Sport

OLYMPICS | Page 3
FOOTBALL| Page 9
FOOTBALL
India down
Ireland while
shooters
disappoint
Foes reunited
as Mourinho,
Ranieri meet at
Wembley
Sunday, August 7, 2016
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SPOTLIGHT
TIMES
Rio carnival
opens with climate
change message
Page 2
PREVIEW
Qatar’s handball stars begin quest for gold today
By Our Correspondent
Rio de Janeiro
Qatar’s handball players at the Games Village yesterday.
T
he second day of competition at the Rio 2016 Olympics
will see Team Qatar’s athletes
compete across swimming,
handball, boxing and beach volleyball.
For Qatar sports fans all eyes will be
on young swimmer Noah al-Khulaifi
who will make his Olympic debut in
the 100m backstroke. The seventeen
year old and second youngest on the
Qatar team already holds a massive
fourteen GCC records and seeks to set
a further personal and national record
in Rio.
Speaking ahead of the biggest day of
his career so far, up and coming swimming talent al-Khulaifi said: “Up until
now I haven’t really grasped the magnitude of being in the Olympics but
I’m trying not to let the pressure of the
occasion get to me. However it is very
special to be here and part of this.
“Being at the athletes village hasn’t
blown my mind but it’s filled with su-
Qatar’s Nada fails to qualify, beach volleyball team beaten
Qatar’s Nada Mohamed Arakji failed
to get past the qualifying stage in the
women’s 100m butterfly at the Rio
Olympics yesterday.
The Qatari swimmer started in Heat
1 but finished last among the five
competitors with a time of 1:18.86
seconds.
Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini, who
is taking part in the Olympics under
the Team Refugee banner, came first
perstars I didn’t really expect to see
such legends all walking around like
normal people. From NBA stars who
seem about 7ft tall to Michael Phelps
who I saw in the pool, which for me is
just like ‘wow’.
“It’s not something you see every
day so I’m not used to that side of
things but I’m concentrating hard and
feel focused for my race.
“In terms of what I want to achieve
for this Olympics I’m looking to develop my own personal growth and experience because I’m still only seventeen
years old. Honestly I’m trying to keep
myself grounded and set best times
and national records. I see this as a really good stepping stone for the future
and future Olympics and Qatar swimming as a whole.”
After a hugely impressive second
place finish in the World Handball
Championships hosted in Doha in
2015, the Qatar handball team will enter the games with great hopes, expectations and local interest.
The team won the hearts of the nation in reaching the final of the Hand-
in the Heat 1 but she too failed to
qualify for the semis, having finished
41st overall out of 45 swimmers.
The world record holder Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden cruised through her
prelims, with the hot favourite claiming the fastest time in 56.26 seconds.
In beach volleyball the Qatar duo
of Jefferson and Younousse were
beaten 2-0 by the American pairing
of Gibb and Patterson.
ball World Championships but the
Olympics is another step up as Qatar’s
team captain Abdulrazzaq Ahmed Murad commented: “For Team Qatar this
is everyone’s dream. Soon our dream
will become a reality. We dream of
winning a medal. But it will be a tough
challenge. After our performance in
the World Championships all nations
are wary of us. They know we are a
force to be reckoned with but we’re
prepared for that! We will do all we can
and leave the rest to God.
SPOTLIGHT
US teenager
claims first
gold in Rio
‘It’s very special for me to start out in Rio 2016 for the US’
AFP
Rio de Janeiro
Virginia Thrasher
of USA reacts after
winning the gold in the
women’s 10m air rifle event.
U
S teenager Virginia Thrasher got hooked on shooting
when deer hunting with her
grandfather and yesterday
that passion saw her past China’s
champion sharpshooters to claim
the first gold medal of the Rio 2016
Games.
The 19-year-old edged past Athens
2004 champion Du Li in the final shot
in the women’s 10m air rifle. London
2012 titleholder Yi Siling took bronze.
“It’s been a whirlwind of a summer.
I have been travelling internationally
the entire summer, and this is just the
icing on the cake,” said the West Virginia University student.
Thrasher accumulated 208 points,
one clear of Du, with Yi on 185.4.
Olympic chief Thomas Bach was
on hand to do the honours at the 2016
Games’ first podium presentation.
“This is beyond my wildest
dreams,” she added.
“It’s very special for me to start out
in Rio 2016 for the United States.”
Recounting the story of how she
took up the sport in the first place she
recalled: “It was 8th grade, my grandfather took me hunting, I got my first
deer, I really liked the adrenalin.”
Shooting was the first of 12 gold
medals in play on a crammed opening
day of competition. There are more
than 300 titles on offer over the next
fortnight at the 2016 Olympics.
Thrasher claimed gold just 11
hours after Brazilian marathon runner Vanderlei Cordeiro lit the Olympic cauldron at the climax of Friday’s
spectacular opening ceremony.
An absorbing competition was led
briefly by Daria Vdovina, one of the
Russian contingent competing in Rio
in the shadow of the massive doping
scandal that has dogged the Games
build-up.
Encouraged by vociferous supporters she eventually slipped off the pace
to finish fifth.
Yi was bang in contention to successfully defend her crown but sharp
shooting saw Thrasher and Du go
head to head, with the young American, displaying maturity beyond her
years, edging it on the final shot.
“I knew if I made the final anything
could happen,” said the happy winner.
“I focused on breathing, I was here
to give it my best shot.
“Halfway through when I took the
lead it was clear to me I had a chance, I
was taking one shot at a time.”
While the winner can look forward
to many more Games, Rio may have
been Du’s last appearance at an Olympics.
“I’ve competed in four Games,
this one might be my last one,” the
37-year-old said.
Dethroned champion Yi meanwhile
was reflective.
“Everyone wants to win the first
gold medal of the Rio Games. I think
I’ve done a good job, I won the first title in London and was only a little bit
behind here, I did my utmost.”
Meanwhile, Paula Pareta won the
first judo gold medal of the Rio 2016
Olympics for Argentina beating South
Korea’s Bokyeong Jeong in the final of
the women’s 48kg category.
Japan’s Ami Kondo and Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh of Kazakhstan took
bronze as home favourite and defending champion Sarah Menezes crashed
out in the quarter-finals.
In other action, South Korea’s archers routed the United States to win the
men’s team gold at the Rio Olympics
yesterday and restore a dynasty broken by the Americans at London four
years ago.
STAR OF THE DAY
VIRGINIA THRASHER OF THE USA
The star of the day is American teenager Virginia Thrasher,
who won the first gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic
Games yesterday, holding her nerve against two Chinese Olympic champions to clinch the women’s 10m air rifle event.
Competing in her first Olympics, Thrasher, as the first
champion of the 2016 Games, was awarded her medal by
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas
Bach and said the achievement was beyond her wildest
dreams.
The youngest of the eight finalists by several years, Thrasher established an early lead after battling with the Russian
shooter Daria Vdovina, who stumbled midway through the
competition and finished fifth.
“About halfway through when I took the lead it kind of
became clear to me that I was in contention for a medal, but
I quickly pushed that thought away and focused on breathing and taking one shot at a time,” Thrasher said.
2
Gulf Times
Sunday, August 7, 2016
OLYMPICS
OPENING CEREMONY
Rio carnival opens with a
mix of pared patriotism &
message of climate change
Brazil unfurls a vast canvas celebrating its rainforest and the creative energy of its wildly diverse population
in welcoming the world to the Olympic Games, all to the pounding beat of samba, bossa nova and funk
The Guardian
Rio de Janeiro
W
ith some help from supermodel Gisele Bundchen, a team of refugees,
thousands of saplings,
12-year-old rapper MC Soffia and an
injection of patriotism, organisers hope
Rio 2016’s pared-down opening ceremony will mark a definitive break with
a troubled build-up.
But the country’s political climate
was never far from the surface, not the
least when acting president Michel Temer was loudly booed as he declared the
Games open.
Where Danny Boyle marked the start
of the London 2012 Games with rings of
fire, Rio’s were formed from trees to reflect the environmental theme that ran
through its opening ceremony.
‘City of God’ director Fernando
Meirelles utilised a giant digital floor
and clever lighting to impressive effect to create a stadium spectacle for a
fraction of the cost of previous opening
ceremonies, following cuts to the budget. He had said before the opening ceremony that one of the themes would be
gambiarra, which means “to make do”.
When the sporting action gets underway, organisers are hoping to turn a
potential negative into a positive by arguing that a leaner Games could point
the way to a more sustainable model for
the Olympics.
Dress rehearsals for the ceremony
did not go well, but there were no major
mishaps on the night apart from a delay
in getting spectators into the stadium.
After four hours, the denouement
saw samba dancers and carnival revellers join thousands of athletes to a
soundtrack provided by Gilberto Gil,
Caetano Veloso and Anitta.
Three-time French Open champion
Gustavo Kuerten carried the flame into
the stadium, before passing it to basketball player Hortencia Marcari. She
passed it in turn to Vanderlei Cordeiro
de Lima, the marathon runner denied a
possible victory at the 2004 Olympics
when he was assailed during the race
by a defrocked Irish priest, to light the
cauldron.
The parade of thousands of emotional, excited athletes from 208 competing
nations was a reminder of the ability of
the Olympics to retain a certain magic
even as they labour under a cloak of
corruption and cynicism.
Earlier in the day, thousands of protesters had marched down Copacabana
in protest against Temer, whose presence was not announced when it was
due to be for fear he would be booed.
As he later declared the Games open, he
was loudly barracked regardless.
Outside the stadium, a smaller group
of protesters engaged in a stand-off
with police.
Thomas Bach, the International Ol-
The first-ever Olympic refugee team received the loudest cheers from the
capacity crowd at the opening ceremony on Friday night. The 10-member team
represents not a country, but some 65 million people displaced (internally, or
outside their country) world over by war and persecution. The athletes represent
Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Reuters)
ympic Committee president who has
been criticised for allowing Russian athletes to compete in Rio despite compelling evidence of systemic state-sponsored doping, received tepid applause.
“All Brazilians can be very proud tonight. With the Olympic Games as a catalyst you have achieved in just seven years
what previous generations only dreamed
of. You have transformed the city into
a modern metropolis and made it even
more beautiful. You managed this at a
very difficult time in Brazilian history,”
said Bach, who remains under huge pressure in the face of cynicism about doping
and the modus operandi of the IOC.
When Russia, which will compete
with a team of more than 275 athletes
after the IOC allowed individual federations to decide on their eligibility, later
marched into the famous Maracana stadium they received a muted reception.
In contrast, the specially created
refugee team who will compete at the
Games for the first time received a huge
ovation, as did the hosts.
Meirelles sought to reflect the history
and diversity of this vast country and
the challenges it faces in the present,
before moving on to deliver a warning
to the world on climate change.
An opening section portrayed the
history of Brazil with inventive use of
the huge digital floor projection, before
a section that reflected the emergence
of the country’s huge metropolises.
Supermodel Bundchen appeared as
the ‘Girl From Ipanema’, slowly walking
the length of the Maracaa pitch.
Brazil’s more recent musical heritage was celebrated to a booming carioca
funk soundtrack, including the passinho dance craze born in Rio’s favelas and
a star turn by 12-year-old MC Soffia, as
the stadium became a huge dancefloor.
Early indications suggested Brazilians were happy with the ceremony.
“Better than I expected. It makes me
feel optimistic about my country,” said
sales manager Lana Morgando. “Right
now we have so many problems. This
gives us hope.”
But human rights campaigners might
argue the inclusion of the popular Hap-
piness Rap by funk singer Ludmilla — “I
just want to be happy in the favela where
I was born” — had more than a tinge of
irony given complaints about forced relocations and police violence linked to
Brazil’s run of major sporting events.
That segued into a section on the
perils of global warming. Meirelles had
been particularly keen to highlight the
environmental challenge facing Brazil
and the world.
Each athlete was given a seedling
to plant in a new forest in the Deodoro
zone that will host sports including rugby sevens, shooting, hockey and equestrianism. The 12,000 seeds will form an
Athlete’s Forest with 208 species, one
for each competing delegation.
Amid myriad other concerns, much
of the focus of the build-up has been
on the failure to keep promises to clean
up the field waters of Guanabara Bay,
where the sailing event will take place.
Amid the global warming segment,
Dame Judi Dench appeared with Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro to
interpret the Carlos Drummond de Andrade poem ‘A Flor e a Nausea’. The creative digital effects remained the star of
the show, masking the cut-price nature
of the spectacle.
But Brazil’s most recognisable celebrity, Pele, pulled out of the event
just hours before it was due to begin.
Underscoring how little has gone right
for the country recently, the legendary
footballer announced his withdrawal
due to pain caused by his recent hipreplacement surgery.
An emotional Rio 2016 organising
committee president Carlos Nuzman
said: “The Olympic dream is now a reality. I am the proudest man alive. I am
proud of my city, my country. These are
your Games, the first in South America.
Rio is ready to make history.” But the
crowd jeered when he thanked the federal, state and national governments.
Meirelles said the loss of Pele made
little difference to preparations. A bigger disappointment for him was that
the cauldron would be lit by an athlete
rather than the environmental activists
he had proposed.
He is the third filmmaker in a row to be
given the role of creating a live performance that will entertain a global TV audience of hundreds of millions.
Eight years ago, Zhang Yimou’s demonstration of China’s growing power
awed the world. Four years later, Boyle’s
stagecraft transformed the mood in the
UK, which until then had been cynical
and pessimistic.
Meirelles said he felt “proud and
scared” to follow in their footsteps, but
he has had to work in a far tougher environment. In line with the environmental theme and pared-down feel, Rio’s
cauldron is intentionally small and low
emission. At the end, the flame rose
to the skies and was due to be taken to
a central point in Rio where a second
cauldron would be lit.
No obstacle insurmountable for Karmakar, says Indian gymnast’s coach
Reuters
Rio de Janeiro
W
hen Bisweshwar Nandi
caught his first glimpse
of the Olympic rings after
touching down in Rio with his gymnastics protege Dipa Karmakar, he felt an
instant surge of adrenaline.
Within seconds though, that excitement was replaced with shivers down
his spine as he realised that his star pupil is shouldering the hopes of a billion
people. “I am under so much pressure.
