Monday, June 6, 2016Ramadan 1, 1437 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Generation Amazing opens football pitch in Nepal

Brazil heldby Ecuador, Peru downHaiti

FOOTBALL | Page 3 FOCUS FOCUS | Page 11

ATHLETICS

Mo Farah paystribute to Ali inrecord stylePage 9

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic poses with the trophy after winning the French Open final at Roland Garros in Paris

yesterday. (AFP)

Djoko Slams it, fi nallyDjoko Slams it, fi nallyAFPParis

Novak Djokovic captured a fi rst French Open at the 12th time of ask-ing yesterday, becoming just the third man in history to hold all four

Grand Slam titles at the same time.The world number one downed old rival

Andy Murray 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 to claim a 12th career major and join Don Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver, in 1962 and 1969, as the only players to simultaneously possess the French Open, Australian Open, US Open and Wim-bledon trophies. Djokovic, 29, also put him-self halfway to the calendar Grand Slam, last achieved by Laver 47 years ago.

But he did it the hard way as the fi nal reached a tense conclusion, being broken in the eighth game of the fourth set as he served for the title and then squandering two cham-pionship points in the 10th before he sealed

victory when Murray netted a backhand.“It’s a very special moment, the biggest of

my career,” said Djokovic, one of only eight men to complete the career Grand Slam and who had lost his previous three fi nals in Paris. “I felt today something that I never felt before at Roland Garros, I felt the love of the crowd.”

Djokovic imitated former three-time champion Gustavo Kuerten by drawing a gi-ant heart in the Paris clay before collapsing inside it.

“I drew the heart on the court, like Guga who gave me permission to do. My heart will always be with you on this court.”

Playing in his 20th fi nal at the majors and sixth in succession, the Serb superstar is the fi rst man since Jim Courier in 1992 to win the Australian and French Opens back-to-back.

Victory also allowed Djokovic to stretch his winning record over 29-year-old Murray to 24-10 overall and 8-2 in Grand Slams.

Murray, the world number two and the fi rst British man in the fi nal in Paris since Bunny

Austin in 1937, remains with two Grand Slam titles as he failed to become the fi rst Brit win-ner of the French Open since Fred Perry 81 years ago.

“What Novak’s achieved in the last 12 months is phenomenal, winning all the Grand Slams in one year is an amazing achievement. It’s so rare in tennis, and for me personally, it s*** to lose the match,” said Murray.

Before a ball was hit, spectators stood to applaud Muhammad Ali after an image of the boxing legend, who died Friday, appeared on the giant video screen high up on the Philippe Chatrier court.

STRESSFUL ENDINGDjokovic admitted to a pre-match TV inter-viewer that it was certain to be an emotional afternoon although he was quickly into his stride, breaking Murray to love in the fi rst game and shrugging off having to play fi ve days in the last six.

The British star broke back to level before reeling off the next four games for a 4-1 lead as Djokovic’s game quickly and unexpectedly unravelled.

Murray remained in charge, fi nding time to loudly berate a French television interviewer for climbing uninvited into his player’s box overlooking the court.

Djokovic then argued with umpire Damien

Dumusois for refusing to have a point re-played at 15-0 as Murray served for the fi rst set.

But the Serb was horribly out of sorts even before that spat with his 13 unforced errors proving fatal.

The world number one had to shake off a break point in the opening game of the second set before Murray obligingly imploded, drop-ping serve to fall 2-0 behind.

Djokovic misread the geometry on a drop-shot which would have given him a double break in the fourth game but he was soon 4-1 to the good.

The top seed remained ruthlessly dialled-in, broke again for 5-1 and levelled the fi nal when Murray dumped a service return into the net.

Djokovic, with the Paris crowd loudly on his side for the fi rst time in four fi nal appear-ances, broke for 2-1 in the third set which be-came 4-1 off a sublime running, backhand, cross-court drop-shot.

The Serb saved four break points to go to 5-1 before securing the set against a weary-looking Murray who had spent fi ve hours longer on court than Djokovic and played two fi ve-setters in the opening rounds to get to his fi rst French Open fi nal.

Djokovic kept his foot on Murray’s throat, breaking in the fi rst game of the fourth set as

the second seed carried on a running argu-ment with the umpire over the positioning of the overhead camera.

The Serb broke to love for 5-2 and history was just moments away. However, there was still time for a twist as he cracked when serv-ing for the title before fi nally sealing the tri-umph after three hours on court.

Serb becomes only third man in history to hold all four Majors at the same time after winning French Open on his 12th attempt

Leading Major winners

17: Roger Federer (SUI) 14: Pete Sampras (USA), Rafael Nadal (ESP)12: Roy Emerson (AUS), Novak Djokovic (SRB)11: Rod Laver (AUS), Bjorn Borg (SWE)10: Bill Tilden (USA)

Djokovic’s path to the title

1st rd: bt Lu Yen-Hsun (TPE) 6-4, 6-1, 6-12nd rd: bt Steve Darcis (BEL) 7-5, 6-3, 6-43rd rd: bt Aljaz Bedene (GBR) 6-2, 6-3, 6-34th rd: bt Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP x14) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5QF: bt Tomas Berdych (CZE x7) 6-3, 7-5, 6-3SF: bt Dominic Thiem (AUT x13) 6-2, 6-1, 6-4F: bt Andy Murray (GBR x2) 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4

To Advertise hereCall: 444 11 300, 444 66 621

TENNIS

Gulf Times Monday, June 6, 20162

ReutersParis

As a serial winner, Serena Williams has broken records without a backward glance throughout her career, but

since September there is one milestone that has loomed ever larger in halting her progress towards the game’s pan-theon.

It is marked ‘Total Grand Slam Wins’, and frames a debate about who to con-sider the greatest woman player of all time. One name on a very short list of candidates is Serena herself and an-other is Steffi Graf, who holds the pro-fessional-era record of 22 singles titles at the game’s four blue riband events.

The American is one behind that and, back in September when she seemed as dominant as at any time since turning professional in 1995, looked odds-on to tie the record at the US Open.

But, revealing a fragility few had an-ticipated, she fell short there and did so again in the fi nals of the two sub-sequent majors, most recently against Spaniard Garbine Muguruza in Paris on Saturday.

For Williams’ coach, Patrick Moura-toglou, winning number 22 – and thence

upward to the all-time record of 24 held by Australian Margaret Court, who strad-dled the amateur and professional eras – is still very much on the agenda.

“You can see blockages and mental problems. I see neither,” he told re-porters in the Roland Garros players’ lounge after Saturday’s defeat. “I see how diffi cult it is to win a Grand Slam, how diffi cult to set all-time records... It will take the time it takes. It was tough to win the 17th, the 18th, it will be hard to win the 22nd and the 23rd but we will do it.”

Williams could not have racked up numbers 19 to 21 any quicker, how-ever, as she won the fi rst three majors of 2015, putting her on course for the calendar Grand Slam that only Graf, Court and American Maureen Con-nolly have achieved.

But Williams unravelled in the US Open semi-fi nal against unseeded Italian Roberta Vinci, a player she had not conceded a set against in four pre-vious meetings. In January’s fi nal of the Australian Open, the American again failed to cross the fi nishing line, los-ing to German Angelique Kerber who won her fi rst major having previously beaten Williams once in fi ve meetings.

Chance number three to draw level with Graf came on Saturday in Paris,

against fourth seed Muguruza, who Williams beat at Wimbledon in 2015 to win title number 21.

The previous day Williams appeared to view the Graf landmark with an un-easy mixture of fatalism and indiff er-ence, telling reporters “(there’s) noth-ing I can do about it”.

But in her fi nal match in Paris—per-haps in contrast to New York and Mel-bourne—it did not appear to weigh her down. She came up against someone who, in a high-octane fi nal in which neither woman gave ground, played the better tennis and beat the Ameri-can at her own power game.

Widely tipped after her win as the future queen of the sport, 22-year-old Muguruza will take some catching. Does Williams, who turns 35 in Sep-tember, have enough left in the tank to give chase?

Her coach believes she still has the game and, just as importantly, the pas-sion to do just that. “If she was indiff er-ent about making history in her sport that would be a concern,” Mouratoglou said. “When there is tension and when the (opponent’s) level of play is higher there are no more solutions. If (Serena’s) game wasn’t good enough to win this Roland Garros we have to do better next time.”

Numbers game keeps Serena on the edgeFOCUS

Muguruza tipped to rule women’s game

ReutersParis

Considering she won her maiden Grand Slam title on the surface that suits her game the least, Garbine Muguruza is being tipped as the

player who will end up ruling women’s tennis.The 22-year-old Spaniard claimed the

French Open by defeating Serena Williams in straight sets on Saturday, 11 months af-ter losing the Wimbledon fi nal to the world number one. Muguruza, whose hard-hit-ting game is at its devastating best on fast courts, will jump to second in the WTA rankings going into the grass season when the list is updated today.

“My dream is to continue and win more tournaments, similar tournaments, and to dominate,” the Venezuela-born Muguruza told reporters after her 7-5, 6-4 victory on Court Philippe Chatrier.

“When I am on the court I want to dictate my game and bring more of these cups back home... This win is like a new pulse given to women’s tennis,” added the Spaniard, who became the second player after Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber to beat Williams in a Grand Slam fi nal this year.

Muguruza, who had never won a title on clay before Saturday, proved that she had very few weak points as she kept Williams

on the run throughout the fi nal. Her power-ful fi rst serve allows her to dictate play from the baseline and she spanks winners with her forehand or backhand with equal ease.

Muguruza also learnt to control her emo-tions, which overwhelmed her in last year’s Wimbledon fi nal. “I’m convinced she was panicking a bit in the inside, but she man-aged these moments very well,” said her coach, Frenchman Sam Sumyk, who also guided Belarussian Victoria Azarenka to her fi rst major title at the 2012 Australian Open, and to the top of the world rankings.

