Russia last year said
that FSB security service officers were
present at the anti-doping laboratory in
Sochi.
But its main focus has been on Russia’s
allegedly facilitating drug cheats at the
London Olympics in 2012. The IOC said
in November that there was no reason to
doubt the anti-doping results in Sochi.
Asked if Russian athletes would be
able to compete at the Rio Olympics this
summer, Peskov said Mutko would need
to answer this, but added: “We hope that
all will be well.”
Two of the Russian athletes named
by Rodchenkov involved in doping at
Sochi, denied the allegations alongside
Nagornykh. Cross-country skier Alexander Legkov who won gold and silver
at Sochi called the claims a “political
game.”
“Everyone is seriously prejudiced
against our country because it’s one of
the strongest in the world,” he said.
He waved a thick folder which he said
contained all his doping samples over
the last three years. Alexander Zubkov,
a bobsledder who won two golds, said:
“This claim from him is not backed up by
any facts, any documents, it simply besmirches my name in sport.”
“In 15 years I’ve never been seen as
breaching WADA’s anti-doping campaign,” he said.
‘WADA did not
approve of govt
officials in Kenyan
doping agency’
Reuters
Nairobi
T
he presence of government officials in the
Anti-Doping
Agency
of Kenya (ADAK) led
the World Anti-Doping Agency
(WADA) to declare the country
non-compliant with its code,
Sports Minister Hassan Wario
said yesterday. WADA’s announcement on Thursday threw
the country’s participation in
the Rio de Janeiro Olympics into
question less than three months
before the opening ceremony.
Kenya passed an act of parliament in April to criminalise doping, but WADA said the
country needed to make changes
to ensure compliance with the
code, which sets a framework
for consistent rules and policies
around the world. The WADA
ruling means Kenya, for decades
a leading power in middle- and
long-distance running, could be
in danger of exclusion from the
Aug. 5-21 Olympics in Rio.
Wario, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Sport, told Reuters the
sticking point was the presence
of officials from the Attorney
General’s office and the National
Treasury on the ADAK board. He
said this was a requirement under Kenyan law. “They (WADA)
are pointing at the legal issues.
We had seven stages to cover.
We covered the six very well,
which included policy and rules
and regulations. But they raised
questions on legal elements, that
is the act,” Wario said.
“They highlighted some parts
of the act and, based on that,
they said unless we get it back
exactly the way they sent it to us,
we will not be declared compliant.” Wario said he was leaving
for Canada later yesterday for a
meeting with WADA after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta
asked him and Foreign Minister
Amina Mohamed to travel there
to resolve the issue. “We are just
going to meet with them and listen to their sentiments and come
and implement them because
what is important now is not
arguing with them or them with
us,” he said.
Kenyan Minister of Sport Hassan
Wario gives a press conference
in Nairobi. (AFP)
“What is important is to rectify whatever mistakes there are
and take it through parliament
and get the compliance and move
on.” WADA’s “non-compliance”
announcement led to Kenyatta
summoning leading government officials to his State House
residency to explain the situation
after Parliament passed the Anti-Doping law last month to beat
WADA’s May 2 deadline. Kenya
failed to meet February and April
deadlines.
Kenya’s governing athletics
body, Athletics Kenya, has come
under intense scrutiny in recent
years over the state of its drug
testing and bureaucracy amid
allegations of corruption. Forty
Kenyan runners have been found
guilty of doping since 2012 and 18
are currently suspended according to the world governing International Association of Athletics
Federations (IAAF). The IAAF
said on Friday that WADA’s action “is a further reflection of the
IAAF’s concerns about the level
of commitment to anti-doping
at the national level in Kenya.”
The IAAF, which in November
suspended Russia from international athletics because of widespread drug cheating, said Kenyan athletes were still eligible to
compete nationally and internationally. It said Kenya’s participation in Rio was in the hands of
the International Olympic Committee.
Russia anti-doping body
unlikely to be cleared
before Rio: WADA chief
London: The head of the World
Anti-Doping Agency said yesterday that Russia’s anti-doping
authority was unlikely to be
declared compliant with world
sports rules before the Rio de
Janeiro Olympic Games.
“As far as the Russian antidoping agency is concerned,
I think it highly unlikely that
that organisation would be
compliant by the time of the
games in Rio,” WADA President
Craig Reedie told BBC radio in
an interview.
A report on Russia’s compliance with doping rules would
be sent to the International
Olympic Committee which
would then rule on whether the
country’s track and field athletes can take part in the Aug.
5-21 Games in Brazil, he said.
