Kenseth stretches fuel, steals a win at Pocono...them all in the final thrilling laps Sunday to win...
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ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2015 40 SPORTS (Left and right): Athletes, officials pose for group photos during the event. Goodes humbled Indigenous star ready to play on .SYDNEY, Aug 3, (AFP): One of Australia’s most high-profile indigenous sportsmen is set to play on, his coach said Monday, with Adam Goodes humbled by the sup- port received after persistent boo- ing of him was slammed as racist. The Australian Rules football star, a former Australian of the Year, ruled himself out of an AFL fixture last weekend, sparking fears he may call it quits after being the target of a barrage of boos throughout this season. “I spoke to Adam late yesterday afternoon and he’s intending to come and train tomorrow and be available for selection this week,” Sydney Swans coach John Longmire told reporters of the Aboriginal player, who had been given indefinite leave. “He was incredibly humbled by the support he received over the weekend. “I don’t think he had intentions to watch the (Swans) game, but he ended up watching the final three quarters and could- n’t believe the amount of support that he had,” he added. Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, celebrates with the tro- phy in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway on Aug 2, in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (AFP) Graham Rahal leads Josef Newgarden through a corner during practice for the IndyCar Honda Indy 200 auto race on July 31, at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. (AP) Kuwait Karate team achievements hailed Sheikh Khalid Al-Abdullah, Chairman of Kuwait Karate Federation has commended the honor- able achievement of the national karate team in the just-concluded Arab Championship for Youth and Under 21 Wrestlers in Cairo, as the blue team swept three gold, three silver and eight bronze medals. Al-Abdullah dedicated the victory to HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah, HH Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad and HH Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak and the Kuwaiti nation. He praised the diligent efforts put forth by the play- ers in the great championship through which Kuwait’s name has been recorded for great- ness. Also, he extended appreciation to the techni- cal and administrative system and players that contributed to the team’s success in the region- al and the continental levels. The karate team was headed by board mem- ber of the federation Ahmad Al-Khaldi with other officials, besides the 19 players returning to Kuwait Sunday afternoon. For his part, Secretary of the Karate Federation Emad Behbehani said the team was an indivisible cell and united for victory. He ded- icated the achievement to HH the Amir, HH Crown Prince, and HH Prime Minister. Kenseth stretches fuel, steals a win at Pocono Keselowski, Gordon finish 2nd & 3rd LONG POND, Pa, Aug 3, (AP): Joey Logano was the first leader to fade, his tank empty with three laps left. Martin Truex Jr. struck E with two laps to go. Kyle Busch knew his Toyota was about out, too, his shot at a fourth straight win tapped out on the last lap. One by one, fuel woes cost the con- tenders. But the pain at the pump for driv- ers pushing toward the finish line was the break Matt Kenseth needed to coast past them all in the final thrilling laps Sunday to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway. The 400-mile race came down to fuel and which cars had it — and which ones didn’t. “I couldn’t catch them anyway but I just wanted to get as close as I could in case they ran out,” Kenseth said. Once they ran out, Kenseth not only had enough left in the tank to win, he pulled off a celebratory burnout. Kenseth’s win continued the sensation- al summer run for Joe Gibbs Racing, making it five wins in the last six races. Busch, who had the other victories, failed in his bid to become the ninth driver since 1972 and the first since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to win four straight Cup races. Busch had won three straight Cup races and four of five, swept the Xfinity and Cup races last weekend at Indianapolis and won the Truck Series event Saturday at Pocono. Busch remained outside the top 30 in points, the second marker he needs to hit to qualify for the Chase. “I wish I had saved a little more,” Busch said. “I wish I had known (Logano) was that far from making it. It’s a shame we couldn’t get it done.” With a win, Busch would have had the points needed to at least crack the top 30, though he’d have to stay there for the final five races before the 16-driver field is set for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. “We got greedy,” Busch said. “But that’s the position we’re in.” Truex was 