GOLF | Page 5 FORMULA 1 | Page 9 - Gulf Times

Tuesday, February 21, 2017Jumada I 24, 1438 AH

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Hamilton says he has ‘zero problems’ with Bottas

Johnson cruises to fi ve-shot victory

GOLF | Page 5 FORMULA 1 | Page 9

FOOTBALL

Guardiola’s Man City face Monaco reckoningPage 3

Dominant Lekhwiya grab 3-0 win over UAE’s Jazira

AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

‘Full credit to the boys. We had our issues with injury and form but they delivered when it mattered. We knew that Al Jazira were on a winning streak in UAE and we were prepared to put up a fight against them, but in the end we ended up far better’

By Sports ReporterDoha

Youssef El Arabi bagged a brace as a dominant Lekhwiya claimed a 3-0 victory over Al Jazira in their 2017 AFC Cham-

pions League Group B opener at Abdul-lah Bin Khalifa Stadium yesterday.

The hosts opened the scoring 11 min-utes into the game when El Arabi con-tinued his fi ne goal-scoring form of late by heading in Youssef Msakni’s cross from the right from six yards, before Msakni deservedly doubled the Qatari side’s lead with 10 minutes remaining.

El Arabi then tapped in from substi-tute Ali Afi f’s centre in added time to wrap up a comfortable victory for Le-khwiya as the Emiratis’ winless run in the continental competition stretched to eight games.

It was a clinical performance by the Qatari side who enjoyed a big share of the possession during the initial pe-riod of the match. Lekhwiya ended up with 59 per cent possession at the end of the match. There were very few oc-casions when Lekhiwya keeper Claude Amine was called into action. And if it weren’t for a couple of missed chances, Lekhwiya could have ended up with a bigger margin of victory.

Lekhwiya coach Djamel Belmadi will be a happy man after this confi dence-boosting start for his team in this com-petition.

Belmadi’s boys are currently go-ing through a mini-slump in the Qatar Stars League. In fact, they came into this match after a shocking 1-3 loss against Umm Salal in the League. This loss came after they were held by QSL defending champions Al Rayyan. Both these results, coupled with Al Sadd winning their matches, have knocked Lekhwiya off the top of the table. This win will help Lekhwiya regain their swagger and return to winning ways in the QSL too.

“Full credit to the boys. We had our issues with injury and form but they

delivered when it mattered,” an elated Belmadi was quoted as saying by AFP.

“We knew that Al Jazira were on a winning streak in UAE and we were prepared to put up a fi ght against them, but in the end we ended up far better, “he added.

Lekhiwya will now face Saudi Ara-bia’s Al Fateh in an away match on Feb-ruary 27.

In another group B match played in Muscat, Iran’s Estehglal Kouzestan de-feated Saudi Arabia’s Al Fateh 1-0, with Abolfazl Alaei’s 80th minute header clinching the winner.

Estehglal Kouzestan, who are mak-ing their Asian Champions League de-but, dominated for much of the match but could only manage to breach the Al Fateh defence late in the tie when Alaei rose high to head home Peyman Shirza-di’s corner.

RAYYAN FACE UAE’S WAHDA TODAYQatar’s Al Rayyan dominated the 2016 Qatar Stars League season – winning the title by 14 points – but their return to Asia’s premier club competition fol-lowing a three-year hiatus will be a thorough test of their credentials, be-ginning with the Group D visit of Play-off winners Al Wahda of the United Arab Emirates.

Both sides are taking part in the AFC Champions League for the seventh time although Al Rayyan have never made it out of the group stages, while Al Wahda reached the semi-fi nals in 2007. In that year’s edition Al Wahda also beat Al Rayyan both home (3-0) and away (1-0).

Hosts Al Rayyan are the form side with four wins in their last fi ve do-mestic fi xtures while the visitors have won just once in the UAE Pro League since January 14. Al Wahda did, though, comfortably defeat Jordan’s Al Wehdat 3-0 in the play-off s a fortnight ago.

Rayyan coach Michael Laudrup will be hoping that his side can take advan-tage of the home conditions and get off to a good start like Lekhwiya did against Jazira yesterday.

Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Co. signs on T2 rally champion Adel Abdulla for a second season

MOTORSPORT


Qatar’s Adel Hussein Abdul-la, who won the FIA cross country rally title in the T2 category, will continue to be

supported by Nissan Qatar, it was an-nounced recently. Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Co, the exclusive dealer for Nis-san in Qatar have confi rmed that they will be extending their support to Ab-dulla for a second season

Abdulla, driving a Nissan Patrol, had produced a strong performance in the cross country rally world cup and had fi nished second in the standings, be-hind Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Saeidan. But the Qatari won the title after his team – TOK Sport – protested the legality of Saeidan’s car at the Rally of Morocco. The protest was upheld at a recent FIA Court of Appeal and the Saudi driver

was docked the points from that rally. This gave Abdulla the title.

The Qatari will now enter the 2017 season as the defending champion and thanked Nissan Qatar for their con-tinuing support. “Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Co is one of the major play-ers in the local market. The support of Hisham Saleh al-Mana and his team throughout 2016 played a major role in winning the world championship. My team and I are very pleased to continue this close working partnership for the 2017 season where we again are aiming to win the championship for the second time. Last year winning could not have been achieved without the support of the sponsors QMMF, Nissan & Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Co,” said Abdulla dur-ing the press conference.

Hisham Saleh al-Mana, Chairman and managing director of Saleh Al Ha-mad Al Mana Co, said: “It is great to be part of a winning team and a pleasure

to know that our contribution to Adel and his QX Rally Team in 2016 resulted in winning the World Championship. We are strong supporters for talented and ambitious Qataris whose quest is to achieve the best in what they do. Adel has proven that nothing is impossible.”

Apart from the sponsorship, Abdulla has also been signed on as the brand

ambassador by Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana and will be part of the organisa-tion’s CSR activities, which includes promoting safe driving in Qatar.

Adel and his Nissan Patrol XE will be participating in a total of 11 T2 World Rally Championship events around the world and in the four re-gional championships.

T2 World Rally Champion Adel Hussein Abdulla (L) and Hisham Saleh al-Mana, chairman and managing director of Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Co.

The Nissan Patrol that Adel Abdulla drove during the 2016 season.

Lekhwiya striker Youssef El Arabi celebrates after scoring against Al Jazira yesterday. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil

To Advertise hereCall: 444 11 300, 444 66 621

FOOTBALL2 Gulf Times

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Messi penalty rescues poor Barcelona

LA LIGA

A series of brilliant saves by Marc-Andre ter Stegen kept Leganes at bay

AFPMadrid

Barcelona needed a last minute Lionel Messi penalty to see off lowly Leganes 2-1 as a poor week for the Spanish champions con-

tinued on Sunday night.Barca were thrashed 4-0 by Paris

Saint-Germain on Tuesday to leave their Champions League hopes hanging by a thread and had to rely on Messi for snatching all three points from another below par display.

The Argentine opened the scoring after just four minutes, but Leganes enjoyed the better of the chances and levelled 19 minutes from time through Unai Lopez.

However, Messi ensured Barca did move back up to second in La Liga and close to within a point of leaders Real Ma-drid, who have two games in hand, from the spot after Neymar had been chopped

down inside the area. “We knew it would be a diffi cult game given what we have come from and what happened in the Champions League,” Barca boss Luis En-rique said. “It is clear that in some mo-ments we lacked confi dence, but I think the team turned around a diffi cult game in any way we could. This time it was a penalty, but, given how we are at the mo-ment, that is more than welcome.”

Leganes remain just two points above the relegation zone as their winless run extends to 13 games. Barca looked set for an easy night when Luis Suarez found space in behind the Leganes defence and his pinpoint cross with the outside of his right foot picked out Messi to tap home early on.

Instead, Barca were thankful to a se-ries of brilliant saves by Marc-Andre ter Stegen for keeping Leganes at bay. The German denied former Liverpool winger Nabil El Zhar in a one-on-one before fl y-ing low to his left to parry El Zhar’s fol-

low-up eff ort. El Zhar came close again with the last action of the fi rst-half as this time his shot from the edge of the area was defl ected and forced Ter Stegen into a fi ne refl ex stop. However, for all his good work, Ter Stegen was at fault when Leganes did deservedly level as Lopez’s eff ort from the edge of the area fl ew in between his legs.

The equaliser was met with a chorus of boos by the lowest La Liga attendance at the Camp Nou this season. And there was an even angrier reception for the much maligned Andre Gomes when he was re-placed by Andres Iniesta moments later.

“For me jeering a player on your own team makes no sense,” added Enrique. And Ter Stegen called for unity among the Barcelona faithful. “We need the fans, above all at home, to support us. We can win or lose together, but the most impor-tant thing is that we are united.”

Leganes had held out with relative ease until Neymar took matters into his own

hands with a driving run into the area before he was wiped out by Martin Man-tovani. Messi stepped up and fi red into the top corner, but tellingly the Argentine didn’t celebrate leaving his displeasure with Barca’s performances over the past week clear. Leganes still had a late chance to level as El Zhar sent another fi erce ef-fort fl ying inches wide.

Earlier, Villarreal kept their hopes of Champions League football next season alive as Samu Castillejo’s 93rd minute winner secured a vital 1-0 win at Real Sociedad. Just a second win of 2017 takes sixth-placed Villarreal to within two points of Sociedad and six of Atletico Madrid in fourth.

Valencia moved seven points clear of the relegation zone with a much-need-ed 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao. Nani opened the scoring early on before on-loan Juventus striker Simone Zaza broke down in tears after netting his fi rst goal since May.

Alves says Barca directors have ‘no idea how to treat players’AFPMadrid

Brazilian right back Dani Alves has slammed Barcelona directors for their treatment of him during his fi -nal seasons with the Spanish club.

The former Barcelona star signed for Serie A champions Juventus on a free transfer last summer after eight years with the Catalan gi-ants. “Those who run Barcelona today have no idea how to treat their players,” Alves told Spanish daily ABC yesterday. “I like to feel wanted, and if they don’t want me, I leave. Leaving Barca on a free was a classy punch. During my fi nal three seasons I always heard that Alves was leaving, but the directors never said anything to my face.

“They were very false and ungrateful. They did not respect me. I was only off ered a new deal when the FIFA transfer ban came in. That was when I played them at their own game and signed a deal with a termination clause.”

Alves said he chose Juventus — bidding for a record sixth consecutive Serie A title this season — because he wanted a challenge out-side his “comfort zone at a club with a history and a winning mentality”.

“Here I’m happy and I have new and beau-tiful challenges in this great team. We have a team capable of challenging for the Champi-ons League.”

Alves admitted he sometimes found as-pects of fame tiring. “Football’s really hypo-critical,” he said. “That’s why I am disap-

pointed. Fame is s---. Now that I am famous I’ve realised that famous people are seen in a poor light. Football brings envy, hypocrisy and false friendships.”

Alves also blamed the media for twisting his words resulting in frequent clashes with Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo.

“All my fi ghts with Cristiano were because of the press,” he said. “If people only knew

how much I respect Cristiano Ronaldo. I will repeat it to make myself clear: I respect Cristiano Ronaldo. And I think the same of (Lionel) Messi or Neymar. My thoughts were not negative. What happens is that the press sold them diff erently, saying that I had spo-ken badly of him. And Ronaldo believed it. That’s why he did not greet me at the Ballon d’Or Gala in 2015.”

FOCUS

Serbian fans racially abuse tearful Brazilian

SPOTLIGHT

ReutersBelgrade

Rad Belgrade have been ordered not to play fi rst division matches in their home stadium

until Serbian football authorities rule over the racial insults direct-ed there at an opposition player Everton Luiz.

Rad’s fans subjected Parti-zan’s Brazilian midfi elder Luiz to monkey chants in Sunday’s league match, the Serbian Foot-ball Association said yesterday. “Due to the misbehaviour of their fans who racially insulted a player, Rad’s stadium has been suspended until the Serbian Football Association (FSS) passes a verdict,” the league’s commis-sioner Vladimir Bulatovic said.

“The suspension means no fi rst division games will be played at the venue until a fi nal decision is made and disciplinary proceedings have been opened against all parties involved in the incident.”

Rad fans abused Luiz through-out the ill-tempered match and a full-scale player brawl broke out when he retaliated with an obscene gesture after the fi nal whistle. Staff from both teams jumped in to quell the fi ght-ing after Rad players confronted Luiz, who left the ground in tears and issued a statement express-ing his aff ection for Serbia while condemning the off enders.

“My family and I feel at home in Serbia and this is why I could

not stop the tears after the game,” he said. “I took 90 minutes of racist abuse and other insults from the terraces and thereaf-ter I found myself in a cauldron of emotionless individuals who charged at me when they should have protected me. I want to for-get this, refocus on football and urge everyone to say ‘No’ to rac-ism.”

Partizan won the match 1-0 at the Rad stadium thanks to an Uros Djurdjevic goal which kept them second in the 16-team league, six points behind champions and leaders Red Star Belgrade. Partizan Belgrade “strongly condemned” racist abuse directed at Luiz, declar-ing the midfi elder had “won the hearts of fans”. The match was stopped late on after some Rad fans brandished a banner insult-ing Luiz, who won the Serbian Cup last year with Partizan.

“We strongly condemn per-petrators of this insane act,” the club said in a statement on its website.

“Partizan feels obliged to apologise to all those insulted and hurt by racist chanting” during the match, it added.

“We fully support one of the best players of our club, Ever-ton, who has won the hearts of fans during his stay in Serbia in the last year.” Serbian football has been marred by racist inci-dents in recent years, including one that saw fans chanting abuse at England’s black players at an under21 international match fi ve years ago.

Partizan Belgrade’s goalkeeper Filip Kljajic (right) hugs teammate Everton Luiz as he leaves the field in tears after Rad Belgrade fans subjected the Brazilian midfielder to racial chants. (AFP)

Barcelona’s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi shoots a penalty kick to score a goal during the La Liga game against Leganes at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona on Sunday. (AFP)

Brazilian right back Dani Alves signed for Serie A champions Juventus on a free transfer last summer after eight years with Barcelona. (Reuters)

SAUDI-BOUND CLATTENBURG REMAINS ON REFEREE DUTY

London: Premier League referee Mark Clat-tenburg will continue to off iciate in the English top-flight before taking up his new post in Saudi Arabia. Clattenburg announced his decision last week to become head of referees in Saudi Arabia. It had been expected Clattenburg would leave the Premier League immediately following his decision to quit. But he will stay on duty for at least part of the rest of the campaign, according to reports.

The Premier League have appointed Clatten-burg to take charge of Saturday’s game between West Bromwich Albion and Bournemouth at the Hawthorns. It is also understood that commit-ments relating to his new role in Saudi Arabia, as well as the fact he will not be refereeing in England next season, could limit the number of matches Clattenburg is appointed to before the end of the season. The 41-year-old is considered one of the top referees in English football after taking charge of the Euro 2016 final, Champi-ons League final and FA Cup final last season. Clattenburg will replace another former Premier League referee in Saudi Arabia. Howard Webb resigned from his position as head of refereeing there earlier this month, and will take up a role with Major League Soccer next month.