She had four match-points on Williams’s serve, which the American saved, but Mu-guruza ended the contest on her fi fth at-tempt with a lob that landed on the baseline.

“She’s number two after this, only one more step to be number one and I am sure she’s going to win many more Grand Slams,” former Spanish player Conchita Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledon champion and 2000 Roland Garros runner-up, told reporters. “She’s a great player on any surface, she is a complete player. Spain is very lucky to have this unbelievable tennis player.”

Williams, who was aiming to equal Steffi Graf’s professional-era record of 22 majors, was the favourite to win her third Paris title in four years but she fell one win short of the target—just as she had done at the Australian Open in January.

Her coach, however, warned that the

34-year-old Williams would stay on Mu-guruza’s radar for quite some time. “It shows how hard it is to win a Grand Slam, to equal records. It will take the time it will take, it was tough to win the 17th, the 18th, it will be hard to win the 22nd and the 23rd but we will do it,” Patrick Mouratoglou told reporters. “It’s a matter of time.”

Muguruza said fi xing her mindset and getting rid of all the unnecessary emotions were key to her winning her fi rst Grand Slam title. On the face of it, her match-up with defending champion Serena was an experi-ence mismatch. The 34-year-old American had played 26 Grand Slam fi nals and won 21 of them. The Spaniard, 12 years her junior, was playing in just her second having lost last year’s Wimbledon fi nal to Williams.

Plenty of reasons then for Muguruza, who has suff ered from nerves in the past to get stressed out. But Sumyk has been working on her mental approach and that was what she kept fi rmly in the back of her mind in Paris.

“I have been saying during the whole week to be less emotional. To believe more that I’m here because I deserve my place here. I earned it,” she said. “You know, I played well. I earned to be here in the fi nal. I think just to don’t think about other stuff . Just give it all in the court and doesn’t matter who’s in front, which round it is. Just to control the emotions I think is the

key sometimes, especially in a Grand Slam where you’re very nervous and excited.”

Other factors were at work in the Mugu-ruza brain cells as she prepared to face up to a player many consider to be the greatest of all time.

Firstly, despite losing in straight sets to the American at Wimbledon she was far from disgraced, putting up a strong show-ing behind her big serve.

And then there were the upset wins over Williams by Roberta Vinci in the US Open semi-fi nals and Angelique Kerber in the Australian Open fi nal.

“Yeah, I thought about it. I thought about it yesterday. I’m like, ‘Come on. You can do it’,” she said. “When you see people that are winning and there’s new faces, makes you think like, I can be one of those faces. Hey, if Kerber can I can, or whoever is there. Yeah, for sure, it helps to see new faces.”

It is just a matter of trying to get more consistency into her game and avoid form slumps like the one she underwent earlier this year. “I think I’m ambitious. I think I have a strong character and I like competi-tion. I like to compete. I like to play against the best players,” she said.

“This is a source of motivation for me. I’m very happy, because today I proved to myself that I can play really well, that I can manage my stress and win against one of the best players in the world.”

SPOTLIGHT

‘My dream is to continue and win more tournaments, similar tournaments, and to dominate. When I am on the court I want to dictate my game and bring more of these cups back home... This win is like a new pulse given to women’s tennis’

Federer, Del Potro to test injuries on Stuttgart grassAFPStuttgart

Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro will test injuries as the Wimbledon

run-up period begins today at the Stuttgart Open grass event.

The former clay week switched surfaces a year ago in an edition won by Rafael Nadal. Though the Spaniard is out of action with a wrist injury and was not entered, his absence will be more than made up by the arrival of Federer.

The 34-year-old Swiss prac-ticed on Sunday on the courts laid a year ago by Wimbledon specialists and given the unoff i-cial seal of approval in 2015 after John McEnroe had a hit on them during dedication ceremonies at the Weissenhof Club.

Federer wisely skipped what was the wettest and coldest French Open in decades to let back pain subside, with tourna-ment organisers saying he has trained in Switzerland and is arriving fit.

Del Potro won Stuttgart in 2008, the first of his 18 career trophies, when it was played on clay; he has chosen the venue for his first match in five weeks since losing in the Madrid second round to Jack Sock. The Argentine has been dealing with a wrist injury, playing only 13 matches in 2016.

The Federer eff ect is ex-pected to be massive at the box

off ice, with tournament director Edwin Weindorfer making sure the main court grandstand was able to accommodate an ad-ditional 1,500 seats.

Philipp Kohlschreiber will be one of two Germans along with Jan-Lennard Struff directly into the field after negotiations broke down with rising youngster Alexander Zverev, who won a round at Wimbledon last year on his debut. The ATP number 41 from Hamburg had report-edly made financial demands which were considered too rich by tournament organisers and would not bend despite having been awarded wildcards into the event for the last two editions.

“I’m a bit disappointed, it would have been nice if Sascha would have played. But we have financial limitations. Perhaps next year...,” said Weindorfer.

Federer and the other top four seeds—Croatian Marin Cilic, French open semi-finalist Dominic Thiem and Frenchman Gilles Simon—all have byes into the second round. Federer will play the winner from American teenager Taylor Fritz and a qual-ifier while 2014 US Open winner Cilic faces either a qualifier or Denis Istomin.

Thiem, holding a top-10 ranking for the first time after his deep run in Paris, starts with Australian Sam Groth or Illya Marchenko of the Ukraine. Wild card Del Potro will be tested from the first round by Grigor Dimitrov.

ReutersParis

Marc Lopez and Feli-ciano Lopez made Saturday in Paris a day to remember

for Spain as they beat American twins Bob and Mike Bryan, the most successful doubles pair-ing in Grand Slam history, to win the French Open crown.

Hours after compatriot Gar-bine Muguruza notched up her maiden major title on the same Philippe Chatrier showcourt with a straight sets defeat of holder Serena Williams, Lopez and Lopez took their fi rst major too, going the full distance in winning 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3.

While the Bryan brothers were seeking their 17th Grand Slam title having won their fi rst, also in Paris in 2003, the Spaniards teamed up at the start of 2016 for the Australian Open. The Americans also won at Roland Garros in 2013.

More mobile than the faster-serving Americans and more inclined to chance their arm at the net, the Spanish pair—who are not related—took the fi rst set after breaking Bob’s serve in the fi rst game.

The Bryans bagged the second set on a tiebreak their opponents came within two points of win-

ning, before Feliciano closed out the match in the third with a love service game.

“We won the match against the best in the world. You can’t expect anything better than that,” said Feliciano, who as a singles player enjoyed moder-ate success at the Slams having reached the quarter-fi nals at both Wimbledon and US Open.

“There is no doubt that this is one of the most beautiful wins in my career. For the past 18 months I have been playing the doubles, and at that time I didn’t think that I would be in a position to win a Grand Slam so quickly. It’s quite unexpected. It’s a great reward,” he added.

Garcia and Mladenovic win women’s doubles

French fi fth seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladen-ovic won their fi rst Grand Slam women’s doubles title yester-day with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 vic-tory over Russian duo Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.

Garcia and Mladenovic only teamed up this year with a target of playing at the Olym-pics but have now won four titles after Charleston, Stutt-gart and Madrid. Seventh seeds Makarova and Vesnina won the 2013 French Open and 2014 US Open titles.

Lopez & Lopez break Grand Slam duck

DOUBLES

Brazil held by Ecuador, Peru down HaitiAFPLos Angeles

A controversial refereeing de-cision spared Brazil’s blushes at the Copa America Cente-nario on Saturday as the fi ve-

time world champions opened their campaign with a goalless draw against Ecuador.

Ecuador looked to have taken a sen-sational lead at the Pasadena Rose Bowl midway through the second half when Brazil goalkeeper Alisson fum-bled a cross from Miller Bolanos into his own net as he stooped to gather at the near post.

But as Ecuador’s bench and players celebrated, the match offi cials whis-tled for a goal kick, after ruling that the ball had gone out of play shortly before Bolanos crossed into the six-yard box.

Replays of the incident appeared to suggest the ball was fractionally still in play and that Brazil had been saved from a losing start to Group B by an of-fi ciating error.

Brazil’s players left the fi eld to scat-tered boos from the 53,158 crowd at the Rose Bowl, scene of the South American giants’ 1994 World Cup fi nal triumph.

“I saw it 25 times on video just now and the ball never went out completely - maybe 65 percent but not complete-ly,” said Ecuador head coach Gustavo Quinteros.

“The linesman is so sure of himself even though he is 50 metres away,” the Bolivian complained.

Brazil manager Dunga said he hadn’t been close enough to judge whether the goal should have been allowed.

“From the angle I was at it was dif-fi cult to see if the ball went out,” Dunga said. “The players who were closer said it did.”

Peru sink Haiti

In the day’s other Group B game, Peru got off the mark with a 1-0 vic-tory over Haiti in Seattle which saw striker Paolo Guerrero surpass Teofi lo Cubillas as his country’s leading inter-national goalscorer.

Guerrero, 32, the top goalscorer in the past two editions of the Copa America, headed home his 27th in-ternational goal in the 61st minute at CenturyLink Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team.

The win was just about deserved for Peru, who created the better chances but struggled to break down a well-organized Haiti defense.

Peru looked to be cruising to three points but had a scare in the dying seconds when Haiti’s Kervens Bel-fort somehow headed wide from close range with the goal at his mercy.

The Peruvians now face Ecuador on Wednesday while Brazil travel to Flor-ida to play Haiti in Orlando at the Cit-rus Bowl, the venue for the other game on Saturday, a drab 0-0 draw between Costa Rica and Paraguay in Group A.