19th, Logano 20th, and Busch 21st. “I was saving fuel just to cushion it,” Logano said. “I thought I was going to be good and then I started running out and knew we weren’t going to make it. We were so close. You are counting down the laps in your head thinking you are going to make it but just didn’t do it. “ Brad Keselowski was second, fol- lowed by Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle. Kenseth had the only position that mat- tered, winning for the second time this season and for the first time ever at Pocono. “I never thought I’d win at Pocono,” he said. Kenseth won the fuel gamble and sur- vived a race that resembled a demolition derby: Cars, crews, walls, equipment, all took beatings over 400 miles. Kasey Kahne kicked off a race stuffed with carnage when his No. 5 got loose, found the opening to pit road and slammed the inside pit road wall. Kahne’s hit buckled the wall, sent hel- mets flying and crew members scurrying for safety. “I saw the people and I thought to myself that those guys need to take off running and get out of the way,” Kahne said. The race was red-flagged for about 15 minutes while the wall was repaired. No one was hurt. Pit road proved a dangerous place. Keselowski slid through his pit stall and took out three members of his crew. His tire changer and tire carrier both jumped on the hood and the team jack- man was clipped by the left side of No. 2 Ford. One tire got free and rolled down pit road before it came to a dead stop. “If we could have, quite honestly, not had that issue during the race, I feel like we probably would have won today,” Keselowski said. “That one is on me, so I feel really guilty for my team on that.” American tops Ohio IndyCar race Rahal trims Montoya’s lead LEXINGTON, United States, Aug 3, (AFP): Graham Rahal’s late-season surge continued Sunday as the US driv- er notched his second IndyCar win in four events to close in on Juan Pablo Montoya’s series lead. Rahal was pitting on lap 65 of the 90-lap race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car course as rookie Sage Karam spun to bring out a caution. Rahal was in third at the time, but he took to the lead as others, including Colombia’s Montoya, had to wait to make their pit stops. Rahal not only won that restart, he won a final post-caution restart with Justin Wilson to take the victory 3.4 seconds ahead of the Englishman. France’s Simon Pagenaud was third, with New Zealand’s Scott Dixon, who started from pole, fourth. It was a tough day for Dixon, who had won five of the past eight races on the 2.258-mile (3.63 Km), 13-turn course and set a lap record in qualifying. He was shuffled back in the pack on an early caution and had to battle his way back to finish fourth. Rahal, who also won the oval-track race at Auto Club Speedway on June 27, climbed within nine points of Montoya’s series lead with two races remaining — at Pocono on Aug 23 and at Sonoma on August 30. The season-finale will be worth dou- ble points. Montoya, who finished 11th, leads the standings with 465 points followed by Rahal on 456 with Dixon thrid on 431. For Rahal, the victory was a home win. He was born and brought up less than an hour south of Lexington and his father, three-time IndyCar champi- on Bobby Rahal, won at Mid-Ohio in 1985 and 1986. American Danielson fails doping test Drucker sprints to RideLondon-Surrey Classic win LONDON, Aug 3, (Agencies): Luxembourg’s Jean-Pierre Drucker sprinted to victory in the 200km RideLondon-Surrey Classic on Sunday, the BMC rider edging out Dutchman Mike Teunissen and Briton Ben Swift. With the peloton, which included seven UCI WorldTour teams, shredded in the Surrey hills on a warm day, only four men were left in contention on The Mall and Drucker timed his surge to perfection to claim the biggest win of his career. The thousands of fans who lined the route around some of London’s land- marks had hoped to see Briton Mark Cavendish contesting a bunch sprint, but the searing pace took its toll and the Etixx-Quick-Step rider did not feature. Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 Tour de France champion, also failed to make an impact. “To get my first professional win in front of Buckingham Palace is so special. The crowd here is so crazy about cycling.” Cavendish, who took his Tour de France stage win tally to 26 last month, rolled home in 44th place, having briefly attacked out in front with Rohan Dennis with an hour of racing to go. An eight-man group then got clear and the main bunch gave up the chase, leav- ing Drucker to triumph in the sunshine. ❑ ❑ ❑ American Tom Danielson has revealed he failed a doping test for synthetic testosterone but the Cannondale-Garmin rider denies taking a banned substance. “While I was eating dinner with my team the night before Tour of Utah I received a call from USADA notifying me that a out of competition test I gave July 9th has tested