ANCELOTTI AGREES TO MAKE STATEMENT ON HERTHA INCIDENT

Bayern Munich coach Carlo Ancelotti is to com-ply to a request by the German football federa-tion DFB for a statement following incidents af-ter his side’s late draw at Hertha Berlin. Ancelotti admitted to Germany’s ARD broadcaster he had gestured to Hertha fans with his middle finger after the match on Saturday which finished 1-1.

“I made this gesture. I was spat at before-hand,” he said. The DFB supervisory panel has asked Ancelotti to submit a statement and he

“will of course comply with this request,” Bayern said. The DFB is also investigating Hertha over the Ancelotti incident and a report that referee Patrick Ittrich was also spat at.

The federation confirmed that the referee had also stated in his report that a Hertha off icial made unsporting comments towards the match off icials after they left the pitch. According to Germany’s Kicker magazine on Sunday, Hertha goalkeeper Rune Jarstein has also been asked to make a statement by the DFB’s control panel. The panel is thought to be looking into whether Jarstein deliberately kicked the ball into the back of Bayern's Xabi Alonso. Robert Lewandowski’s late goal for Bayern — timed at five minutes and 57 seconds of stoppage time — was the latest goal recorded in a Bundesliga match since detailed data was compiled from 1992.

INFANTINO TO TALK, PARTY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

FIFA president Gianni Infantino will be in South Africa and Zimbabwe this week to meet African football bosses and attend a birthday party. He has invited all 54 African national football asso-ciation presidents to Johannesburg for two days of meetings, starting today.

The 46-year-old Swiss-Italian leaves for Harare Thursday to attend the birthday party of Zimba-bwe football chief Philip Chiyangwa. Organisers of the two-day summit said Infantino will explain changes to the global game, including expand-ing the World Cup to 48 teams from 2026.

African off icials have long argued for more than the five World Cup places they compete for, even though teams representing the continent consistently under perform. No African team has reached the semi-finals and the first time two na-tions from the continent reached the knockout phase was in Brazil three years ago.

Guardiola’s Man City face Monaco reckoning

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Monaco have been rampant this season, powering to the Ligue 1 summit with a tally of 76 goals

AFPManchester, United Kingdom

A hotly anticipated staging post in Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola era arrives tonight when Monaco visit the Etihad

Stadium in the fi rst leg of the Champi-ons League last 16.

Guardiola was appointed to take City to the next level on the European stage and he has already masterminded a stir-ring 3-1 win over his former club Barce-lona in the group phase.

But Monaco have been rampant this season, powering to the Ligue 1 summit with a tally of 76 goals that is unsur-passed in Europe’s fi ve major leagues, and Guardiola is keenly aware of the danger they pose. “I am really impressed by how good they are,” Guardiola said.

“They are physically strong. The full-backs play like wingers, the wingers play like attacking midfi elders. The two strikers — (Radamel) Falcao and (Valere) Germain — are killers in the box. It is the most successful team in Europe in terms of scoring goals. I’m looking forward to playing against them because they are a really, really good team.”

Guardiola and his assistant Mikel Arteta watched Monaco’s game at Par-is Saint-Germain last month, when a 92nd-minute equaliser from Bernardo Silva rescued a 1-1 draw. Another Silva equaliser secured another 1-1 draw in Monaco’s last outing, at Bastia on Fri-day, but in the main they have encoun-tered scant resistance in the French top fl ight this season.

Monaco have averaged 2.92 goals per league game, scoring four or more on no fewer than 10 occasions, and have already prevailed on English soil, win-ning 2-1 at Tottenham Hotspur in the group stage. Three successive wins have lifted City to second place in the Pre-mier League table, eight points below leaders Chelsea, but they remain a work in progress.

It is just over a month since their scarring 4-0 defeat at Everton — their fi fth defeat of the campaign — and Guardiola’s selection decisions con-tinue to raise eyebrows. Claudio Bravo, signed amid great fanfare to replace Joe Hart, has been axed after a string of weak displays, meaning Willy Cabal-

lero, City’s nominal third-choice goal-keeper in August, is now the number one. What City’s defensive confi gura-tion will be against Monaco, mean-while, is anyone’s guess. A rotating cast of full-backs has seen midfi elder Fern-andinho fi ll in on both fl anks of the de-fence of late, while Aleksandar Kolarov continues to fl it between left-back and centre-back.

Guardiola has confi rmed captain Vincent Kompany will miss tonight’s game with a leg injury that kept him

out of Saturday’s 0-0 FA Cup draw at Huddersfi eld Town. Sergio Aguero is expected to keep his place up front after Gabriel Jesus’s impressive start to life at City was cut short by a broken foot that could keep him out for the rest of the season.

While uncertainty abounds regard-ing City’s best XI, Leonardo Jardim’s Monaco team largely picks itself. Joao Moutinho, a European champion with Portugal, cannot get into the team and 18-year-old sensation Kylian Mbappe,

whose 11 goals this season include two hat-tricks, begins most games on the bench. Both could start, however, if Jardim elects to ditch his habitual 4-4-2 formation in favour of a 4-3-3. With Jemerson suspended, Andrea Raggi is expected to start at centre-back.

The trip to Manchester will have spe-cial signifi cance for Falcao, who has relocated his shooting boots after two dismal years on loan in England with Manchester United and Chelsea. ‘El Ti-gre’, 31, no longer bites with the force of

his Porto and Atletico Madrid days, but, aided by a customised playing schedule, he has scored 22 goals in just 28 games.

“I manage him diff erently to the oth-ers,” says Jardim. “Because he’s a top-level player. I said at the start of the season that I was sure he’d succeed. Quality is permanent.”

City are favourites to progress, but as PSG’s 4-0 evisceration of Barcelona last week showed, France’s top clubs are no longer content to make up the numbers in the Champions League.

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times


Pale PSG frustrated by Toulouse in stalemate

LIGUE 1

AFPParis

Paris Saint-Germain missed the chance to eat into Monaco’s lead at the top of the French Ligue 1 table after being held to a 0-0 draw by Toulouse at the Parc des

Princes on Sunday night.At the same venue where they had blown away

Barcelona fi ve days earlier, winning 4-0 in the fi rst leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, Unai Emery’s side could not break down mid-table opposition.

Edinson Cavani struck the woodwork in the second half for the defending champions but Toulouse held out as PSG failed to score in a game for the fi rst time since the start of December.

The draw extends Paris’ unbeaten run in all competitions to 13 games going back to before Christmas but it also means they end the week-end still three points behind leaders Monaco. The principality side needed a Bernardo Silva equal-iser in the second half to come from behind and draw 1-1 at struggling Bastia on Friday, while Nice are only behind PSG on goal diff erence thanks to their 1-0 win at bottom club Lorient on Saturday.

Wylan Cyprien scored the only goal for Nice, who held on after having Mario Balotelli sent off in the second half. “We have missed an opportu-nity today. We need a little more energy and de-sire to win matches like this,” said Emery, whose team lost 2-0 in Toulouse earlier in the season. “The team has made a lot of progress but there are still things we need to work on and improve.”

Emery made fi ve changes to the PSG team from the Barcelona game but was without Angel Di Maria, the Argentine struggling with a muscle in-jury after scoring twice against the Catalans. Here the home side had almost all the possession and chances, but teenage Toulouse goalkeeper Alban Lafont saved from Lucas Moura early on before Cavani battered a rising shot just wide.

Marco Verratti was brought off the bench after the break to pull the strings and PSG camped in the Toulouse half but Cavani struck the frame of the goal from close range after Lafont had saved the Uruguayan’s initial attempt.

Marquinhos then threw himself at a Lucas cor-ner only to see his header blocked on the line, and PSG will now hope to get back to winning ways when they go to great rivals Marseille next week.

Earlier, Alexandre Lacazette scored his 21st league goal of the season as Lyon fought back from behind to win 4-2 at home to Dijon. Coren-tin Tolisso put Lyon ahead at the Parc OL but goals from Julio Tavares and Lois Diony had Dijon leading until the hosts came roaring back late on.

Tolisso netted again with a speculative eff ort from 20 yards to make it 2-2 with 10 minutes left and Lacazette then put Lyon in front with a penalty in the 84th minute before Nabil Fekir wrapped up the win at the death.

The result strengthens Lyon’s grip on fourth spot as they sit four points clear of Saint-Etienne, Marseille and Bordeaux with a game in hand. “We didn’t give up and we showed great character. It is a victory that can help to unite us even more as a team,” said Lyon coach Bruno Genesio.

Meanwhile Saint-Etienne lost 2-1 at Montpel-lier despite taking an early lead through Kevin Monnet-Paquet, and Les Verts also fi nished the game with 10 men after Jorginho was sent off early in the second half.

Christophe Galtier’s side host Manchester United in the second leg of their Europa League last-32 tie tomorrow with their hopes of progress all but over after losing 3-0 at Old Traff ord in the fi rst leg. Francois Kamano, Nicolas Pallois and Gaetan Laborde scored as Bordeaux beat 10-man Guingamp 3-0.

Leverkusen bank on European form to carry them past AtleticoReutersBerlin

Bayer Leverkusen will hope to put their erratic Bundesliga form behind them and adopt their most deter-mined European game face when

they host Atletico Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 fi rst leg tonight.

The Germans have lost nine times in their domestic campaign while dropping to eighth in the table but can take comfort from an un-beaten 10-match streak at home in Europe as they seek to advance past this knock-out stage for the fi rst time.

Leverkusen did reach the Champions League fi nal in 2002 where they lost to Real Madrid but at the time there was no round of 16 but only two group stages with the quar-ter-fi nals following after that. They now hope their European form will carry them past the Spanish club that reached the fi nal in two of the last three seasons.

“Why not win against them?” said Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno. “If we show our Champions League face, then eve-rything is possible. “You can see the team re-ally wants it. We are fi ghting, we are fi ghting for each other and that was not necessarily the case a couple of weeks ago.”

Leno has every right to feel confi dent with Leverkusen having won their last two league matches, including Friday’s 3-1 victory at Augsburg, to boost their confi dence and off er coach Roger Schmidt some respite.

“We are confi dent and want to step on the gas on Tuesday,” said Karim Bellarabi, who scored the Bundesliga’s 50,000th goal on Fri-day. “This will be a really hard game and we are already looking forward to it. We want to get as much as possible out of it.”

Atletico, who lost in the Champions League fi nal in both 2014 and 2016 to their city rivals Real Madrid, were beaten by Leverkusen 1-0 in Germany two years ago but advanced on penalties in the return leg.

In that 2015 home game, Hakan Calha-noglu’s goal earned Leverkusen their victory but the talented attacking midfi elder will be watching from the stands this time. The Turkish international is out for the rest of the

season after being handed a four-month ban by international governing body FIFA over a breach of contract off ence when he was at Karlsruher six years ago.

Despite their unbeaten home run, Leverkusen still have a mountain to climb against the Spaniards, who won 4-1 at Gi-jon on Saturday with substitute Kevin Ga-meiro scoring a remarkable late hat-trick in

the space of less than fi ve minutes, making it the fastest treble in La Liga since 1995. Di-ego Simeone’s men may not have excelled as in past seasons, having lost three of their last eight fi xtures but they have yet to lose on the road this year. They will be without defender Diego Godin, ruled out with a thigh injury but will have goalkeeper Jan Oblak back after his shoulder injury and surgery in December.

SPOTLIGHT

Pep keen to keep peace with AgueroAFPManchester, United Kingdom

Pep Guardiola insists his relationship with Sergio Aguero remains strong despite mounting spec-

ulation over the Manchester City striker’s future since the arrival of Gabriel Jesus. Teenage sensa-tion Jesus took Aguero’s place in Guardiola’s starting line-up be-fore breaking a bone in his foot, an injury that may rule the Bra-zilian out for the remainder of the season. That forced Guardi-ola to recall Aguero for an FA Cup fi fth round draw at second tier Huddersfi eld on Sunday. But it was an uninspired performance by Aguero in the goalless draw and the rapport between forward and manager looked strained.

With just two goals to his name since the end of Novem-ber, recent events have fuelled the speculation that Aguero, 28, could end his six-year stay with City once the current cam-paign is over. But, as Guardiola prepared for the fi rst game of a two-legged tie with Monaco in the Champions League last 16 tonight, the City boss insisted he is handling Aguero no diff erently to at any time in the past.

“Sergio has enough expe-rience. He knows, everyone knows,” Guardiola said yester-day. “We are going to talk with him like with all of his team-mates. In this level it is so de-manding in the Champions League. It is one of the most beautiful competitions to play, maybe not the most important, but the most beautiful and we have to do our best.

“All of Europe will watch us, to analyse us, to kill us if we don’t win or say how good we are if we do win. That is the huge experi-ence. It is beautiful to me.”

And Guardiola has faith in Aguero to rediscover his goal-scoring touch. “The guys who score goals, it is talent, instinct. How they have to move, create spaces. He does not need to be controlled like a TV remote con-trol. He is going to do it himself.”

FOCUS

Manchester City’s Fernandinho (left) with manager Pep Guardiola during a training session in Manchester yesterday. (Reuters)

Bayer Leverkusen’s forward Stefan Kiessling (left) and defender Oemer Toprak share a light moment during a training session in Leverkusen, Germany, yesterday. (AFP)

PSG striker Edinson Cavani is frustrated after missing a easy scoring opportunity against Toulouse on Sunday. (Reuters)

SPORT4 Gulf Times


Lincoln’s Cowley focuses on North Ferriby fi rst as Wembley beckons

SPOTLIGHT

The Lincoln manager has been inundated with interview requests as a result of his team’s historic FA Cup run but says he ‘owes it to the boys’ to concentrate on their promotion bid

By Andy Hunter at Turf MoorThe Guardian

Danny Cowley called it life-changing and did not mean the upheaval to his plans for Saturday evening. Instead of watching North Ferriby United on the

banks of the Humber, it was off to the Match of the Day studios in Salford for the Lincoln City manager, his brother Nicky, and their families after the stunning defeat of Burnley.

For the architects of one of English football’s fi nest achievements, recognition will not end there. Lives are changed and careers are made by the continued allure of the FA Cup.

Lincoln City, FA Cup quarter-fi nalists. The Cowleys’ preparations for the fi fth-round tie were meticulous, their players performed with confi dence befi tting league leaders and the gameplan unfolded to perfection, but they had diffi culty allowing their accomplishment to sink in. Almost two hours after Sean Raggett’s header crossed the line and time froze before the refe-ree, Graham Scott, pointed to the centre circle, Lincoln’s players could be seen shaking their heads in disbelief aboard the team coach.