The match kicked off in swelter-ing late afternoon temperatures of around 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 de-

grees Celsius) and the energy-sapping conditions contributed to a lacklustre spectacle. Paraguay’s Argentine coach Ramon Diaz slammed the decision to schedule kick-off at a time when tem-peratures are known to be at their most fi erce.

“It was crazy to play at the time we played,” Diaz told a post-game news conference.

“I would have liked them (the or-ganisers) to take into consideration the players themselves, they are the main part of the show after all,” he added.

“The kick-off times should be made with players in mind. I know there are commitments with TV and so on but the conditions took their toll,” he added.

Most professional club games held in Florida during the summer, includ-ing those of local Major League Soccer team Orlando City, are scheduled for the mid-evening when temperatures have dropped.

Asked if he had ever been involved in a game played in such conditions, Diaz, who performed in Argentina, It-aly and Japan during his playing career said: “Never. I really think the players should be respected.”

COPA AMERICA CENTENARIO

‘I saw it 25 times on video and the ball never went out completely - maybe 65 percent but not completely’

ReutersBern

FIFA president Gianni In-fantino accused the man who masterminded reforms of soccer’s global body of

“playground” behaviour and told Swiss newspapers that his salary, still to be confi rmed, would be less than 2 million Swiss francs ($2.05 million).

Infantino, elected three months ago to haul FIFA out of the worst graft scandal in its history, said his “enemies” wanted to make him look greedy after a newspaper leak said he had been angered by a suggested package.

FIFA has been embroiled in cri-sis after several dozen soccer of-fi cials were indicted in the United States last year while its own ethics committee has banned several top fi gures, including former president Sepp Blatter.

Infantino promised a fresh start but ran into problems of his own when last month’s Congress gave the FIFA Council power to appoint

or dismiss members of independent bodies such as the ethics committee and the audit and compliance com-mittee. Domenico Scala, who as head of the audit and compliance had led the reforms of FIFA, quit his post hours later, saying the committees were no longer independent of the Council and that reforms had been undermined.

The Frankfurter Allegemeine Zei-tung last month said that leaked details of FIFA Council meetings showed that Infantino had been an-gered when the compensation com-mittee, which Scala also sat on, of-fered him a salary of $2 million Swiss francs a year.

“My contract is being negotiated and this is not the place to unveil the outlines,” Infantino said in the inter-view, published in French-speaking Le Matin and German-speaking Sonntagszeitung.

“However, once signed, I will show you with pleasure all the de-tails and you will see that it will be less than the 2 million that the media has mentioned.”

“My enemies want to make me look greedy,” he added. “I have not

stolen anything. And everything that I have earned in my life has been thanks to me work. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth.”

Infantino said he had only learned of Scala’s resignation after return-ing from a FIFA Congress in Mexico, even though the two were on the same fl ight.

He described some of Scala’s comments in the media as a “piece of theatre”, adding: “This is childish behaviour worthy of the playground. I do not want to pay more attention to it.”

He rejected the suggestion that the FIFA Council could now infl uence ethics committee investigations.

“The facts prove it and will do so in the future,” he said. “Domenico Scala is mistaken in his analysis.

“He thinks that football can be managed with the same principles as a pharmaceutical company or pesti-cides’ manufacturer.

This is a major error of assess-ment, because it underestimates the passion of football as well as its geo-political dimension.”

Scala could not immediately be reached for comment yesterday.

FIFA chief blasts critics, says salary not decidedFOCUS

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Monday, June 6, 2016

US investors take control of SwanseaAFPLondon

A consortium headed by American businessmen Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan has purchased a

controlling stake in Swansea, the Premier League club announced yesterday.

The deal, concluded after lengthy negotiations, will see Huw Jenkins remain in an executive role and charged with the day-to-day run-ning of the club.

“Jason and Steve have vast expe-rience in running sporting franchis-es in America,” Swansea said in an offi cial statement on their website.

“Jason is managing general owner of MLS side, DC United while Steve is the executive vice-chairman of the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA.

“Both see the takeover of Swan-sea City as an exciting opportunity for long-term growth in the club in every area.”

Levien has also held roles at the Grizzlies and Philadelphia 76ers and also works as an advisor to In-ter Milan majority owner and presi-dent Erick Thohir, who co-owns DC United with him.

It is understood that the Ameri-can duo has acquired around 60 per cent of the club, which fi nished 12th, on 47 points, last season under new Italian coach Francesco Guidolin.

The deal is subject to offi cial rati-fi cation by the Premier League.

The move is the latest in a spate of foreign investment in the lucrative English topfl ight with the biggest success story involving Leicester City.

Thailand’s shopping magnate Vi-chai Srivaddhanaprabha paid £39mn ($60mn) for the club in 2010, over-seeing the greatest rags to riches story in football when his 5,000-1 shots sealed the Premier League title last month.

Swansea’s fellow Welsh side Car-diff were taken over by Malaysian billionaire Vincent Tan six years ago.

Relegated Aston Villa were the latest club to change hands when they were bought by Harvard-edu-cated Chinese owner Tony Xia last month.

American interest in the Premier League is already well established, with Stanley Kroenke the largest stakeholder at Arsenal, John Henry owning Liverpool and the Glazer Family well embedded at Manches-ter United. Sunderland meanwhile are in the hands of Irish-American businessman Ellis Short.

SPOTLIGHT

Peru’s Paolo Guerrero (L) celebrates next to Alejandro Hohberg aft er scoring against Haiti during their Copa America Centenario match in Seattle. (AFP)

The ball bounces off the shoulder of goalkeeper Alisson Becker of Brazil and bounces into the goal during the second half against Ecuador but the goal was not al-lowed during 2016 Copa America Centenario Group B match at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. (Getty Images/AFP)

Jason Levien

FOOTBALL4 Gulf Times

Monday, June 6, 2016

Schweinsteiger, Hummels a worry for coach Loew

SPOTLIGHT

Schweinsteiger played the last 23 minutes in Gelsenkirchen after three months sidelined by a torn medial knee ligament, while Hummels is out with a calf tear

AFPGelsenkirchen, Germany

Germany coach Joachim Loew says his priority is getting captain Bastian Schwein-steiger and key defender Mats

Hummels fit for Euro 2016, following Saturday’s 2-0 confidence-boosting friendly win over Hungary.

Schweinsteiger played the last 23 min-utes in Gelsenkirchen after three months sidelined by a torn medial knee ligament, while Hummels is out with a calf tear.

Manchester United star Schwein-steiger admits he is unlikely to play the full 90 minutes of Germany’s open-ing Group C game at Euro 2016 against Ukraine in Lille on June 12 before facing Poland four days later, then Northern Ireland on June 21.

Hummels has said he does not expect to be fi t until at least their second game against Poland in Paris on June 16.

“He hasn’t got any playing rhythm at the moment, so we’ll have to see,” said Loew

when asked if Schweinsteiger will play in the world champions opening game. We have to see how Hummels gets on.”

But Loew is confi dent both Sami Khedira and Jerome Boateng, who had to be treated on the pitch in Gelsenkirchen, will be fi t to face Ukraine.

“We took Sami Khedira off at the start of the second half as a precaution, Boat-eng had a pressed nerve, but was able to play on,” added Loew.

Germany’s head coach was pleased to leave Gelsenkirchen with no signifi cant injuries. Just as he did for the 2014 World Cup, Loew had to strike off winger Marco Reus from his fi nal squad last Tuesday, this time with a groin injury after torn ankle ligaments ruled the Borussia Dort-mund winger out of Brazil.

This was the fi rst time Germany had kept a clean sheet in the last year and Loew was grateful for the win after an experimental side was humbled 3-1 by Slovakia in Augsburg last Sunday.

“It was important to keep them down to nil, the win gives us a bit of stability and a good feeling for next week,” added Loew.

A fi rst-half own-goal by Hungary de-fender Adam Lang and a second from Thomas Mueller sealed the Germans’ win, but the biggest boost was seeing Schweinsteiger play his fi rst football since injury in March.

“It was good to get the fi rst 25-odd minutes under my belt, but I don’t hon-estly think I can play the 90 minutes of our fi rst game,” admitted Schweinsteiger.

“That said, I could do much before this Euro than I could two years ago before the World Cup,” he added, having carried an ankle injury before Brazil 2014, but went on to produce a commanding perform-ance for Germany the Rio de Janeiro fi nal.

Having toyed with playing a three-man defence, Loew reverted to the 4-2-3-1 which won Germany the title in Brazil.

He started with Cologne’s Jonas Hec-tor at right-back for the fi rst-half, then Liverpool’s Emre Can for the second, in the only defensive position still to be de-cided before the Euro starts.

This was no more than a satisfactory performance from the world champions, who have a habit of raising their game for

major tournaments.“We started well and let the ball run

for us, perhaps a bit too much,” said Germany defender Boateng, whose su-perbly floated cross led to their second goal by Mueller.

“After the break, we gave the ball away too much, but all in all it was a good per-formance. I believe we can be happy, we played better than in our previous game.”

Hungary play Austria in their fi rst Group F match on June 14 in Bordeaux, before also facing Portugal and Iceland, and their German coach Bernd Storck was pleased, despite the defeat.

“We had a few good attempts to play from the back, but of course it’s very dif-fi cult against such a good opponent,” said Storck. “It was obvious that we would be under pressure, but we did our best and gave a good account of ourselves.

“Our strength is how compact we are in defence and that is just how we’ll be against Austria.

“We picked up some good insights ahead of the Euro and that will help for our fi rst group game.”

Copa curse as injuries hit starsBOTTOMLINE

AFPSanta Clara, United States

The Copa America Cente-nario is facing a mounting injury crisis involving its biggest stars after James

Rodriguez joined Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez amongst the ranks of the walking wounded.