It would also be sent to the
International Association of
Athletics Federations which has
to take a decision on whether
to lift a suspension on Russia’s
track and field federation.
Allegations about systemic
doping in Russian sport have
been rumbling for months,
but Moscow has been able to
argue that the witnesses were
unreliable and if there was
wrongdoing, it was just a few
isolated cases. But comments
by Grigory Rodchenkov, the
former head of Russian sport’s
anti-doping laboratory, in what
he described as an extensive
programme to cheat at the
Sochi Olympics takes the crisis
over drugs in Russian sport to a
new level of severity.
A Kremlin spokesman denied Rodchenkov’s allegations,
made in an interview with the
New York Times, saying they
amounted to “slander by a
turncoat”.
The chair of WADA’s athletes
committee said on Thursday
that Russian athletes should be
banned from the Rio Olympics
unless there are guarantees
that they are drug free.
Further allegations of drug
use by Russian athletes appeared in U.S. media this week
and Reedie told the BBC he was
“horrified” by the claims, which
have been denied by Russia.
“If these allegations are true,
and they have to be investigated, then what has appeared
to have happened is absolutely
unacceptable and people can
draw their own conclusions
from those facts,” he said.
Reedie also said he assumed
a large percentage of the
Russian team would be clean
athletes.
BRAZIL’S NEW SPORTS
MINISTER VOWS ‘SUCCESS’
Brazil’s new sports minister
vowed Friday that the Olympics
would be an “absolute success”
despite the turmoil roiling the
host country, whose president
has been suspended pending
an impeachment trial.
Sports Minister Leonardo
Picciani took up the job Thursday after interim president
Michel Temer took power from
sidelined leftist leader Dilma
Rousseff, whose popularity
nosedived amid a deep recession and massive corruption
scandal. Construction and
preparations for the Games,
which open in Rio de Janeiro
on August 5, “are advancing
well, respecting the timeline,
and I’m absolutely convinced
we’ll have no problem,” Picciani, a 36-year-old former
congressman, told public news
service Agencia Brasil.
Gulf Times
Sunday, May 15, 2016
11
SPORT
SHANGHAI DIAMOND LEAGUE
Gatlin on track with victory;
Qatar’s Ogunode comes second
Ogunode was far from his best as the Qatar sprinter times 10.07sec to take silver
Justin Gatlin (centre) of the US sprints to
victory ahead of Qatar’s Femi Ogunode (left)
in the men’s 100m at the Shanghai Diamond
League in Shanghai yesterday. (AFP)
AFP
Shanghai
U
S sprinter Justin Gatlin
sailed to victory in the men’s
100-metres at the Shanghai
Diamond league yesterday,
carrying him one step closer to an Olympic showdown with his great rival
Usain Bolt. The 34-year-old veteran,
who has been dogged by controversy
for previously failing two dope tests, set
his fastest time of the year in Shanghai, running 9.94sec, but falling short
of Qatar’s Femi Ogunode’s 9.91sec, the
fastest time so far this year.
Yesterday, Ogunode himself was
far from his best as the Qatar sprinter
timed 10.07sec to finish second.
Gatlin is seeking to dust himself off
after double disappointment at the
world championships last year, where
after leading the world in the 100 and
200 metres he lost both races to Jamaica’s Bolt, adding extra spice to their
expected meeting in Rio.
The American, who was favoured to
win in Shanghai, said after the race that
a winter ankle injury had made preparations “difficult”. “I came out here to
execute and I know being an Olympic
year, it is a long season and my coach
and I have a plan. He is training me like
Mike Tyson to knock out the opposition
and keep swinging.”
Gatlin has failed two dope tests
during his career but has returned to
competition and also represented the
United States at the 2012 Olympics. He
declined to confirm whether Rio 2016
would be his last Olympics appearance,
saying: “If I go in thinking this is my
last Olympics, I’m already gonna start
thinking about winding down, and I
want to stay aggressive.”
Meanwhile several false starts in the
competitive 110m men’s hurdles saw
30-year-old Olympic champion Aries Merritt of the United States disqualified along with Orlando Ortega of
Spain. Merritt, who made a remarkable recovery from a kidney transplant
last year, walked off the track in disappointment in his quest to return to Olympic glory in Rio.
The 22-year-old world indoor cham-
pion Omar McLeod of Jamaica won the
110m hurdles, setting a new best time
for the year of 12.98sec, beating the
previous best he set last week in Doha.
“This is the first time I have been in a
race with two false starts,” McLeod said
after the race. “This is something you
never experience in training.”