Everyone in India is expecting Dipa to
create history in Rio,” Nandi said after
he watched Karmakar soar into the air
as she practised her trademark vault in
the Rio Olympic Arena.
“I feel that we are carrying the
dreams of a bn Indians who just cannot
understand how difficult it is for Dipa to
get a medal here,” he said.
“Because Dipa won the vault gold in
the Rio test event in April, the entire
country thinks she will come back
home with a medal.”
That test event proved to be the
making of Karmakar. After missing out
on automatic Olympic qualification by
just 0.4 of a point at last year’s Glasgow
world championships, she made India
take notice when she showed off her
full repertoire of acrobatic skills in the
test event to become the first Indian female gymnast to qualify for the Games.
But in a sport where a toe-length
hop forward on landing or a slight bent
knee can scupper medal hopes, Nandi
knows the margins between success
and failure can be paper thin.
“What people in India don’t understand is that the four girls who finished
ahead of her at last year’s world championships were not at the test event
because they had already qualified for
the Olympics,” added the coach whose
own gymnastic dreams stalled with
appearances in the Asian and Commonwealth Games in the 1970s.
“This is really giving me sleepless
nights because medals can disappear
by 0.001 of a point. There is just so
much hope and expectation in India, I
just don’t know how to deal with all this
heavy burden.”
Nandi is no stranger to overcoming impossible obstacles in a country
where cricketers are gods and gymnasts are, well, nobodies.
With no apparatus or money avail-
able, Nandi utilised his own DIY skills
to build some apparatus for Karmakar
when she first started out.
That involved constructing a springboard from second-hand parts of a
discarded scooter and stacking several
crash mats on top of each other to
make a vault.
Add in the abuse he got in India’s conservative society for dedicating so many
hours each day to fulfil the dreams of a
young girl, and life was not easy.
“Even though I never succeeded as
an athlete in the international arena, I
had a dream that I would succeed as
a coach on the big stage,” said Nandi.
“I used to coach boys before and then
Dipa came my way. In India, there are a
lot of hurdles and complications when
a man coaches a woman.”
“I’ve had to tolerate a lot of rubbish.
There were so many ridiculous rumours but I knew that if Dipa produced
the kind of results I knew she was capable of, that would silence everyone.”
His vision for Karmakar was not just
a pipe dream. Karmakar followed up
winning a bronze medal in the 2014
Glasgow Commonwealth Games by
becoming the first Indian to reach an
apparatus final at the world champion-
ships in 2015.
“Some people were so jealous of
Dipa, they would not give her any
access to the apparatus during her
training sessions,” he said. “They did
not want her to succeed. We’ve had to
survive battles on so many fronts to
get her to where she is.”
Despite her rather primitive start in
the sport, she will be the only gymnast
attempting the daring Produnova vault
in Rio. It is a skill so difficult — consisting of a front handspring and two front
somersaults — that Karmakar is one of
only five women to have landed it in
competition.
After toiling away with little recognition for 17 years, Karmakar admitted
she “cannot wait for Aug 7 to come
around” as by then she will know if she
has qualified for the vault final.
“A few months ago I barely got any
attention in India and now it seems
that as far as India is concerned, these
Olympics are all about Dipa,” said the
22-year-old. “However, I feel no pressure because if I can just produce what
I have trained for all these years, I will
be happy. More than anything, I am
delighted that Indians now know what
gymnastics is all about.”
Gulf Times
Sunday, August 7, 2016
3
OLYMPICS
ROUND-UP
India down Ireland;
shooters disappoint
Rower Bhokanal makes it to quarter-finals of single sculls; Mouma crashes out in table tennis
India’s Rupinder Pal Singh (left)
celebrates after scoring his second
goal against Ireland yesterday. (AFP)
IANS
Rio de Janeiro
I
ndia had a mixed day at the Rio Olympics yesterday with the men’s
hockey team and rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal tasting success while
the women shooters and paddlers and
the tennis duo of Leander Paes and Bopanna proved to be a disappointment.
India opened their men’s hockey
campaign with a morale boosting 3-2
win against Ireland in their opening
pool encounter.
Rupinder Pal Singh (27th and 49th
minutes) scored a brace while VR Raghunath (15th) opened the scoring for
the eight-time gold medallists. John
Jermyn (45th) and Conor Harte (55th)
reduced the margin for the Irishmen in the Pool B match. India’s next
match is against two-time defending
champions Germany tomorrow.
Earlier in the day, Bhokanal produced a pleasant surprise in the men’s
single sculls event as he reached the
quarter-finals after finishing third
in his heat. In the first heat of the
HOCKEY GRAPPLES WITH OLYMPICS ‘WAKE UP CALL’
W
ith its future as Olympic sport
under scrutiny, there are more
than just medals at stake for hockey
players at the Rio Games and the pressure is on to produce a crowd-pleasing
tournament, cementing their place in
the top flight of world competition.
Despite ticket sales of 630,000 making it the third biggest-selling event
at the 2012 Games in London, hockey
narrowly avoided being dropped from
the Olympic roster in 2013 over concerns that organisers were not doing
day, the 25-year-old from the Indian
Army finished the 2000m race in seven minutes and 21.67 seconds at the
Lagoa Stadium here.
The Maharashtra lad is the sole Indian to have qualified for the rowing
events. He was in second place for the
first 500 metres of the race, but started to lag behind once Juan Carlos of
Mexico in the second lane picked up
pace around the 700m mark.
enough to engage new fans.
“There was a perception that we
were not a fan-focused sport,” said Kelly Fairweather, chief executive of the
International Hockey Federation (FIH).
“To be honest, we were shocked... It
was a bit of a wake-up call.”
The FIH has responded by introducing a number of changes at the Rio
Games. Those include a move to
15-minute quarters and scheduling
more time for television replays and
analysis to showcase players’ virtuoso
Cuba’s Angel Fournier Rodriguez
finished first clocking 7:06.89 followed by Carlos (7:08.27).
But Indian fans had to taste disappointment in the other events of the
day. At the shooting ranges, Apurvi
Chandela and Ayonika Paul crashed
out after losing in the quarter-finals of
the women’s 10-metre air rifle event.
Apurvi was placed in 34th position
with a combined score of 411.6 while
skills with a ball moving at more than
160 kilometres an hour.
For the first time in Olympic competition, the Rio hockey tournament will
also feature quarter-finals, making it the
last team sport to adopt the format at
the Games. Fairweather said he hoped
the move would give fans the thrills and
excitement of an extended knock-out
competition while raising the stakes for
teams who now have to finish in the top
four of each group, leaving little room
for error in the early stages.
Ayonika was 43rd with 407.0 among
51 shooters. China’s Du Li entered the
quarter-finals, bagging the top spot
with a score of 420.7, setting a new
Olympic record at the event. Germany’s Barbara Engleder took the second
spot with 420.3 while Iran’s Elaheh
Ahmadi was third with 417.8.
Apart from the top three, a Russian,
two Americans, a Croatian and another Chinese shooter completed the
top eight line-up.
“I don’t know what happened, my
mind has totally gone blank,” Apurvi
told IANS after the event. “Of course
when I came in this morning, I expected to win. Who doesn’t,” a visibly crestfallen Chandela said before
proceeding to see the finals of the
competition with her physio Nikhil
Ajit Latey, which was won by Virginia
Thrasher of the US with a score of 208.
Apurvi had won the gold medal at the
2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Her other colleague Ayonika had
won the silver at the competition. Paul,
who too watched the finals from the
rear gallery, did not want to comment.
Medal hope Jitu Rai too has a heartbreaking day as he finished eighth in
the men’s 10-metre Air Pistol event.
Jitu produced a string of poor shots
for a total score of 78.7 and was the
first to be eliminated from the eightman final.
In table tennis, Mouma Das crashed
out in the first round of women’s singles after a rather one-sided 2-11,
7-11, 7-11, 3-11 loss to Daniela Monteiro Dodean of Romania.
All Russian
athletes to be
banned from
Paralympic
Games in Rio
By Owen Gibson in Rio de Janeiro
The Guardian
T
he International Paralympic Committee is set to do what its Olympic
counterpart did not and ban Russia
outright from its Games later this month,
the Observer has learned.
In the wake of the publication of Professor Richard McLaren’s report that revealed
jaw-dropping details of systemic doping
in Russia, the IPC provisionally suspended
Russia from the Paralympics.
It is understood that after gathering
further evidence from McLaren and giving
the Russian Paralympic Committee the
opportunity to make its case, a provisional
decision has been made.
The IPC is to announce its decision at a
press conference in Rio today.
The IPC board met the Russians in Bonn
on Wednesday to consider its written and
oral arguments in a three-hour meeting.
Barring a last-minute change of heart,
the Russian Paralympic Committee is likely
to be banned on the basis that McLaren’s
report proved that the Russian system was
so compromised it could not be trusted.
McLaren, who discovered systemic
doping across most Olympic sports
over a period of four years as well as 35
“disappearing positives” from Paralympic
disciplines, this week accused the IOC of
misinterpreting his findings.
Despite widespread calls for a blanket
ban from WADA and national anti-doping
agencies, the IOC instead left it up to international federations to decide if Russians
could compete.
With only athletics, rowing, weightlifting
and canoeing taking a hard line, the final
size of the Russian team was announced
at 271. But several Russian athletes, including the swimmer Yuliya Efimova, were
readmitted after the Court of Arbitration
for Sport ruled that the IOC’s ban on those
who had previously served sanctions
would not be upheld.
The IPC is likely to have come under
extreme pressure to follow the IOC’s lead
but is believed to be resolved to make its
own decision based on the evidence.
Unlike the IOC, the IPC has been in
touch with McLaren to seek further evidence and information. As well as the 35
“disappearing positive” Russian drug tests
across Paralympic sport between 2012
and 2015, the report confirmed the 2014
Winter Paralympics in Sochi was compromised by swapped samples, where Russia
won three times as many medals as any
other country.
“They have consulted with me very
closely. We have done forensic work
with them, we’re in the process of doing
analytical work. They were in contact
with me within hours of my report being
published,” said McLaren this week.
The IPC president, Sir Philip Craven, is
believed to view the decision as the most
important and one of the most difficult his
movement has ever faced.
“McLaren’s findings are of serious concern for everyone committed to clean and
honest sport. The additional information
we have been provided with by Richard
McLaren includes the names of the Para
athletes associated with the 35 ‘disappearing positive samples’ from the Moscow
laboratory highlighted in the report,” he
said last week.
“We are also urgently following up on
McLaren’s recommendation for 19 samples
from the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games to
be sent for further analysis, having been
identified as part of the sample-swapping regime in place during the Games,” he added.
TENNIS
Paes suffers Rio heartbreak, targets Tokyo 2020
AFP
Rio de Janeiro
L
eander Paes made a bitter exit from his
record seventh Olympics yesterday,
claiming his campaign had been sabotaged, before eyeing the 2020 Tokyo
Games — when he will be 47.
Paes and Rohan Bopanna were defeated 6-4,
7-6 (8/6) by Poland’s Lukas Kubot and Marcin
Matkowski in the first round.
The 18-time major winner lashed out at reports that he had refused to stay in the athletes’
village in Rio and did not want to share a room
with Bopanna. The reports came after it was
claimed Bopanna had not wanted to partner Paes,
preferring instead the younger Saketh Myneni.
“It was unfair... I was targeted. It wasn’t fair
that some people said I didn’t want to stay in the
village or share with Rohan,” said Paes. “It was a
personal shot and it upset me. It’s not right that
people write the wrong information.”
It was a sad end for Paes, coming on the 20th
anniversary of his bronze medal in singles at the
1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
He shrugged off the controversy surrounding
his Rio selection. “It had no effect on us. We gave
it everything we had and fought hard,” said Paes.
“I was hoping to go deeper in the draw but we
came up against a very hot Polish team.”
Paes and Matkowski are regular partners
on the ATP Tour and reached the French Open
quarter-finals recently.
Paes said he is serious about playing in Tokyo
in four years’ time although the authorities in
India may have reservations after a second Olympics dominated by selection rows.
In 2012, Mahesh Bhupathi was teamed with
Bopanna in the men’s doubles. As part of a compromise, Paes, who had threatened to pull out of
the Games, reluctantly played with Vishnu Vardhan in the men’s doubles while being controversially teamed with Sania Mirza in the mixed. Mirza later raged that she was being used as “bait”.
“If possible, I will be in Japan. Four years is a
long time but I said that when I played my fourth
Olympics,” added Paes.
The veteran, whose Atlanta bronze was India’s first individual medal at a Games since
1952, admitted yesterday’s loss was tough to
take. “But we win and lose together. To get to
seven Olympics is not easy, there’s a lot of hard
work week in, week out,” said Paes. “We will roll
with the punches. I am grateful to Rohan for
working with me and playing hard. There’s a lot
going on at the moment, but we tried to stay focused on the tennis. We tried our damnedest.”
India still have hopes of a medal in tennis at
the Games. Bopanna will partner Mirza in the
mixed doubles later in the week. Before that
Mirza, the top-ranked women’s doubles player
in the world, will team up with Prathana Thombare in women’s doubles.
Elsewhere, Japanese fourth seed Kei Nishikori reached the Olympic tennis second round.
Nishikori, a quarter-finalist at the 2012 Olympics, breezed past Spanish left-hander Albert
Ramos-Vinolas 6-2, 6-4 in just 79 minutes.
Fittingly, a Brazilian umpire Carlos Bernardes
was in the chair for the first match on centre
court and Nishikori rose to the occasion, taking
the opening set in just 33 minutes, breaking in
the third and seventh games.
Nishikori next plays Australia’s John Millman
who became the first player to clinch a ‘double
bagel’ 6-0, 6-0 in Games history. The 27-yearold Millman swept past Ricardas Berankis in just
50 minutes to complete a miserable summer for
the Lithuanian player.
Tomorrow, fifth-seeded Venus Williams, the
2000 champion in Sydney, will open her campaign against Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens. At
36, Williams is the oldest player in the women’s
draw in Rio.