Cowley was in a daze as he sought out a BBC man to ask about a lift to Salford. Nicky, his as-sistant, was still enraptured at meeting Michael Owen. “We’ve been looking for a forward like him,” he remarked. “And he does well in FA Cup fi nals doesn’t he?” Lincoln are two more seismic shocks from asking Owen for advice.

Beating Burnley and becoming the fi rst non-league team to reach the FA Cup quarter-fi nals in 103 years may be the pinnacle for Lincoln, so far at least, but it also represents another re-ward for the 20-hour days put in by the Cowley brothers in their fi rst full-time jobs in football.

While working part-time at Concord Rang-ers in Canvey Island, the pair won three promo-tions and three trophies before joining Braintree Town, whom they led to third in the National League and the play-off s.

Their success at Lincoln – top of the National League and also in the last eight of the FA Tro-phy – attracted the interest of Notts County and Grimsby Town before the Imps chairman, Bob Dorrian, made the astute move of extending their contracts until 2021.

He may be defl ecting more calls in the coming months. Despite a clean-shaven appearance on Match of the Day on Saturday, the Cowleys still found time to watch two North Ferriby games before more TV-guest slots on Sunday morning. Taking Lincoln back into the Football League is the primary objective.

As the manager said: “I had a load of televi-

sion invites which I had parked to concentrate on the game but now I’m going through them. We love Match of the Day. We’ve had a lot of in-vites and options including going to Wolves v Chelsea then going back up to Blackburn v Man-chester United but nothing is going to get in the way of watching North Ferriby. Nicky and I owe it to the boys.

“Being promoted into the Football League can change our lives so we owe it to them to put the same amount of focus into North Fer-riby as we did against Burnley. We’ll watch three 90-minute matches of their most recent games. That is the detail. We like to watch them togeth-er and banter off each other.”

Detail underpinned a deserved defeat of Sean Dyche’s side, who were careless in possession and lost their composure not only in the face of Matthew Rhead’s physicality but also when be-ing outplayed midway through the second half.

Joey Barton epitomised the loss of control. Lincoln had worked on set pieces, on the idea that a right-footed left-back – Jon Flanagan – would reduce Burnley’s attacking intent to 65% of the pitch and on the notion that the Premier League side would be uncomfortable with the favourites’ tag. Correct on every count.

“The plan when we took the role was to get the team in the top 10,” said Cowley.

“Things have gone well but the games are coming thick and fast now. That doesn’t wor-ry me but in terms of the challenge of play-ers’ workloads, we are going to have to be re-ally intelligent about planning and training. The amount of games we have to play now is going to make it really tough but we have a hard-work-ing, resilient, durable group and every time a challenge has presented itself we have found a way to overcome it. We will fi nd a way.”

And a way to Wembley, with the national sta-dium only one win away? Cowley is not getting carried away.

“In our fi rst ever season at Concord we got to the Vase semi-fi nals – a game away from Wem-bley – but came up short,” he said. “Last year at Braintree we got to the play-off s as a part-time team. Twenty minutes from the end we were winning 1-0 but just came up short over two legs. We have come close before so we won’t look beyond the last eight but you never know in football.

“Who would have thought as a non-league team starting out in the fourth qualifying round that we would have got this far?” Who, indeed?

Ooredoo score narrow win

UDC extends sponsorship of Emir’s sword showjumping

A miss by Arnold Calo at the free throw line with seconds left before the buzzer, proved costly

for AA Tailoring Vintage as they suff ered a heartbreaking loss to Ooredoo 69-68 in the semi-fi nal of the Senior Open’s tournament of Ooredoo Cup 2017 hosted by Pinoy Basketball of Qatar (PIBAQ).

Ooredoo’s win earned them the ticket to the fi nal and they await the outcome of the other semi-fi nal between Junalvin and Khalifa Boyz on Friday.

Ooredoo were leading by fi ve points as the game entered the two minute play time from a bas-ket by leading scorer Jojo Lon-galong. Nut Vintage kept coming back from the defi cit with Erwin General slicing Ooredoo’s lead to just two points, 67-65, with 1:59 left in the game.

Longalong fought back with another jumper from the assist of Willy Layag to up the lead to 4 with just 1:14 left but Noli Raagas responded the challenge with a perfect 2 of 2 from the free throw line from a foul by Layag to cut down the lead again to just two points with 54 seconds left in the game.

Noli Raagas even gave the win-ning squad a big scare with 1 of 2 conversion from the free throw

line from a costly foul of Lon-galong who again top scored the game with big 35 points and 11 re-bounds of which nine came from the defensive board.

The foul committed by Oore-doo’s Rafael Colo to Calo with a second left in the game could have made the diff erence but the latter failed even just one basket to give them a lease of life for a fi ve minutes in the overtime pe-riod which could have probably gave them another chance to get into the quest for the much cov-eted championship rounds.

Vintage were faring well in the points off turn over with 20 points as against Ooredoo’s only 2 points but their leading scorer Marcelino Soriano with 20 points was never a factor in the crucial end game see-saw battle.

It was indeed a tight ball game as they tied in the fi rst quarter at 16-all, Ooredoo was ahead by four at the end of the half but the real battle was seen in the third quarter when the shooting war saw the game tied fi ve times even as Vintage prevailed by four points at the end of the quarter.

The 22nd Men’s Basketball League 2017 has been brought by Qatar Basketball Federation in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy in Qatar and United Fil-ipino Organization in Qatar.


United Development Company (UDC), a leading Qatari shareholding company, has signed a silver sponsorship agree-ment with the Qatar Equestrian Fed-

eration (QEF) to sponsor HH The Emir’s Sword International Showjumping Championship for the fi fth consecutive year. The hugely popular event will be held at the Indoor Arena of the Qatar Equestrian Federation from February 23 to 25.

The press conference announcing the sponsorship was held yesterday at the Qatar Eques-trian Federation in the presence of Hamad bin Abdulrahman al-Attiyah, president of the QEF, General Secretary Saeed Mohammed al-Shafi and Hussain Akbar al-Baker, representing UDC in his capacity as Marketing & Communications Director, in addition to senior offi cials from both establishments.

UDC also received a token of appreciation in recognition of its contribution to the success of the Emir Sword Show Jumping Championship for the fi fth consecutive year.

PINOY BASKETBALL OF QATAR

EQUESTRIANQATAR UNIVERSITY AND QATAR AERONAUTICAL COLLEGE TO MEET IN UNIVERSITY LEAGUE FINAL

Doha: Qatar University (QU) is set to play Qatar Aeronautical College (QAC) in the final of the University League, which will kick-off at 7pm on Thursday at Qatar Foundation’s Recreation Center, Pitch 1.

In addition, the third place playoff will be played ahead of the final at 6pm and will see Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU), who lost to QU 2-0 in the semi-finals, take on Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q), who lost to QAC 2-1 in the semi-finals.

Commenting on his team’s win in the semi-finals, Hazem Sami, captain of QU, said: “I would like to thank my teammates

for reaching the final. This is the fourth consecutive time we have got through to this stage of the University League. I hope we manage to win the title once again, and make everyone at QU proud.”

The four-month competition brings together eight colleges and universities from across the country to compete for the championship title.

This year’s tournament featured two groups. Group A included Qatar University, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, and Qatar Aeronautical College. Group B included

Northwestern University in Qatar, University of Calgary in Qatar, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, and Col-lege of the North Atlantic – Qatar.

Sponsored by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), the University League, is a joint initiative launched in 2013 by the Qatar Football Association (QFA) and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) which aims to raise awareness about the impor-tance of community-based football initia-tives and the positive impact football has on healthy lifestyles.

Danny Cowley came close to reaching Wembley with Concord and Braintree and how has the national stadium in his sights again. (AFP)

Jojo Longalong (left) of Oooredoo attempts to get past Vintage’s Arnold Calo during the semi-final encounter.

Qatar Equestrian Federation General Secretary Saeed Mohammed al-Shafi (centre) and Hussain Akbar al-Baker (left), Marketing & Communications Director of UDC at the sponsorship signing for the Emir’s Sword International Showjumping Championship yesterday.

Qatar Equestrian Federation president Hamad bin Abdulrahman al-Attiyah (right) and Salem Anzan al-Nuaimi, representative of Qatar National Bank at a press conference to announce the sponsorship.

GOLF5Gulf Times


Johnson cruises to a fi ve-shot victory and No. 1 ranking

SPOTLIGHT

‘To finally get a win (at Riviera) feels good because I’ve finished second here a couple of times, lost in a playoff , felt I should have won a couple of other times’

ReutersPacific Palisades, California

Dustin Johnson secured the world number one ranking in style when he smoked the fi eld for a fi ve-stroke victory at the

Genesis Open in southern California on Sunday.

With the victory, American Johnson jumps from third to fi rst in the world rankings, supplanting Australian Jason Day, who fi nished tied for 64th.

“I believe in myself. I think I’m a great player,” said a delighted Johnson after his runaway victory.

Johnson started the fi nal round with a fi ve-shot lead and was never headed after birdies at the fi rst two holes en route to a closing 71 on the storied Riviera course.

Despite two late bogeys, he fi nished at 17-under-par 267, with Thomas Pi-eters (63) of Belgium and American Scott Brown (67) a distant second on 12-under

in the event formerly named the Los An-geles Open.

Pieters, a member of last year’s Eu-ropean Ryder Cup team, sank a 15-foot birdie at the fi nal hole to give him enough prize money for Special Temporary Membership of the PGA Tour, which means he can accept unlimited tourna-ment invitations.

SPIETH WAY OFF Former world number one Jordan Spieth, winner last week at Pebble Beach, tied for 22nd, 11 strokes off the pace.

Johnson, 32, collects $1.26 million for his 13th PGA Tour victory.

He has won at least once every year since joining the Tour in 2008, the long-est active streak.

“It was a long day but played really great all day,” Johnson said after a mara-thon 36-hole Sunday which made up for Friday’s near washout when the area was lashed by a strong winter storm.

“To fi nally get a win (at Riviera) feels

good because I’ve fi nished second here a couple of times, lost in a playoff , felt I should have won a couple of other times.”

Johnson eff ectively put the tourna-ment away when he birdied the fi nal three holes of the third round, and then added two more starting the fi nal round as he threatened the tournament record low score.

“I couldn’t have driven it any better,” he said.

“That was a big key for me today. I put in a new driver this week. I never was really in any trouble. I made one bogey through 60-something (62) holes.”

With victory in sight, however, John-son started playing conservatively, and three bogeys in the fi nal 10 holes took a little gloss off his performance, but hard-ly matter in the big picture.

The reigning US Open champion joins Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in winning every year for at least a decade after starting on the tour.

Palmer (1955-71) and Nicklaus (1962-78) both won their fi rst 17 seasons, while Woods (1996-2009) notched 14 straight seasons with a win.

Others need to improve to keep pace with Johnson, says Day

BOTTOMLINE

ReutersPacific Palisades

Top golfers needed to pick up their games to keep pace with Dustin John-son, Australian Jason

Day said on Sunday after losing top ranking to the long-hitting American.

After 47 consecutive weeks at the top, Day ceded his position when Johnson won the Genesis Open in southern California on Sunday.

Johnson had knocked on the door before, spending much of 2016 in second position, before making another push at the start of 2017 and fi nally passing Day.

“Whatever he’s doing, he just needs to keep doing it,” Day told reporters after fi nishing a dis-tant equal 64th at Riviera.

“If he keeps playing the way he’s playing, we’ve got to pick

our game up and try to compete with him.”

Another ex number one, Adam Scott, advised Johnson to enjoy his new status while it lasts.

“Just enjoy it, because as we’ve seen since Tiger (Woods) really dominated that position, no one’s staying there too long,” said Scott, who was number one for 11 weeks in 2014.

“The target’s on your back and everyone’s coming for you. There just isn’t the separation between the top players that there was during that long pe-riod of time when Tiger was far ahead.”

Woods, who is struggling to mount a comeback after ma-jor back surgery, was ranked number one for a record 683 weeks in total, including a record 281 consecutive weeks between June 2005 and October 2010.

Another former number one, Jordan Spieth, said it was no

surprise that Johnson had kicked on since his major breakthrough at last year’s US Open.

“Once that happened, that was a big monkey off his back mentally, and it frees him up,” said Spieth, who headed the rankings for 26 weeks in 2015.

“He was given a hard time for a long time about close calls in majors.”

Spieth was the benefi ciary of one of those close calls, at the 2015 US Open, when Johnson missed a three-foot putt that would have forced a playoff .

Johnson also failed to close the deal in several other majors, but his rivals feared it was only a matter of time before he learned to win the most important tour-naments, and the 2016 US.

Open victory proved them right.

“He’s just one of those natu-ral-born golfers,” said 2013 US Open champion Justin Rose.

AFPPacific Palisades

Dustin Johnson made the complicated world golf ranking calcula-tions simple on Sun-

day, vaulting to number one with a convincing victory in the Gen-esis Open.

“I don’t really understand it,” he said of the math involved in determining the game’s top player “but I can read the ‘one-two-three’. I guess that’s all that matters.”

All week at Riviera Country Club, Johnson shied away from talk of ending Jason Day’s 47-week run atop the rankings — a possibility that also depended on where Day fi nished.

“I was coming in here to put myself in a position to win and I did that — and I played really well,” said Johnson, who led by as many as nine strokes on Sunday en route to a fi ve-shot victory with a 17-under par total of 267.

“If I get to number one win-ning the golf tournament, then obviously that’s even a bonus.”

After a heartbreaking history of near-misses in major champi-onships, Johnson broke through at the US Open at Oakmont last year.

His victory on Sunday was his fourth since June.

“Obviously winning the US Open in the summer kind of gave me a little bit of a boost with confi dence with my game,” he said. “It was big for me... to fi -nally win one.

“Today kind of felt a lot like how I was playing this past sum-mer, fi nally getting back to where I was, driving it really well.”

But the rankings are tight at the top — right down to number six Jordan Spieth.

Rory McIlroy and Henrik Stenson — ranked second and fourth coming into the week, were absent, but number fi ve Hideki Matsuyama also had a mathematical chance to topple Day at Riviera only to miss the cut.

“Number one can toss and turn in the coming weeks a lot of times if the guys keep playing well,” Day said.

The Australian also noted that the number one ranking brings some added pressure, although he thought Johnson had the wherewithal to cope with that.

“I think he’s going to do just fi ne,” Day said. “I think he’s won every single year that he’s been out here. That’s the formula — you’ve got to win as much as you can.”

Johnson said he hadn’t consid-ered whether becoming number one could prove a burden.

He’d been too busy celebrating his victory on the 18th green with two-year-old son Tatum.

Days earlier, his fi ancee, Pauli-na Gretzky, announced on Insta-gram that the couple are expect-ing their second child.

“I’ve only been number one for about 30 minutes,” Johnson said. “Ask me in a couple of weeks.”

Getting the top spot a bonus: Johnson

WINNER SPEAK

Admit women or lose Tokyo Games golf, IOC tells club

OLYMPICS

ReutersSapporo, Japan

The club scheduled to host the golf at the 2020 Tokyo Games must al-low women to have full

membership or organisers will have to fi nd another venue, In-ternational Olympic Committee (IOC) vice president John Coates told Reuters yesterday.