A tournament billed as a gath-ering of world football’s biggest names has been hit by a series of injuries and withdrawals with the 16-team competition being held in the United States only two days old.

Argentina captain Messi is the biggest name hampered by injury, with the Barcelona su-perstar struggling to shake off a back problem sustained dur-ing a friendly win over Hondu-ras last month.

Messi is regarded as doubtful for Argentina’s opening Group D game against Chile at the Levi’s Stadium today.

Messi’s Barcelona team-mate Suarez is also in doubt for

Uruguay’s opener against Mex-ico on Sunday, still troubled by a hamstring problem sustained during Barcelona’s Copa del Rey final victory.

Real Madrid star Rodriguez is the latest to suff er an injury scare, having been substituted in the second half of Colombia’s 2-0 win over the United States in Santa Clara on Friday.

Rodriguez left the fi eld clutching his shoulder.

He was later seen being fer-ried away from the team’s changing room at the Levi’s Stadium on a motorized buggy, with what looked like a prob-lem to his left arm.

CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTICColombia’s Argentina coach Jose Pekerman was cautiously opti-mistic that Rodriguez’s injury would not keep him out of Tues-day’s game with Paraguay at the Pasadena Rose Bowl.

“I hope that it’s not a compli-cated situation,” Pekerman said.

“I hope as time goes by we will have a clearer idea of the prob-

lem. I don’t want to think about the negative, let’s be positive and hope he plays.”

Colombia striker Carlos Bacca admitted losing Rodriguez would be a blow for “Los Cafeteros”.

“I hope we have good news be-cause it is our captain, he’s an im-portant player for us,” Bacca said.

As well as Messi, Rodriguez and Suarez, the Copa America — which is being held in the United States to mark the tournament’s 100th anniversary — Costa Rica’s Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas has also been ruled out through injury.

Brazil have also been affl icted by injuries and absentees.

Striker Neymar pulled out of the tournament in order to play in the Olympics while fi ve mem-bers of Dunga’s squad have been forced to withdraw because of injury, including Kaka and Bay-ern Munich’s Douglas Costa.

Other players ruled out through injury include Ricardo Oliveira Santos, goalkeeper Ederson and Barcelona midfi elder Rafi nha. A big blow to the fans.

AFPOrlando

Paraguay’s Argentine coach Ramon Diaz slammed the decision of Copa America organis-

ers to schedule Saturday’s game against Costa Rica during the day as “crazy” after a 0-0 draw played in intense heat.

The temperature at the 5pm local kick-off time in the Cit-rus Bowl was around 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius).

“It was crazy to play at the time we played,” Diaz told a post-game news conference.

“I would have liked them (the organisers) to take into consid-eration the players themselves, they are the main part of the show after all,” he added.

“I’ve been in the game a long time and very few times are the players taken into consideration.

“The kick-off times should be made with players in mind. I know there are commitments with TV and so on but the con-ditions took their toll,” he added.

Most professional club games held in Florida during the sum-mer, including those of local Major League Soccer team Orlando City, are scheduled for the mid-evening when temperatures have dropped.

Asked if he had ever been in-volved in a game played in such conditions, Diaz, who performed

in Argentina, Italy and Japan during his playing career said: “Never. I really think the players should be respected.”

The Copa America tourna-ment is the biggest interna-tional soccer event to be held in the United States since the 1994 World Cup.

Orlando was a venue for that tournament and drew attention after a group game between the Republic of Ireland and Mexico was played at mid-day in a tem-perature of 105 degrees fahrenheit.

Costa Rica forward Bryan Diaz agreed with his namesake.

“On the pitch it felt even worse than you can imagine. You have to change the way you play. Nor-mally we like to press more but we just couldn’t do it. If we go 40 metres up fi eld and then back 40, it is very diffi cult in that temper-ature,” he told AFP.

The Sporting Lisbon striker said competition organisers needed to start to listen to the players about kick-off times in hot conditions.

“It eff ects the show, you can put on a better game for the fans when you are playing in better conditions,” he said The game drew a low crowd of 14,334 in the 65,000 capacity stadium in which Orlando City regularly draw crowds around 36,000.

Some local fans took to social media to blame high ticket-pric-es for the poor attendance.

Furious Diaz can’t stand the heat at Copa

COMPLAINT

Lowly Guinea-Bissau reach their fi rst fi nals

AFRICA CUP

AFPJohannesburg

Guinea-Bissau secured a place at the Africa Cup of Nations for the fi rst time yesterday after

closest rivals Congo Brazzaville lost 2-1 in Kenya.

Congo, needing at least a draw to keep alive hopes of win-ning Group E, suff ered a sur-prise defeat despite taking the lead through a controversially awarded penalty.

Guinea Bissau, who beat Zam-bia 3-2 Saturday with a goal from Brito six minutes into stoppage time, have an unassailable four point lead with one round left.

The team from the tiny former Portuguese colony in West Af-rica were considered no-hopers by pundits when qualifying kicked off last June.

But solitary-goal home and away victories over Kenya three months ago lifted them to the top of the table after Congo and Zambia drew twice.

Ranked 31 in Africa and 115 in the world, Guinea Bissau never previously came close to reaching the biennial African football showcase.

Many of the team coached by local Baciro Cande play in Por-tugal and favour Brazilian-style football names.

The real name of Brito, who is with top-flight outfit Sport-ing Clube de Braga, is Piqueti Djassi Brito Silva.

Prince Oniangue converted

the penalty for Congo only for Ayub Timbe to equalise soon af-ter and Eric Johanna scored the second-half winner for Kenya.

Captain Andre ‘Dede’ Ayew opened the scoring as Ghana tri-umphed 2-0 in Mauritius to also qualify for the Cup of Nations.

The Swansea City midfield-er and son of former Ghana superstar Abedi ‘Pele’ Ayew struck from close range after 71 minutes in Belle Vue on the Indian Ocean island.

Two Mauritians failed to cut off a cross and Ayew controlled the ball before fi ring a left-foot shot past outstanding goalkeep-er Kevin Jean-Louis.

Dominant Ghana sealed vic-tory three minutes later through Chelsea midfi elder Christian Atsu, who was voted the out-standing footballer of the 2015 Cup of Nations.

Mauritius were battling to contain Ghanaian raids on the left fl ank and from one the ball was cut back for Atsu to score with a hard, low shot.

Although they never threat-ened to breach the Black Stars defence, Mauritius were a much improved team from that humil-iated 7-1 in Ghana last June.

Ghana have 13 points, Rwanda and Mauritius six each and Mo-zambique four with one match-day to come in September.

Morocco, Algeria, Cam-eroon, Egypt and Senegal have also qualified for the January 21-February 12 tournament while Gabon are automatic participants as hosts.

Germany’s Joachim Loew reacts during his team’s international friendly against Hungary in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

File picture of Paraguay’s coach Ramon Angel Diaz.

James Rodriguez #10 of Colombia is looked by the medical staff of Columbia during the Copa America match against USA.

Captain Andre ‘Dede’ Ayew opened the scoring as Ghana triumphed 2-0 in Mauritius yesterday to become the sixth qualifiers for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.The Swansea City midfielder and son of former Ghana superstar Abedi ‘Pele’ Ayew struck from close range after 71 minutes in Belle Vue on the Indian Ocean island.Two Mauritians failed to cut off a cross and Ayew control-led the ball before firing a left-foot shot past outstanding goalkeeper Kevin Jean-Louis.

Dominant Ghana sealed victory three minutes later through Chelsea midfielder Christian Atsu, who was voted the outstanding footballer of the 2015 Cup of Nations.Mauritius were battling to contain Ghanaian raids on the left flank and from one the ball was cut back for Atsu to score with a hard, low shot.Although they never threat-ened to breach the Black Stars defence, Mauritius were a much improved team from that humiliated 7-1 in Ghana last June.

Captain Ayew scores as Ghana qualify

FOOTBALL5Gulf Times

Monday, June 6, 2016

Hosts France show that they are ready for Euro 2016

SPOTLIGHT

‘This was good for confidence. We showed we are capable of scoring goals and we didn’t concede any. It is positive but we are not getting carried away...’

AFPMetz, France

Despite a troubled build-up to Euro 2016 off the fi eld, France showed that they are ready on it by brushing aside Scotland

3-0 in Metz in their last pre-tournament friendly on Saturday.

A brace from Olivier Giroud and a header from his Arsenal colleague Lau-rent Koscielny, all in the fi rst half, sepa-rated the teams at the Stade Saint-Sym-phorien, and France could have won by a far greater margin.

If the country itself has been marred by social strife and miserable weather and weighed down by terrorism fears, Di-dier Deschamps’ team have had a diffi cult build-up due to the Karim Benzema aff air and injuries to key players in defence.

However, the reality is that France merit their tag as one of the pre-tournament favourites to win the Euro-

pean Championship.“We will be ready. We have been pre-

paring for two years,” said Deschamps, whose side kick off their Euro bid against Romania at the Stade de France on Friday.

“This was good for confi dence. We showed we are capable of scoring goals and we didn’t concede any. We could have scored more in the second half. It is positive but we are not getting carried away and neither are the players.

“The diffi culty will come on Friday against Romania but this was our last preparation game and it is always good to end on a high note.”

Despite the absence of Real Madrid star Benzema, sidelined due to his impli-cation in the Mathieu Valbuena sextape blackmail scandal, this is a team bristling with attacking potential.

Against Scotland, France may only have won by three but they could eas-ily have won by double that margin, and they have now netted 13 times in four matches in 2016.

Les Bleus have also won nine of 10 games going back to September, the sole exception being the 2-0 defeat to Eng-land at Wembley, played in a diffi cult context just days after the November Paris terror attacks.