Defending champions Andy Murray and Serena Williams as well as world number one Novak Djokovic and 2008 champion Rafael Nadal
all start their campaigns on Tuesday.
Djokovic, bidding to become just the third
man after Andre Agassi and Nadal to complete
the Golden Slam of Olympic gold and the four
majors, has arguably the toughest opening encounter. The Serb faces 2009 US Open champion
Juan Martin del Potro who beat him in the bronze
medal match at the London Olympics in 2012.
India’s Leander Paes
(left) and Rohan
Bopanna went down
to Poland’s Lukas
Kubot and Marcin
Matkowski in men’s
double first round
yesterday. (AFP)
4
Gulf Times
Sunday, August 7, 2016
The peloton rides during the men’s road cycling race at
the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro yesterday. (AFP)
Brazil’s centre back Ana Paula Belo (centre) slips as she shoots during the women’s preliminaries Group A
handball match against Norway at the Future Arena yesterday. (AFP / Franck Fife)
Shooters take part in the men’s 10m Air Pistol Qualification at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Rio de Janeiro (Reuters / Edgard Garrido)
Brazilian fans cheer during the women’s handball match between Norway and Brazil.
South Korea’s Choi Injeong (L)
competes against Russia’s Violetta
Kolobova during the women’s
individual epee qualifying bout .
(AFP / Kirill Kudryavtsev)
Spain’s Francisco Garrigos (white) takes down Germany’s Tobias Englmaier during their men’s -60kg judo contest match of the Rio 2016
Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro yesterday. Englmaier won the bout to enter the last 32. (AFP / Jack Guez)
Gulf Times
Sunday, August 7, 2016
5
Qatar athletes walk in the parade during the opening ceremony. (Reuters / Kai Pfaffenbach)
Qatar’s flagbearer Sheikh Ali Bin Khalid al-Thani leads his country’s delegation during the opening
ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro. (AFP / Pedro Ugarte)
Olympic flame burns at the Maracana Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony. (AFP / Gabriel Bouys)
Fireworks explode after the Olympics were
declared open at Rio’s fabled Maracana stadium
on Friday night. (AFP / Andrej Isakovic)
Brazilian marathon runner Vanderlei Cordeiro (below) lit the cauldron following an exuberant display of
Brazil’s cultural heritage, capped by breathtaking pyrotechnics. (AFP / Fabrice Coffrini and Odd Andersen)
6
Gulf Times
Sunday, August 7, 2016
OLYMPICS
FOCUS
So near yet so far... Olympic opening from a favela
Mangueira is a favela in close proximity to Rio’s iconic Maracana stadium.
But for its inhabitants the stadium and
the Olympics are a world apart
DPA
Rio de Janeiro
T
hings would become dangerous if Thiago wasn’t around.
But Thiago is there.
Thiago is pretty tall, pretty
strong and wears a singlet as he waits
at a metro stadion near the iconic Maracana stadium. The 26-year-old also
organizes the motorcycle taxis to bring
you into a favela named Mangueira.
It is not the best idea for a gringo—
meaning a white foreigner—to walk into
a favela in Rio de Janeiro on his or her
own at night because the risk of getting
mugged is rather high, to say the least.
But people like Thiago allow the
gringo a glimpse into this world, one
that he would probably leave with empty pockets without his services.
Thiago, his girlfriend Jaqueline and a
few friends have gathered on the rooftop
of a small house in Mangueira. They
have a breathtaking view over the Maracana—where at the same time 50,000
had gathered for the glittering opening
ceremony of the Rio Olympics right over
to the Christ the Redeemer statue.
Germany won the World Cup title at
the Maracana two years ago after thrashing Brazil 7-1 in the semi-finals. Now
Brazilian interim president Michel Temer is mercilessly jeered as he officially
opens the first Games in South America.
While the stadium is roughly only
two kilometres away, for Thiago, Jacqueline and the others it is in a different
world they will never reach.
Anyone who lives in Mangueira can
certainly not afford a ticket for the
12-billion dollar Games.
A mugging job may do the trick
but Jacqueline tries to play down the
danger. “It is not really dangerous for
strangers,” she says. “Mangueira is very
quiet and known for its openness.”
But she does admit that “a gringo
should not come in here on his own”
because then it could become “peri-
goso” (dangerous) after all. Jacqueline
has dark dreadlocks, is pretty loud and
rather stout. She only stops talking
when she takes a sip from her beer.
Anyone in the company of Jacqueline, Thiago and their friends doesn’t
really think about danger. Jokes are
cracked, there is a lot of laughter, beers,
a few songs are sung and astonishment
expressed when yet another firework
has been launched from the Maracana.
“Are you serious,” Jacqueline exclaims after another firework display.
“Wow, damn, unbelievable.”
The group gathers for a final time on
the roof after the Olympic cauldron is
lit and the sky sparkles in red, blue and
green over the Maracana. Then everything dissolves into grey smoke and it is
time to go.
Things appear a bit tense when Thiago can’t organise a motorcycle taxi for
the way back to the metro and the distance has to be covered by foot.
But Thiago is there for the trek back
through the narrow and winding streets
of Mangueiro. “Tudo bem (all good),” is
his parting shot.
Locals watch Rio Games opening ceremony at Maracana from the roof of their home in the Mangueira favela, or slum. (Reuters)
OLYMPIC BRIEFS
GYMNASTICS
Biles, Douglas lead
US charge for gold
‘We’ve done so many routines we’re kind of on autopilot right now, so it’s just like go, go, go, go’
AFP
Rio de Janeiro
E
ven on ‘autopilot’, Simone Biles
and Gabby Douglas will spearhead
a powerful United States women’s
gymnastics team’s bid for Olympic
gold starting today.
Douglas, 20, is the reigning Olympic
all-around titleholder and Games rookie
Biles, 19, a three-time world all-around
champion. The US are the reigning Olympic and two-time world team champions,
with gold theirs for the taking with the
battle between Douglas and Biles set to ignite the all-around.
“We’ve done so many routines we’re
kind of on autopilot right now, so it’s just
like go, go, go, go,” warned Douglas, bidding to become the first woman since
Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska in 1968
to win back-to-back all-around gold.
Too young to compete in London, the
acrobatic Biles has dominated the fouryear Olympic cycle since, winning 10 world
titles and is the overwhelming favourite to
be the star of the Rio Olympic Arena.
She snatched another gold in last year’s
worlds ahead of Douglas, and the 2013 and
2014 world titles as her rival took time off
after the London Games.
“We’re so well-prepared that we know
what to expect of ourselves and our gymnastics once we go out there on the competition floor,” said Biles, bidding to become
the first woman to win five gymnastic gold
medals at a single Olympics.
“It’s the Olympics, but if you think
about it your brain’s going to fall out,
you’re going to freak out. So we are trying
to treat it like a (national) championships,”
US gymnast Simone Biles practices on the uneven bars of the artistic gymnastics. (AFP)
added the Texan.
Aly Raisman, 22, Laurie Hernandez,
16, and 19-year-old Madison Kocian, who
shared the uneven bars world title last
year, complete the five-woman US team.
Martha Karolyi is confident she has
found the right combination in what will
be her final Olympics as US national team
coordinator.
Douglas and Raisman, winner of floor
gold in London, are the only two US gymnasts from the 2012 Games, with the
former selected despite struggling in US
Olympic trials.
“It’s a very good to combine experience
with newcomers,” said the 73-year-old. “I
always like that combination and I think it
works this time. Traditionally Russia and
China are the most competitive and Britain is coming up to challenge us.”
Britain, the world team bronze medallists from Glasgow last year, are ready
to challenge for a first women’s Olympic
team medal since 1928.
“We’re stronger and better than we
were four years ago and it’s going up and
up,” said Britain’s Rebecca Downie. “We’re
hoping to get a medal as a team.”
Russia’s Aliya Mustafina won allaround bronze in London, and with China’s Shang Chunsong and Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland is expected to challenge
for an all-around medal.
The reigning uneven bars champion
is one of two members of Russia’s silver
medal winning team from London, but
without Olympic all-around silver medallist Viktoria Komova the Russians could be
struggling to match the Americans in the
team event.
“The Americans are so strong but we’re
confident of taking a silver medal,” said
China’s Fan Yilin, 16, as the 2008 Beijing
winners bid for a podium finish after finishing fourth in London.
Former gymnastics powerhouse Romania failed to even qualify a full women’s
team for Rio. Women’s qualifying begins
today with the top 24 gymnasts advancing
to Thursday’s all-around final. Eight nations qualify for Tuesday’s team final, with
eight gymnasts advancing to the apparatus finals—vault, uneven bars, beam and
floor—from August 14-16.
LIFELINE
‘Relieved’ Efimova cleared for Rio
year, but cleared in July.
Meldonium was added to the World
Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances from January 1, but some positive
tests were later overturned after the agency said there was a lack of clear scientific
evidence about how long it takes for the
drug to be excreted from the body.
Reuters
Rio de Janeiro
R
ussian
breaststroker
Yulia
Efimova said yesterday she
would take part in the Rio Olympics, a day after winning an appeal against a doping ban, but there was
no immediate confirmation from swimming’s governing body FINA.
Efimova posted a picture of herself on
Instagram, looking surprised and tearful,
with the caption: “I’m going to the Olympics. I couldn’t be more proud and relieved.”
The four-time world champion was
handed a lifeline on Thursday when the
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld her appeal against her ban from the
Games, whose preparations have been
overshadowed by revelations of widespread state-sponsored doping in Russia.
Last-minute appeals by banned Russians
have turned the build-up into a legal obstacle course, creating uncertainty for the
athletes and for their rivals.
Efimova’s name is currently missing
from the starting list for the 100m breaststroke, whose heats take place today, and
Wednesday’s 200m, the event in which
she won an Olympic bronze medal in London in 2012. Russian media reports quoted
Banned Lebedev can compete
Vladimir Salnikov, head of the country’s
swimming federation, as saying FINA had
written to CAS to confirm it supported
the readmission of Efimova and four other banned Russian swimmers — Natalia
Lovtsova, Darya Ustinova, Mikhail Dovgalyuk and Anastasia Krapivina.
A FINA spokesman declined to comment, saying the federation would issue a
statement “if we have something to say”.
Efimova, 24, was banned by FINA between October 2013 and February 2015
after testing positive for traces of the
anabolic steroid DHEA. That triggered an
automatic suspension from Rio according
to criteria laid down by the International
Olympic Committee last month in response to an independent report confirming state-backed Russian doping across a
wide range of sports.
But the Court of Arbitration for Sport
said the Olympic ban was “unenforceable” because an athlete could not be punished twice for the same doping offence. A
spokesman for the Russian Olympic Committee said Efimova was already in Rio.
The Russian was also briefly suspended
after testing positive for meldonium this
Russia’s two-time world champion
Viktor Lebedev has been cleared to wrestle in Rio in the wake of the Russian doping scandal, the head of Russia’s Olympic
delegation said yesterday.
“For Viktor Lebedev, all is well,” delegation chief Igor Kazikov said, adding
that Lebedev, who appealed against a ban
along with other Russian athletes, had
been authorised to compete by a special
International Olympic Committee commission. “He has been given authorisation
by the IOC commission,” said the official.
The three-member IOC commission
has final say on which Russian athletes
can compete in the Rio Games after allegations of state-sponsored doping contained in a report commissioned by the
World Anti-Doping Agency led to wholesale bans. With Lebedev restored to competition, the Russian delegation has risen
to 277 athletes.
Dumoulin quits
road race midway
Dutchman Tom Dumoulin quit
the Olympic men’s road race
shortly after the start alongside
the Copacabana in Rio yesterday.
Dumoulin, who broke his wrist
during the Tour de France, lasted
around 10km of the 237.5km of
the race which winds along the
coast before taking the peloton
into the coastal mountains.
The 25-year-old is considered a
contender for gold in the time trial
which takes place on Wednesday.
Britain’s Tour de France champion
Chris Froome is one of the favourites for gold along with Italy’s
Vincenzo Nibali, Spain’s Alejandro
Valverde and Poland’s Rafal Majka.
Phelps targets
four gold medals
US swimming star Michael Phelps
aims to win four gold medals in
Rio, while also adding that it’s easier said than done. But a greater
aim would be entering the history
books if he did manage to win a
gold medal. “It would be fantastic,
to be the first swimmer over 30 to
win Olympic gold in an individual
event,” said Phelps, who is 31 and
has amassed 18 gold medals over
the past four Olympics. “I want to
win four golds. But saying it brings
you nothing. In 2012 I also wanted
to defend my title (in 200m butterfly) and ended up losing it after
all... nobody puts more pressure
on me than I do on myself.”
Italy take Russia’s
spot in cycling
Italy were awarded Russia’s place
in the Olympic men’s cycling
team pursuit competition yesterday after the Court of Arbitration
for Sport (CAS) rejected the
appeal by three Russian riders
who were ruled ineligible by the
sport’s governing body. Dmitry
Sokolov, Dmitry Strakhov and Kiril Sveshnikov were ruled out by
the UCI after being named in the
McLaren report that exposed extensive state-sponsored doping
and cover-ups of positive tests
in Russia. Their appeal to the
CAS was rejected, opening the
way for Italy, who finished fourth
in the world championships in
March, smashing their national
record, to replace them.
CAS to rule on 4
Russian appeals
The Court of Arbitration for Sport
(CAS) said yesterday that they
had ruled on 22 cases since
July 26, but there were still four
Russian appeals to be decided.
The pending cases involve swimmer Daria Ustinova, canoeists
Natalia Podolskaya and Alexander Dyachenko as well as sailor
Pavel Sozykin. CAS has ploughed
through a workload weighed
down by the fall out from the Russian doping scandal where the
International Olympic Committee
left it to individual federations
to decide on whether athletes
were cleared for Rio. Those cases
dismissed include the Russian
weightlifting team and 17 rowers.
Tallent pulls out
of 20km walk
Australia’s Jared Tallent has pulled
out of the 20km walk at the Rio
Games because of a hamstring
problem but will defend his Olympic title in the 50km race. The
31-year-old, second across the line
in London in 2012, was awarded
the 50km gold in a special ceremony in Melbourne in June after
Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin had
his result wiped from the record
books for doping. Captain of the
Australian track and field team in
Rio, Tallent said he had felt “a niggle” in his hamstring and decided
to withdraw from the shorter
event, which is the first final in the
athletics competition next Friday.