positive for, from what I understand, synthetic testosteron,” Danielson said on Twitter. “I have not taken this or any other banned substance.” Danielson was handed a six-month ban in 2012-13 after admitting to blood dop- ing while riding with The Discovery Channel team. ❑ ❑ ❑ Movistar cycling team says Tour de France runner-up Nairo Quintana will race in the Spanish Vuelta. The Colombian climber will be joined by former Vuelta champion Alejandro Valverde, the third-place finisher at this summer’s Tour. Movistar will announce its complete team “in a few days’ time.” Jean-Pierre ‘Jempy’ Drucker cele- brates on the podium with the trophy after winning the Ride London-Surrey Classic road cycle race in central London on Aug 2. (AFP) ‘Zero tolerance for tainted results’ Athletes’ health at risk: expert KUALA LUMPUR/SYDNEY, Aug 3, (RTRS): Some of the readings from athletes’ blood tests leaked by a whistleblower for a report exposing suspected doping were so extreme they were “downright dangerous”, one of the experts cited in the report told Reuters on Monday. “There are real questions to be asked if there is no action taken, particularly for the results taken post-2009,” said Robin Parisotto, an inventor of the test used to detect the blood doping agent EPO. “Some of the values in these ath- letes were so extreme that they were downright dangerous and the risks to their health were indisputable.” The head of world athletics defended the International Association of Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) anti- doping record as global sporting bodies called for a thorough probe into the lat- est allegations to plunge international sport into crisis. That followed a report by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper and Germany’s ARD/WDR broadcaster on Sunday that they had obtained from a whistleblower secret IAAF data that indicated suspected widespread blood doping in athletics between 2001 and 2012. In an interview, Australian Parisotto, one of two scientific experts cited in the reports, said more than 800 athletes had recorded one or more “abnormal” results, defined as a result that had less than one chance in 100 of being natu- ral. Such athletes accounted for 146 medals at top events, including 55 golds, the Sunday Times said. Parisotto noted that not all the abnor- mal results necessarily indicated dop- ing, as factors such as the timing of tests, altitude and testing conditions could have led to some suspicious out- comes. In response to the reports, IAAF President Lamine Diack told Reuters: “There are allegations made, no evi- dence. We want to look into them seri- ously because to say that in athletics between 2001 and 2012 we did not do a serious job with tests is laughable.” Coming only weeks before track and field’s showpiece world championships in Beijing, the reports claim endurance runners suspected of doping had been winning a third of the medals at Olympic Games and world champi- onships in that period. The reports did not say that any ath- letes had failed doping tests, only that the tests had been abnormal, which can sometimes be a sign of cheating. The allegations are the latest setback to tarnish the multi-billion dollar world of sport after the scandal at soccer’s global governing body, FIFA. Athletics are a central part of the Olympics, the only sporting event that rivals soccer’s World Cup in scale and which collects billions of dollars from sponsors like Coca-Cola , Panasonic, Visa and McDonald’s. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach told reporters on Monday he had spoken to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) head Craig Reedie and had full confidence in that body to investi- gate the claims thoroughly, adding the IOC would act with “zero tolerance” if there should be a case involving results at an Olympic Games. “But at this time we have nothing more than allegations and we have to respect the presumption of innocence for the athletes,” he said. Medals won could be affected if any cases of doping were subsequently unearthed using newer testing tech- niques that did not exist at the time. “I do not know what we are dealing with,” Senegal’s Diack said. “It is pos- sible if we discover with new tech- niques that someone doped etcetera, etcetera then yes, otherwise no.” The reports also come weeks before a new IAAF president will be elected, with Britain’s Sebastian Coe and Sergey Bubka of Ukraine bidding to replace the retiring Diack. A heavy preponderance of the “abnormal” results were from Russian athletes, according to the media reports. Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko has said the allegations had “nothing to do with Russia” and they reflected a power battle ahead of the IAAF leadership vote. Russia accounted for 415 abnormal tests, followed distantly by Ukraine, Morocco, Spain, Kenya, Turkey and others. “A remarkable 80 percent of Russia’s medal winners recorded suspi- cious scores at some point in their careers,” the Sunday Times said. Meanwhile, a “thorough and aggres- sive review” needs to be done to pro- tect clean athletes from “gangsters” after a blockbuster report surfaced alleging widespread doping in athlet- ics, the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said on Sunday. USADA Chief Executive Travis Tygart said he was unaware of any American involvement in the report but was disturbed by the allegations over- all. “A thorough and aggressive review of all that evidence needs to be had to ensure that clean athletes’ rights are protected,” he told Reuters in a tele- phone interview. “This is more evi- dence of what many of us already sus- pected.” The data was shown by the news organizations to two experts, who determined distance running was in the same state as cycling had been when Lance Armstrong ruled seven Tour de France but later was stripped of his titles for doping. Tygart said his group aggressively pushed the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) “to open an investigation sev- eral months ago into prior allegations about doping in Russia.” “Now it’s in WADA’s hands to do the right thing and hopefully give confi- dence to clean athletes around the world that these gangsters are not going to hijack sport and violate the right of clean athletes,” he said. Cambage bid rejected: Basketball Australia has rejected a legal bid from China-based star Elizabeth Cambage for reinstatement to the Australia women’s team which will play New Zealand in an Olympic qualifying series later this month. Cambage was omitted from the team when she attended a music festival last month rather than a national training camp. The star center, who recently returned from a 10-month layoff with a ruptured Achilles tendon, was required to attend one of two ses- sions to receive medical clearance ahead of a three-match warm-up series against Japan. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑ Rousey attends soccer game: Ronda Rousey spent the day after her impressive victory over Bethe Correia at UFC 190 by going to a soccer game at Maracana Stadium. Wearing a red and black jersey of Flamengo, Brazil’s most popular club, Rousey was among the crowd of 61,421 at the famed venue Sunday. Rousey was seen posing for photos with several fans on the stands, and was applauded by the crowd when she was shown on the stadium’s big screen. The UFC’s biggest star, Rousey needed only 34 seconds to beat her Brazilian opponent Saturday night, successfully defending her ban- tamweight title. After the fight, Rousey was loudly cheered by fans after saying she loves Brazil. Flamengo and Santos tied 2-2 in the Brazilian league game. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑ Simmons out of NZ Test: Wallaby lock and key lineout jumper Rob Simmons was Monday ruled out of the Rugby Championship clash against the All Blacks with a wrist injury that will need surgery. The 52-Test veteran will miss Saturday’s match in Sydney as well as the Bledisloe Cup showdown against New Zealand in Auckland a week later. But he is expected to make a full recovery from the scaphoid surgery before Australia take on the USA in Chicago next month in the lead-up to the September-October World Cup. (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑ Hooper gets boost: Wallabies flanker Michael Hooper will play in Saturday’s Rugby Championship decider against the All Blacks after a Sanzar appeals committee dismissed an attempt to stiffen his recent ban for foul play. Hooper was suspended for one week for striking Argentina flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez during the Wallabies 39-19 win in a Championship match in Mendoza on July 25. The offense carries a minimum two week suspension but Hooper’s ban was reduced to one week because of his previous unblemished disciplinary record. He was also allowed to serve the suspension in a club rugby match last weekend, ensuring his availability for the All Blacks test in Sydney. (AP) Best of the Rest Cambage ATHLETICS CAR RACING CAR RACING CYCLING
Transcript of Kenseth stretches fuel, steals a win at Pocono...them all in the final thrilling laps Sunday to win...
ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2015
40SPORTS
(Left and right): Athletes, officials pose for group photos during the event.
Goodes humbled
Indigenous starready to play on.SYDNEY, Aug 3, (AFP): One ofAustralia’s most high-profileindigenous sportsmen is set to playon, his coach said Monday, withAdam Goodes humbled by the sup-port received after persistent boo-ing of him was slammed as racist.
The Australian Rules footballstar, a former Australian of theYear, ruled himself out of an AFLfixture last weekend, sparkingfears he may call it quits afterbeing the target of a barrage ofboos throughout this season.