Meanwhile, in the men’s 800m world
record holder and Olympic champion
David Rudisha lost in a shock defeat he
attributed to a bungled start, placing
fifth behind Ferguson Rotich of Kenya,
who won in 1:45.68sec, his best of the
season.
“It was a really bad start,” Kenya’s
Rudisha said, explaining he lost two
seconds in his first appearance at
Shanghai Stadium because there were
BOXING
Wilder’s WBC heavyweight title fight
delayed after Povetkin tests positive
AFP
Moscow
A
lexander Povetkin’s WBC heavyweight title fight with champion
Deontay Wilder has been delayed
after the Russian boxer tested positive for meldonium, local media reported on
Friday. Their bout was scheduled for May 21
in Moscow. “Sasha (Povetkin) used meldonium until September last year when it was
not banned,” promoter Andrei Ryabinsky
told R-Sport agency.
“Only the leftover traces of meldonium at
a very low concentration can still remain in
his body. We’re currently in talks with WBC,
who will decide whether to cancel the bout or
not. We expect a kind of individual decision
upon the case.”
Meanwhile, Wilder’s promoter Lou DiBella
admitted he was unsure how the situation
would be dealt with. “We’ve been made
aware of the drug tests and are having indepth conversations as how to proceed,”
he said. “It’s a terrible situation to be in but
there’s a lot to take into consideration...
There’s not really much else to say right now.”
Experienced fighter Povetkin, 36, has a
record of 30 wins and only one defeat to his
name, while unbeaten American Wilder has
finished 35 of his 36 bouts with KO’s.
Meldonium has been propelled into the
spotlight since Russian tennis star Maria
Sharapova tested positive for the drug at the
Australian Open in January. Since then, a
Russian boxer Alexander Povetkin.
string of Russian athletes, including Olympic swimmer Yulia Efimova, have admitted to
testing positive for the drug.
Russia replaced its entire U-18 world ice
hockey championship team to “minimise”
the risk of testing positive for meldonium,
the country’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko
said last month. But the World Anti-Doping
Agency (WADA) has said some athletes could
escape a ban for taking meldonium because it
does not know for sure how long it takes the
substance to leave the body.
FURY SPARKS FRESH ROW
WITH NEW VIDEO RANT
World heavyweight champion Tyson Fury
caused fresh controversy on Friday after suggesting that rape and bestiality will one day
be made legal in his latest foul-mouthed
video rant.
The British boxer also suggested anyone
who disagreed with him, was likely to have
been “brainwashed by all the Zionist, Jewish
people who own all the banks, all the papers,
all the TV stations”.
Fury has previously been accused of sexism and homophobia, including controversial remarks about Olympic heptathlon
champion Jessica Ennis-Hill. The new footage came in a YouTube interview posted by
SportsViewLondon.
“I think it’ll be perfectly normal in the next
ten years to have sexual relationships with
your animals at home - you know, your pets,
your cats and dogs and all that, so that will be
legal,” said Fury.
“You are already allowed to marry your
animals and stuff,” added Fury, who will
defend his title against Ukraine’s Wladimir
Klitschko, the man he beat to become world
champion, in his home city of Manchester,
northern England, on July 9. “It is going to
happen, though, isn’t it? Whatever you can
think of that’s bad, will be made legal, because that’s what the devil wants.”
He also said: “Women are even taking
overnight bags out with them, so they are
going out just to get laid. Just like men usually do. Women are worse than that. They
are taking their overnight bags because they
know they are going to pull somebody and get
at it that night. Filth, pure filth.”
“high jumpers in the lane”. He added:
“We tried to throw our hands up, but
the gun went off. The guys behind us
were already ahead. ... It’s a pity.”
But the 27-year-old brushed aside
questions about the World Anti-Doping Agency’s ruling that Kenya’s efforts
against drugs were inadequate, raising fears that the athletics powerhouse
could miss Rio.
In the women’s 200m, former Olympic sprint champion Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica also disappointed, placing second behind Murielle
Ahoure of the Ivory Coast, who won in
22.72secs.
Campbell-Brown, who is seeking to
reclaim the Olympic title after winning
gold in Athens and Beijing, posted a
time of 22.82. Afterwards she said: “To
be honest, I’m disappointed. I’ve been
really hitting my marks in training, but
I failed to deliver. Such is life. I think
maybe I need to take it a little easier in
training and listen to my body a little
more.”