Tallent won medals in both walks
at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,
bronze in the 20km along with
a silver in the 50km, but was
seventh at the shorter distance
in London. The 50km walk takes
place on August 18, the eighth
day of athletics competition.
Morgan loses Rio
appeal at CAS
Jamaican discus-thrower Jason
Morgan has lost his appeal over
being excluded from their Olympics team despite having reached
the qualifying standard. The
Jamaica Athletics Administrative
Association said after last month’s
national trials that Morgan did not
warrant an automatic spot on the
team as he came fourth in the
competition. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) panel sided
with the JAAA and concluded the
application filed by Morgan was
inadmissible. “I made it clear from
the beginning I have no beef with
my athletic association. I maintain
that I met the necessaries of
qualifying and competing at the
trials to compete in Rio and be on
Team Jamaica,” Morgan said after
losing the appeal. “I believe in the
rule of law and l will respect the
decision of CAS.”
Two athletes test
positive at Rio
Cypriot weightlifter Antonis
Martasidis and an unnamed
Greek competitor have tested
positive for banned substances
and have been expelled from the
Rio Olympics. Martasidis tested
positive for banned substances
in a doping control conducted on
July 25 in Athens and has had his
Games accreditation stripped. The
unidentified Greek competitor’s ‘A’
sample tested positive for banned
substances in a pre-Games test,
also conducted in July in Athens.
The athlete has left the Olympic
village. Martasidis, who was to
compete in the 85kg category,
had arrived in Rio hours earlier
only to be informed of a positive
test from an out-of-competition
doping control. These cases bring
the number of positive tests announced since the teams arrived
in Rio to three, after an Irish boxer
was provisionally suspended on
Thursday for failing a dope test.
Palestine sends
six athletes to Rio
The Palestinians have sent a
record six athletes to Rio, who will
compete in four disciplines, despite
difficulties in getting to the Games.
Mayada Sayyad, 23, a marathon
runner from Jerusalem who lives
in Berlin, carried the Palestinian flag
at the Olympic opening ceremony
on Friday night. Simon Yacoub, 28,
is seen as Palestine’s best chance
for a medal, in the men’s under-60
kilos judo. Swimmer Ahmed Gebrel,
24, will be hoping to improve on
his performance at the London
2012 Olympics in the 200m
freestyle. Mohamed Abukhoussa,
23, from Gaza, will compete in the
men’s 100m, while swimmer Mary
al-Atrash, 22, will compete in 50m
women’s freestyle.
Gulf Times
Sunday, August 7, 2016
7
SPORT
SPOTLIGHT
NFL
Dodgers can’t find
the way in blowout
loss to Red Sox
Goff, Keenum look
impressive during
Rams practice
‘I think you have to take an old-school approach. If you see it high, let it fly’
MCT
Los Angeles
N
Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Steven Wright (35) in the first inning of the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
MCT
Los Angeles
I
t was a challenge for Josh Reddick to get
to Dodger Stadium for his first home
game with his new team after the right
fielder was acquired with pitcher Rich
Hill from Oakland on Monday.
What would normally be a 20-minute
drive from Glendale to Chavez Ravine
took an hour for Reddick, a self-described “Southern guy from Georgia who
is not used to traffic at all.” Even with the
stadium in sight, Reddick said, “It took
four entrances and three wrong-way
turns to get in here.”
Reddick looked just as lost at the plate
against Boston Red Sox knuckleballer
Steven Wright, but his misery had plenty
of company.
Wright’s tantalizingly slow pitches,
which ranged from 63-77 mph, dipped
and darted all over the strike zone and
left the Dodgers baffled and bewildered.
Wright, who went to high school in
Moreno Valley, held the Dodgers to three
hits, struck out nine and walked one in
a complete-game effort that led the Red
Sox to a 9-0 victory.
Boston catcher Sandy Leon drove in
four runs, two on a fourth-inning homer
off Dodgers starter Scott Kazmir, and the
Red Sox blew the game open with a fiverun, five-hit, one-error eighth inning off
relievers Jesse Chavez and J.P. Howell.
There are so few knuckleball pitchers that it’s difficult to prepare for them,
especially one you might see once every
three years or so in interleague play.
Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts had
third base coach Chris Woodward, “our
in-house knuckleballer,” float a few
pitches to hitters in the batting cage, but
a facsimile of Wright, an All-Star this
season, Woodward is not.
“I think you have to take an old-school
approach,” Roberts said. “If you see it
high, let it fly.”
The other half of that adage is “if it’s
low, let it go,” but it didn’t really matter
that Roberts omitted it. Wright’s pitches
moved all over the zone – high, low, inside, outside – and the Dodgers did almost nothing with them.
They tried swinging hard. That didn’t
work. They swung soft. Nothing. Joc
Pederson even let a pitch hit him in the
front knee in the eighth inning, but umpire Jim Wolf did not reward Pederson
first base, ruling the batter made no attempt to get out of the way. After Justin
Turner’s one-out double to right in the
first inning, Wright (13-5) retired 19 of
the next 20 batters, his only blemish a
third-inning walk to Pederson. Of his 119
pitches, 78 were strikes.
Reddick was the only Dodger to have
faced Wright before, and he had four
hits in six previous at-bats against him.
He drove a fly ball to the warning track
in the first but struck out swinging on a
66-mph pitch in the fourth and looking
at a 72-mph floater in the seventh. He
popped to short to end the game.
Kazmir had to be nearly perfect to
match Wright, and he wasn’t despite
breezing through a scoreless, 12-pitch
first inning, no small feat for a guy who
yielded an 8.14 earned-run average and
.917 on-base-plus-slugging percentage
in the opening inning of his first 21 starts.
The left-hander also subdued nemesis
Dustin Pedroia, the Red Sox second baseman who entered with a career .519 average
(22 for 43) and two homers against Kazmir.
Pedroia grounded into a double play in
the first inning and grounded out in the
third before departing in the fourth because of a left-shin contusion suffered
when he fouled a pitch off his front leg in
his second at-bat.
But Kazmir could not keep Boston off
Results
Indians .....................7 Yankees ..................13
Reds ..........................2 Pirates ......................3
Giants....................... 1 Nationals .................5
Twins ........................6 Rays ..........................2
Mets ..........................3 Tigers...................... 4
Rangers.................. 0 Astros....................... 5
Orioles .....................7 White Sox ................5
Braves .....................0 Cardinals.................. 1
Blue Jays............... 4 Royals ........................3
Marlins ....................5 Rockies .....................3
Brewers ..................2 Diamondbacks...... 3
Cubs......................... 7 Athletics................... 2
Angels ....................4 Mariners................... 6
Red Sox ..................9 Dodgers.................. 0
Phillies ....................5 Padres ......................4
the board in the second, third and fourth
innings, his trouble starting with a leadoff walk to Hanley Ramirez in the second,
Kazmir’s first free pass in four games.
Jackie Bradley grounded into a fielder’s
choice, took third on Aaron Hill’s single
and scored on Leon’s sacrifice fly to left
for a 1-0 lead. Mookie Betts lined a 78mph Kazmir changeup for a solo homer
to left and a 2-0 Red Sox lead in the third.
Kazmir retired the first two batters of the
fourth before walking Hill.
RULES REVIEW
Rams players and coaches were
scheduled to meet with NFL
game officials on Friday night
to review new rule changes and
points of emphasis for the 2016
season.
Officials were on the field during Friday’s workout.
“Everybody’s going to have a
rule they don’t like,” middle linebacker Alec Ogletree said. “But
it’s definitely helpful to get a head
start and a chance to work on it in
training camp.”
Referee John Hussey and other game officials outlined the
changes during a morning session with reporters.
Among the new rules are: a
prohibition on all chop blocks;
ejection of a player if he is penalized twice for certain personal
foul penalties; and the ball being
placed at the 25-yard line, rather
than the 20, on touchbacks of
free kicks.
Some of the points of emphasis are; avoiding forcible contact
on a passer’s lower body while he
is in the pocket; offering maximum protection for runners’
sliding feet first; prohibiting the
use of the crown of the helmet;
and regulating pre-snap movement of the ball by centres and
long-snappers.
Said Fisher: “There’s not really
anything significant ... . other than
the touchback. We’ll have to see
where that goes during the year.”
GOODBYE
Yankees’ Teixeira
will retire at end of
the season
MCT
New York
M
BOTTOMLINE
Dale Earnhardt Jr. remains
uncertain of return to racing
MCT
New York
D
ale
Earnhardt
Jr.
doesn’t know when he
will return to racing –
only that he feels confident he will.
Earnhardt, making a day trip
to Watkins Glen International
on Friday, continues to undergo
treatment for concussion symptoms that have kept him out of
the past two races and will again
for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 At The
Glen. Whenever doctors give him
clearance to return to racing, he
said he hopes he’ll be ready.
“Our intentions are to get
cleared and get back to racing,”
Earnhardt said. “We are just taking it one evaluation at a time. It
is frustrating to have to do it that
way, but that is the process, and
we hope and expect that when we
go back for the next evaluation
that we are symptom-free and
ear the end of Friday’s
practice at UC Irvine,
Los Angeles Rams
quarterback Jared Goff
demonstrated
short-yardage
touch by threading a seam for
one touchdown and lofting a ball
to a receiver in the corner of the
end zone for another.
The plays came shortly after
Case Keenum completed an impressive touchdown pass to his left
– while running to his right.
The game of one-upmanship
is expected to continue Saturday
when the Rams practice Saturday at 3pm at the Coliseum.
It’s a free event for fans, who
will have their first chance to
check out the Rams in the stadium they will call home for the
next three seasons.
All eyes will be on the quarterbacks and their competition to
start the Sept. 12 season opener
against the San Francisco 49ers
on “Monday Night Football.”
The intrigue will play out over
the next five weeks as the Rams
attempt to determine whether
Goff, the No. 1 pick in the draft, is
ready to start the regular season
from the outset, or if he needs
time to ease into the role.
Coach Jeff Fisher said Friday
that Keenum would start the Aug.
13 exhibition opener against the
Dallas Cowboys at the Coliseum.
Fisher said Goff would “probably play a half” against the
Cowboys. Goff had two passes
intercepted by the second-team
defence Friday – defensive backs
Troy Hill and Jabriel Washington
made the plays – but he lofted
touchdown passes to rookie tight
end Tyler Higbee and receiver
Brian Quick.
Goff, Higbee and receiver Pharoh Cooper are among rookies
that have stood out.
Cooper returned to practice
after sitting out two days because of a quadriceps issue.
He continues to rotate in with
the first-team offense.
“I’m not taking anything for
granted,” he said. “Just because
I go with the ones doesn’t mean
it’s locked and set.”
“I’m going to keep working. I
plan on earning everything I get.”
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. stands in the garage during practice for the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Cheez-It 355.
can start to see a timeline develop.
Until then, we are just taking it
one evaluation at a time.”
Earnhardt, who described
most of his symptoms as being
related to ocular imbalance and
stability, said there is no timetable for his return. That, he said,
will come after doctors declare
him symptom-free.
“The point right now is just to
get healthy,” he said. “Just to get
right. I’m not thinking about the
what-ifs. I’m just listening to my
doctors. We went into this with
the intentions of getting back
in the car when we get cleared. I
think that is a possibility and so
do my doctors. So I am excited
about that. Whenever it happens, it happens.”
Earnhardt said he firmly believes he will race again.
“I have every intention of honouring my current contract (with
Hendrick Motorsports),” he said.
“I want to race. I miss the competition. I miss being here. I miss
the people and as Rick likes to
say, ‘We’ve got unfinished business.’ I’m not ready to stop racing.
I’m not ready to quit. It’s a slower
process. I wish it wasn’t. But I’m
not going to go in the car until the
doctors clear me.”
“The doctors won’t let me race.
This is not my decision, but it’s
the right decision and I trust what
my doctors are telling me. When
they say I’m good to go, I believe
them. If they say I’m healthy and I
can race, I’m going to race.”
Earnhardt said he is evaluated
every couple of weeks. The only
focus of his sessions with his
doctor is getting better, not what
might happen afterward.
“No, that is not the conversation your doctor is going to have
with you when he is trying to get
you right,” Earnhardt said. “You
are just worrying about getting normal. All he cares about
is fixing you. That is his job. He
doesn’t care about my racing or
whatever I do as a profession.”
ark Teixeira said an
emotional goodbye
to the dream career
that has brought him
more than 400 home runs, five
Gold Glove awards and “more
success than I could ever imagine.” Then, as he tried to say
goodbye to Yankees fans, tears
stopped him right in his tracks as
soon as he said, “I gave you everything I had.”
That proved to be plenty, highlighted by the 2009 World Series
title he helped bring to the team in
the year he joined it. He will cherish that forever, he said Friday afternoon as he made the surprise
announcement that he will retire
at the end of the season.
“I want to leave it all out
there,” the 36-year-old first
baseman said during a pregame
news conference attended by
manager Joe Girardi, Yankees
coaches and the entire team. “I
know we’re a team in transition
and I don’t want to be a distraction. This is it for me.”
He acknowledged that during
spring training, he said he wanted
to play for five more seasons. “But
this year, my neck started bothering me, I hurt my knee. As the
season went on, I realised my body
can’t do it anymore,” he said. “If
I’m going to grind through seasons not being healthy, I’d rather
be home with my family. I miss my
kids way too much to be in a training room in Detroit rather than
being at their dance recital or their
school play.”
So he will pour everything he
New York Yankees first baseman
Mark Teixeira in action.
has into the final two months
of the season for a club that has
traded three of its best players
for prospects and has regularly
benched Teixeira’s fellow veteran, Alex Rodriguez.
Teixeira leaves behind a series of impressive statistics and
achievements as a slugger and
a fielder. He is one of only nine
players in baseball history to
have collected at least 400 homers and at least five Gold Gloves.