GIROUD ANSWERS CRITICS Watching from the stand in Metz, Romania assistant coach Viorel Moldovan can only have admired France’s attacking strength, as the maligned Giroud followed up his goal in last Monday’s 3-2 defeat of Cameroon in Nantes with a brace.

“He already answered (the critics) in Nantes. He scored and scored again, and the other players are behind him,” said Deschamps of a player who has seven goals in France’s last seven outings.

“When a player is in diffi culty they are all with him. He was not so much in diffi culty but he was being heckled from outside. I have confi dence in him and so do his team-mates.”

The only doubt regarding Deschamps’

line-up appears to be in attack, where Dimitri Payet and Anthony Martial are contesting one place.

Meanwhile, Leicester City sensation N’Golo Kante looks set to start against Romania after an impressive display re-placing the injured Lassana Diarra in the holding midfi eld role.

“Everything about his performance was good,” said Deschamps, whose team will also face Albania and Switzerland.

“Everything seems simple and easy for him. I have played in that position and sometimes you fi nd yourself catching your breath. He sticks to what he knows and he does that very well. He doesn’t say much, just smiles. He has no anxiety, no fear.”

Kante himself added: “For my fi rst match in that position it went well. It is not my usual position. I need to learn to get forward less. But overall I am happy with myself.

“Obviously I hope to start against Ro-mania next Friday. Everyone wants to play. In any case, I will be ready.”

In-form Spain look to win title for a third consecutive time

EURO 2016

DPAMadrid

Holders Spain complete their preparations for Euro 2016 with what should be a comforta-

ble friendly at home to minnows Georgia tomorrow.

La Roja are bidding to become the fi rst country to win three consecutive Euros, having tri-umphed in sumptuous style in 2008 and 2012.

“We know it is going to be dif-fi cult (to win for a third time), but we are confi dent about our chances,” said Real Madrid de-fender Sergio Ramos.

“Everyone wants to beat the champions, that always happens in football. But we are in good form and looking forward to it.”

Ramos is one of the four play-ers from Real and Atletico - along with Lucas Vazquez, Juan-

fran and Koke - now available to Spain manager Vicente del

Bosque, after taking a week off to recover from the May 28 Cham-

pions League fi nal between the capital’s top teams.

Ramos, who captained Real to glory in the Milan final, de-nied he was tired after a gruel-ling schedule.

“It has been good to have a whole week away from football. Now I feel recovered mentally and physically, and I’m really looking forward to the Euros.”

The incorporation of Juanfran and Ramos means that Del Bosque will fi nally be able to fi eld his fi rst-choice defence – of Juanfran, Ramos, Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba – in front of either Iker Casillas or David de Gea.

Del Bosque has reportedly de-cided in favour of De Gea as his fi rst-choice keeper for the Eu-ros, thus relegating the veteran Casillas to the bench after 14 long – and largely successful – years as Spain’s number one.

Leading the Spain attack against Georgia will be the in-

form Nolito,who scored four times in the

3-1 and 6-1 defeats of Bosnia and South Korea last week.

“I’m just trying to enjoy this moment,” the 29-year-old Celta Vigo striker said.

“I really don’t know if I’m go-ing to be the fi rst-choice striker (at the Euros). All I can do is play as well as possible, and keep my fi ngers crossed.”

Del Bosque will have to decide between youngster Alvaro Mor-ata and veteran Aritz Aduriz to accompany Nolito in attack.

The game will be played in Getafe, a southern suburb of Ma-drid in a state of mourning follow-ing the relegation of their team af-ter 12 years in the top fl ight.

“I hope this match is going to cheer our people up a bit. Things have been a bit fl at around here for the last couple of weeks or so,” Getafe president Angel Torres said.

ReutersLondon

France and Arsenal for-ward Olivier Giroud has fuelled speculation that Jamie Vardy is on his way

to the Gunners by saying he has heard the Leicester City striker is keen to move.

“I have been told that Jamie wants to join us and it’s very good news for us,” the striker told Sky Sports after scoring twice in France’s 3-0 friendly win against Scotland on Saturday.

British media reported on Friday that Arsenal, runners-up to champions Leicester last season, had triggered a buy-out clause in Vardy’s contract with a bid of around 20 million pounds ($29.04 million).

There was no immediate com-ment from Thai-owned Leices-ter, although Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper quoted manager Claudio Ranieri con-fi rming Arsenal had made a bid.

ESPN quoted a source close to Arsenal as saying Vardy was due to undergo a medical on Sunday.

“I am happy with competition. We have always had fantastic strikers at Arsenal and I want the best for this club. Hopefully he is going to help us win this title,” said Giroud.

“The boss (Arsene Wenger) wanted to sign at least one or two strikers, so I expected a top striker and I think it will benefi t the club and hopefully he is going to score a lot of goals like he did at Leicester.”

Vardy, 29, is due to travel to France on Monday with the Eng-land squad for the Euro 2016 fi -nals starting on Friday.

He scored 24 Premier League goals last season as Leicester won the top-fl ight crown for the fi rst time in their history, and was cho-sen as Player of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association.

Arsenal have not won the league since 2004 and fi nished second this season, 10 points be-hind Leicester.

Vardy wants to join Arsenal, says Giroud

INTENT

Mourinho to deliver United title glory in two years: Carvalho

Poor pitches hurting Australia’s World Cup hopes: Postecoglou

PREDICTION

COMPLAINT

AFPLondon

New Manchester United manager Jose Mourin-ho will deliver the Pre-mier League title with-

in two years, predicted defender Ricardo Carvalho yesterday.

“Jose will have something to prove after what happened at Chelsea,” the Portuguese interna-tional who was coached by Mour-inho at Chelsea, Porto and Real Madrid and now plays for Mona-co, wrote in The Sun newspaper.

“I think he will make Man-chester United better and in the next two years they will be champions.”

Carvalho’s comments come on a day when Mourinho could make his fi rst appearance at Old Traff ord since being named as Louis van Gaal’s successor in Sunday’s prestigious Soccer Aid charity match.

Just nine days after the offi -cial confi rmation of Mourinho’s appointment, the 53-year-old will be in Manchester to give his support to Unicef, who use the friendly fi xture to raise money

for children in danger.The former Chelsea boss had

agreed to manage an ‘England’ team consisting of former in-ternationals, musicians, actors and other celebrities, against a Rest of the World team coached by Leicester chief Claudio Ranieri and featuring a host of retired legends.

But, following his move to United, Mourinho could instead decide to save his fi rst game on the home bench for the Premier League club’s clash with Everton in Wayne Rooney’s testimonial on August 3.

Carvalho believes Mourinho, who has won the Premier League title three times, has something to prove after his tricky time at Chelsea. “He is a great coach and now he is in a great club - United are one of the biggest in the world.

“I have no doubt that he can bring trophies back to United again and that he will make them champions.

“I don’t know if it will be in the fi rst year, the second year or the third, but Mourinho will win the title again.

“My prediction is that it will be in the second year.”

ReutersMelbourne

Substandard Australian soccer pitches are “cheat-ing” local fans and could derail the country’s World

Cup ambitions, according to Soc-ceroos coach Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou and his players lamented the playing surface at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday after Australia defeated Greece 1-0 in a friendly courtesy of a late Mathew Leckie strike.

The pitch, which had hosted a rugby league match on Wednes-day, was cleared for play by the match referee despite the del-uge of rain that fell on Sydney throughout Saturday.

Greece-born Postecoglou said he felt “embarrassed” about the conditions. “We’ve got an in-ternational team here that we’re hosting and we’re supposed to be the sporting nation of the world,” he told reporters.

“The crowd were fantastic (but) I felt sorry for them... it’s just not good enough.

“I can tell you what the Greek players were saying when they were coming off the pitch, and they’re too polite to say anything publicly. We have world-class venues, world-class atmos-pheres, our supporters are sec-ond to none — we love our sport.

“But in our game and our game alone, the pitch is actually an es-

sential part of the spectacle.“If that’s not good then we’re

cheating people.”Australia kick off the next

round of Asian qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia with a home game against Group B ri-vals Iraq on Sept. 1 and host re-gional heavyweights Japan the following month.

Postecoglou said scratchy home pitches were hindering his team’s ability to play good foot-ball, which could have conse-quences for their hopes of reach-ing Russia. “Our whole World Cup qualifi cation could hinge on it,” said the 50-year-old.

“Do we not want the condi-tions to suit us? To present a pitch that suits our style of game to get that advantage?

“I’m sure when we play in Ja-pan they will, so we shouldn’t have to prove we’re some sort of pedigree before we get what I think our nation deserves.”

France’s midfielder N’Golo Kante (L) congratulates France’s forward Olivier Giroud during the friendly between France and Scotland in Longeville-lès-Metz, Eastern France.

Australian football coach Ange Postecoglou.

Spain’s coach Vicente del Bosque gestures during a training session.

Iguodala stealing show for Warriors

ReutersLos Angeles

The NBA Finals might have been billed as a showdown between the game’s top two players,

Stephen Curry and LeBron James, but sneaky Golden State reserve Andre Iguodala is stealing both headlines and possessions, not for the fi rst time in the champi-onship series.

Iguodala took home one of the more unlikely NBA Finals MVP awards in 2015 for his smother-ing defense on LeBron James and burst of energy after being inserted into the starting lineup

midway through the series.One year later, the Warriors

veteran is up to his old tricks in a title rematch with the Cleveland Cavaliers. As sharpshooters Cur-ry and Klay Thompson fell ice cold in Game One on Thursday, Iguo-dala helped lead a Golden State bench that outscored Cleveland’s 45-10 en route to an opening vic-tory.Iguodala fi nished with a ver-satile stat line of 12 points, seven rebounds, six assists, one blocked shot and one steal.