In the men’s pole vault 29-year-old
French indoor champion and world
record holder Renaud Lavillenie was
defeated by American Sam Kendricks,
who soared to a 5.88m finish. Canadian Shawn Barber, winner of the world
championships last year in Beijing,
placed third.
And in the final event of the night local fans roared in delight as the Chinese
men’s 4x100m relay team took first,
setting a new meet record of 38.71sec.
VIJENDER HAMMERS OPPONENT
TO WIN SIXTH PRO FIGHT
Bolton, England: Indian boxing sensation
Vijender Singh registered his sixth win in a
row in the professional arena by outpunching
Andrzej Soldra of Poland by technical knockout
in three brutal rounds in a Super Middleweight
contest at the Macron Stadium here.
Facing the first eight-round fight of his
fledging professional career on Friday evening,
Vijender hammered his opponent right from
the start, forcing the referee to stop the contest
around two minutes into the third round.
The Bhiwani lad will now contest for the
World Boxing Organisation’s (WBO) Asia title in
front of his home crowd in New Delhi on June
11. Soldra is the most experienced opponent
Vijender has faced so far with 12 wins out of the
17 bouts he has fought so far. Five of those wins
have come by knockout.
Soldra looked to be better than Vijender’s
five earlier opponents in terms of footwork and
technique. He tried to put up a strong fight in
the first two rounds. But the Indian’s punching
power eventually proved too much for him as
Vijender dished out a virtually one-sided hammering in the third round. Vijender was off to an
explosive start, dominating the first round. The
Haryanvi boxer knocked his opponent to the
canvas with a powerful right jab on the counter
when Soldra tried to go on the offensive.
The Indian was the better boxer in the second
round as well, repeatedly forcing the Polish
pugilist to the ropes with powerpacked blows.
He managed to penetrate Soldra’s defence on
several occasions. The Polish boxer was visibly
struggling to absorb the blows, but managed
to fight on. Vijender went in for the kill in third
round, forcing the worn out Soldra to the ropes
repeatedly with crisp punches and body blows.
The brutal barrage of punches forced the
referee to step in and inspect Soldra’s condition
before deciding that the Pole was not ready to
continue the fight.
“I am thrilled to get my sixth professional
victory and excited for my homecoming title
fight. Soldra was a good opponent but my
punches replied to him. I think this fight was a
horror show for him. I am happy that before my
title fight, I am able to have six knockout wins,”
Vijender said after the fight.
“By winning first eight round fight, my
confidence level has really gone up and this is
a step forward heading towards title fight. Now
I will start preparing for my title fight in India,”
he added. “He is a true talent of professional
boxing. I am happy with his performance so far
and he will go long way. He is very hard working
boxer,” said Vijender’s trainer Lee Beard.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
HORSE RACING
GULF TIMES
SPOTLIGHT
Belardo clinches Al Shaqab
Lockinge Stakes at Newbury
Al Shaqab Racing's Mehmas and Qatar Racing’s Imperial Aviator also emerge winners on Al Shaqab Lockinge Day
By Our Correspondent
Newbury, England
H
E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani
crowned the winners of the Al Shaqab
Lockinge Stakes at the Newbury Racecourse in England yesterday.
The second edition of the annual event sponsored by Al Shaqab saw Godolphin’s Belardo
win the Group 1 Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes.
Belardo’s win in the main event was backed
up by a remarkable performance from Log Out
Island in the Carnarvon Stakes, and both horses
now have realistic Group One targets at Royal
Ascot next month.
The pair is trained outside the main Godolphin stables in Newmarket and Roger Varian’s
Belardo could prove to be the main domestic
challenger to the outstanding North Americantrained mare Tepin in the Queen Anne Stakes,
the first race of the royal meeting on June 14.
Belardo is known to win on soft ground, as
was evident in his win in the 2014 Dewhurst
Stakes. The going was good here yesterday,
however, and Belardo showed an impressive
turn of foot to make up several lengths in the final furlong and a half.
Limato, the favourite, travelled best of all
through the first seven furlongs but failed to get
home on his first try at a mile. Euro Charline
took over and got the better of Endless Drama
inside the final furlong, but Belardo’s strong finish carried him past the pair and a length clear
at the line.
“He has put up some great performances
since that Dewhurst win and he was due another
big one,” Varian said. “He has good acceleration,
he gets a mile well and he’s comfortable on this
ground. He was half a length behind Solow at
Ascot in October last year and that’s arguably
the best form going into this race. He will be in
all the big mile races and hopefully this is just
the start.”