He is one of only five switch hitters in the 400-home run club,
along with Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray, Chipper Jones and
Carlos Beltran. He and Mantle
are the only ones to have nine
30-homer seasons.
Girardi said it was no coincidence that the Yankees won the
championship the year Teixeira
arrived. He added, “I don’t think
there’s any coincidence that
when Mark’s injuries started to
affect how much he played during the course of a season, runs
became a lot more difficult to
score around here.”
8
Gulf Times
Sunday, August 7, 2016
SPORT
SUPER RUGBY
Hurricanes beat Lions
to clinch maiden crown
Man-of-the-match Barrett settled the outcome of the final with an audacious try 12 minutes from time
Members of the Hurricanes pose for a team photo as they celebrate their Super Rugby triumph after their win over Lions of South Africa at Westpac Stadium in Wellington yesterday. (AFP)
AFP
Wellington
T
he Wellington Hurricanes ended a 20-year
nightmare when Beauden Barrett in scintillating form engineered a 20-3 victory
over the Golden Lions yesterday for their
maiden Super Rugby title.
On a miserable, wet night in Wellington, manof-the-match Barrett was everywhere for the
Hurricanes and settled the outcome of the final
with an audacious try 12 minutes from time. There
were tumultuous scenes in the packed stadium
as the Hurricanes, a team which often promised
plenty but never delivered, became the fifth New
Zealand side to be crowned Super champions.
“There’s been a lot of sorrow for this club and
tonight we can finally say we’re champions for
a Hurricanes team that’s been trying for a lot of
years,” captain Dane Coles said. “This goes out to
all the Hurricanes players who have played for the
jersey. We finally did it.”
Lions skipper Warren Whiteley accepted the
Hurricanes deserved to win, but said his side only
back in the competition three years since being
dumped, would continue their meteoric rise next
year. “We feel the best is yet to come. This is only
the start for us. We’ll have the same squad next
year and we’ll learn from this,” Whiteley said.
The atrocious conditions dictated the outcome
would rest on which of rival fly-halves Barrett and
Elton Jantjies could best direct play. It was a kicking duel Barrett won as he kept returning the Hurricanes to point-scoring positions despite the Lions dominating territory.
Cory Jane also scored for the Hurricanes with
Barrett adding two conversions and two penal-
GOLF
ties while the Lions points came from a sole Elton Jantjies penalty. It has been a long road to
the top for the Hurricanes who lost the 2006 and
2015 finals as well as being beaten five times in the
semi-finals. But 2016 was not going to elude them,
particularly with their local knowledge of Wellington’s wintry conditions while the arduous travel
from South Africa eventually told on the Lions as
the game wore on. When the Lions used their big
men to ram a pathway forward in the first half they
were stopped in their tracks time and again as Brad
Shields and Victor Vito, in his 100th game, led a
bruising defence.
If the Lions went wide they were rattled by the
Hurricanes line speed which directly led to the
opening try. Lionel Mapoe was forced to rush a
clearing kick which went straight into the arms of
Jane a few metres away and the former All Black
wing had an easy run to the line.
The Hurricanes thought they had first points
on the board six minutes into the game when Jane
fielded a Barrett cross kick and crossed the line
wide out only to be brought back for an earlier
knock on. But Jane was not to be denied the second time and with Barrett and Jantjies exchanging
penalties the Hurricanes led 10-3 at the turn.
The Lions believed they had a try scoring chance
late in the first half when they turned down a
lose-range penalty in favour of a scrum only to be
pushed off the ball by a ‘Canes pack that was otherwise beaten in every other scrum.
A further Barrett penalty early in the second half
extended the lead to 13-3 and as the Lions desperately tried to close the gap Barrett settled the
outcome 12 minutes from the end. The Lions won
a defensive lineout only to fumble the ball which
allowed the ever-alert Barrett to race through to
score under their noses.
First Bok
call-up for
Marx
Johannesburg: South Africa
coach Allister Coetzee picked
uncapped hooker Malcolm
Marx and recalled veteran
winger Bryan Habana yesterday for Rugby Championship
Tests against Argentina during August. Marx has enjoyed
an outstanding Super Rugby
season for the Johannesburgbased Lions, who lost the
final 20-3 to the Wellington
Hurricanes Saturday in a wet
and cold New Zealand capital.
Nine Lions were selected,
including captain and No.
8 Warren Whiteley, fly-half
Elton Jantjies and scrum-half
Faf de Klerk. Habana, part of
the 2007 Springboks Rugby
World Cup-winning team in
France, was omitted for the
2-1 home series victory over
Ireland two months ago.
Others recalled include utility backs Johan Goosen and
Francois Hougaard, centre
Juan de Jongh, prop Vincent
Koch and loose forward
Teboho ‘Oupa’ Mohoje. “I am
excited to get Malcolm Marx
involved with the Springboks
on the back of a very strong
Super Rugby season,” said
Coetzee, who succeeded
Heyneke Meyer last April on a
four-year contract.
“It is also great to welcome
back ‘Oupa’ Mohoje and
Vincent Koch as both have
worked incredibly hard and
played very well recently.
Johan Goosen has been in
outstanding form for his
club in France and gives us
a number of options in the
backline with his versatility.
We are fortunate to welcome
back an experienced player
such as Bryan Habana,”
South Africa host Argentina on August 20 in Nelspruit
and the teams meet again on
August 27 in Salta.
Title-holders and world
champions New Zealand
and Australia are the other
nations in the annual roundrobin southern hemisphere
championship. There are
seven changes to the squad
chosen by Coetzee for the
Ireland series with injuries a
contributing factor.
Among those ruled out
of the Argentina Tests were
fly-half Patrick Lambie, prop
Frans Malherbe and loose
forward Siya Kolisi. Full-back
Willie le Roux and winger JP
Pietersen, who both played
in the three Tests against
Ireland, were excluded.
TENNIS ROUND-UP
Van Aswegen storms into Defending champion Isner
share of Travelers lead
advances to semis in Atlanta
AFP
Los Angeles
Agencies
Atlanta
U
hree-time defending champion
John Isner beat Taylor Fritz 7-5, 6-4
on Friday night in an all-American
match to advance to the BB&T Atlanta Open semifinals.
The 6-foot-10 Isner set up a match with
the man who replaced him as the tallest player on the ATP World Tour, 6-foot-11 American teen Reilly Opelka. “He’s had a great run,”
the top-seeded Isner said about Opelka. “I’m
certainly going to try to end it, but it’s going
to be very tough.”
Isner overpowered Fritz, the 18-yearold seeded eighth, with 20 aces for his 14th
straight victory in the hardcourt event. The
former University of Georgia star has reached
the finals five of the previous six years. “It
was a good win,” Isner said. “The first set was
nheralded Tyrone Van Aswegen, whose
only two career wins came on the South
African tour, is making a bid for his first
victory on the PGA Tour. The 34-yearold South African is trying to snap an American
tour winless drought by claiming a share of the
second round lead at the Travelers Championship. Van Aswegen, of Johannesburg, fired a
bogey-free, four-under par 66 in Friday’s second round to grab a share of the lead with Daniel
Berger, Russell Henley and Aussie Marc Leishman
at seven-under 133. “Just taking care of business
and just trying to play well again,” said Van Aswegen. “That’s all I can do.”
American Jerry Kelly, who shared the lead after
the first round, headlines a four-way tie for fifth
at 134 after firing a 70.
Vaughn Taylor and Andrew Loupe shot 71 and
76 to move to 135 and 140, respectively. Blayne
Barber had the day’s low round of 64 and is in a
six-way tie for ninth at 135. England’s Paul Casey
and Fiji’s Vijay Singh, a former world number one,
are also at 135. Casey shot 67 while Singh carded a
68. Casey lost here last year in a playoff. Van Aswegen is winless on the PGA Tour but has victories on the South African Sunshine Tour — with
both coming in 2008. He won the Nedbank Affinity Cup eight months after winning the Vodacom
Origins of Golf by four strokes in Pretoria. After
starting the year with a bang by finishing third in
the Frys.com Open, Van Aswegen has struggled
of late. “I can’t think of winning,” he said.”I think
you’ll be overwhelmed if you do that.”
But following a second straight bogey-free
round Friday, maybe he can start to dream a little.
World number six Bubba Watson, the defending
and two-time Travelers champion, is four shots
off the lead and tied for 24th after Friday’s 70.
American fans were also thinking on Friday
of the Olympics where Watson will be headed as
soon as this event ends. Watson, who will represent the United States in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
was serenaded with chants of “USA!”
“What an honour knowing how close we are to
getting to Rio, how close we are to being what we
call Olympians,” Watson said. “For golfers to be
T
John Isner returns a
forehand in his win over
Taylor Fritz during the
Atlanta Open. (AFP)
Van Aswegen of South Africa hits a shot during
the Travelers Championship at TCP River
Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. (AFP)
called Olympians, what a thrill, what a privilege,
what an honour.”
Watson chose to defend his 2015 Travelers Championship title instead of attending the
Rio Games opening ceremonies on Friday. “It
would’ve been a thrill of a lifetime to be there,”
Watson said, “But being defending champ, knowing this course as well as I do, why would I not
come here?”
Six players from the field of 156 will compete at
the Olympics, comprising Watson, Matt Kuchar
and Patrick Reed (United States); Padraig Harrington (Ireland); Alex Cejka (Germany); Soren
Kjeldsen (Denmark).
obviously tight. I was feeling good and feeling
strong. In the second set, I had to keep holding serve as well as I could, and I did that.”
The 18-year-old Opelka topped seventhseeded Donald Young 6-4, 6-4 in another
all-American match to reach his first tour
semifinal. “I’ve been doing a really good job
with my movement, winning points on my
opponent’s serve,” Opelka said.” ‘’The way I
am serving now, I know I can at least get to a
tie-break. But being able to hit good returns
and passing shots is huge.”
In the other semi-final, second-seeded
Nick Kyrgios of Australia will face Japan’s
Yoshihito Nishioka. Kyrgios beat fifth-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-4, 6-7 (5),
6-3, and Nishioka topped Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 6-4 to reach his first tour
semi-final.
“I’ve been working on my serve a lot. More
percentage, more power,” the 20-year-old
Nishioka said. “And before I was very emo-
tional, throwing rackets and getting frustrated. But I’ve been more calm since Wimbledon. I think that’s why I’m winning more
now.” Kyrgios won in Marseille, France, in
February for his lone tour title.
King and Duan to contest
Jianxi final
The highest-ranked and lowest-ranked players left in the Jiangxi Open will contest the
final after Vania King and Ying-Ying Duan
progressed after straight-sets semi-final
victories yesterday.
King was the only semi-finalist in action
with a WTA crown to her name and she will
be favoured to triumph today, after she beat
seventh seed Risa Ozaki 6-2 6-2 yesterday.
World number 163 Duan, the lowest-ranked
player remaining in the competition, reached
her second WTA final courtesy of a 6-4 7-6
(9-7) success over Misa Eguchi.
Gulf Times
Sunday, August 7, 2016
9
FOOTBALL
PREVIEW
Five things to watch out for in today’s
Community Shield
Foes reunited as
Mourinho, Ranieri
meet at Wembley
Mourinho will be itching to get under Ranieri’s skin, particularly having beaten him
only twice in their six head-to-head encounters to date
FP
London
J
ose Mourinho locks horns with old
adversary Claudio Ranieri as FA
Cup winners Manchester United
tackle fairytale Premier League
champions Leicester City in today’s
Community Shield at Wembley.
Mourinho, who has succeeded Louis
van Gaal at United, twice pipped Ranieri
to the Serie A title during their time in Italy, where he goaded the Italian about his
age, lack of success and poor command
of English.
But Ranieri took revenge last season,
overseeing a 2-1 win over Mourinho’s
Chelsea in December that proved to be
the Portuguese’s last game in the job and
finishing the campaign with the league
trophy in his hands.
Asked about his rival on Friday, Ranieri said: “We are used to living with the
pressure and without pressure we are not
the same.
Jose always tries to win and his career
speaks for itself.”
Mourinho, 53, succeeded Ranieri, 64,
as Chelsea manager in 2004 and quickly
built on the foundations laid by his predecessor, steering the west London club to
back-to-back Premier League titles.
Their paths did not cross directly until
2008, when Mourinho joined Inter Milan
and beat Ranieri’s Juventus to the league
title. Reacting to a claim from Ranieri that
Mourinho needs to win things to feel sure
of himself, the Inter coach said his rival had
“the mentality of someone who doesn’t
need to win” and was “too old to change”.
File picture of Leicester’s head coach Italian Claudio Ranieri during the 2016 International Champions Cup friendly.
Fixture
Leicester City vs Manchester United
6pm (Qatar Time)
Wembley Stadium
quite as they were when captain Wes
Morgan lifted the Premier League trophy
on May 7.
Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney (R) and manager Jose Mourinho.
Ranieri joined Roma, who pushed Inter
all the way in a taut 2009-10 title race,
only for Mourinho’s men to prevail by
two points and beat them in the Coppa
Italia final en route to a glorious Treble.
Publicly, Mourinho’s attitude towards
Ranieri has since softened.
He described Leicester’s 5,000-1 title
win as “magic” and the pair were photo-
graphed embracing prior to a Soccer Aid
charity match in June.
But privately Mourinho will be itching
to get under Ranieri’s skin, particularly
having beaten him only twice in their six
head-to-head encounters to date.
While Leicester continue to bask in the
afterglow of an achievement that electrified world football, things are no longer
ENTER IBRAHIMOVIC
N’Golo Kante, the redoubtable midfield
driving force behind their title success,
has joined Chelsea in a £30 million ($39.5
million, 35.4 million euros) move.
Talisman Jamie Vardy, last season’s 24goal top scorer, has committed himself to
the club with a new contract, but Riyad
Mahrez has been linked with a move away
amid reported interest from Arsenal.
Six new signings are bedding in, led by
Nigerian forward Ahmed Musa, a clubrecord £16 million capture from CSKA
Moscow, who struck an impressive brace
in a 4-2 defeat by Barcelona on Wednesday.
That loss in Stockholm followed a
heavy 4-0 reverse at Paris Saint-Germain’s hands and having previously
drawn 1-1 with Celtic, Ranieri’s side have
gone three games without a win.