The private Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama pre-fecture, which is set to host both men’s and women’s tournaments in July and August 2020, forbids women from playing on Sundays and excludes them from becom-ing full members.

Coates, who is head of the co-ordination commission which oversees preparations for the Games, said he had only become aware of the issue on his last visit to Tokyo at the end of last year and that organisers were now aware of the IOC’s stance.

“We made quite clear that there has to be gender equality,” Coates told Reuters in an inter-view at the Asian Winter Games in the northern city of Sapporo.

“If they can’t achieve the gen-der equality then we have to get another course, but the organisers are very confi dent that they will.”

Japanese media reported that members of the club had met on Sunday to hear an explanation of the situation.

The club was closed yester-day and nobody was available to comment.

Coates said he was aware that discussions were underway.

“They either will or they won’t,” he said. “There’s plenty of time to move to another golf course if we have to.”

Tokyo 2020 organisers un-veiled a revised budget of $16.8 billion in December and vowed to seek further savings in coop-eration with the IOC.

Coates said the budget issue should be resolved some time this year and the fi nal fi gure would be nowhere near the 3.0 trillion yen ($26.52 billion) that

a Tokyo city government panel forecast last year.

“The costs that were being speculated were vastly over-speculated,” he said.

“We haven’t yet accepted a fi -nal budget.(It should be worked out) on this forthcoming visit or the one after.”

Budget worries could put paid to Budapest’s bid for the 2024 Games after a political move-ment collected a quarter million signatures to force a referendum on the proposal.

The city’s mayor conceded on Friday he might be forced to withdraw the bid, leaving only Paris and Los Angeles in a race which at one stage involved six cities.

“On the technical side and everything else, I’ve been very impressed (and) I’d be very dis-appointed if, as a result of a ref-erendum, they didn’t proceed,” said Coates.

“It’s a very strong bid tech-nically, and they have a large number of existing venues.”

Coates fi rst became widely known in international sport when he helped Sydney fi rst win the bid for the 2000 Olympics and then deliver the Games, at which the South and North Ko-rea teams fi rst marched together at an opening ceremony.

A North Korean missile test and the murder in Malaysia of the half-brother of the country’s leader have heightened tensions in the peninsula less than a year before the South hosts the Win-ter Olympics.

The IOC member for North Korea said at the weekend that Pyongyang would send athletes to Pyeongchang and Coates saw no reason to doubt him, even if he thought it unlikely the two teams would again march to-gether at the opening ceremony.

“That’s a matter between the two national Olympic commit-tees,” he said. “If it happens, that’s nice but I can also under-stand that at a home games, I would think that the host would want march on their own, I’m sure they would.”

Dustin Johnson celebrates his victory following the final round of the Genesis Open golf tournament at Riviera Country Club.

Dustin Johnson.

File picture of Jason Day of Australia at the Genesis Open.

Select Scores267 - Dustin Johnson 66-66-64-71272 - Thomas Pieters (BEL) 70-68-71-63, Scott Brown 68-68-69-67273 - Justin Rose (ENG) 69-71-65-68, Wesley Bryan 69-69-63-72, Kevin Na 67-69-67-70, Charley Hoff man 68-68-70-67274 - Martin Laird (SCO) 70-68-70-66, Ollie Schniederjans 68-69-69-68, Cameron Tringale 69-64-71-70

How other big names fares:275 - Adam Scott (AUS) 68-69-68-70277 - K.J. Choi (KOR) 70-70-69-68, Luke Donald (ENG) 68-68-71-70, 278 - Matt Kuchar 69-68-73-68, Branden Grace (RSA) 67-70-69-72, Jordan Spieth 69-68-72-69

“I think he’s going to do just fi ne,” Day said. “I think he’s won every single year that he’s been out here. That’s the formula — you’ve got to win as much as you can”

AFPNew Orleans

Anthony Davis scored a record 52 points on his home court as the West team continued their

domination by outgunning the East 192-182 in the 66th annual NBA All-Star Game.

The New Orleans Pelicans star Davis was named MVP and broke the scoring record of 42 points set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. He made 26 of 39 shots from the fi eld, eclipsing Blake Griffi n’s 2014 record of 19 fi eld goals in an All-Star game.

“I was shocked,” Davis said. “I am just happy I was able to take the MVP home in front of home fans.

“The guys said they were go-ing to give me the ball. They were men of their word.

“It was fun game. I didn’t want anybody to get hurt.”

Defense was non-existent at the Smoothie King Center are-na as Davis set the tone with 22 fi rst-half points and Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell West-brook combined on a couple of playful passing exchanges in-cluding one in the opening quar-ter with former teammate Kevin Durant.

The teams combined for 374 points and it was the second straight year the teams broke the combined record. Last year, the teams set a record of 369 in the West’s 196-173 win.

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said the league should look at inducements to get the players to try harder.

“I would like to see it more competitive. It’d be good to have incentives for the guys, get char-ities involved,” Kerr said of the lack of defense.

The East was led by Milwau-kee Bucks center Giannis An-tetokounmpo, who scored 28 points, and Cleveland’s LeBron James, making his 13th All-Star start, with 23 points.

Westbrook tallied 41 points as he was reunited for one night with Durant, who is in his fi rst season with the Golden State Warriors after leaving the Thun-der.

Halfway through the fi rst quarter, Westbrook and Du-

rant ran across midcourt on ei-ther side of the key. Westbrook fl icked a pass to Durant on the left side. Durant tossed it right back to Westbrook on a give-and-go that resulted in an easy layup and a 31-28 West lead.

The East led 53-48 after 12 minutes — the 101 combined points was an All-Star Game record for a quarter — and the West took a 97-92 halftime lead.

The 189 fi rst-half points broke the All-Star record of 187 points set in the fi rst half last year with the West leading 104-83.

“We had fun and hopefully we put on a show,” New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony said.

‘I am just happy I was able to take the MVP home in front of home fans’

Pelicans’ Davis grabs MVP on home court

NBA ALL STAR GAME

Kings trade All-Star DeMarcus Cousins to Pelicans

FOCUS

By Jason JonesThe Sacramento Bee

DeMarcus Cousins’ third All-Star Game as a Sacramento King apparently was his last.

The Kings traded forwards Cousins and Omri Casspi to the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night for rookie

guard Buddy Hield, ex-King Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway and 2017 fi rst- and second-round picks, league sources con-fi rmed Sunday night.

The Kings repeatedly had stated publicly they would not trade Cousins. That changed on a weekend when he was being cel-ebrated for his play this season.

The move means Sacramento essentially has given up on mak-ing the playoff s even though they sit just 1 { games behind Denver for the fi nal spot in the Western Conference.

So rather than possibly play the Golden State Warriors in the fi rst round of the playoff s, the Kings will look to add more young players. They have not reached the playoff s since 2006.

Sacramento stands to lose its fi rst-round pick to Chicago if it is outside of the top 10 from a 2011 trade for J.J. Hickson. A Kings team without Cousins and Rudy Gay, out for the season with a torn Achilles’ tendon, fi gures to plummet in the standings.

Cousins played only two minutes in the Western Conference’s 192-182 victory Sunday night at Smoothie King Center. That was at Cousins’ request, as he has been feeling worn down.

After the game, Cousins was asked about rumors he was head-ed to New Orleans and if he would like playing for the Pelicans.

“If I’m blessed enough to have a job here, absolutely,” Cousins said. “If it happens, it happens.”

The Kings had publicly declared their allegiance to Cousins and planned to off er him a contract extension exceeding $200 mn in the off season. Kings general manager Vlade Divac privately had promised Cousins and his agent that he would not trade him.

Cousins said he wanted to spend his career in Sacramento and retire a King.

For a team that already has trouble getting top draft prospects to come in for workouts, it could hurt the Kings’ credibility with future free agents, which had been on shaky ground in recent sea-sons.

The moves signifi es a shift from adding veterans and relying on young players to build for the future.

Cousins led the Kings with averages of 27.8 points, 10.6 re-bounds and 4.8 assists.

The key building piece the Kings acquired was Hield, a shoot-ing guard who was the sixth pick in last year’s draft out of Okla-homa. He’s averaging 8.6 points this season.

Evans was the NBA Rookie of the Year with the Kings in 2010 when he averaged 20.1 points, his best scoring season. He’s in the last year of a four-year deal and has been limited to 26 games this season due to injuries and is averaging a career-low 9.5 points.

Galloway is a third-year guard averaging 8.6 points.Casspi has been out since Jan. 16 with a calf injury. He’s averag-

ing 5.9 points in 26 games this season.So Cousins last time being announced as a King was at Sun-

day’s All-Star Game, ironically played at the arena that will now be his home.

Cousins is from Mobile, Ala., which isn’t too far from New Or-leans, and he always had a lot of family and friends at games when the Kings were in town.

“It was amazing,” Cousins said of the weekend. “I enjoyed the city of New Orleans. I love it here in New Orleans. I’ve been here a lot as a kid so I’m kind of familiar to the city. I had fun.”

SPORT

Gulf Times Tuesday, February 21, 20176

Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans celebrates with the 2017 NBA All-Star Game MVP trophy after the 2017 NBA All-Star Game at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Getty Images/AFP)

Mets’ Wright checks off another box in his rehabBASEBALL

By Matt EhaltThe Record (Hackensack, N.J.)

With no media around to chronicle each throw, David Wright stood on a back fi eld

here at Tradition Field on Sunday morning and fi red a baseball for the fi rst time since last June.

The third baseman had not thrown since undergoing sur-gery to repair a herniated disk in his neck, and moved 60-70 feet from his throwing partner before making about 30 throws.

Wright felt fi ne afterward in what marked an important step in his rehab.

“It was fun. Still a little ways to go before I feel really com-fortable. It was very easy today,” Wright said Sunday afternoon. “Just kind of going through the motions. Hopefully it gets better each day. It’s something you’ve got to fi nd. You don’t do some-thing for so long, something you’ve done every day, when you take that amount of time off , it’s going to take a little bit to get it back.”

Wright took a step toward po-tentially being ready for Opening Day by beginning his throwing program Sunday, when the Mets held their fi rst offi cial full team workout of spring training.

Although Wright still has ground to cover, he’s holding out hope he’ll be ready to face Atlanta on April 3 at Citi Field. “You are never going to know what hap-pens tomorrow or the next day; there might be some bumps that happen in the road,” Wright said. “But yeah, that’s the plan.”

The fi rst full workout of spring always brings with it a certain excitement and buzz – and a much larger crowd of fans – and for Wright, this day allowed him to check off one more box in his rehab.

Wright had already fi elded grounders, run and hit, and throwing was the last of those hurdles that remained. Collins indicated that Wright took it easy Sunday, and Wright expects his program will build toward throwing every day and from a longer distance before he fi nally plays third base during a game.

He expects the schedule will be

planned from day to day.“You can’t regain everything

from the last eight months in one day. It’s going to be a bit of a process and integrating at-bats. Trying to get back to game speed, it’s going to be a bit of a chal-lenge. But I think we have a good sense of what we’re up against,” Wright said. “We have a pretty good plan going into spring to try and get me some at-bats while getting me ready off ensively and defensively.”

Wright not only threw on Sun-day but also participated in live batting practice, taking hacks in the cage as a horde of fans watched. He and Collins agreed that he is ahead of where he was at this point last year except for throwing, since he has a bet-ter understanding of how to deal with spinal stenosis.

The veteran is scheduled to play in games earlier than he did last spring training, when he de-buted in mid-March.

Before Wright wrapped up his day, he took grounders – but did not throw – as Collins watched from behind him, and then signed autographs for fans. Col-

lins plans to keep a close eye on Wright during camp.

“Positive signs all day,” the manager said.

As Wright participated in the various drills Sunday, he mar-veled at the collection of talent general manager Sandy Alderson has collected in an attempt to win a championship. The team cap-tain likes the mix of youth and veterans, and believes the Mets’ depth is as good as they’ve ever had in his time.

During the last two years, he’s contributed a total of only 75 games to the cause, although he did play in the playoff s in 2015. A long road remains, but Wright wants to be counted on this year.

“It’s kind of been the same story for me the last couple years. Just when you think get over one hurdle, you’ve got another one. That’s life. That’s baseball. It’s overcoming some adversity. For me, that adversity has been in-juries the last couple of years,” Wright said. “That’s something that I am looking to overcome and work as hard as I can to put myself in the best position. That’s the story for me.”

The East was led by Bucks center Giannis Antetok-ounmpo, who scored 28 points, and Cleveland’s LeBron James, making his 13th All-Star start, with 23 points

DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings dribbles the ball during the 2017 NBA All-Star Game at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Getty Images/AFP)

By Sam CarchidiThe Philadelphia Inquirer

Shayne Gostisbehere’s struggles have been well-documented, but the second-year defenseman

had a breakout game Sunday night at Rogers Arena.

Displaying the off ense that made him the runner-up in last year’s rookie-of-the-year vot-ing, Gostisbehere collected a career-high three assists to lead the Philadelphia Flyers past the Vancouver Canucks 3-2.

The Flyers salvaged a win in the fi nal game of their 1-2 trip.

Wayne Simmonds, Jake Vora-cek, and Brayden Schenn scored for the Flyers, who got solid goaltending from Michal Neu-virth. The Flyers went 2 for 3 on their power pay, while Vancou-ver went 0 for 4 and managed just two shots over those eight minutes.

Gostisbehere had two primary assists among his three helpers. He scored as many points as he had in his previous 144 games combined.

“I’m not trying to put too much pressure on myself,” said Gostisbehere, who has not scored in his last 32 games. “I’m just going out there and playing my game and doing whatever it takes to help my team.”

The Flyers won for the fi rst time in nine games (1-6-2) in Western Canada over the last three seasons.

They are two points behind Toronto for the fi nal wild-card spot in the jumbled Eastern Conference. The Maple Leafs have a game in hand.

“This is a big push for us, and we’re just trying to get points in every game,” Gostisbehere said.

Voracek scored his 15th goal _ but just his third on the road _ as he knocked in a rebound of Sean Couturier’s shot, putting the Flyers ahead, 2-0, with 18:49 left in the second.

Voracek has been baffl ed by his struggles away from the Wells Fargo Center.

“I play the same way at home as I do on the road,” he said. “I don’t change my game. It’s just one of those things I can’t ex-plain.”

About 1 { minutes after Vora-

cek’s goal, Schenn made it 3-0 with his 14th power-play goal, tops in the NHL. Schenn made a slick move in the high slot to get free and fi re a shot past Ryan Miller.

But the Canucks stormed back, getting goals from Markus Granlund (defl ection) and Jan-nik Hansen (rebound) to cut the defi cit to 3-2 later in the second period.

The Flyers were well-rested, while the Canucks were playing their second game in as many nights. Miller, 36, started on back-to-back nights for the fi rst time this season.