“I spoke to Adam late yesterdayafternoon and he’s intending to comeand train tomorrow and be availablefor selection this week,” SydneySwans coach John Longmire toldreporters of the Aboriginal player,who had been given indefinite leave.
“He was incredibly humbled bythe support he received over theweekend. “I don’t think he hadintentions to watch the (Swans)game, but he ended up watchingthe final three quarters and could-n’t believe the amount of supportthat he had,” he added.
Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, celebrates with the tro-phy in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Windows 10
400 at Pocono Raceway on Aug 2, in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (AFP)
Graham Rahal leads Josef Newgarden through a corner during practice for theIndyCar Honda Indy 200 auto race on July 31, at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
in Lexington, Ohio. (AP)
Kuwait Karate team achievements hailed
Sheikh Khalid Al-Abdullah, Chairman of KuwaitKarate Federation has commended the honor-able achievement of the national karate team inthe just-concluded Arab Championship for Youthand Under 21 Wrestlers in Cairo, as the blueteam swept three gold, three silver and eightbronze medals.
Al-Abdullah dedicated the victory to HH theAmir Sheikh Sabah, HH Crown Prince SheikhNawaf Al-Ahmad and HH Prime Minister SheikhJaber Al-Mubarak and the Kuwaiti nation. Hepraised the diligent efforts put forth by the play-ers in the great championship through whichKuwait’s name has been recorded for great-
ness.Also, he extended appreciation to the techni-
cal and administrative system and players thatcontributed to the team’s success in the region-al and the continental levels.
The karate team was headed by board mem-ber of the federation Ahmad Al-Khaldi with other
officials, besides the 19 players returning toKuwait Sunday afternoon.
For his part, Secretary of the KarateFederation Emad Behbehani said the team wasan indivisible cell and united for victory. He ded-icated the achievement to HH the Amir, HHCrown Prince, and HH Prime Minister.
Kenseth stretches fuel,steals a win at Pocono
Keselowski, Gordon finish 2nd & 3rd
LONG POND, Pa, Aug 3,(AP): Joey Logano was thefirst leader to fade, his tankempty with three laps left.
Martin Truex Jr. struck E with twolaps to go.
Kyle Busch knew his Toyota was aboutout, too, his shot at a fourth straight wintapped out on the last lap.
One by one, fuel woes cost the con-tenders. But the pain at the pump for driv-ers pushing toward the finish line was thebreak Matt Kenseth needed to coast pastthem all in the final thrilling laps Sundayto win the NASCAR Sprint Cup race atPocono Raceway.
The 400-mile race came down to fueland which cars had it — and which onesdidn’t.
“I couldn’t catch them anyway but Ijust wanted to get as close as I could incase they ran out,” Kenseth said.
Once they ran out, Kenseth not onlyhad enough left in the tank to win, hepulled off a celebratory burnout.
Kenseth’s win continued the sensation-al summer run for Joe Gibbs Racing,making it five wins in the last six races.Busch, who had the other victories, failedin his bid to become the ninth driver since1972 and the first since Jimmie Johnsonin 2007 to win four straight Cup races.
Busch had won three straight Cup racesand four of five, swept the Xfinity andCup races last weekend at Indianapolisand won the Truck Series event Saturdayat Pocono. Busch remained outside thetop 30 in points, the second marker heneeds to hit to qualify for the Chase.
“I wish I had saved a little more,”Busch said. “I wish I had known(Logano) was that far from making it. It’sa shame we couldn’t get it done.”
With a win, Busch would have had thepoints needed to at least crack the top 30,though he’d have to stay there for thefinal five races before the 16-driver fieldis set for the Chase for the Sprint Cupchampionship.
“We got greedy,” Busch said. “Butthat’s the position we’re in.”
Truex was 19th, Logano 20th, andBusch 21st.
“I was saving fuel just to cushion it,”Logano said. “I thought I was going to begood and then I started running out andknew we weren’t going to make it. Wewere so close. You are counting down thelaps in your head thinking you are goingto make it but just didn’t do it. “
Brad Keselowski was second, fol-lowed by Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr.and Greg Biffle.
Kenseth had the only position that mat-tered, winning for the second time thisseason and for the first time ever atPocono.