United, though, have been scarcely
more impressive in pre-season.
They beat Galatasaray and Wigan Athletic, but crashed to a 4-1 defeat against
Borussia Dortmund and saw a scheduled
meeting with Manchester City fall victim
to the Beijing rain.
“We need minutes for the players. Now
we have Leicester and it is not a training
session. It is a game,” Mourinho said.
“We have six changes, not three, so that
gives me the chance to give minutes to
some people, players who I know cannot
have the condition to play 90 (minutes).
We will try to do a little bit of everything.”
With Van Gaal having departed after
two years of turgid football and underwhelming results, United’s fans will hope
the Wembley showpiece provides signs
of a revival under Mourinho.
New signings Eric Bailly, Henrikh
Mkhitaryan and the swaggering Zlatan
Ibrahimovic are all in line to feature.
Left-back Luke Shaw, meanwhile, is
making up for lost time after nine months
out due to a double leg break.
Now to see what happens today.
Jamie Vardy meets Zlatan Ibrahimovic as Premier League
champions Leicester City face
FA Cup holders Manchester
United in the Community
Shield at Wembley today.
Ahead of the the annual
curtain-raiser to the English
season, AFP Sport looks at five
key questions that the game
could help answer.
WILL MOURINHO MAKE HIS
MARK?
Jose Mourinho will be keen to
mark his first significant outing
as United manager with a
tone-setting victory as he looks
to improve his disappointing
Community Shield record.
Since his Chelsea team defeated Arsenal in 2005, Mourinho
has been beaten three times
in the fixture.
Last year’s first ever loss to arch
rival Arsene Wenger culminated in the feuding managers
refusing to shake hands.
That sour note was followed by
Chelsea making a painfully slow
start to the season, which eventually cost Mourinho his job.
The United manager knows
he cannot afford a similarly
lethargic opening as he aims
to make a good impression in
his new role.
‘BROMANCE’ FOR IBRAHIMOVIC AND ROONEY?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic hailed
Wayne Rooney as the “perfect
partner for a striker” after United’s Swedish forward played
alongside the England star for
the first time last month.
Rooney finished last season
in an unfamiliar midfield role,
but Mourinho wants United’s
captain to return to a more
attacking position despite the
arrival of Ibrahimovic from
Paris Saint-Germain.
Ibrahimovic has been a star
wherever he has played in his
glittering career, but this is his
first taste of English football
and his ability to dovetail with
Rooney will be crucial to both
his and United’s success.
The pair appeared to switch
smoothly between orthodox
and deep-lying attacking
positions in United’s friendlies
against Galatasaray and Everton. The Community Shield
offers another chance to hone
the partnership before the
Premier League kicks off.
NO REGRETS FOR VARDY?
Jamie Vardy’s meteoric rise
from non-league obscurity
to Premier League champion
was last season’s fairytale and
the Leicester striker is determined to ignore the trappings
of sudden celebrity.
Vardy, who scored 24 league
goals last season, has described his life since Leicester’s triumph as “carnage”.
The 29-year-old says he
cannot even leave his house
without being mobbed and he
will be relieved to be able to
focus on the pitch again.
season, who played the most fluent football.
M
att Smith’s header
made a mockery of
Newcastle United’s
status as favourites
to go straight back up to the Premier League as Fulham ran out
1-0 winners in their Championship season opener on Friday.
Rafael Benitez’s side could
point to not being given what
looked like a penalty for handball against Ryan Tunnicliffe in
the first half but his team, which
has seen £45 million ($58.9mn,
53mn euros) of new talent
brought in, rarely looked like
taking the three points.
Indeed it was the hosts, who
finished 20th in the Championship last term and lost leading
strikers Ross McCormack and
Moussa Dembele in the close
Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez reacts during the match.
NOT TO OUR LEVEL
“We didn’t play to the level we
wanted to play,” admitted a disappointed Benitez.
“We didn’t take our chances
and even if it was a decent shout
for a penalty we should have got
over that and got on with trying
to play to our level.”
His young skipper, 22-yearold Jamaal Lascelles, accepted
he and his team-mates had been
taken by surprise.
“This is definitely a wake-up
call as to how hard it is going
to be to return to the Premier
League,” he said.
Smith, who Fulham signed
from Leeds United two years
ago, said he and his team-mates
had not listened to those who
said they had no chance.
“Absolutely great to score my
landmark goal with a header like
that,” said Smith, who scored his
50th professional goal.
“We didn’t really pay much
attention to the hype surrounding Newcastle and that they had
to just turn up to win.
“We simply believed in ourselves,” added the 27-year-old.
Smith headed home unmarked close to half-time to give
Benitez plenty to say to his players at the break.
They came out a bit more energised but it was Fulham who
could have gone further ahead
if the referee Simon Hooper
had looked more kindly on Sone
Aluko being bundled over in the
box by another of Benitez’s new
signings, Grant Hanley. Matt
Ritchie had Newcastle’s best
chance with a shot that was well
saved by David Button, who then
got down well later in the second
half to deny the same player.
WILL RANIERI’S NEW BOYS
BED IN?
With the Premier League title
to defend and a first Champions League campaign to prepare for, Leicester manager
Claudio Ranieri has bolstered
his squad with his latest series
of under-the-radar signings.
Having already benefitted
from astute scouting that
unearthed gems like Vardy,
N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez, Ranieri will hope for
similar dividends from Ahmed
Musa, Nampalys Mendy,
Luis Hernandez and Bartosz
Kapustka.
Musa, Leicester’s £16 million
record signing from CSKA
Moscow, could be the best of
the bunch.
The Nigerian striker struck
twice, including a superb solo
effort, in a mid-week friendly
defeat against Barcelona.
With Kante having left for
Chelsea, his replacement,
French midfielder Mendy, also
needs to make a fast start.
Canaries off to flying
start in Championship
CHAMPIONSHIP
AFP
London
CAN UNITED FIND THE
RIGHT DEFENSIVE RECIPE?
Mourinho’s predecessor, Louis
van Gaal, was lambasted for
the dire quality of United’s
football, but his team were a
solid prospect defensively.
No Premier League team recorded more clean sheets than
United’s 18 last season and they
boasted the division’s joint-best
defensive record along with
Tottenham Hotspur.
But changes in United’s back
four are afoot, with left-back
Luke Shaw fit again and Mourinho splashing out £30 million
($39.5mn, 35.4mn euros) to sign
Ivorian centre-back Eric Bailly
from Villarreal.
Bailly is vying with Phil Jones
and Daley Blind for the right
to partner Chris Smalling and
Mourinho will want to settle
on his preferred configuration quickly.
WELL BEGUN
AFP
London
Benitez’s Magpies given rude
awakening by Fulham
Vardy surprised many with
his decision to snub Arsenal’s
advances in the close season,
citing Leicester’s team spirit as
a major factor.
It will be fascinating to see if
that proves the right decision
for a player whose relentless
work-rate embodies the feisty
attitude that carried the Foxes
to the title.
S
cotland
international
Steven Naismith was
among the scorers as
Norwich City ran rampant with a 4-1 win at Blackburn
Rovers in their opening Championship game yesterday.
Newcastle United, the hot favourites for the title, had slipped
to a 1-0 loss at Fulham on Friday.
And Norwich, who like Newcastle are aiming for an immediate return to the Premier League,
were the most convincing winners on an opening day packed
with goals.
The Canaries made a dream
start at Ewood Park, with veteran
Republic of Ireland international
Wes Hoolahan, who signed a new
contract this week, putting them
two goals ahead in the 20th minute
after Josh Murphy’s early opener.
Cameron Jerome added a
third soon afterwards to make it
a nightmare start on the Rovers
bench for Owen Coyle.
The former Bolton Wanderers
coach reacted by sending on exCeltic striker Anthony Stokes at
half-time, but it was the visitors
who extended their lead as Naismith made it four.
Stokes did get one back for the
hosts, but far too late to affect the
outcome.
Coyle said his side had performed like “rabbits caught in
headlights” but added Norwich
had produced an oustanding
performance.
“Norwich are going to be
a huge contender to win this
league,” Coyle told BBC radio.
“They’re a very good side, the
strength in depth they’ve got...
They’ve just got wonderful players at their disposal.”
Wolverhampton
Wanderers fought back from 2-0 down
with 10 men to seal a 2-2 draw
at Rotherham United in Walter
Zenga’s first game in charge.
Goals from Danny Ward and
Will Vaulks put the hosts in
control, but George Saville gave
Wolves hope before half-time.
England Under-21 international Dominic Iorfa was sent off
in the second half, but Icelandic
international striker Jon Dadi
Bodvarsson grabbed a point with
25 minutes to play.
Nigel Clough didn’t enjoy a
fairytale return to Nottingham
Forest – where his father Brian
had guided the unfashionable
club to two European Cups – as
his Burton Albion side ended up
losing a thrilling encounter 4-3.
Clough looked to be on course
for a memorable victory with his
cheaply-assembled side when
they came from 1-0 down to take
the lead.
However, Forest came storming back as Britt Assombalonga
crowned his comeback appearance after 18 months out injured
with a brace.
10
Gulf Times
Sunday, August 7, 2016
FOOTBALL
SPOTLIGHT
ARGENTINA
Mourinho laments
greedy Euro giants
‘In the other countries they want to be comfortable and know they will always be the
top dogs in the Champions League. They want it to be a competition of two, three or
four and if possible a competition of just one. So this (England) is a special country’
By Andy Hunter, The Guardian
Manchester
AFA president Armando Perez (R) presents Argentine football team’s
new coach Edgardo Bauza during a press conference in Ezeiza.
Reuters
Buenos Aires
J
osé Mourinho has claimed that no
other major European league could
produce champions similar to
Leicester City because of the greed
of powerful clubs who present themselves
as “the Mother Teresa of football”.
The Manchester United manager did
not name Bayern Munich directly, but
they fitted his withering critique of European football as he argued why Leicester,
United’s opponents in the Community
Shield at Wembley on Sunday, have no
equal on the continent. Barcelona and
possibly even Mourinho’s former employers Real Madrid, were also on the
United manager’s mind.
Mourinho refused to bite on accusations by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the
Bayern president, that his treatment of
Bastian Schweinsteiger would force other players “to think long and hard” about
moving to Old Trafford. But he broadened his aim to accuse Europe’s leading
clubs of stifling competition and fearing
a success story such as Leicester’s in their
own domestic ranks.
A reference to players being “stolen”
from title rivals appeared to be aimed at
Bayern, who signed Mats Hummels from
Borussia Dortmund this summer and have
in recent years lured Robert Lewandowski
and Mario Götze from the same club, although the latter has now returned.
Asked whether Leicester’s title triumph
had changed English football, Mourinho replied: “Maybe English football has
changed them. This is the only country
where everyone wants this to happen.
This is the only country where the football
structures allow this to happen. In the other countries the powerful clubs don’t want
this to happen. In the other countries they
do not want to have to share the money.
They don’t want to share TV rights.
“In the other countries they want to be
comfortable and know they will always be
the top dogs in the Champions League.
They want it to be a competition of two,
three or four and if possible a competition
of just one. So this is a special country.
“You have, around Europe, people who
when you listen to them it looks like they
are the Mother Teresa of football but they
are not. You go to many countries and
clearly they are happy the way they are. It
is not just about them being powerful. It
is also to go to the clubs that can be direct
competition and every season steal their
best players so they don’t want a league.
In this country we want a league. Everybody wants a league. An amazing story like
Leicester brings even more credibility to
the Premier League and that’s why the Premier League is the Premier League.”
Germany’s Bundesliga benefits from
collective television rights, unlike Spain
and to a lesser extent Italy.
Mourinho has backed Claudio Ranieri’s team to challenge again this season
with “a better squad” but believes their
Messi tops Bauza’s
agenda as coach
N
ew Argentina coach
Edgardo Bauza believes
a softy, softly approach
is the way to try to
bring talisman Lionel Messi back
into the national team.
Bauza, officially unveiled as
Gerardo Martino’s successor at
Argentine FA headquarters on
Friday, said he would seek to
speak with retired captain Messi
in Barcelona next week.
“My sole intention is to see if I
can talk about football with Messi... and from that chat will come
the possibility of him being called
up to play Argentina’s next games,”
Bauza told a news conference.
Less than a month after Bauza
took charge, Argentina face 2018
World Cup qualifiers at home to
Uruguay and away to Venezuela
in the first week of September.
“I want to tell him my idea and
for him to tell me how things are
with him and then we’ll see what
comes out of it,” Bauza said.
Messi quit the team after his
fourth major final defeat with
Argentina, and third as their
captain, at the Copa America in
the United States in June.
There is a widespread belief
that the 29-year-old will revise
a decision he took in the heat of
the moment and look to try and
take part in a fourth World Cup in
Russia in 2018.
Bauza, a lanky former central
defender who has won the Copa
Libertadores twice as a coach,
said he understood Messi’s reaction to a second successive Copa
America final defeat on penalties
against Chile.
“I have felt frustrated for losing a match or a final and understand that statement (of quitting) when you are overwhelmed
with frustration, but I know it
can be reversed.” said Bauza, who
is known as ‘Paton’ (big foot).
Argentina are third in the
10-nation South American group
with 11 points from six matches,
two points behind leading pair
Uruguay and Ecuador.
The top four after 18 matches
qualify for the finals in Russia,
while the fifth-placed team goes
into an intercontinental playoff
for one more berth.
Waghorn saves Rangers blushes on
Premiership return
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho during his team’s match against Everton.
Champions League debut could prove a
complication. “I think it will be a different season for them but they can cope
with the situation. They have a new experience playing the Champions League
which changes the profile of their season.
They have a minimum of six big matches to play in between Premier League
matches so that changes their season
but they have a better squad. They have
bought good players. The manager is
good, he is experienced. I think they can
cope. I hope they cope. I wish everything
goes well for them.”