“We have to jump on them early,” Flyers goalie Neuvirth said before the game. “It’s not

easy playing back to back, and we have to take advantage of that.”

That’s exactly what they did. The Flyers controlled the open-ing 10 minutes, got two early power plays, and struck fi rst when Simmonds jammed a re-bound past Miller with 14:15 left in the fi rst. The power-play tally was set up by Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov, and it was the 25th goal of the season for Sim-monds, who is on pace for 35.

“The boys made a great play moving the puck around the outside. Ghost got off a good shot and I was able to clean up the rebound,” Simmonds said.

Neuvirth, coming off a shaky performance in Thursday’s 6-3

loss in Edmonton, was nonethe-less given his seventh start in the last eight games, including all three contests on the road trip.

The 28-year-old goalie has been the subject of swirling trade rumors.

“Neuvy’s been the guy who’s been in a pretty good rhythm for us,” coach Dave Hakstol said.

The Flyers had lost six of their previous eight games, scoring a total of only 10 goals (excluding an empty-netter) in that span.

“You go through tough stretches where you’re doing a lot of things right, but not able to fi nish it. That’s the kind of stretch we’re in now,” Hakstol said before the game. “We have to do a little more to get over the

hump and regain some of the swagger we had in a diff erent time of the year.”

They will need more than swagger to beat their next two opponents, Washington and Pittsburgh, teams that are among the NHL’s elite.

RESULTSBlackhawks 5 Sabres 1Rangers 2 Capitals 1Red Wings 5 Penguins 2Jets 3 Senators 2Islanders 6 Devils 4Predators 4 Blue Jackets 3Maple Leafs 4 Hurricanes 0Lightning 3 Avalanche 2 (OT)Bruins 2 Sharks 1 (OT)Ducks 1 Kings 0Flyers 3 Canucks 2

‘I’m just going out there and playing my game and doing whatever it takes to help my team’

Gostisbehere’s three assists lead Flyers past Canucks 3-2

NHL

US athletes unveil accusations of abuse by doctorSPOTLIGHT

AFPNew York

Three former US national team gymnasts detailed sex-ual abuse allegations against former national team doctor

Lawrence Nassar in a report Sunday on CBS television’s 60 Minutes.

Jamie Dantzscher, a member of the 2000 Sydney Olympic US bronze medal squad, was joined in coming forward publically by Jessica Howard, the US national rhythmic gymnastics champion from 1999 through 2001, and Jeanette Antolin, a US team mem-ber from 1995 to 2000.

Dantzscher was fi rst seen by Nas-sar at age 13 after she earned a spot on the US junior national team but com-plained of back pain.

“He would put his fi ngers inside of me and move my leg around,” Dan-tzscher told CBS. “He would tell me I was going to feel a pop and that that would put my hips back and help my back pain. “It happened all the way to the Olympics in Sydney, ‘til I was 18.”

Antolin said she only realized last year what she thought was treatment had been abuse.

“It was like a light bulb went off ,” Antolin said. “I trusted this man. Just knowing how vulnerable I was as a kid, to not know something like that would

be inappropriate, just ruined me.”John Manly — a California attorney

representing more than 40 women in a lawsuit against USA Gymnastics for failing to protect his clients — says Nassar may have abused hundreds of girls over more than two decades, many at the ranch training headquar-ters of famed US coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi.

“I believe, at the end of the day, there are members of every single Ol-ympic team since 1996 he did this to,” Manly said. “This is somebody who is a serial predator. But the story here is that no one was watching to protect these girls, and they (USA Gymnas-tics and the Karolyis) put medals and money fi rst.”

Nassar, 53, was arrested last No-vember on charges of sexually as-saulting a child in Michigan, where he is being held without bail. In Decem-ber he was indicted on federal child pornography possession charges.

Nassar, who treated elite US gym-nasts as Olympic team physician from 1996 to 2015, is accused by former athletes of inserting ungloved fi ngers into their anuses and vaginas and fon-dling their breasts. Nassar has denied the charges, saying he conducted only legitimate medical procedures.

‘You become a machine’

The women who came forward de-

tailed a high-pressure, emotionally abusive atmosphere at Karolyi Ranch where girls feared that to complain might doom their Olympic dreams.

“The pressure that they put on you, to be perfection for them, it was very overwhelming and stressful,” Antolin said, adding it was understood that speaking out “hurts your chances.”

“No one wants to step out of line because there’s a group of people that make decisions that dictate whether you’re successful or not. So you just comply with and do what you’re told to do.”

“You can’t say anything,” Howard said. “If you do, there’s a chance you are going to get in trouble and the last thing you want to do is bring more trouble onto yourself on purpose.”

Howard said she was uncomfort-able with Nassar’s treatments but felt she couldn’t complain, saying, “You become a machine.”

Dantzscher said Nassar brought snacks and candy and built trust, a confi dent when the stress of Olympic training wore them down.

“I always felt like I got in trouble,” she told CBS. “I wasn’t working hard enough. I was told to lose weight. At one point, I started making myself throw up.

“He was like my buddy. He was on my side. I felt like we weren’t allowed to even smile in the gym, so getting

treatment, him just joking around and talking about how horrible they (coaches) were, it was kind of like a bright light.”

‘An environment of fear’“It was an environment of fear,”

Manly said. “And he stepped in and became the

good guy. He gave them candy. He gave ‘em encouragement. He acted like he cared about them. No one else there gave that impression.”

Dantzscher said she was left alone with Nassar and felt certain the Karo-lyis knew it.

“They had to know,” she said. “There was no one else sent with him. And that’s the thing, too... the treat-ment was in the bed — in my bed that I slept on.”

The Karolyis, in a statement to 60 Minutes from attorney James Chris-tian, denied “the existence of a ‘toxic’ environment.”

“The Karolyis did not have any knowledge of any complaint from an-yone concerning any athlete’s alleged mistreatment by Dr Nassar until they learned of his dismissal from USA Gymnastics,” the statement said.

It also said the Karolyis were “never aware” Nassar would perform the procedures described or that he vis-ited athletes in rooms without

supervision.

SPORT7Gulf Times


Philadelphia Flyers forward Jakub Voracek celebrates his goal against Vancouver Canucks during the second period. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Sharks lose to Bruins 2-1 in overtimeBy Curtis PashelkaThe Mercury News

The Sharks missed a chance to build more of a cushion in the Pacifi c Division standings

Sunday night before they begin their bye week.

As has been the case four other times this month, the loss came after regulation time.

Brad Marchand scored with 2:24 left in overtime as the Sharks lost, 2-1, to the Bos-ton Bruins on Sunday at SAP Center.

Prior to Sunday, the Sharks had lost in shootout to the Arizona Coyotes on Feb. 4 and in overtime to Buff alo on Feb. 7, Philadelphia on Feb. 11 and most recently, Florida on Feb-ruary 15.

The Sharks will enter their fi ve-day break with a four-point cushion over the second-place Edmonton Oilers.

Patrick Marleau scored the Sharks’ only goal, netting his 21st this season and the 502nd of his NHL career with 2:23 to go in the second period.

On a 4-on-4 situation, a shot from Brent Burns went off the leg of Torey Krug right to Marleau, who had a mostly open net as Tuukka Rask was unable to get over in time.

The Sharks allowed the fi rst goal on home ice for the third straight game as Ryan Spoon-er was left alone right beside Martin Jones.

A shot by Adam McQuaid toward the Sharks’ net was collected by Jimmy Hayes, who spun around and put a shot

wide. The puck came off the end boards right to an open Spooner, who tapped it in for his ninth goal of the season at the 11:05 mark of the fi rst period.

Joe Thornton remained on the cusp of perhaps his most historic achievement as he’s still just two assists away from 1,000 for his NHL career. The Sharks’ next game is Feb. 25 in Vancouver.

Thornton had 285 assists in seven-plus seasons with the Bruins from 1997-2005. Since coming to the Sharks on Nov. 30, 2005 in the biggest trade in team history, Thornton has 713 assists, including 34 this season.

Thornton entered Sunday on a fi ve-game point streak. He had assists in four straight games and scored Feb. 9 against the Bruins at TD Garden.

The Sharks did not make any changes to their forward group from Saturday’s 4-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes, as Nikolay Goldobin dressed for his second straight game. Goldobin played 11:53 against the Coyotes and fi nished with four shots on goal, but was a spectator in the third period as coach Pete DeBoer shuffl ed his lines.

Melker Karlsson played on the second line with Marleau and Logan Couture and Chris Tierney played with Tomas Hertl and Joel Ward on the third line. Goldobin had 7:46 of ice time through two periods. Mikkel Boedker, who was also benched for the third period, had 9:13 of ice time through 40 minutes.

FOCUS

GB Badminton staggered by Tokyo funding rejection

British badminton chiefs said they were “staggered” on Monday after UK Sport upheld a decision to cut funding for the sport in the cycle leading up to the To-kyo Olympics, despite the men’s doubles bronze medal win in Rio.Badminton, along with archery, fencing, table tennis and weightlifting, missed out when UK Sport announced in December how it would allocate 265 mn pounds for Olympic sports.Dismissing representations to the government body responsible for financ-ing elite sport in Britain, UK Sport said badminton would receive nothing, even though Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge won the men’s doubles bronze medal in the Rio Olympics last year.“Given the strength of evidence we were able to present to justify investment, we cannot believe UK Sport has concluded that they should stand by their deci-sion and award zero funding to our GB programme,” GB Badminton said in a statement.GB Badminton received 5.74 mn pounds in the Rio cycle and achieved their pre-Games target of delivering a medal.“We have players who are on track to win medals for the nation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and our belief in

those players remains as great as it’s ever been. We will now take some time to consider our next steps,” the state-ment added. UK Sport’s ruthless approach, which has produced record medal returns at the last two Olympics, was justified by CEO Liz Nicholl on Monday.“It is uncompromisingly focused on excellence, relative merit and what it takes to pursue the ambition to win more medals and create more medallists in Tokyo to inspire the nation,” she said in a statement.“The sports that made representations to our Board were unable to provide any critically compelling new evidence that changed our assessment of their medal potential for Tokyo.“They remain in a band that we cannot aff ord to invest in.”Only weightlifting received some positive news with its funding being re-turned after an original decision handed it to the English Institute of Sport who manage the programme.Britain finished second after the United States in the medals table at the 2016 Olympics — above sporting powerhouse China — with 27 golds.Its total of 67 beat the 65 won by Britain at London 2012.

San Jose Sharks goalie Martin Jones prepares to catch the puck in mid air during the first period of the game against the Boston Bruins at the SAP Center in San Jose. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Second year of brave new world promises more NZ success

Lions to roar, Bulls on the charge in S.Africa Dulin, Chavancy get Six Nations call

SUPER RUGBY

BOTTOMLINE SELECTION

ReutersCape Town

South Africa’s Super Rugby hopes are likely to rest with last year’s beaten fi nalists the Lions again but the Bulls are also expected to

make a charge this season with the re-turn of mercurial fl yhalf Handre Pollard from injury.

The Stormers should be in the hunt for a play-off place as well, despite com-ing up against the powerful New Zealand teams in the round-robin phase, but for the rest of the South African contingent it is likely to be another season of disap-pointment.

On paper at least, the Lions appear to have the easier pool phase draw and have managed to retain the bulk of their strong 2016 side.

The loss of fl anker Warwick Tecklen-burg (retirement) and prop Julian Rede-linghuys (injury) will weaken the pack, but the introduction of World Sevens standout Kwagga Smith at loose-forward brings some dynamism to the back row.

The Bulls have been boosted by the return of Pollard, who missed the entire 2016 season with a knee injury. In addi-tion to being the pivot for their attack, Pollard will also serve as captain and much of their success will rest on his shoulders.

Just to be back on the fi eld will be a re-

lief for the 23-year-old, who came close to having his arm amputated last year due to complications from a shoulder opera-tion he underwent while sidelined with his knee injury.

His intelligence, running and reliable boot will give the Bulls an extra dimen-sion and allow them to play a more ex-pansive game if they choose.

The side warmed up for the season with a 28-7 victory over New Zealand’s Waikato Chiefs in Brisbane earlier this month.

The Stormers have brought in New Zealand skills coach Paul Feeney to as-sist Robbie Fleck with the aim of bring-ing more than just muscle to their game up front.

That being said, they will once again depend heavily on their dynamic lock pairing of Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit at the set-piece, though the addition of jet-heeled winger Sea-belo Senatla, the top player on the World Sevens circuit in 2016, will bring a new dimension.

The Durban-based Sharks, under new coach Robert du Preez, squeezed into the play-off s last season but lack the depth in their squad to be serious contenders in 2017.

The Bloemfontein-based Cheetahs won the domestic Currie Cup but have lost key lock Lood de Jager to the Bulls while the struggling Southern Kings from Port Elizabeth are expected to be fodder for opponents again.

AFPParis

Racing 92 backs Brice Dulin and Henry Cha-vancy were amongst seven players added to

France’s initial Six Nations squad for next Sunday’s clash with Ire-land in Dublin.

Dulin, who has 25 caps, earned his recall after an impressive dis-play in Saturday’s 33-25 win over Brive in the Top 14, having been overlooked for the start of the Six Nations.

Dulin had not been selected after traces of the banned sub-stance higenamine were discov-ered in a drugs test. Higenamine is used to treat asthma and is also a fat burner which can be found in food supplements.

Chavancy, meanwhile, had been called into the French squad for the fi rst time last month fol-lowing the Achilles injury suf-fered by fi rst-choice centre Wes-ley Fofana.

However, the following day the 28-year-old Chavancy was forced to withdraw to be replaced

by Toulon’s Mathieu Bastareaud.

SQUAD: Forwards (17): Uini Atonio (La Rochelle), Cyril Baille (Tou-louse), Eddy Ben Arous (Racing 92), Camille Chat (Racing 92), Guilhem Guirado (Toulon/capt), Christopher Tolofua (Toulouse), Rabah Slimani (Stade Français), Mohamed Boughanmi (La Rochelle), Paul Jedrasiak (Cler-mont), Yoann Maestri (Toulouse), Julien Le Devedec (Brive), Sébast-ien Vahaamahina (Clermont), Louis Picamoles (Northampton/ENG), Kevin Gourdon (La Ro-chelle), Damien Chouly (Cler-mont), Bernard Le Roux (Racing 92), Charles Ollivon (Toulon)Backs (14): Maxime Machen-aud (Racing 92), Baptiste Serin (Bordeaux-Bègles), Camille Lopez (Clermont), Jean-Marc Dous-sain (Toulouse), Rémi Lamerat (Clermont), Gaël Fickou (Tou-louse), Henry Chavancy (Racing 92), Mathieu Bastareaud (Toulon), Yoann Huget (Toulouse), Djibril Ca-mara (Stade Français), Noa Nakai-taci (Clermont), Virimi Vakatawa (FFR), Scott Spedding (Clermont), Brice Dulin (Racing 92)

Fans can look forward to try-fests across 4 continents, 8 countries, 15 time zones

SPORT


ReutersSydney

The second season of the 18-team Super Rugby competition kicks off on Thursday amid some uncer-tainty about the future form of the

competition, the success of which off ers the southern hemisphere a bulwark against the riches of Europe.