On two key plays, he stripped the ball away from James and Kyrie Irving to start a Warriors’ fast break. “He’s great at doing that, for sure,” James told report-ers. “(I) just got to do a better job

of protecting the ball.”Many off ensive players have

tried unsuccessfully against Ig-uodala, who helped snatch the Western Conference Finals for Golden State when he was put into the starting lineup for the Game Seven decider win over Oklahoma City.

“(He guarded) Kevin Durant last series, LeBron this series,” said Warriors guard Shaun Liv-ingston. “He’s our most valuable piece on the team, with Steph and Draymond (Green).”

Iguodala, 32, has been called “the adult in the room” by Gold-en State coach Steve Kerr, and he kept his typical cool in the open-er when Cleveland’s Matthew

Dellavedova struck him in the groin while committing a foul.

“You’ve got guys who’ve got to get a little dirty, got to be a lit-tle physical, to make a life and to feed their family, so I can only respect that,” Iguodala said on Saturday.

“For me, it’s just keeping my composure and continue to try to do things for my team to help us win.” The Cavaliers are searching for their own spark for Game Two, as they try to avoid falling behind in the series 2-0.

Coach Tyron Lue wants more speed from his off ense.

“I told LeBron I need him to play faster,” Lue said. “I need him to pick up the pace for us of-

fensively, getting the ball out and just beginning to play faster.”

The Cavs managed just 89 points in Game One and were often deliberate as they tried to attack Golden State with post-ups in the paint. At times they appeared more like last year’s injury-depleted team, which was forced to try to slow the pace against the Warriors, rather than one now loaded with a healthy Irving and Kevin Love.

“It’s a fi ne line,” James said. “I think when you keep the ball on one side for too long and you’re pounding and pounding and pounding, then that can - too much of that won’t result in good basketball.

NBA

‘It’s just keeping my composure and continue to try to do things for my team to help us win’

LeBron, fellow players praise Ali for his infl uenceTRIBUTE

SPORT

Gulf Times Monday, June 6, 20166

By Brian SchmitzOrlando Sentinel

In the pursuit of a big forward to complement center Nik Vucevic, the Magic should be on Al

Horford’s crowded doorstep the minute free agency opens July 1. The line will be long.

They might also need to express their love for 3-point shooting forwards Ryan An-derson and Chandler Parsons. The Magic fi gure to have a bet-ter shot at signing either one of them over Horford.

Horford, Anderson and Parsons all have one thing in common that could benefi t the Magic: The club won’t have to sell them on the virtues of Florida.

Horford and Parsons played in Gainesville, Fla., for the Gators – and in fact, Parsons is from Casselberry, Fla., and a Lake Howell grad. Anderson played for the Magic for three seasons, named the league’s Most Im-proved Player in 2011-12.

The Hawks can off er Hor-ford - who turned 30 on Friday - the most money (a fi ve-year, $150 million max deal.) The question is whether they fi nd it fi nancially feasible and they might not. Atlanta reportedly is talking with Philadelphia about dealing Jeff Teague for Nerlens Noel, who could re-place Horford.

Like other suitors, the Magic could pay Horford around $110 million. They’d surely jump at the chance to land an All-Star anchor next to Vucevic after failing to pry Horford’s team-mate, Paul Millsap, out of At-lanta last summer.

Free agents prefer to sign with winners, and that’s still the weakest part of the Magic’s recruiting pitch.

They can make runs at “stretch” forwards Anderson, 6-foot-10, 240 pounds, or Parsons, 6-10, 230. If it feels as

if the Magic have traveled this road, it is because they have.

Anderson became collat-eral damage during the Dwight Howard rebuild, dealt by GM Rob Hennigan in a four-year, $36 million sign-and-trade to New Orleans. This time around, Anderson will per-haps command twice as much money.

In the summer of 2014, Hennigan’s biggest free-agent signing was Channing Frye – supposedly the epitome of a stretch four. But Frye never quite fi t and he was traded him to Cleveland this season to create more cap space.

Hennigan had cap room in mind, too, when he dealt Tobi-as Harris, who also spent time at both forward spots.

At least Anderson, 28, and Parsons, 27, are younger than Frye, now 33. True, they’ve each had some signifi cant in-juries: Anderson had neck surgery in 2014 and Parsons is recovering from the second surgery on his right knee. But the Magic also signed Frye two years after he missed a season with a heart condition.

The Magic have only two players on their depth chart who fi t the job description at the 4: Ersan Ilyasova and An-drew Nicholson. And they can both become free agents on July 1.

Nicholson is looking for his fi rst big payday. It’s doubtful the Magic will invest signifi -cant money, if any, in a player who has made just eight starts the past three seasons.

Ilyasova has a contract at $8.4 million for next season, but it’s not guaranteed. The Magic would have to pay only $400,000 of it if they decide to let Ilyasova walk.

The Magic have a vacancy sign on their starting power-forward spot. Whether they fi ll it in the June draft, during free agency or by making a trade, they need to make a move.

ReutersLos Angeles

The death of boxing great Muhammad Ali was a huge talking point on Saturday for players

competing in the NBA Finals, and prompted the Golden State Warriors to begin their morning practice with an Ali tribute song.

“We started our practice with the old song from the 70s, ‘Catch Me If You Can’,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, referring to the hit single ‘Black Superman’ which was released by British singer Johnny Wakelin and the Kinshasa Band in 1975.

Ali, who died on Friday aged 74, reportedly did not like the song, but it nonetheless became a number one hit in Australia while also charting high in Britain, the United States and elsewhere.

On a day when Cleveland Cav-aliers star forward LeBron James and his team coach Tyronn Lue also spoke eloquently about Ali, Kerr joined in with the heart-felt tributes.

“(Ali was) probably the most infl uential athlete in the history of our country, so as a team, as an organization, we’re thinking about him,” Kerr told report-

ers on the eve of Game Two of the best-of-seven NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Golden State won the fi rst game on Thursday.

“I met him once in Phoenix at a Suns game very briefl y. It was a thrill. He was one of the few peo-ple on earth who had that pres-ence where you just got nervous just being in his presence, being there in the same room. It was quite an experience.”

Kerr’s counterpart Lue also paid tribute to the late boxer, as did James. “That was the fi rst guy I idolized,” Lue said of Ali.

“Muhammad Ali was a big reason why I was able to achieve so much in my life. I was honored and had the privilege to meet him a few times and it meant the world to me.”

PAVED THE WAY

Four-times NBA Most Valu-able Player James said that Ali paved the way for African-American athletes.

“Without Muhammad Ali, I wouldn’t be sitting up here talking to you guys, I wouldn’t be able to walk in restaurants, wouldn’t be able to go anywhere where blacks weren’t allowed back in those days,” James said.

“We knew what a great boxer

he was but that was only 20 per-cent (of what) made him as great as he was. He ended up in jail be-cause of his beliefs. “That was a guy who stood up for so many diff erent things at a time when it was diffi cult for African-Ameri-cans to even walk the streets.”

James added that Ali sacri-fi ced so much in his life knowing it would benefi t the next gen-eration. “I give all credit to (Ali), because he was the fi rst icon, the greatest of all-time and it had zero to do with his accomplish-ments inside the ring.

“I’ve spoken up on a lot of is-sues that other athletes might not speak upon, but feel it’s my duty to carry on the legacy of the guys who did it before me.”

Jerry West, who was a cham-pion NBA player with the Los Angeles Lakers in the same era as Ali, spoke about what it was like to be in Ali’s presence.

“You almost felt a God-like presence around him,” said West, 78, who is now a board member with the Warriors.

“He had IT. He had IT. Certain people are courageous in doing what no other athlete probably would have dared to have done, particularly a black athlete.

“He was a magnifi cent person. I loved that guy.”

Magic need to fi ll vacancy at power forward

FOCUS

AL HORFORDGolden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala (L) and Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love go for a loose ball during the second quarter in game one of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Sharks strike late to claw back into Stanley Cup seriesReutersSan Jose

The San Jose Sharks fl ipped the script on the Pittsburgh Penguins with a game-winning

overtime goal that gave them a 3-2 win on Saturday and pulled them back into the Stanley Cup Final series.

Finnish forward Joonas Don-skoi scored at 12:18 in OT to snap a 2-2 tie and bring the SAP Center crowd to life, cutting the home team’s defi cit to 2-1 in the best-of-seven game series.

San Jose, who dropped the fi rst two games on late Pitts-burgh goals, had appeared to be on the brink of elimination before Joel Ward made it 2-2 at 8:48 in the third period.

Donskoi completed the come-back in the extra session where he skated around the back of the net, then fl ipped a shot be-hind Pittsburgh goaltender Matt Murray.

“It was a great game, we never gave up. I think this was our best game so far so we had the con-fi dence to keep going,” Donskoi told reporters after his sixth goal of the playoff s.

“Just keep sticking, that’s how we want to play.”

The Sharks have waited 25 years to reach the franchise’s fi rst ever Stanley Cup Final, but it threatened to be a short stay there as the Penguins twice took the lead in Game Three.

Pittsburgh, who has outshot San Jose by a combined 113 to 74 through three games, drew fi rst blood in the opening period where Ben Lovejoy gave the visi-tors a lead. San Jose’s Justin Braun struck back at 9:34 in the fi rst to tie the game, but Patric Horn-qvist reestablished Penguins’ control at 19:07 in the second.

Ward delivered a lengthy ty-ing blast for the Sharks just as time was expiring on their pow-er-play and sent them into the locker room with renewed optimism.

“It was a huge turning point for us in the series,” San Jose vet-eran Joe Thornton told reporters after fi nishing with two assists and four shots on goal, including close calls in the overtime.