“I never thought I’d win at Pocono,” hesaid.
Kenseth won the fuel gamble and sur-vived a race that resembled a demolitionderby: Cars, crews, walls, equipment, alltook beatings over 400 miles.
Kasey Kahne kicked off a race stuffedwith carnage when his No. 5 got loose,found the opening to pit road andslammed the inside pit road wall.Kahne’s hit buckled the wall, sent hel-mets flying and crew members scurryingfor safety.
“I saw the people and I thought tomyself that those guys need to take offrunning and get out of the way,” Kahnesaid.
The race was red-flagged for about 15minutes while the wall was repaired. Noone was hurt.
Pit road proved a dangerous place.Keselowski slid through his pit stall
and took out three members of his crew.His tire changer and tire carrier bothjumped on the hood and the team jack-man was clipped by the left side of No.2 Ford. One tire got free and rolleddown pit road before it came to a deadstop.
“If we could have, quite honestly, nothad that issue during the race, I feel likewe probably would have won today,”Keselowski said.
“That one is on me, so I feel reallyguilty for my team on that.”
American tops Ohio IndyCar race
Rahal trims Montoya’s leadLEXINGTON, United States, Aug 3,(AFP): Graham Rahal’s late-seasonsurge continued Sunday as the US driv-er notched his second IndyCar win infour events to close in on Juan PabloMontoya’s series lead.
Rahal was pitting on lap 65 of the90-lap race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Carcourse as rookie Sage Karam spun tobring out a caution.
Rahal was in third at the time, but hetook to the lead as others, includingColombia’s Montoya, had to wait tomake their pit stops.
Rahal not only won that restart, hewon a final post-caution restart withJustin Wilson to take the victory 3.4seconds ahead of the Englishman.
France’s Simon Pagenaud was third,with New Zealand’s Scott Dixon, whostarted from pole, fourth.
It was a tough day for Dixon, who hadwon five of the past eight races on the2.258-mile (3.63 Km), 13-turn courseand set a lap record in qualifying.
He was shuffled back in the pack onan early caution and had to battle hisway back to finish fourth.
Rahal, who also won the oval-trackrace at Auto Club Speedway on June27, climbed within nine points ofMontoya’s series lead with two racesremaining — at Pocono on Aug 23 andat Sonoma on August 30.
The season-finale will be worth dou-ble points.
Montoya, who finished 11th, leadsthe standings with 465 points followedby Rahal on 456 with Dixon thrid on431.
For Rahal, the victory was a homewin. He was born and brought up lessthan an hour south of Lexington andhis father, three-time IndyCar champi-on Bobby Rahal, won at Mid-Ohio in1985 and 1986.
American Danielson fails doping test
Drucker sprints to RideLondon-Surrey Classic winLONDON, Aug 3, (Agencies):Luxembourg’s Jean-Pierre Druckersprinted to victory in the 200kmRideLondon-Surrey Classic on Sunday,the BMC rider edging out DutchmanMike Teunissen and Briton Ben Swift.
With the peloton, which includedseven UCI WorldTour teams, shredded inthe Surrey hills on a warm day, only fourmen were left in contention on The Malland Drucker timed his surge to perfectionto claim the biggest win of his career.
The thousands of fans who lined theroute around some of London’s land-marks had hoped to see Briton MarkCavendish contesting a bunch sprint, but
the searing pace took its toll and theEtixx-Quick-Step rider did not feature.
Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 Tour deFrance champion, also failed to make animpact.
“To get my first professional win infront of Buckingham Palace is so special.The crowd here is so crazy about cycling.”
Cavendish, who took his Tour deFrance stage win tally to 26 last month,rolled home in 44th place, having brieflyattacked out in front with Rohan Dennis
with an hour of racing to go.An eight-man group then got clear and
the main bunch gave up the chase, leav-ing Drucker to triumph in the sunshine.
❑ ❑ ❑
American Tom Danielson has revealedhe failed a doping test for synthetictestosterone but the Cannondale-Garminrider denies taking a banned substance.