The maiden season of the new format, which must rank among the most complex in world sport, brought Argentina and Japan into the fold and ultimately produced worthy champions when the Wellington Hurricanes beat South Africa’s Lions in the fi nal.

No such ambitious undertaking would ever be without its critics, however, and there have been calls for a restoration of the number of derbies, a cull of weaker franchises, a rejig of the conferences and tweaks to the playoff format.

Those will no doubt get a full airing at March’s SANZAAR board meeting in Lon-don but even if changes to the provincial competition are agreed, they will not come into place until 2018.

Rugby fans can therefore look forward to at least one more season of try-fests across four continents, eight countries and 15 time zones all culminating, more than likely, with the crowning of champions from New Zealand.

New Zealand teams have won the title in 14 of 21 Super Rugby seasons and their dominance was almost complete last year with only the Lions able to match the 11-4 regular season win-loss record of the top four teams from the home of the All Blacks.

The Hurricanes, 2015 champion Otago Highlanders, 2012-13 winners Waikato Chiefs and seven-times champion Can-terbury Crusaders all rode a brand of high octane, physical rugby into the playoff s and more of the same can be expected this year.

LIONS TOURWhatever hopes there are of stopping the New Zealand juggernaut may well rest with another team of Lions, the British and Irish tourists who in June and July pay their fi rst visit to the islands since 2005.

Playing against the Lions is a once-in-a-career opportunity that could prove a distraction for players early in the season, while the physical demands on those se-lected to play the three tests might be a fac-tor at the business end of the competition.

It will be another four years until South Africa has such a distraction and hopes of bringing the Super Rugby title back to Af-rica for the fi rst time since 2010 will likely depend on the performances of the Jo-hannesburg-based Lions and three-times champion Bulls.

While Johan Ackermann’s Lions de-lighted neutrals with a free-fl owing brand of attacking rugby last year, the Pretoria-based Bulls are unlikely to abandon their traditional power-based game even with Handre Pollard back at fl yhalf.

The Stormers have brought a skills coach from New Zealand to Cape Town to try to build more variation in their backline and they should also be in the hunt for the Af-rica 1 conference title and the playoff spot that goes with it.

It is hard to see Japan’s Sunwolves as anything more than Africa 1 whipping boys

in their second season, particularly as they will face the might of the New Zealand teams for the fi rst time.

Argentina’s Jaguares will look to mount more of a challenge in the Africa 2 confer-ence this season after their Puma-laden squad was given a lesson in the realities of transcontinental provincial rugby last year.

Australia’s title chances are once again in the hands of 2014 champion New South Wales Waratahs with their core of test players, but the Queensland Reds, champi-ons in 2011, will be out to spring a surprise or two after a big recruitment drive.

The twice champion ACT Brumbies could be in for a season of struggle after

losing Wallabies captain Stephen Moore to the Reds and David Pocock to a sabbatical.

The Melbourne Rebels will be looking to build on a 7-8 record in 2016 while the Perth-based Western Force must produce something of an argument that they should not be the fi rst team shown the door if the number of franchises is reduced next year.

Super Rugby at a glance

KEY FACTS The season will run

from Feb. 23 to Aug. 5 with a break for the test window in June. The New Zealand sides

will all face the British and Irish Lions, creating split rounds during the June international window and into July. The Waikato Chiefs and

Canterbury Crusaders, who played in Suva last year, return to the Fijian capital on May 19, while the Auckland Blues face the Queensland Reds in the first Super Rugby game in Samoa when they clash in Apia on June 2. Teams earn four points

for a win and two for a draw. Bonus points are awarded for finishing three or more tries ahead of your op-ponent or by losing by less than seven points.

GROUPS ANDCONFERENCES Teams are split into two

groups — Australasian and South African — and four conferences.AUSTRALASIAN GROUPNew Zealand Conference: Otago Highlanders, Welling-ton Hurricanes, Canterbury Crusaders, Waikato Chiefs, Auckland BluesAustralia Conference: New South Wales Waratahs, ACT Brumbies, Melbourne Rebels, Western Force, Queensland Reds

SOUTH AFRICAN GROUPAfrica Conference 1: Bulls, Cheetahs, Stormers, Sun-wolvesAfrica Conference 2: Kings, Lions, Sharks, Jaguares

The four Conference winners automatically qualify for the playoff s along with the next three highest-ranked Australasian Group teams and the next highest-ranked South African Group team. The semi-final draw will

be pre-determined, instead of based on regular season rankings of the final four teams. The semi-final host

teams will be the highest ranked winners from the respective quarter-finals.

CHANGES Governing body

SANZAAR has streamlined the disciplinary procedure this year, introducing a permanent review panel and clarifying the role of the television off icial.

The competition will be played under World Rugby’s five experimental rule trials. The most significant

rule being trialled involves when teams are penalised for persistent off ending while under advantage the captain of the non-off ending team may choose where the penalty is taken from rather than from where the first off ence occurred. Penalty tries are worth

seven points, with teams not needing to take conversions. The stricter head

contact rules, announced last December, will also be enforced.

HISTORY The competition started

as the Super 12 in 1996, a year after the sport turned professional, and was expanded to 14 teams from 2006 and 15 in 2011 after the Melbourne Rebels were added. It was expanded in 2016 to include a sixth South African side, the Kings, and introduced teams in Argen-tina and Japan. New Zealand teams

have dominated the com-petition, winning 14 of the 21 titles. With the Wellington Hurricanes clinching the title last season, all five New Zea-land sides have now lifted the Super Rugby trophy. The Canterbury Crusaders are the most successful with seven titles. South Africa’s Bulls

are the only South African champions, having won the title in 2007, 2009, 2010. Australia’s ACT Brum-

bies have won the title twice (2001, 2004) while the Queensland Reds (2011) and New South Wales Waratahs (2014) have won it once each.

WEEK 1 FIXTURESFebruary 23 Melbourne Rebels v

Auckland Blues, MelbourneFebruary 24 Otago Highlanders v

Waikato Chiefs, Dunedin Queensland Reds v

Sharks, BrisbaneFebruary 25 Sunwolves v Wellington

Hurricanes, Tokyo Canterbury Crusaders v

ACT Brumbies, Christchurch NSW Waratahs v West-

ern Force, Sydney Cheetahs v Lions, Blo-

emfontein Kings v Jaguares, Port

Elizabeth Stormers v Bulls, Cape

Town

In this August 6, 2016, picture, members of the Wellington Hurricanes celebrate their victory in the Super Rugby final against Lions of South Africa at Westpac Stadium in Wellington. (AFP)

Japan’s Sunwolves head coach Filo Tiatia (centre) watches his players during a training session in Tokyo yesterday. The Sunwolves will play the Hurricanes of New Zealand in Tokyo on Saturday. (AFP)

SPORT9Gulf Times


Hamilton says he has no problems with Valtteri Bottas

FORMULA ONE

Sauber aim for return to midfi eld with new F1 car

BOTTOMLINE

ReutersLondon

Sauber presented their new For-mula One car yesterday, celebrat-ing the Swiss-based team’s 25 years in the sport with golden let-

tering but little in the way of sponsorship branding on the blue and white machine.

“The anniversary car for a new era,” said Sauber, which was bought by Swiss investment fi rm Longbow Finance last year, alongside pictures of the C-36 car posted on the team’s website (www.sau-berf1team.com).

The words ‘25 years in Formula One’ were written in gold on the side of the airbox and in front of the driver but the

car shown was otherwise a blank canvas in terms of sponsorship.

The new livery is a change from last year’s blue and yellow, the corporate branding of now-departed backer Banco do Brasil. Ferrari-powered Sauber fi n-ished 10th of the 11 teams last season, scoring their two crucial points only in the penultimate round in Brazil to over-take now-defunct Manor.

“Together with Longbow Finance S.A., we have great opportunities to be com-

petitive again and to return to previous successes in Formula One,” said team principal Monisha Kaltenborn.

“We want to position ourselves with a new approach, and we have already tak-en the fi rst steps in order to build a solid foundation for the future.”

Kaltenborn said Sauber had the re-sources to develop the car, which will use the reliable 2016 Ferrari power unit rather than the latest model, through the season and was aiming at a return to the team’s previous place among the midfi eld.

Sauber have only once won a race, in Canada in 2008 when BMW owned the team. The team has retained Swedish driver Marcus Ericsson this season but Brazilian Felipe Nasr has been replaced by Germany’s Pascal Wehrlein.

The wider and lower car has no carry-over parts from last season, refl ecting the new aerodynamic and technical rules that should see faster lap times.

“We put greater emphasis on aerody-namic stability as opposed to maximising downforce,” said technical director Joerg Zander, who returned to Sauber only last month after a previous stint at the Hinwil factory under BMW.

“Basically, big teams also have an ad-vantage when it comes to m ajor changes in the regulations. But when the cards are reshuffl ed new opportunities always present themselves as well.”

Testing starts in Barcelona next week, although Wehrlein is ruled out with a back problem. Sauber has yet to name a replacement.

ReutersLondon

Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton has clarifi ed com-ments about not wanting to share data with Formula One

teammates and says he has “zero prob-lems” with new Mercedes arrival Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton told a Facebook Live ses-sion with F1 sponsor UBS last Friday that drivers should do their own “homework” rather than be able to copy a teammate’s racing lines and braking points.

“I go out, do my laps, do all my home-work and the other guy can see every-thing,” said the Briton.

“When we’re driving we’re picking out braking points, bumps, tyre rubber marks on the track, all these diff erent things to help get you through the corner quickest... but because of this (shared) data they (team mates) can just copy you.

“They should be able to go out there on their own and fi nd it all themselves, without you.”

Hamilton’s comments were interpreted

by some as Hamilton criticising Mercedes for insisting on shared data between team mates, but he took to Twitter on Monday to emphasise that was not the case.

“I wish to clarify, I have not hit out at my team at all. My point on data sharing is solely my feelings about the sport in

general,” said the 32-year-old, who made his debut with McLaren in 2007 along-side double champion Fernando Alonso.

“It has been my feeling since the day I started F1 and still is 10 years later. There is zero problems in my team, zero prob-lems with Bottas.”

Hamilton is favourite to clinch a fourth title this season after losing out last year to team mate Nico Rosberg, who promptly retired.

The German, a rival since their teen-age years in go-karting, won fewer races than Hamilton (9-10) but enjoyed better reliability.

Hamilton beat Rosberg to the title in the previous two campaigns.

The Briton has said it does not matter who his team mate is and spoke warmly of Bottas, who joins from Williams with-out having won a race so far.

“It is interesting to see how it’s going to go, how quick he will be, how quick he adapts, how he does with pressure... I would say the most fascinating thing is the mind of my competitors, what limits they’ll go to,” Hamilton said during the Facebook Live session.

“Some people will sell their mum to win a race, sell your soul, and some peo-ple will do other things so it’s really inter-esting to see where Valtteri will go.”

The season starts in Australia on March 26 and Mercedes present their new car at Silverstone on Thursday.

‘I go out, do my laps, do all my homework and the other guy can see everything’

Lewis Hamilton will have Valtteri Bottas (bottom) as his Mercedes teammate this Formula One season.

DPABerlin

Formula One world champions Mercedes have extended contracts with motorsport chief

Toto Wolff and non-executive chairman of the board Niki Lauda until the end of 2020.

Swiss team Sauber meanwhile became the fi rst Formula One team to team to unveil their car for the new season.

Mercedes, who will reveal their new car on Thursday, have been boosted by a renewed deal with Wolff and former world champion driver Lauda, who have been leading fi gures in the German team’s domination of F1 over the past few seasons.

Daimler chairman and chief executive Dieter Zetsche said a key factor of the team’s success had been “the combination of Toto’s entrepreneurial skills and Niki’s experience.”

Wolff joined Mercedes from Williams in 2013 and Lauda be-gan working with the team in 2012, overseeing the construc-tors’ and drivers’ world titles in each the past three seasons.

“It’s great news that Toto and Niki have extended their agree-ment,” Zetsche said, adding that it would give the team “impor-tant continuity for the next four years.”

The new contracts coin-cide with the current duration of the commercial agreements

the team has with Formula One management. Along with the other F1 teams, Mercedes will begin negotiations this year with new owner Liberty Media on a deal beyond 2020.

Following the retirement of world champion Nico Rosberg, three-team world champion Lewis Hamilton of Britain will be partnered at Mercedes by Finland’s Valtteri Bottas for the 2017 season, which begins with the Australian Grand Prix on March 26.

Sauber revealed some of the changes taking place this sea-son as result of new aerody-namics rules, presenting a more aggressive-looking car in a new blue, white and gold livery. The team has responded to the rule changes in F1 with a wider mod-el – two metres instead of 1.80 – bigger tyres and wider front and rear wings, powered by a Ferrari C36 engine.

The diff user has also being en-larged, with all the changes de-signed to give the car downforce, more grip and faster lap times. Technical director Joerg Zander said the team has “put greater emphasis on aerodynamic sta-bility as opposed to maximising downforce,” with Swede Marcus Ericsson, in his third season with the team, now partnered by Ger-man Pascal Wehrlein.

The remaining Formula One teams will be unveiling their 2017 cars this week ahead of the fi rst round of testing in Barce-lona next Monday.

Wolff , Lauda sign new F1 deals with Mercedes

SPOTLIGHT

Niki Lauda (L) with Toto Wolff

Ferrari-powered Sauber fi nished 10th of the 11 teams last season, scoring their two crucial points only in the penultimate round in Brazil to overtake now-defunct Manor

AFPPrague

Roger Federer revealed yesterday he wants to join forces in doubles with arch rival Rafael

Nadal at the inaugural Laver Cup this year.

The Swiss tennis great made the confession at the unveil-ing of the new tournament scheduled for Prague in Sep-tember which will pit a Bjorn Borg-captained European team against John McEnroe’s rest of the world.

Federer, who beat Nadal in an epic fi ve-set Australian Open fi nal last month, admitted on Monday: “I’ve always wanted to play with Rafa... just because our rivalry has been so special.

“I’ve seen his wicked fore-hand go past me too often!”

The new addition to the ten-nis calendar is named after Rod Laver, the last man to achieve the calendar Grand Slam in 1969.

“Rod Laver wants us to repre-sent our part of the world with pride and play our best and win for our teammates. We will play to our best possibilities,” Fed-erer, 35, told the media launch in Prague. Federer, the world number nine, is due to fi gure with sixth-ranked Nadal at the

September 22-24 event.The Laver Cup will be held

every year except in an Olympic season, with four matches each day — three in singles, one in doubles.

Each team comprises six play-ers — four based on the ATP sin-gles rankings after Wimbledon and two picks by the captains, Borg and McEnroe.