“Our coach was saying ‘hey, we’ve been on the other end of this a couple times this postsea-son; it’s our turn.’ And it was.”

Sharks goaltender Martin Jones was a critical reason why,

recording 40 saves to keep his team afl oat. The Penguins, who had their four-game playoff win streak snapped, are trying to seize their fi rst Stanley Cup since 2009. They can still take commanding control with a vic-tory in Game Four on Monday in San Jose.

“I liked a lot of things we did in

the game,” said Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan.

“We didn’t get the result, but we played hard and had some great opportunities to score. It was a fairly even game.”

Earlier NHL led the way with a moment of silence prior to Game Three of the Stanley Cup Finals as professional sports around

the United States paid tribute to Muhamed Ali. Ali, the former heavyweight champion known as much for his political activism as his boxing brilliance, died at the age of 74 on Friday.

The crowd at the SAP Center in San Jose rose to their feet prior to the encounter between the Sharks and the Pittsburgh

Penguins to refl ect on one of the best-known fi gures of the 20th century. The arena’s jumbotron fl ashed an image of the former boxer and displayed one of Ali’s many enduring quotes.

“Champions are made from something they have deep in-side them: a desire, a dream, a vision.”

Earlier in the day, Sharks coach Peter DeBoer had summed up the way Ali had touched the lives of so many people he en-countered when he shared a story about a meeting the boxer while a teenager.

They crossed paths in a hotel lobby and Ali invited a 17-year-old DeBoer and a few of his

friends up to his room and gave them autographed Korans.

“It was an unbelievable life experience for me,” DeBoer said.

“I think, considering the cir-cumstances, how this guy tran-scended not just boxing and sport, but how many people he’s touched, it’s an appropriate sto-ry to tell.”

NHL

‘It was a great game, we never gave up. I think this was our best game so far so we had the confidence to keep going’

By Andy VasquezThe Record (Hackensack, N.J.)

Another tough day for the Yan-kees looked like it was about to get a lot worse.

The Orioles were rallying, Camden Yards was buzzing. And then Andrew Miller came jogging out to the mound to change all that.

After losing Mark Teixeira to the 15-day DL - and perhaps much longer - the Yankees squandered a big lead in Balti-more. But Miller bailed them out of a jam with two perfect relief innings in an 8-6 win Saturday.

Ivan Nova seemed on his way to an easy victory at the start of the seventh inning with the Yankees ahead, 7-0. But Nova allowed a leadoff home run to Mark Trumbo and a two-run shot to Pedro Al-varez to make it 7-3.

After a walk and a base hit, Nova was pulled without getting an out in the seventh. But reliever Nick Goody im-mediately gave up a towering three-run homer off the bat of Adam Jones.

Six runs in. No outs. One run game. It was bedlam at Camden Yards as Miller jogged to the mound.

But the left-hander went through the heart of the Orioles’ lineup, retiring all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth.

Alex Rodriguez added an insurance run with an RBI single in the ninth, and Aroldis Chapman got the save _ securing a much-needed boost for the Yankees.

On Saturday morning, the Yankees found out they lost Teixeira to torn car-tilage in his right knee. Teixeira, who left Friday night’s loss with knee pain, is aiming to avoid season-ending surgery.

“That is our hope,” manager Joe Gir-ardi said. “Through some treatment, and rest, it’ll get better.”

But even Teixeira himself acknowl-edged he’s not sure if rest and treatment will fi x the problem.

He plans to meet with team doctors Monday in New York to formulate a plan.

Teixeira, who said he’s also dealing with a bulging disk in his neck, is in the midst of a dismal season, averaging .180 with only three homers and 12 RBIs in 48 games.

But the Yankees will still miss him.“It’s a big loss,” Girardi said. “I know

his numbers aren’t where we expect them to be, but at any point we felt that he would get hot and do his thing.”

His absence will be felt especially on defense, where there are few options to replace his trusty glove.

Dustin Ackley, who appeared in 12 games at fi rst this year, had season-end-ing shoulder surgery Friday. Greg Bird, who shined as a rookie, won’t play this year because of shoulder surgery. And with Brian McCann nursing a hyperex-tended elbow for the next few days, the Yankees can’t use him or backup catcher Austin Romine at fi rst base.

That leaves Girardi with two options for the near future: Rob Refsnyder and Chris Parmelee. Parmelee was called up Saturday to replace Teixeira on the roster.

But Girardi gave Refsynder the start against the Orioles.

“I like the way he’s swinging the bat,” Girardi said of Refsynder, who got a fi rst baseman’s mitt a few days ago and had never played fi rst base professionally be-fore replacing Teixeira on Friday night. “Let’s fi nd out what he can do.”

Refsynder, a middle infi elder by trade, looked capable at fi rst base for the sec-ond straight game Saturday. And he used his bat to help spark the Yankees off ense to an impressive night.

In the fourth inning, Refsynder ripped a two-out RBI double to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead. Refsynder scored moments later, when Romine singled him in from second.

The Yankees took a 7-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh. The game seemed well in hand, Nova had allowed only three hits in the fi rst six innings.

RESULTSChicago Cubs 5 Arizona 3

Milwaukee 6 Philadelphia 3

Pittsburgh 8 LA Angels 7

Boston 6 Toronto 4

Detroit 7 Chicago White Sox 4

NY Mets 6 Miami 4

Houston 6 Oakland 5 (12 innings)

Cincinnati 6 Washington 3

Tampa Bay 7 Minnesota 4

Cleveland 7 Kansas City 1

NY Yankees 8 Baltimore 6

St. Louis 7 San Francisco 4

Texas 10 Seattle 4

LA Dodgers 4 Atlanta 0

San Diego 4 Colorado 3

Miller helps Yankees hold off Orioles 8-6MLB

SPORT7Gulf Times

Monday, June 6, 2016

New York Yankees catcher Brian McCann (L) celebrates with relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman after defeating the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Joonas Donskoi of the San Jose Sharks celebrates his game winning goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins during overtime in Game Three of the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Final in San Jose. (Getty Images/AFP)

SPORT

Gulf Times Monday, June 6, 20168

Final hole bogey puts Kuchar in 3-way tie for lead ReutersDublin, Ohio

Former champion Matt Kuchar surren-dered the outright lead with a bogey on the tricky par-four 18th to con-clude the third round of the weather-

hit Memorial tournament on Saturday, setting up the prospect of a fi nal-day shootout.

Kuchar had stormed a stroke clear of a tightly bunched leaderboard with a run of four birdies in fi ve holes from the 11th but stumbled at the last after fi nding a bunker off the tee and the right rough with his sec-ond to card a two-under-par 70.

That left American Kuchar at 14-under 202, level at the top with compatriots Wil-liam McGirt (64) and long-hitting Gary Woodland (69) after another intriguing day of fl uctuating fortunes at Muirfi eld Village.

First-round leader Dustin Johnson (68) was a further shot back in a tie for fourth with fellow American Jon Curran (68), Ca-nadian Adam Hadwin (67) and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo (70), with another eight players no worse than three off the pace.

Among those was Australian world number one Jason Day, who mixed seven birdies with a bogey and a double at the last for a 68 to trail by three in the prestigious PGA Tour event hosted by Jack Nicklaus.

Kuchar had mixed feelings after bogey-ing the 18th, having lost his back nine mo-mentum with just three holes left when play was suspended for just over two hours due to the threat of lightning in the area.

“It’s part of the deal,” the 37-year-old told reporters about the weather suspen-sion. “We do it a lot during the year. It’s something that you kind of better get ac-customed to. I came out and hit a not very good shot on 16, made a nice up-and-down. A couple of really good shots on 17. It’s never fun to bogey 18, but almost felt glad to bogey 18 at the same time.”

Kuchar, who won the 2013 Memorial tournament and has recorded four top-10s in his last fi ve PGA Tour starts, relished the prospect of challenging for the title in the fi nal round at one of his favourite venues.

“I love this golf course, this is the high-light for me of the year,” he said. “Certainly got great memories here. I’ve had a lot of success here... I’ll certainly be looking for-ward to tomorrow’s round of golf.”

Journeyman McGirt, bidding for his fi rst PGA Tour victory in his 165th career start, put himself in contention with a strong fi n-ish as he birdied three of the last fi ve holes.

“My biggest thing right now is I want to win a golf tournament,” he said. “Don’t really care which one it is. But to have a chance to win here at Jack’s place would be extra special.”

Day, who clinched his third PGA Tour victory of the season at the Players Cham-pionship last month, was also contemplat-ing the prospect of a Memorial win.

“I did close the gap on that lead a little bit too, so that’s a positive, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to have some tough conditions tomorrow,” said the Ohio-based Austral-ian. “If I can play some good golf tomorrow,

that could shoot me back into contention and hopefully win the tournament.”

Level-headed Fitzpatrick on course

England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick kept his head to see off a triple challenge and

extend his lead to fi ve shots after three rounds of the Nordea Masters in Stock-holm on Saturday. The overnight leader, who started the day three shots clear, had been pegged back by the midway point at the Bro Hof Slott Golf Club, but played a superb back nine to record a four-under-par 68 and move to 15 under par.

Defending champion Alex Noren of Sweden, who shot 67, and Nicolas Col-saerts (70) were Fitzpatrick’s closest chal-lengers. Belgian Colsaerts had wiped out Fitzpatrick’s overnight advantage by the mid-point of his round, holing three bird-ies to match the Briton’s 11 under-par at the turn. But their fortunes changed on the fi rst of the back nine, Colsaerts dropping a shot while his playing partner made birdie.