Mourinho was on the losing side with
Chelsea in the Community Shield last
season and ultimately lost his job after a
dreadful start to the campaign, one that
followed a brief pre-season training programme. He would not be drawn on any
parallels between United’s disrupted
summer and events of 12 months ago. “I
don’t speak about my previous club, not
at all,” he said. But Mourinho admitted
United’s preparations before Wembley
have been far from ideal.: “Our pre-season was strange, good for some players
but not enough for others. The number
of matches was not enough. The match
not played against [Manchester] City was
really bad for us.
“The week of work I can change and say
the week of no work in China was really bad
for us, so we need to train and play. We need
minutes for the players. We need to train
against other teams like against Everton
and Galatasaray, but that is over. Now you
have no chance against other teams.
“Now we have Leicester and it is not a
training session. It is a game, especially
for the players that were involved in last
season. For them it must have meaning.
You need to be the champion or win the
FA Cup to play in the Community Shield
and they did that last season. We have
to face it as a game. We have six changes
[substitutes], not three, so that gives me
the chance to give minutes to some people, players who I know cannot have the
condition to play 90 minutes. We will try
to do a little bit of everything.”
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
A Martin Waghorn goal midway through the second-half
salvaged a point for Scottish
giants Rangers as they drew
1-1 with Hamilton on their
return to the Scottish Premiership at Ibrox.
Rangers, who gained promotion at the end of last season
after a four-year hiatus following a financial meltdown,
found themselves behind in
the 30th minute when Alister
Crawford sent a superb strike
past Wes Foderingham.
Substitute Harry Forrester set
up Waghorn to fire home the
equaliser in the 62nd minute
before the goalscorer was
forced to limp off in the 85th
minute leaving Rangers, who
had used all their substitutes,
to play the final minutes with
10 men.
It was not the signal of intent
Mark Warburton’s side would
have wanted to send to Old
Firm rivals Celtic, who open
their title defence away to
Hearts on Sunday.
“We need to be braver in the
final pass,” said Warburton.
“We knew they would come
here to frustrate and they
did, but if they’re going to sit
in we have to commit to the
final pass. “It was a tough first
game in terms of all the expectations and the significance of
the game.
“There’s a long way to go in
the season and I’m always
disappointed to drop two
points but we’ll learn a lot
from today’s game.”
Rangers thought they had
given their fans the perfect
start on their return with a
goal within the first minute.
Waghorn drove along the
byline before cutting back for
36-year-old veteran Kenny
Miller to tap in but the ball
had gone out of play in the
build-up.
A minute later former Croatian
international Niko Kranjcar
picked out Andy Halliday at
the edge of the box with a
high ball over the top and
Hamilton goalkeeper Remi
Matthews did well to push
away his fierce strike.
Hamilton soaked up all the
pressure before Crawford
handed them a surprise lead.
The forward collected a pass
on the right of the box before
turning Kranjcar and curling a
shot into the top corner.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Di Matteo out to clip
Owls wings on debut
AFP
London
R
Qatar coach Jose Daniel Carreno
HAVE A BALL: Qatar football team during a practice session. Carreno’s boys will take on Iraq in a friendly match tomorrow in Doha. Qatar will play four international
friendlies in August before their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Iran on September 1.
oberto
di
Matteo
touched the heady
heights of winning the
Champions League as a
manager but today he hopes for
something rather more mundane: winning his first game in
charge of Aston Villa.
The 46-year-old Swiss born
former Italian international —
who won the 2012 Champions
League when in charge of Chelsea — takes Chinese-owned Villa
to Sheffield Wednesday in the
second tier Championship today.
Both sides have an immediate
point to prove to get over disappointments at the end of last
term with Villa finishing bottom
of the Premier League and being
relegated and the ‘Owls’ seeing
their hopes of sharing in the lucrative riches of the EPL dashed
by losing in the play-off final at
Wembley to Hull.
Di Matteo, who is one of several high profile managers in the
Championship, said it is impor-
tant for his side — seven times
English champions and winners
of the old European Cup in 1982
— to get off to a good start.
It was something odds-on favourites to win the Championship Newcastle — managed by
another Champions League winning manager in Rafael Benitez
— patently failed to do on Friday
losing 1-0 to Fulham.
“They are (a) real tough test.
But we want the points. There
are 45 games after this one but we
want to get off to a good start,” Di
Matteo told the Villa website.
“It’s a tough start away at
Sheffield Wednesday but we’re
looking forward to it.
“Sheffield Wednesday are a
good team and they have made
some good additions.”
Di Matteo, who was sacked by
Chelsea the season after landing
the Champions League, should
give a start to Scottish international striker Ross McCormack,
for whom this week he spent £12
million ($16 million, 14.3 million
euros) of new Chinese owner
Tony Xia’s money to wrest him
away from Fulham.
Gulf Times
Sunday, August 7, 2016
11
CRICKET
HISTORIC
FOCUS
Mathews hails
Test series win
over Australia
‘The way we played in the last two games, I thought we were brilliant’
Lankan President
congratulates team
on historic victory
AFP
Galle
S
ri Lanka’s President and
former cricket legends
yesterday hailed the
country’s series win as
historic after they comprehensively beat top-ranked Australia in
the second Test in Galle.
“Congratulations to Sri Lanka
team as it makes history with this
win. A moment of pride in Sri
Lanka cricket,” President Maithripala Sirisena said on Twitter. Sri
Lanka Cricket (SLC) chief Thilanga Sumathipala described the
victory as a “huge boost” for the
entire cricket-crazy nation of 21
million people.
“This is a huge boost for Sri
Lanka as a country and for everyone who follows the game of
cricket in Sri Lanka,” Sumathipala
said.
The triumph comes as a welcome relief to a side which had
returned from a disastrous tour of
England where they failed to win
any of their nine matches – three
Tests, five ODIs and one T20.
“A series win to be proud of.
Beating the #1 side in the world
with ease. Enjoy the well earned
win boys and make it 3 wins for @
officialSLC,” former skipper Kumar Sangakkara tweeted.
“A lot of credit to Gford & @
Angelo69Mathews to come thru a
tough series in england and to keep
the side focused @KusalMendis1,
@HerathRSL -,” Sangakkara
wrote in another tweet referring to
Sri Lanka’s new head coach, South
African Graham Ford. Sri Lanka
defied the odds after being seen as
weaker opponents at the start of
the series, with the retirements of
some former greats – Sangakkara
and Mahela Jayawardena – adding
to their underdog status.
Hales refunds unhappy fan
Birmingham: England opener
Alex Hales has given a partial
refund to a spectator who complained about the slow over-rate
during the the ongoing third
Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston. Between them, England and
Pakistan only managed to bowl
81 of a scheduled 90 overs on
Friday’s third day.
The fault mainly lay with England, who fell behind the rate
early on and left Pakistan with
a marathon 44 overs to bowl
in the day’s final session by the
time they had dismissed the
tourists on the stroke of tea.
Unsurprisingly, Pakistan failed
to get through all those overs
before the scheduled 6:30pm
(1730 GMT) cut-off time for close
of play.
Upset fan Alexis Fuller, who was
in the Edgbaston crowd on Friday, contacted several England
players to ask for a 10 percent
refund after Michael Vaughan,
the former England captain,
pointed out that only 81 overs
had been bowled.
“I want 10% of my money back,”
Fuller wrote. “Wouldn’t go to
football and find it ended after
80mins.”
Hales, who was 50 not out at
stumps, following an unbroken
120-run stand with England
captain Alastair Cook, replied
saying: “ok DM me your bank
details I’ll do it now”.
SPOTLIGHT
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews and teammates wicket keeper Dinesh Chandimal (CL) and Kusal Mendis celebrate the fall of Australian captain Steven Smith (L) at The Galle
International Cricket Stadium in Galle yesterday.
AFP
Galle
S
kipper Angelo Mathews yesterday described Sri Lanka’s historic
Test series win against Australia
as “satisfying” after their spinners wreaked havoc to notch up an emphatic 229-run victory against the world
number one team in the second Test in
Galle.
Off-spinner Dilruwan Perera and Rangana Herath combined forces to dismantle the Australian batting in both the innings as the hosts took an unassailable
2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Perera bagged six wickets to help bundle out Australia for 183 after lunch on
the third day as Sri Lanka registered their
first Test series triumph against the visitors since 1999.
Herath set up the win for the hosts with
his maiden Test hat-trick which helped
dismiss Australia for a record low of 106
in their first innings.
Australia faltered in their second outing as well after Perera, who registered
his career-best figures of 6-70, sent the
visitors packing in just 50.1 overs as the
Sri Lankan players went into a celebratory huddle.
“It feels great. The way we played in
the last two games, I thought we were
brilliant. To beat the number one team is
very satisfying,” Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews told reporters.
Overnight batsmen David Warner and
skipper Steven Smith offered some resistance with their 51-run fourth wicket
partnership but both of them fell to Perera’s guile.
Warner, who tried to counter attack
during his 31-ball 41, was trapped lbw off
a straighter Perera delivery that hit the
batsman on the front pad.
Smith (30), who used his feet well
against the spinners during his 58-ball
stay, was the next to go as he gave away a
catch at backward short leg.
Man of the match Perera, who bagged
10 wickets in the match, then bowled
Adam Voges for 28 to register his fourth
five-wicket haul in 11 Test matches.
“They (Australian batsmen) look a bit
lost when it comes to our spinners. Our
spinners have bowled extremely well.
They found it a bit hard to score off our
spinners,” said Mathews.
But it was Herath’s left-arm spin that
did the early damage in a match dominated by Sri Lankan slow bowlers.
Herath and Perera shared four wickets
between them on a chaotic second day
which saw the fall of 21 wickets and put
the match on the fast track.
The 38-year-old Herath, who became
only the second Sri Lankan to claim a
hat-trick after former pacer Nuwan
Zoysa, dismissed Voges, Peter Nevill and
Mitchell Starc off consecutive deliveries.
Australia’s pace spearhead Starc
though made his presence felt on a track
that offered little help to the fast bowlers with his career-best match figures of
11-94.
But Starc’s standout show for Australia did little to help the team’s dismal
record in the sub-continent.
Australia’s last outing to the sub-continent saw them lose all four Tests against
India in 2013 and they also lost both
matches when Pakistan hosted them for a
two-Test series in 2014 in the Gulf.
“It’s been too long now — I think it’s
been 15 or 16 games since we’ve won a
game in the sub-continent, so whatever
we’re doing it’s not working,” a disappointed Smith said after the loss.
“We have to find ways to score and find
ways to take wickets and chase runs. We
have not been able to do that in the first
two Test matches.”
“Credit to Sri Lanka for the way they
have played to wrap up series here today,”
Smith added Saturday.
BOTTOMLINE
Away success key for
Pakistan, says coach Arthur
AFP
Birmingham
M
ickey Arthur said yesterday that winning series
away from their adopted
UAE home would be Pakistan’s acid test after former side Australia’s struggles in Sri Lanka bolstered
their hopes of becoming the world’s
number one Test team.
Pakistan are currently third in the
International Cricket Council standings, with Australia on top.
But they could rise to the summit if
Australia lose their ongoing series in
Sri Lanka and Pakistan themselves triumph in England. The first part of that
equation moved nearer to reality Friday when Australia, already 1-0 down
in a three-match campaign, were left
staring at defeat on an extraordinary
second day of the second Test in Galle
at 25 for three chasing a mammoth 413
for victory.
Pakistan, all square at 1-1 in a fourmatch series with England, had a better, if frustrating, time on Friday’s third
day of the third Test at Edgbaston.
Having established a first-innings
lead of 103, they saw England captain
Alastair Cook (64 not out) and Alex
Hales (50 not out) erase the deficit
with an unbroken opening stand of 120
that left the hosts 17 runs in front at
stumps.
For Pakistan coach Arthur, dramatically sacked by Australia on the eve
of the 2013 Ashes series in England,
events in Galle had not gone unnoticed.
“Misbah (Pakistan captain Misbahul-Haq) and I did chat about it on the
bus as we saw the Australian score
from Sri Lanka,” Arthur told reporters
after stumps at Edgbaston.
“I think the reality is if you want to
be number one in the world you’ve got
to be able to win away from home.”
“We’ve got a tough schedule — England here, then New Zealand away in
two Tests in November and then we go
and play in Australia, Boxing Day (Melbourne), the New Year (Sydney) and
the night Test in Brisbane.
“But for us to be where we want to
be, those are the series we’ve got to
win.” Arthur, who made his international reputation as coach of his native
South Africa, lamented a lack of support for left-arm quick Mohammad
Amir and leg-spinner Yasir Shah on
Friday. Sohail Khan, who Arthur said
was prone to inaccuracy along with
fellow seamer Rahat Ali because their
front arm fell away or was “lost” in
delivery, marked his first Test in five
years with an impressive five for 96 in
England’s first innings 297 at Edgbaston.
But he tired markedly in a return of
none for 40 in eight overs on Friday.
“It is a real concern,” said Arthur.
“He’s got to back up. I thought he
bowled exceptionally well in the first
innings but the key is you’ve got to do
it both innings.”
The coach added: “Mohamed Amir
bowled outstandingly well tonight
(Friday). Yasir did the same. We just
need a little bit of support for those
two.”
Latham’s second ton
helps Black Caps
dominate Zimbabwe
AFP
Bulawayo
O
pener Tom Latham
scored his second
consecutive century
in Zimbabwe as New
Zealand’s batsmen dominated
the opening day of the second
Test at Queens Sports Club yesterday.
Latham’s 105 set New Zealand up for a mammoth total and
crushing victory in the first Test,
and he bettered that score to give
the Black Caps a commanding
platform.
The 24-year-old recorded his
fifth Test century and went on to
make 136, before succumbing to
what proved to be the final ball
of the day as New Zealand closed
on 329 for two.
Zimbabwe’s bowlers claimed
just six wickets in a horribly
one-sided first Test, and endured a similarly frustrating day
on another docile pitch yesterday.
With the seamers lacking in
pace, Latham and Martin Guptill
had no trouble seeing off the new
ball and went on to construct an
opening stand of 169.
“We complement each other
well,” said Guptill. “Tommy is
good square of the wickets and I
am strong down the ground.”
“We were able to get our
partnership off to a strong start
which helped towards the middle of the day.”