Federer refused to see Team Europe as a clear winner, al-though it currently has 17 play-ers in the top 20 of the ATP rankings.

“I think Team Europe are go-ing to be big favourites but be-cause of the setup of the Laver Cup I think the margins are al-ways going to be very slim,” said Federer.

Before talking to journalists, the Swiss star played the Czech Republic’s number one Tomas Berdych on a boat on the Vltava river in Prague’s historic centre on a chilly Monday morning.

Berdych, ranked 14th in the world, said their game under the picturesque Charles Bridge was “a very nice opportunity to show Roger a little bit of the town.”

“We were joking we should do this every day,” said Federer.

“I thought it was very partic-ular, very unique — it was defi -nitely a privilege,” he beamed before confessing: “It was a bit windy though.”

Federer wants Rafa as Laver Cup doubles partner

TENNIS

SPORT


AFPSharjah

Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi announced his retirement from in-ternational cricket yesterday, ending

an illustrious and sometimes controversial 21-year career.

The 36-year-old star had already quit Tests in 2010 and ODI cricket after the 2015 World Cup but still skippered the Pakistan Twen-ty20 team at the 2016 world champion-ships in India. He stepped down as captain after the tournament although he retained slender hopes of continuing his career in the sport’s shortest format as a player.

“I have said goodbye to international cricket,” said Afridi after smashing a 28-ball 54 in a Pakistan Super League match for Peshawar Zalmi in Sharjah.

“I am playing for my fans and will con-tinue to play this league for another two years but it’s goodbye from international cricket. Now my foundation is important for me. I have played with seriousness and in a

professional way for my country.” Nicknamed ‘Boom Boom’, Afridi had

been a fan favourite since he burst onto the scene in 1996, striking a 37-ball one-day century against Sri Lanka in only his second match to set a world record that was un-beaten for 18 years.

He became known as a leg-spin bowling all-rounder in the second half of his career and was instrumental in Pakistan’s early successes in Twenty20, including their 2009 victory.

After stopping short of retirement follow-ing Pakistan’s first round exit at the 2016 World Twenty20, Afridi had wanted to play a farewell Twenty20 match against West Indies in the United Arab Emirates in Sep-tember. But the selectors, with one eye on the future, did not pick him in the squad.

His blistering breakthrough century in Nairobi in 1996 was only surpassed by New Zealand’s Corey Anderson’s 36-ball hundred against West Indies at Queenstown in 2014.

South African AB de Villiers then bettered the record further with a 31-ball century, also against the West Indies, at Johannes-

burg in 2015. Afridi’s rapid-fire century in Kenya made

him an instant hit with the crowds who expected fireworks every time he strolled to the crease. Sometimes he delivered but too often for some, his death or glory approach brought his downfall.

Afridi’s maverick style also brought him a one-Test and two-match ODI ban after he was charged with using his foot to tamper with the pitch during a Test against England in Faisalabad in 2005.

He was also banned for two Twenty20 internationals after he was shown on televi-sion biting the ball during a one-day inter-national against Australia at Perth in 2010.

Afridi finishes his international career having played just 27 Test matches which yielded 1,176 runs with a highest score of 156 and 48 wickets.

He played 398 one-day internationals with 8,064 runs, a highest score of 124 while taking 395 wickets with his leg spin.

His Twenty20 international CV saw him play 98 matches with 1,405 runs and a career-leading 97 wickets.

Bye-bye ‘Boom Boom’ as Afridi ends international career“I have said good-

bye to interna-tional cricket. I am playing for my fans

and will continue to play this league

for another two years but it’s good-bye from interna-

tional cricket. Now my foundation is important for me.

I have played with seriousness and in a professional way

for my country”

PSL franchises agreeto play fi nal in Lahore

We have plans for each Aussie player: Rahane

Batsman or batter? Cricket urged to go gender-neutral

The final of the Pakistan Super League, scheduled for March 5, is likely to be played in Lahore as earlier scheduled. According

to a report in espncricinfo.com, owners of the five franchises, after a meeting with the PSL manage-ment yesterday, have agreed that their teams will travel to Lahore should they qualify for the final. The PSL management briefed the franchises on the security arrangements for the final to be played at the Gaddafi Stadium at the meeting. Though it was decided before the start of the 2017 edition of the PSL that the final would be held in Lahore, a series of bombings in Pakistan over the last week had put to doubt that possibility.

“It has been heartwarming to see the dedica-tion of all the owners to the cause of taking cricket back home,” PSL chairman, Najam Sethi said in a statement. “There is a realisation that this final will be the first step in opening the gates to international teams starting to make the jour-ney again. We are all committed to this mission and wish to have a thoroughly entertaining final where it should happen — in Lahore.”

The PCB has taken numerous steps in its plan-ning for the final, the cricinfo report said. The board has bought four bulletproof buses for the transport of players, and has previously spoken about planning it such that players fly in and then out immediately either side of the match.

In a riposte to Australia captain Steve Smith's jibe that the visitors won't shy away from sledging, India batsman Ajinkya Rahane revealed that the hosts have designed plans for every single player. "We don't know if they will sledge or not. We have some plans against each of them, I can't discuss that here. Skill wise or sledging wise, there is definitely a plan. We know that Australian players play mind games. Our aim would be to dominate them in every aspect," Rahane told reporters in Pune yesterday.

"We will look to play positive cricket, attacking cricket not only against the spinners but all the bowlers. Practice game and the Test match is com-pletely diff erent, so we have to read the condition well and play according to the situation, that would be the key," the right-handed batsman added.

Rahane asserted that the Indians will focus on their own strengths rather than dwelling on what combinations the Aussies will employ. "They are coming to India and will be expecting a turning track. So, yes, three fast bowlers and five spinners is their combination but for us it will be important to play to our potential and not focus on their bowling attack, strategies," he said.

An Australian cricket administrator has called for terms like “batsman” and “12th man” to be dropped in favour of gender-

neutral versions like “batter” and “12th”, to encourage women and girls to play the game.

Western Australia Cricket Association chief executive Christina Matthews told the PerthNow website that “words matter” and the “gentleman’s game” needed to be more inclusive.

She said cricket should adopt words like “bat-ter”, “12th” and “third” — instead of “third man” — describing the traditional terms as “a bit like bullying”. “Here we are, in 2017, using terms such as 12th man, batsman, fieldsman and nightwatch-man without a second thought,” Matthews was quoted as saying.

“In my view, there’s no common sense reason why (the terms can’t be changed). I think it’s just something people have held on to,” she added. “Words matter, and words demonstrate respect as well. By not changing the terms, you’re disre-specting half the population.”

“I’m not saying people are deliberately trying to off end but it’s a bit like bullying — whether you’re bullied or not is dictated by the person who is on the end of it, not the person who’s do-ing it,” Matthews added.

Perth Scorchers fast bowler Piepa Cleary backed Matthews and said it was important to take steps towards gender equality in cricket.

“Everyone still says female athletes or female cricket, but we’re athletes playing cricket,” Cleary said, according to the report.

“We need to stop being compared to the men’s game and be recognised for playing the same sport in our own field. It’s going to take a long time to change, but hopefully it will start to happen sooner rather than later.”

Swiss excel at home but it was Shiff rin who stole the showDPASt Moritz, Switzerland

Mikaela Shiff rin con-fi rmed her status as one of the greats with a third slalom title at the

alpine ski world championships in St Moritz, while there was joy for hosts Switzerland and pain for Germany.

The 21-year-old American Shiff rin became the fi rst woman in nearly 80 years to win three successive slalom titles at the event which ended on Sunday and also added a silver for her fi rst medal in giant slalom. “To be honest, I don’t really know what that means yet,” Shiff rin said. “I wasn’t thinking about it until somebody mentioned it to me fi ve days ago.”

Shiff rin’s gold and silver haul over-shadowed teammate Lindsey Vonn, who went home with a single bronze from the women’s downhill as she fought against a hand problem result-ing from last November’s broken arm.

While the Americans left with a modest medal haul, the home Swiss captured three superb golds, includ-ing the blue ribbon men’s downhill, to come second in the medals table. Luca Aerni, Wendy Holdener and Beat Feuz’s Swiss wins matched the three-gold achievement of Vreni Schneider, Chantal Bournissen and Franz Heinzer in 1991.

Feuz won the men’s downhill, de-layed by 24 hours to form a ‘Super Sunday’ double-header with the women’s equivalent, in an open race which took place from a lower start than the headline ‘free fall’ which organizers claimed was the steepest start in the world.

However, it was the 23-year-old Holdener, who also took silver in the slalom, who was the star and new hope to emerge for the Pyeongchang 2018 Games in less than a year and the sub-sequent 2019 Worlds in Are, Sweden.

“I had a crazy two weeks with a lot of emotions and really successful races,” she said. “It’s unbelievable to have a world championships at home with two medals.”

The Swiss success undoubtedly contributed to the party atmosphere in the glitzy resort of St Moritz but

that was not enough to persuade the people, or the surrounding region, to back a bid for the 2026 Olympic Games in a referendum. “What made me really, really angry was the vote in St Moritz itself, where 57 per cent have said no,” ski governing body FIS president Gian Franco Kasper said.

“That’s not acceptable,” he added. “Even more so because the vote was during the world championships, when a positive, sporting atmos-phere is prevalent.”

The event ran smoothly, allow-ing for some early weather problems which delayed the men’s downhill, but organisers did survive a fright when a Swiss air force plane clipped an overhead wire, causing a camera

to crash into the fi nish area. No one was hurt in the incident.

And during the speed races, a number of skiers suff ered serious in-juries including home headliner Lara Gut who saw her championships end with a cruciate ligament injury after taking bronze in the super-g.

“We had a great championships, there’s absolutely no question,” Kasper said at the closing press con-ference while Hugo Wetzel, head of the local organising committee, said he was “very happy” with the sport-ing and organisational aspects of the competition.

Organisers did not have fi nal at-tendance numbers but said the goal of 140,000 fans watching over the two

weeks had been exceeded.While the rest of the Swiss team

and fans could celebrate, the German team only avoided going without a medal for the fi rst championships since 2007 thanks to Felix Neureu-ther’s surprise bronze in the fi nal race.

Mighty Austria topped the medal table with a 3-4-2 record on a late charge by technical specialist Mar-cel Hirscher. The fi ve-time reigning World Cup champion won his fi rst gi-ant slalom gold and regained the sla-lom title from 2013. “I have reached my goal, defi nitely,” he said. “My main target was a medal and my over-all ambition was to be champion.”

Though alpine powerhouses such as Switzerland and Austria will be

happy with their medal hauls, other countries are simply pleased to be on the stage. Afghanistan and Ken-ya were among the newcomers to the championships as the sport at-tempts to grow outside of its tradi-tional base — boosted by a record 76 nations taking part.

“It’s amazing, it’s my fi rst world championship,” 18-year-old Sabrina Simader from Kenya said after racing in the women’s super-g. “It’s really emotional.”

And in skiing, there is something the most inexperienced debutants will always have in common with elite champions like Shiff rin and Hirscher. “I hope I will be faster next time,” Simader added.

SKIING WORLDS

The 21-year-old American became the first woman in nearly 80 years to win three successive slalom titles at the world championships and also added a silver for her first medal in giant slalom

AgenciesSharjah

Umar Akmal struck a 42-ball 66 to pave the way for Lahore Qalandars’ nervy one-wicket win over Is-

lamabad United in the Pakistan Su-per League at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium yesterday.

Chasing a target of 146, Qalandars

were in early trouble with fi ve wickets down for 69 runs before Akmal took charge, mixing caution with aggression to keep the scoreboard ticking and the asking run rate under control. By the time he was bowled by Shadab Khan, the target was within reach and Grant Elliott sealed the issue with a six off Mohamed Sami with four balls to spare.

Earlier, Islamabad United managed to reach a competitive 145 for 8 off the stipulated 20 overs. Most of United’s

batsmen got starts but failed to con-vert them to bigger scores. After be-ing at 86 for 6 at one stage, they owed it to Shadab Khan, who struck a 24-ball 42, studded with three sixes and two boundaries, before being run out.

The United top order collapsed under a concentrated attack by the Qalandar bowlers. Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq seems to be struggling in the format, and has yet to make a sig-nifi cant contribution on the score-

board. Misbah could score just 16.The opening batsmen contributed

38 runs for United before returning to the pavilion. Smith fell leg-before to Yasir Shah while the other opener, Rafatullah Mohmand was dismissed for a 13-ball 18.Brief scores: Islamabad United 145-8 (Shadab Khan 42; Aamer Yamin 3/17, Yasir Shah 2/27) lost to Lahore Qalandars 146-9 in 19.2 overs (Umar Akmal 66, Grant Elliott 26*) by 1 wkt.

Akmal guides Lahore to nervy one-wicket winPAKISTAN SUPER LEAGUE

CRICKET11Gulf Times


England’s Stokes, Mills hit the jackpot in IPL auction

AFPBangalore

England players attracted meg-abucks bids in the Indian Pre-mier League auction yesterday, with all-rounder Ben Stokes

setting a new record for a foreigner by joining the Rising Pune Supergiants for more than $2mn.

England pace bowler Tymal Mills was the big surprise as he went to the Royal Challengers Bangalore for $1.8mn, even though he has only played four Twenty20 internationals.

The winning bids for Stokes and Mills dwarfed the $300,000 shelled out by the Kings XI Punjab to secure the services of England’s limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan for the T20 tour-nament, which begins in April.

Stokes attracted multiple bids from the rival franchises competing in the eight-team tournament before the gav-el fi nally came down after Pune put in a bid of 145mn rupees (around 2.16mn US dollars).

The winning bid shattered the pre-vious record paid for a foreign player, which was set in 2014 when the Delhi Daredevils shelled out 90mn rupees for former England captain Kevin Pi-etersen. But it is still short of the 160mn rupees that the Royal Challengers Ban-galore paid for Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh in 2015.

While a percentage of the auction fee goes to the player’s national board, Stokes, England’s newly anointed Test vice-captain, is now in line to make more in just seven weeks than he would in a whole year of cricket for the Eng-land team.

It was not immediately clear whether Stokes will play the whole tournament or leave towards the end, which would result in a reduced pay cheque, as Eng-land are due to play two ODI matches against Ireland in May.

Pune coach Stephen Fleming admit-ted it was something of a “gamble” to pay so much for a player with a history of injury problems, but that Stokes will add extra fl air to a team that already has Australia captain Steve Smith and ex-Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in its ranks.

“It’s a risk but we are ready to take it. We have got all-round options and (it) gives us more options down the order,” the former New Zealand captain told reporters. “We are going to put young-sters under big players and keep our fi ngers crossed.”

Stokes has had his share of verbal run-ins with Australia in Ashes Test matches but Smith welcomed him with open arms and joked that he expected his new teammate to buy him a drink now that he was fl ush with cash. “Wel-come to Pune @benstokes38 fi rst round is on you!” Smith wrote on Twitter.