“While I was eating dinner with myteam the night before Tour of Utah Ireceived a call from USADA notifyingme that a out of competition test I gaveJuly 9th has tested positive for, from whatI understand, synthetic testosteron,”Danielson said on Twitter.
“I have not taken this or any otherbanned substance.”
Danielson was handed a six-month banin 2012-13 after admitting to blood dop-ing while riding with The DiscoveryChannel team.
❑ ❑ ❑
Movistar cycling team says Tour deFrance runner-up Nairo Quintana willrace in the Spanish Vuelta.
The Colombian climber will be joinedby former Vuelta champion AlejandroValverde, the third-place finisher at thissummer’s Tour.
Movistar will announce its completeteam “in a few days’ time.”
Jean-Pierre ‘Jempy’ Drucker cele-brates on the podium with the trophyafter winning the Ride London-SurreyClassic road cycle race in
central London on Aug 2. (AFP)
‘Zero tolerance for tainted results’
Athletes’ health at risk: expertKUALA LUMPUR/SYDNEY, Aug 3,(RTRS): Some of the readings fromathletes’ blood tests leaked by awhistleblower for a report exposingsuspected doping were so extreme theywere “downright dangerous”, one ofthe experts cited in the report toldReuters on Monday.
“There are real questions to be askedif there is no action taken, particularlyfor the results taken post-2009,” saidRobin Parisotto, an inventor of the testused to detect the blood doping agentEPO. “Some of the values in these ath-letes were so extreme that they weredownright dangerous and the risks totheir health were indisputable.”
The head of world athletics defendedthe International Association ofAthletics Federations’ (IAAF) anti-doping record as global sporting bodiescalled for a thorough probe into the lat-est allegations to plunge internationalsport into crisis.
That followed a report by Britain’sSunday Times newspaper andGermany’s ARD/WDR broadcaster onSunday that they had obtained from awhistleblower secret IAAF data thatindicated suspected widespread blooddoping in athletics between 2001 and2012.
In an interview, Australian Parisotto,one of two scientific experts cited inthe reports, said more than 800 athleteshad recorded one or more “abnormal”results, defined as a result that had lessthan one chance in 100 of being natu-ral.
Such athletes accounted for 146medals at top events, including 55golds, the Sunday Times said.
Parisotto noted that not all the abnor-mal results necessarily indicated dop-ing, as factors such as the timing oftests, altitude and testing conditionscould have led to some suspicious out-comes.
In response to the reports, IAAFPresident Lamine Diack told Reuters:“There are allegations made, no evi-dence. We want to look into them seri-ously because to say that in athleticsbetween 2001 and 2012 we did not doa serious job with tests is laughable.”
Coming only weeks before track andfield’s showpiece world championshipsin Beijing, the reports claim endurancerunners suspected of doping had beenwinning a third of the medals atOlympic Games and world champi-onships in that period.
The reports did not say that any ath-letes had failed doping tests, only thatthe tests had been abnormal, which cansometimes be a sign of cheating.
The allegations are the latest setbackto tarnish the multi-billion dollar worldof sport after the scandal at soccer’sglobal governing body, FIFA.
Athletics are a central part of theOlympics, the only sporting event thatrivals soccer’s World Cup in scale andwhich collects billions of dollars fromsponsors like Coca-Cola , Panasonic,Visa and McDonald’s.
International Olympic Committee(IOC) President Thomas Bach toldreporters on Monday he had spoken tothe World Anti-Doping Agency(WADA) head Craig Reedie and hadfull confidence in that body to investi-
gate the claims thoroughly, adding theIOC would act with “zero tolerance” ifthere should be a case involving resultsat an Olympic Games.
“But at this time we have nothingmore than allegations and we have torespect the presumption of innocencefor the athletes,” he said.
Medals won could be affected if anycases of doping were subsequentlyunearthed using newer testing tech-niques that did not exist at the time.
“I do not know what we are dealingwith,” Senegal’s Diack said. “It is pos-sible if we discover with new tech-niques that someone doped etcetera,etcetera then yes, otherwise no.”
The reports also come weeks beforea new IAAF president will be elected,with Britain’s Sebastian Coe andSergey Bubka of Ukraine bidding toreplace the retiring Diack.