“They couldn’t put enough
pressure on us — taking 20 wickets in a Test is no easy feat but
this is going to be even harder.”
Guptill was eventually dismissed in the hour before tea
when Donald Tiripano snuck a
straight delivery through his defences to trap him lbw for 87.
But any joy for Zimbabwe was
short-lived, as Latham went on
to add 160 for the second wicket
with Kane Williamson.
“This is my home ground, and
I was having a chuckle with the
coach upstairs because Queens
has never been this flat ever, in
my 10 years of playing here,” said
offspinner John Nyumbu, who
came into the Zimbabwe side as
one of three changes.
“The lack of assistance in the
wicket was difficult. We knew it
was going to be like that and we
knew we had to apply ourselves.
We let it slip here and there.”
Latham failed to see out the
day when he was caught and
bowled by left-arm spinner Sean
Williams, but Williamson went
to stumps unbeaten on 95, within touching distance of becoming the first New Zealand batsman to score a century against
all nine Test nations.
The day also saw Zimbabwe’s
fans stage a peaceful protest
against President Robert Mugabe’s government when they
rose as one at the end of the 36th
over to sing the national anthem.
The number signified the
number of years that Mugabe
has been in power, and the action was initiated by the #ThisFlag citizen movement that has
brought stayaway and public demonstrations across the
country over the past six weeks.
SCORECARD
New Zealand first innings:
M. Guptill lbw b Tiripano 87
T. Latham c and b Williams 136
K. Williamson not out 95
Extras (4b, 7nb) 11
Total (for 2 wkts, 89.5 overs)
329
Still to bat: Ross Taylor, Henry
Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, BJ
Watling, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee,
Neil Wagner, Trent Boult.
Bowling: Tiripano 14-3-58-1,
Chinouya 15-5-43-0, Chibhabha
9-2-30-0, Cremer 25-1-108-0,
Nyumbu 22-1-63-0, Williams 2.50-15-1, Sikandar Raza 2-0-8-0.
Zimbabwe: Chamu Chibhabha,
Tino Mawoyo, Craig Ervine,
Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza
Butt, Prince Masvaure, Peter
Moor, Graeme Cremer, Donald
Tiripano, John Nyumbu, Mike
Chinouya.
Toss: New Zealand
Umpires: Michael Gough (ENG)
and Paul Reiffel (AUS)
TV umpire: Jeremiah Matibiri
(ZIM)
Sunday, August 7, 2016
CRICKET
GULF TIMES
ACHIEVEMENT
Perera hits Aussies
for six as Sri Lanka
wrap up series win
Australia, chasing a challenging 413 for victory, were bundled out for
183 after lunch as Sri Lanka took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
England’s Jonny Bairstow belts the Pakistani bowling at Edgbaston
yesterday.
THIRD TEST
Sri Lanka captain Angelo
Mathews, (C) and teammates
Rangana Herath (L) and Dilruwan
Perera leave the ground after
their victory over Australia at
The Galle International Cricket
Stadium in Galle yesterday.
AFP
Galle
O
SCORECARD
ff-spinner Dilruwan Perera
bagged six wickets to fashion Sri Lanka’s historic series
win over Australia yesterday
as the world number one side suffered
a humiliating 229-run loss inside three
days in the second Test in Galle.
Australia, chasing a challenging 413
for victory, were bundled out for 183
after lunch as Sri Lanka, who won their
last series against the visitors in 1999,
took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the
three-match rubber.
Veteran spinner Rangana Herath set
up the win for the hosts with his maiden Test hat-trick which helped dismiss
Australia for a record low of 106 in
their first innings.
Australia faltered in their second
outing as well after Perera, who registered his career-best figures of 6-70,
sent the visitors packing in just 50.1
overs as the Sri Lankan players went
into a celebratory huddle.
“Not too many teams do this to the
number one team. I thought we played
some outstanding cricket throughout the first and the second Test,” Sri
Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews said.
Overnight batsmen David Warner
and skipper Steven Smith offered some
resistance with their 51-run fourth
wicket partnership but both of them
Sri Lanka 1st innings — 281 all out in
73.1 overs (Kusal Mendis 86, Angelo
Mathews 54; Mitchell Starc 5-44)
Australia 1st innings — 106 all out in
33.2 overs (David Warner 42; Rangana
Herath 4-35, Dilruwan Perera 4-29)
Sri Lanka 2nd innings — 237 all out in
59.3 overs (Angelo Mathews 47, Dilruwan Perera 64; Mitchell Starc 6-50)
Australia 2nd innings (target: 413 runs;
overnight 25/3)
D. Warner lbw b Perera
41
J. Burns c de Silva b Herath
2
N. Lyon c Silva b D Perera
0
U. Khawaja b Dilruwan Perera 0
S. Smith c Silva b Perera
30
A. Voges b Perera
28
M. Marsh lbw b Sandakan
18
P. Nevill run out (Mendis)
24
M. Starc b Herath
26
fell to Perera’s guile.
Warner, who tried to counter attack
during his 31-ball 41, was trapped lbw
off a straighter Perera delivery that hit
the batsman on the front pad.
Smith (30), who used his feet well
against the spinners during his 58-ball
stay, was the next to go as he gave away
a catch at backward short leg.
Perera, who bagged 10 wickets in the
match, then bowled Adam Voges for 28
to register his fourth five-wicket haul
J. Hazlewood c&b Perera
7
J. Holland not out
0
Extras (lb7) 7
Total (all out; 50.1 overs) 183
Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Burns), 2-10 (Lyon),
3-10 (Khawaja), 4-61 (Warner), 5-80
(Smith), 6-119 (Marsh), 7-123 (Voges),
8-164 (Starc), 9-181 (Hazlewood), 10-183
(Nevill)
Bowling: Herath 19.1-1-74-2, Perera 23-570-6, Sandakan 6-1-30-1, De Silva 2-0-2-0
Toss: Sri Lanka
Result: Sri Lanka beat Australia by 229
runs
Series: Sri Lanka lead the three-match
series 2-0
Umpires: Chris Gaffaney (NZL) and
Richard Kettleborough (ENG)
TV umpire: Sundaram Ravi (IND)
Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG)
in 11 Test matches.
“What a performance from Dilruwan (Perera) after a quiet match in
Pallekele. We backed him and the selectors backed him,” said Mathews of
his bowling allrounder, who also topscored a useful 64 in the second innings.
But it was Herath’s left-arm spin
that did the early damage in a match
dominated by Sri Lankan slow bowlers.
Herath and Perera shared four wick-
ets between them on a chaotic second
day which saw the fall of 21 wickets and
put the match on the fast track.
The 38-year-old Herath, who became only the second Sri Lankan to
claim a hat-trick after former pacer
Nuwan Zoysa, dismissed Voges, Peter
Nevill and Mitchell Starc off consecutive deliveries.
Australia’s pace spearhead Starc
though made his presence felt on a
track that offered little help to the fast
bowlers with his career-best match
figures of 11-94.
But Starc’s standout show for the
Australia did little to help the team’s
dismal record in the sub-continent.
Australia’s last outing to the subcontinent saw them lose all four Tests
against India in 2013 and they also lost
both matches when Pakistan hosted
them for a two-Test series in 2014 in
the Gulf.
“The record shows we haven’t won a
game in about 15 or 16 years in the subcontinent. We certainly have a lot of
work to do,” a disappointed Smith said
after the loss.
“We have to find ways to score and
find ways to take wickets and chase
runs. We have not been able to do that
in the first two Test matches.
“Credit to Sri Lanka for the way they
have played to wrap up series here today,” Smith added yesterday.
The action now shifts to Colombo
for the final Test beginning August 13.
BOTTOMLINE
AFP
Birmingham
J
onny Bairstow and Moeen
Ali both scored dashing
fifties as England wrested
the initiative from Pakistan on the fourth day of the
third Test at Edgbaston yesterday.
At stumps, England were 414
for five in their second innings, a
lead of 311 runs.
Bairstow was 82 not out and
Ali 60 not out after they had
added an unbroken 132 for the
sixth wicket ahead of today’s final day.
Pakistan will now have to set a
new record for the Birmingham
ground if they are to go 2-1 up
in the four-match series, as the
most any side have made in the
fourth innings to win a Test at
Edgbaston is South Africa’s 283
for five in 2008.
England had been well-placed
at 120 without loss overnight.
But openers Alastair Cook
and Alex Hales both went early
yesterday as Pakistan took two
wickets for no runs in nine balls.
Joe Root (62) and James Vince
(42) stopped the rot during a
painstaking stand of 95.
Leg-spinner Yasir Shah struck
either side of tea to dismiss Root
and Gary Ballance.
But the pair’s Yorkshire colleague Bairstow, in at 257 for
four, scored briskly and he received excellent support from
Ali as they overpowered a tiring
Pakistan attack featuring just
four frontline bowlers.
England scored 152 runs in
yesterday’s final session, after
managing 142 runs in the first
two sessions combined.
“The way Cookie and Halesy
played last night was outstanding,” Root told Sky Sports before
turning to Bairstow and Ali’s
stand.
“It was an unbelievable partnership tonight, good to watch
and an exhibition of how to bat
in the third innings.
“The pitch doesn’t look like
it is breaking up, but there’s
enough there to take 10 wickets
tomorrow (Sunday).”
But Pakistan bowling coach
Mushtaq Ahmed said: “I don’t
know what England are going to
do tomorrow (Sunday), but one
thing is for sure: this is a good
pitch for batsmen, and our batsmen are in good form.”
Play resumed yesterday with
England captain Cook 64 not out
and Hales 50 not out after they
had erased a first-innings deficit
of 103 with their maiden century
stand in 18 innings as a Testmatch opening pair.
But Pakistan soon removed
both batsmen.Left-hander Cook
(66) pushed out to first-innings
five-wicket hero Sohail Khan
and a diving Shah held an excellent catch at point. Mohamed
Amir then turned 126 for one
into 126 for two when Hales (54)
edged a seaming delivery from
the left-arm quick and Younis
Khan held a difficult low chance
at second slip.
Root, who made a Test-best
254 in England’s 330-run serieslevelling win at Old Trafford,
struck two superb fours off Sohail — a back-foot force followed
by a cover-drive.
Root, however, had a reprieve
on 25 when he edged Rahat Ali
only for Mohammad Hafeez
to drop the low, two-handed,
chance at first slip.
It was tough on left-arm
paceman Rahat, who bowled superbly in reeling off five straight
maidens in a spell of seven overs
for just seven runs.
After lunch, Root pulled Shah
for a boundary that saw him to a
108-ball fifty. But Shah, bowling
into the rough outside leg stump,
had his revenge when Root, not
for the first time this season,
mistimed a sweep and gave a
simple catch to Hafeez at short
fine leg.
Vince, yet to make a fifty
in nine Test innings, had been
composed in equalling his highest score at this level of 42.
But he too fell in familiar
fashion when, flirting outside off
stump against the new ball, he
wastefully guided Amir to second slip Younis.
England, 262 for four at tea,
lost Ballance (28) on 285 when
Shah, bowling round the wicket,
had the left-hander well caught
by leg slip Asad Shafiq off a genuine glance.
SCOREBOARD
Sammy says he was sacked ‘in 30-second phone call’
AFP
St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda
D
arren Sammy, who
led West Indies to the
World Twenty 20 title in 2012 and 2016,
claimed Friday he has been
sacked as captain in a 30-second
phone call from the head of selectors. The 32-year-old posted
an emotional video on his Facebook page where he said his sixyear spell in charge had ended.
Sammy, lying shirtless in his
bed and with reggae music playing in the background, also said
he had been dropped from the
squad.
Bairstow,
Ali punish
Pakistan
“I got a call yesterday, it was
probably 30 seconds, from the
chairman of selectors telling me
that they’ve reviewed the cap-
taincy of the Twenty20 team and
I won’t be captain anymore and
that my performances have not
merited selection in the squad,”
Sammy said in the video.
Sammy led the West Indies
to T20 victory in Sri Lanka
four years ago and again earlier
this year in India when Carlos
Brathwaite smashed four sixes
off the final over to beat England.
But there were obvious signs
of the strains between him and
the West Indies Cricket Board
when he used his presentation
speech to attack his employers
over a lack of support.
His contribution to the victory was minimal — he scored
eight runs and took just one
wicket.
“Six years ago I was asked
to captain West Indies, a task
which I thought would be the
biggest challenge in my career,
in my life,” Sammy said.
“A task which I knew would be
so difficult but I took it head on.
I embraced the challenge, I embraced the difficulty.
“I turn up at the office which
is my playground, the cricket
field, every day and put in the
work.”
West Indies are currently
hosting India in a four-Test series to be followed by two Twenty 20s in Florida on August 27
and 28.
England 1st Innings 297 (G
Ballance 70, M Ali 63; Sohail
Khan 5-96)
Pakistan 1st Innings 400
(Azhar Ali 139, Sami Aslam 82,
Misbah-ul-Haq 56; C Woakes 3-79,
S Broad 3-83)
England 2nd Innings (overnight 120-0)
A. Cook c Yasir Shah b Sohail
Khan 66
A. Hales c Younis Khan b Mohamed Amir 54
J. Root c Mohamed Hafeez b
Yasir Shah 62
J. Vince c Younis Khan b Mohamed Amir 42
G. Ballance c Asad Shafiq b Yasir
Shah 28
J. Bairstow not out 82
M. Ali not out 60
Extras (b4, lb7, w1, nb8) 20
Total (5 wkts, 125 overs, 547 mins)
414
To bat: C Woakes, S Broad, S
Finn, J Anderson
Fall of wickets: 1-126 (Cook),
2-126 (Hales), 3-221 (Root), 4-257
(Vince), 5-282 (Ballance)
Bowling: Amir 30-8-73-2 (1w);
Sohail 27-3-102-1 (8nb); Rahat
21-8-54-0; Shah 42-4-152-2; Azhar
5-0-22-0;
Ali
Match position: England lead
by 311 runs with five wickets
standing.
Toss: Pakistan
Umpires: Joel Wilson (WIS),
Bruce Oxenford (AUS)
TV umpire: Kumar Dharmasena
(SRI)
Match referee: Richie Richardson (WIS)