While Stokes had been expected to at-tract big bids, the fee for Mills was unex-

pected but underlines his form on Eng-land’s recent tour of India, when he was his side’s most economical fast bowler.

Bangalore have no shortage of batting talent with Indian skipper Virat Kohli and South Africa’s AB de Villiers already on board. But Mills’ signing should ad-dress the lack of a top-quality fast bowl-er for last year’s beaten fi nalists.

Other players to hit the jackpot in-cluded New Zealand seamer Trent Boult and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabda, who were both sold for around 50mn rupees each for Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils respectively.

The auction also saw the fi rst Afghan players to be signed up for the tourna-ment, with Rashid Khan and Mohamed Nabi going to Sunrisers Hyderabad for 40mn and 3mn rupees, respectively.

While most of India’s big name play-ers are already attached to franchises, several newcomers bagged lucrative deals such as Karn Sharma (Mumbai Indians — 32mn rupees) and T Natara-jan (Kings XI Punjab — 30mn rupees).

The IPL, which was fi rst held in

2008, begins on April 5 and runs until May 21.

With England hosting South Africa in a one-day series in May, Stokes is set to miss the fi nal phase of the April 5-May 21 tournament, yet the bidding surged from his base price of 20mn rupees. Pune owner Sanjiv Goenka told reporters that Stokes would bring something new to the team for the 10th edition of the tournament.

“He’s a complete player and he com-pletes our squad. We’ve been lacking this one genre of player,” he said. “We knew he was going to be there for the fi rst 14 games. We pretty much knew we were not going to get him for below this price.”

All-rounder Chris Woakes was the third England player to get a hefty pay-day, going to Kolkata Knight Riders for 42mn rupees. Delhi Daredevils bought Australian paceman Pat Cummins for 45mn rupees, while compatriot Mitch-ell Johnson, who quit international cricket in 2015, returned to his former team Mumbai Indians for 20mn.

Owners mostly gave the cold shoul-

der to slow bowlers, with South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who tops both the one-day and Twenty20 bowling rankings, going unsold.

For Mills, 24, the leap into the top-earning elite marks a signifi cant mile-stone for a cricketer who has been forced to specialise in Twenty20 due a

congenital back condition that restricts his workload and, at one stage, came close to ending his career.

The deal for Stokes, meanwhile, is roughly twice the amount the Durham all-rounder earns from his interna-tional central contract and now sees him become the highest-earning England

cricketer of all time overall. Kevin Pie-tersen and Andrew Flintoff , who secured 1.2mn pounds deals in 2009, are the only English cricketers to have previously drawn such eye-watering numbers.

The IPL auction, in which the eight franchises topped up their squads for the seven-week tournament that begins on April 5, saw two other England players earn contracts too, with Jason Roy picked up by Gujarat Lions for £120,000 and Chris Jordan earning £60,000 to go to de-fending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.

These six will join their international teammates Jos Buttler and Sam Billings, who already have deals from last year at Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils. Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow, the two other England players to enter the auc-tion, went unsold.

Karn Sharma, a leg-spinner, secured the highest price for an Indian cricketer with a £380,000 contract at Mumbai, while Chesteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma, who both featured in the 4-0 Test series victory over England in De-cember, went unsold.

SPOTLIGHT

Rising Pune Supergiants buy Ben Stokes for a massive 145 million Indian rupees, making the all-rounder the highest paid overseascricketer in the 10-year history of the IPL, while Stokes’ England Twenty20 teammate Tymal Mills was snapped up for 120 million rupees by Royal Challengers Bangalore. Other big-earners at the auction were New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult and South Africa paceman Kagiso Rabada, who both went for 50 million rupees to Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils respectively

England pace bowler Tymal Mills (left) went to Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs14 crore, while Afghanistan players Rashid Khan (centre) and Mohamed Nabi (right) were bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs4 crore and Rs30 lakh respectively.

67 players, including 27 from overseas, sold at auctionAs many as 66 players, including 27 overseas players, were bought by eight teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction in Banga-lore yesterday. For the first time ever, players from Afghanistan were listed for the auctions with Rashid Khan, 18, fetching a whopping Rs4 crore as the teams pitched in hard for the Afghan leg-spinner with Sunrisers Hyderabad being the eventual winners. England all-rounder Ben Stokes was bought for Rs14,50,00,000, becoming the most expensive overseas player ever to fea-ture in the IPL. Indian left-arm pacer T

Natarajan was bought for 30 times his base price, attracting Rs3 crore. The lone UAE cricketer, Chirag Suri, was bought by Gujarat Lions.

Top PicksPlayer Team PriceBen Stokes ................Pune ...............Rs14.5crTymal Mills ................Bangalore ....Rs12crTrent Boult ................Kolkata ..........Rs5crKagiso Rabada ........Delhi ...............Rs5crPatrick Cummins ...Delhi ...............Rs4.5crChris Woakes ...........Kolkata ..........Rs4.2crRashid Khan ............Hyderabad ..Rs4crCoulter-Nile ..............Kolkata ..........Rs3.5cr

Ben Stokes


GULF TIMES SPORT

Bartekova takes skeet gold, 2016 winner Hill sixth

Rugby moving forward in Qatar, team working well: QRF’s al-Sherawi

Al Shaqab Racing’s Al Mourtajez on course for Triple Crown

SHOOTING / QATAR OPEN SHOTGUN CHAMPIONSHIP

SPOTLIGHT

HORSE RACING

Slovakian shooter edges out Svetlana Demina of Russia


Rugby in Qatar has seen a fi llip in the last year or so.

The local Sevens league has seen increased interest, not only from the

players but also from the audiences. The Qatar Sevens team impressed many in Dubai 7s.

Qatar played host to Asian Division III Cham-pionship last year and in less than two weeks, the Qatar Rugby Federation (QRF) will host the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy (ARST) with as many as 11 countries participating for a shot at making it to the 2018 Rugby World Cup 7s.

While QRF, under President Yousef al-Ku-wari, has achieved a lot in the short span of time, there is still a lot on the federation’s to-do list. And Omran al-Sherawi, who was recently ap-pointed director at the federation, hopes to tick quite a few of those boxes.

Having spent part of his academic career in Australia, al-Sherawi took to rugby, and even playing Australian Rules Football briefl y while there.

“Rugby has been a passion for long,” he tells Gulf Times. “I have been following the sport for long now, Rugby World Cup, etc. It’s a sport I will always love to watch and follow,” he says.

Al-Sherawi, who studied chemical engineer-ing before making a move into the banking sec-tor — he is currently working with Commercial Bank as head of Assets and Liabilities Manage-ment — found himself very interested to join the Qatar Rugby Federation.

“Having played Aussie Rules and then even following the sport, I was very keen to contrib-ute,” he says.

With ARST around the corner, al-Sherawi, in the thick of rugby administration, got the oppor-tunity of putting his money where his heart is.

One of Strategic Partner Alliance (SPA) brands, The Coff ee Brewer, came on board with the federation as a sponsor. Al-Sherawi is SPA’s managing director.

“Rugby is picking up in Qatar. We are trying

to bring the right audience and also the right players to play here. We are working the league, there are other areas that we are working on, and I think the Asian tournament now is also grabbing eyeballs. The association between The Coff ee Brewer and the ARST, it should work for

both,” he says.“We are golden sponsor for the national team

too. We will move forward and support the game in the country.”

Elaborating on his short time with the federa-tion so far, he says, “After I fi rst associated with

the Rugby Federation, a week later I had seen progress. The smaller things. The game is mov-ing forward. The team is working very well.

“I am glad that I have come at a good time for the sport in the country. The foundation that has been laid, the President has done a very good job. I am happy to join him now and I hope to continue with the same in the future.”

Asked to elaborate on his plans, al-Sherawi said, “I am still new to the federation, but yes, I have three diff erent plans — three, fi ve and ten years.

“Our three-year short term plan is to work with the media closely, fi gure out ways to attract people to play rugby and also attract audiences to see rugby.

“Five-year plan is to target the youth teams, for instance at school level.

“Ten-year plan is about having a good team that can compete at the sevens and the 15s level internationally,” he says, while catching up on the West Asia Premiership rugby game between Doha RFC and Abu Dhabi Harlequins.

Even as Doha handed Harlequins their only defeat this season at the Fortress, as Doha RFC likes to call their home ground, importance of clubs in taking the sport forward in Qatar is not lost on al-Sherawi.

“As a federation our plan is to continue to support the clubs in the country. I am happy to see more clubs taking up the sport.”

Qatar Rugby Federation director Omran al-Sherawi


This coming weekend, on the fi nal day of the 2017 HH The Emir’s Sword Festival, all eyes will be on Al Shaqab Racing’s Al Mourtajez in the HH The Emir’s Sword

(Gr1 PA).Having won the fi rst two legs of the Triple

Crown at the Qatar Goodwood Festival and Qa-tar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, a win on Saturday will mean that the Thomas Fourcy-trained colt will be the fi rst ever winner of the USD 1mn Tri-ple Crown bonus.

The three-day festival, which will run on Feb-ruary 23-25, has attracted very strong interna-tional and national entries.

The 2400m feature races — the HH The Emir’s Trophy (Gr1) for thoroughbreds and HH The Emir’s Sword (Gr1 PA) — carry a prize mon-ey of USD 1mn each.

Apart from Al Mourtajez, Fourcy will also run Metrag for Al Shaqab Racing, while compatriot

Eric Lemartinel, who is based in Abu Dhabi, will run Abu Alabyad.

Dossar Athbah will represent British trainer Phil Collington.

HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Khalifa al-Thani-owned Gazwan will be in the fray. The Julian Smart-trained six-year-old won the Sword last year and the Trial earlier this month and arrives in great form.

In the Trial, he got the better of Umm Qarn’s Tayf, but Alban de Mieulle-schooled fi ve-year-old colt will be looking to return the Sword to

Umm Qarn.The HH The Emir’s Trophy (Gr1), is headed by

Noor al Hawa, who is trained by Andreas Wohler in Germany. The son of Makfi ran out an impres-sive winner of the Qatar Derby over 10 Furlongs (2,000m) on December 29, 2016, for jockey Adrie de Vries and will step up in trip again as he attempts to complete a valuable Qatar race double.

From the USA, trainer Doug O’Neill runs Royal Albert Hall, who was last seen fi nishing third in Santa Anita in January; Brice Blanc will ride. Sir Michael Stoute-trained Arab Spring, an unlucky short head second at Lingfi eld recently, will also be running.

Khalifa bin Sheail al-Kuwari-owned The Blue Eye had won last year’s HH The Emir’s Trophy. Jassim Ghazali’s fi ve-year-old ward will return to land the title for the second year in a row.

Jockey Julien Auge rides Al Shaqab Racing’s Al Mourtajez to victory in the 2015 edition of HH The Emir’s Sword (Gr1 PA) at the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club.

By Yash MudgalDoha

Danka Bartekova is back.

The 32-year-old London Olympic bronze medallist from Slovakia won women’s

Skeet at the Qatar Open beating vet-eran Svetlana Demina of Russia 53 to 48 in the gold medal match yesterday.

Experience and doggedness pre-vailed as Bartekova led the competition right from the qualifi cation stage, mak-ing it to the semi-fi nal with 70 hits, one more than 55-year-old Demina.

Another Russian, 31-year-old Ma-rina Belikova, fi nished third.

Last year’s winner, 19-year-old Amber Hill of the Great Britain fi nished sixth, behind Vanessa Hauff of Germany and Kazakhstan’s Anastassiya Molchanova.

The Slovakian sharpshooter, who had won her last World Cup stage back in 2014 in Tucson, Arizona, was palpa-bly happy with her win.

“I’m very happy with the win be-cause today we had very diffi cult condi-tions. It was only thirteen degrees and a strong wind was also there. I am satis-fi ed, although I have to work on some aspects of my game to make things bet-ter. But I know that I am on right track,” Bartekova said.

“It was a diffi cult fi nal as we were fol-lowing a new format. I was focused and was feeling good from the fi rst round with the target and I think my tactics worked today.”

Bartekova had fi nished eighth in Skeet at the 2008 Summer Olympics and won bronze in London. This is the second gold for Slovakia in the women’s category in the tournament after Zu-zana Rehak Stefecekova won the Trap gold on the fi rst day.

Qatar’s Sarah Mohamed fi nished eighth after failing to score in the three-way shoot-out for the last qualifying place in the fi nal after fi nishing behind Hauff and Russia’s Anastasiia Kra-khmaleva. Sarah was part of the team that won the Skeet silver at the Arab

Shooting Championship recently. The other members of the team were Reem al-Sharshani and Sarah’s sister Hajar.

British teenager Hill, who narrowly missed out on a place in the fi nals of the Skeet event at the Rio Olympics, found some consolation in her performance. “It is a steady start to the year for me, making the fi nals of my fi rst competi-tion of the season, and fi nishing sixth and going home with some dollars.”

In the women’s junior skeet, Alina Fazylzyanova of Russia claimed gold, while Esmee Van Der Veen of the Neth-erlands and Margarita Gervorkian of Russia clinched silver and bronze re-spectively.

The Men’s Skeet and Junior Men’s Skeet fi nals are scheduled for today af-ternoon. French double champion An-thony Terras, who has also won the World Championship and World Cup Finals twice, leads the qualifi ers with 50.

Qatar’s Khaled al-Muhannadi and Abdulaziz al-Attiyah shot 49, while London Games bronze medallist Nass-er al-Attiyah shot 48.

In the Junior Men’s Skeet qualifying round, two local lads are on course to getting into the eliminations. Abdulla Rashdan shot 48, two less than leader Jack Fairclough (Great Britain), while Mohamed al-Khulaifi shot 44.

The men’s skeet fi nal will be held to-

day at 2:30pm.

WOMEN’S SKEET FINAL RESULTS1. Danka Bartekova (SVK) 24-22-24-0-0-70-532. Svetlana Demina (RUS) 22-24-23-0-0-69-483. Marina Belikova (RUS) 25-22-22-0-0-69-42

JUNIOR WOMEN’S SKEET FINAL1. Alina Fazylzyanova (RUS) 21-22-24-0-0-672. Esmee Van Der Veen (NED) 19-24-23-0-0-663. Elena Bukhonova (RUS) 23-21-21-0-0-65+2

Slovakia’s Danka Bartekova in action during the women’s Skeet event in Qatar Open Shotgun Championship at Lusail Shooting Range yesterday. PICTURES: Nasar TK

London Olympic bronze medallists Danka Bartekova (left) of Slovakia and Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah of Qatar at Lusail Shooting Range yesterday. Al-Attiyah shot 48 in yesterday’s qualifying round in the men’s Skeet event.

In the women’s junior skeet, Alina Fazylzyanova (second from left) of Russia claimed gold, while Esmee Van Der Veen (left) of the Netherlands and Margarita Gervorkian (right) of Russia clinched silver and bronze respectively.

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