A heavy preponderance of the“abnormal” results were from Russianathletes, according to the mediareports. Russian sports minister VitalyMutko has said the allegations had“nothing to do with Russia” and theyreflected a power battle ahead of theIAAF leadership vote.
Russia accounted for 415 abnormaltests, followed distantly by Ukraine,Morocco, Spain, Kenya, Turkey andothers. “A remarkable 80 percent ofRussia’s medal winners recorded suspi-cious scores at some point in theircareers,” the Sunday Times said.
Meanwhile, a “thorough and aggres-sive review” needs to be done to pro-tect clean athletes from “gangsters”after a blockbuster report surfacedalleging widespread doping in athlet-ics, the head of the U.S. Anti-DopingAgency (USADA) said on Sunday.
USADA Chief Executive TravisTygart said he was unaware of anyAmerican involvement in the report butwas disturbed by the allegations over-all.
“A thorough and aggressive reviewof all that evidence needs to be had toensure that clean athletes’ rights areprotected,” he told Reuters in a tele-phone interview. “This is more evi-dence of what many of us already sus-pected.”
The data was shown by the newsorganizations to two experts, whodetermined distance running was in thesame state as cycling had been whenLance Armstrong ruled seven Tour deFrance but later was stripped of histitles for doping.
Tygart said his group aggressivelypushed the World Anti-Doping Agency(WADA) “to open an investigation sev-eral months ago into prior allegationsabout doping in Russia.”
“Now it’s in WADA’s hands to do theright thing and hopefully give confi-dence to clean athletes around theworld that these gangsters are notgoing to hijack sport and violate theright of clean athletes,” he said.
Cambage bid rejected:Basketball Australia has rejected alegal bid from China-based starElizabeth Cambage for reinstatementto the Australia women’s team whichwill play New Zealand in an Olympicqualifying series later this month.
Cambage wasomitted from theteam when sheattended a musicfestival lastmonth ratherthan a nationaltraining camp.The star center,who recentlyreturned from a10-month layoffwith a rupturedAchilles tendon,
was required to attend one of two ses-sions to receive medical clearanceahead of a three-match warm-up seriesagainst Japan. (AP)
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Rousey attends soccer game:Ronda Rousey spent the day after herimpressive victory over Bethe Correiaat UFC 190 by going to a soccer gameat Maracana Stadium.
Wearing a red and black jersey ofFlamengo, Brazil’s most popular club,Rousey was among the crowd of61,421 at the famed venue Sunday.
Rousey was seen posing for photoswith several fans on the stands, andwas applauded by the crowd when shewas shown on the stadium’s bigscreen.
The UFC’s biggest star, Rouseyneeded only 34 seconds to beat herBrazilian opponent Saturday night,successfully defending her ban-
tamweight title. After the fight,Rousey was loudly cheered by fansafter saying she loves Brazil.
Flamengo and Santos tied 2-2 in theBrazilian league game. (AP)
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Simmons out of NZ Test:Wallaby lock and key lineout jumperRob Simmons was Monday ruled outof the Rugby Championship clashagainst the All Blacks with a wristinjury that will need surgery.
The 52-Test veteran will missSaturday’s match in Sydney as well asthe Bledisloe Cup showdown againstNew Zealand in Auckland a week later.
But he is expected to make a fullrecovery from the scaphoid surgerybefore Australia take on the USA inChicago next month in the lead-up tothe September-October World Cup.(AFP)
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Hooper gets boost: Wallabiesflanker Michael Hooper will play inSaturday’s Rugby Championshipdecider against the All Blacks after aSanzar appeals committee dismissedan attempt to stiffen his recent ban forfoul play.
Hooper was suspended for oneweek for striking Argentina flyhalfNicolas Sanchez during the Wallabies39-19 win in a Championship match inMendoza on July 25.
The offense carries a minimum twoweek suspension but Hooper’s banwas reduced to one week because ofhis previous unblemished disciplinaryrecord. He was also allowed to servethe suspension in a club rugby matchlast weekend, ensuring his availabilityfor the All Blacks test in Sydney.(AP)
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