There were distant echoes of Frankel’s performance in the 2,000 Guineas as Log Out Island shot 10 lengths clear of his field after a furlong of the Carnarvon Stakes, then maintained
an advantage to the line to win by three-and-aquarter lengths. Horses generally come back to
their field after grabbing such a long early lead,
but Log Out Island’s stride never shortened
and a useful field of opponents could not land a
blow. It will be more difficult to repeat the trick
in the Group One Commonwealth Cup at Royal
Ascot, but Log Out Island has at least shown
himself worthy of a place in the field.
“He pulls a little bit, but James [Doyle] said
he just let him run, and he loved it,” Richard
Hannon, Log Out Island’s trainer, said. “When
you see the furlongs ticking down, you think,
he’s got to stop in a minute, and then they start
walking and end up finishing last, but it never
happened. Ascot has to be the next logical step.
If he’s like that, he’s going to go quite close.”
In the first race of the day, the Olympic Glory
Conditions Stakes, Mehmas, carrying the colours of Al Shaqab Racing, emerged triumphant.
The two-year-old Mehmas is now unbeaten in
two starts, as he had won on his seasonal debut
at Chester on May 5.
Ridden by Frankie Dettori, the colt was very
impressive, as he won by more than three
lengths. He is now favourite for the Coventry
Stakes (Gr2) which takes place in June at Royal
Ascot. Experts declared him to be the most impressive 2-year-old seen so far this year in Britain. Richard Hannon, his trainer, said: “Luckily
Sheikh Joaan bought one at the breeze-ups. He
was very impressive today. If ours win first time
out, generally they’re pretty good as they improve quite a bit for the run. I’d say he goes for
the Coventry (at Royal Ascot) now.
“I was really impressed with the way he travelled and I’ve only done a couple of bits of work
with him. He’s a nice moving horse and he’s got
a lovely attitude. He’s got the lot and he’s gone
clear of a good field.”
The Al Rayyan Stakes (Gr3) went to Astronereus, who was making his seasonal debut and
Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club general
manager Nasser Sherida al-Kaabi at the
Newbury Racecourse during the Al Shaqab
Lockinge Day yesterday.
HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani with the winners of the Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury Racecourse yesterday. Godolphin's Belardo, trained by Roger Varian and ridden by Andrea Atzeni,
won the Group 1 race yesterday. PICTURES: Racingfotos
“Sponsoring such type of races enhances
the standing of Qatar’s equestrian
sport,” said QREC GM Nasser Sherida
al-Kaabi after the races. “It is one of the
top-class racing events in the UK. In
addition, HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad
al-Thani’s presence and presentation of
trophies to the winners of the main race
demonstrate Qatar’s commitment of
horse racing in general"
winning his first Group. Astronereus is owned
by John Connolly and Odile Griffith. “We were
thinking he was a two-mile horse, something
like the Goodwood Cup, and my heart is still
set on going back to the Melbourne Cup but the
ground might be a worry out there,” said Connolly.
Qatar Racing’s Imperial Aviator was an authoritative winner of the Al Zubarah London
Gold Cup for Roger Charlton and Oisin Murphy.
Carrying the Qatar Racing silks for the first
time, Imperial Aviator was always travelling
strong in behind the leaders and picked up in
impressive fashion for Oisin Murphy to claim a
four-and-a-half-length victory over Cartago.
Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club general
manager Nasser Sherida al-Kaabi expressed his
gratitude to Al Shaqab Racing for sponsoring Al
Shaqab Lockinge Day at Newbury.
“Sponsoring such type of races enhances the
standing of Qatar’s equestrian sport,” said alKaabi after the races.
“It is one of the top-class racing events in the
UK. In addition, HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad alThani’s presence and presentation of trophies to
the winners of the main race demonstrate Qatar’s commitment of horse racing in general.
“Al Shaqab Lockinge Day is a step forward on
the way to Qatar Goodwood Festival, which will
be held July in Goodwood, UK. The Festival will
involve a large number of top-class and longawaited races. We look forward to more victories
by Qatar’s equestrian sport in the near future in
line with the immense support and attention we
receive from the state.”
HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani leads in Mehmas, who was ridden to victory by jockey Frankie Dettori in the Olympic Glory Conditions Stakes at
Newbury Racecourse yesterday.
HE Sheikh Fahad bin Abdullah al-Thani receives the trophy after Qatar Racing Limited's Imperial Aviator won the Al Zubarah
London Gold Cup during the Al Shaqab Lockinge Day at Newbury Racecourse yesterday.
Andrea Atzeni rides Belardo to victory in the Al Shaqab Lockinge
Stakes at Newbury Racecourse yesterday.