Then, at the par-fi ve 13th, the 21-year-old Fitzpatrick, who claimed his fi rst Eu-ropean Tour victory in the British Masters last October, conjured up a brilliant recov-ery while Colsaerts missed his par putt af-ter fi nding the water.

England’s Lee Westwood, a former world number one, failed to make a move and re-mained fi ve-under including a double-bo-gey in a round of 72. Swede Henrik Stenson, the world number six, picked up two shots to card a 70 and fi nish on four-under.

Sparkling 62 lifts Icher to LPGA lead

France’s Karine Icher tied a tourna-ment record with a nine-under par 62

on Saturday to take a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the LPGA ShopRite Classic in Galloway, New Jersey. The 62 was also a career-low round for the 37-year old Icher, who had a 36-hole total of 12-under par 132.

She was one stroke in front of South Ko-rea’s Choi Na-Yeon, who carded a 64 and Japan’s Haru Nomura, who signed for a 66. Defending champion Anna Nordqvist was a stroke back on 132 after a 68.

“I made a lot of second shots close to the

hole, so made some birdies easier to do,” said Icher, who had nine birdies without a bogey, and reckoned her longest birdie putt of the day was 10 feet. The world number 58 said she didn’t know until the fi nal hole that she had tied the single-round scoring record for the tournament achieved previously by Lau-ra Davies, Kang Ji-Min and Jennifer Johnson.

“I just try to play easy and not look at the scoreboard, because it doesn’t serve me,” she said. “I try to play shot after shot, then it’s possible to become like a game to make as many birdies as possible.” She teed off on 10 and after four birdies in her fi rst nine holes she birdied fi ve coming in.

While Icher is seeking her fi rst LPGA tour title, Nordqvist is chasing the fi rst successful title defense of her career. She hasn’t won since her victory here last year, when she trailed Morgan Pressel by one shot heading into the fi nal round.

“I feel like I hit a lot of good shots and a lot of good putts today,” Nordqvist said. “Greens were pretty bumpy and some of my putts even airborne. You’ve just got to stay patient and tomorrow we are just go-ing to have more similar conditions. So I’m excited to go for it tomorrow.”

Nomura, who has won twice this season, said her experience winning in San Fran-cisco in April may stand her in good stead if predicted stormy weather hits the course.

“Maybe tomorrow very bad weather, so like Swinging Skirts on last day,” she said. “So I keep my patience. Everybody is in the same conditions, so I’ll try to play.”

GOLF

‘I love this course, this is the highlight for me of the year. Certainly got great memories here. I’ve had a lot of success here... I’ll certainly be looking forward to tomorrow’s round of golf’

Matt Kuchar watches his tee shot on the second hole during the third round of the Memorial tournament in Dublin on Saturday. (AFP)

AFPLos Angeles

Michael Phelps, aiming to add to his tally of 18 Olympic gold medals at the Rio de Janeiro Games, was beaten again on Saturday at an invitational

swimming meeting in Austin, Texas.The 30-year-old US superstar came straight

from hard training into the tune-up meet for the Olympic trials in Omaha this month.

He fi nished fourth in the 200m freestyle won by Townley Haas in 1min 47.86sec, with Phelps clocking 1min 48.73sec.

The setback came a day after Phelps won the 100m free and fi nished second to Singapore’s Joseph Schooling in the 100m butterfl y. The meeting is one of three elite events this week-end where US swimmers are warming up for the demands of trials, and overseas competitors are prepping for the Rio Games themselves.

In other Austin action, American Chase Kalisz posted the third-fastest time in the world this year in the 400m individual medley, winning in

4:11.51. Allison Schmitt defeated Missy Franklin for the second straight night, triumphing in the 200m free in 1:56.87 to Franklin’s 1:57.78. Franklin won the 200m backstroke in 2:09.45.

At the Indianapolis Pro Swim, American David Plummer notched the fastest time in the world this year in the 100m backstroke, winning in a sizzling 52.40sec. “We’ve been working a ton on holding tempo, trying to get that speed up to where it needs to be and just holding it right at the quickest tempo I can hold,” Plummer said. “I feel like it’s really starting to come around.”

At the Pro Swim in Santa Clara, California, Emma McKeon won the women’s 50m free in 24.85, leading an Australian one-two fi nish ahead of Brittany Elmslie. Aussie Emily Seebohm won the 100m backstroke in 58.96.

China’s Sun Yang, who won the men’s 200m free on Friday with the fastest time in the world this year, topped the qualifying times for the 400m free on Saturday in 3:43.55—second best of 2016 behind the 3:41.65 of Mack Horton at the Australian Olympic trials in April.

Sun scratched the fi nal, which was won by American Conor Dwyer in 3:46.09.

Phelps stumbles again in Austin ahead of US trialsSWIMMING

Michael Phelps swims during the 200m freestyle heat at the Austin Elite Invite swimming meeting on Saturday. (AFP)

AFPLes Gets, France

Alberto Contador laid down a Tour de France marker by storming to victory in the opening

prologue of the Criterium du Dauphine yesterday.

Two-time Tour winner Contador set a stunning time of 11 minutes 36 seconds in the 3.9km uphill time-trial to win by six seconds from Australian Richie Porte.

But perhaps more impor-tantly, the 33-year-old Span-iard beat reigning Tour cham-pion Chris Froome into third by 13 seconds.

Contador, who has never won this race before, suggest-ed on the eve of the Dauphine that he was unsure of his form and was more interested in im-proving his physical condition than eyeing overall victory.

“It’s a bit of a surprise to beat Froome and Porte but I knew that I could do well. I didn’t think that I could win,” said Contador.

Yet he mastered the tough prologue course which, al-though short, at a 9.7 percent average gradient was as tough as any climb the riders will face on the race this year and a useful gauge to who has the best climbing legs a month out from the start of the Tour.

Froome, who won the Dau-phine in both 2013 and last year—the same years he won the Tour—set the early pace with a time of 11:49 having de-cided to go out early over con-cerns it might rain later in the afternoon.

“It was tough. I was running out of legs,” he said before Con-tador and Porte had fi nished. “I’m happy with that. Just the feeling makes me happy. I feel like I’m in good shape now. I still have some work to do and

I hope to keep the momentum till the Tour de France.”

Starting in the fi nal fi ve rid-ers, Tinkoff ’s Contador set an incredible pace and took the lead before Froome was also beaten by his former Sky team-mate Porte, now with BMC.

It was, by contrast, a miser-able day for several potential Dauphine winners and Tour challengers with Italy’s Vuelta a Espana champion Fabio Aru fi n-ishing 36th at 1:08 and French-man Thibaut Pinot 17th at 52 seconds, both well off the pace.

Contador has not won the Tour since 2009—he was stripped of his 2010 victory after failing a doping test—and last year fi nished a disappoint-ing fi fth. His best result in the Dauphine was second in 2010 and 2014 but while last year he arrived at the Tour following a victory in the Giro d’Italia, this year he has been 100 percent focussed on the Grand Boucle.

He had not raced since win-ning the Tour of the Basque Country two months ago. Be-fore that he had been in fi ne form, fi nishing second at the the Tour of Catalonia and Paris-Nice, as well as third at the Tour of the Algarve—the latter two won by Froome’s Sky teammate Geraint Tho-mas while Nairo Quintana tri-umphed in Catalonia.

Froome has not raced since a disastrous Tour de Romandie in April where a puncture on the second stage left him well out of contention, although he did fi ght back to win the pe-nultimate stage.

Quintana has been in good form, winning the tours of Catalonia and Romandie while fi nishing third in the Basque Country and Tour de San Luis. He is skipping the two tradi-tional Tour de France warm-up events—the Dauphine and Tour of Switzerland—to con-centrate on altitude training.

Contador stuns Froome to win Dauphine prologue

CYCLING

Spanish rider Alberto Contador celebrates on the podium after winning the first stage of the 68th edition of the Dauphine Criterium cycling race in Les Gets, French Alps, yesterday. (AFP)

SPORT9Gulf Times

Monday, June 6, 2016

AFPChantilly, France

Almanzor, trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, won the Prix du Jockey-Club at 20-1 to deny the Aga Khan a famous Derby dou-

ble at Chantilly yesterday.The Aga had celebrated English Derby glory

with Harzand at Epsom 24 hours earlier but had to settle for second with Zarak (7-1) in the French version at Chantilly.

For Rouget, year in year out one of the most numerically successful trainers in France, this was a second success in the premier French clas-sic after Le Havre in 2009.

Almanzor, ridden by veteran Jean-Bernard Eyquem, took command in the straight with Zarak, trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre, valiantly press-ing him all the way to the line. Dicton took third.

“He won easily,” a tearful Rouget told French television LCI. “And it’s wonderful for Jean-Ber-nard, at 40 years old.”

“To win races like this is why we all get up every morning. This is the best moment of my career, I’ve finally won the Derby at 40!” added the winning rider.

Rouget appeared on paper to have better prospects with Mekhtaal, sent off as one of the favourites. “Compared to Mekhtaal, who was never in the race, I’d trained Almanzor especially for today and he was well drawn in stall seven.”

A strong overseas challenge, headed by the Frankie Dettori-ridden 4-1 favourite Foundation, failed to make an impact.

Almanzor denies Aga Khan Derby double at Chantilly

Farah pays tribute to Ali in record styleAFPBirmingham, United Kingdom

British athletics great Mo Farah paid a handsome tribute to the late box-ing legend Mohamed

Ali yesterday as he broke David Moorcroft’s 34-year-old British 3000 metres record at the Birming-ham Diamond League meeting.

The 33-year-old two-time Olympic champion and quin-tuple world champion struck a boxing pose as he celebrated his win at the Birmingham Diamond League meeting paying his re-spects to Ali, who died of septic shock aged 74 on Friday.

“It was a tribute defi nitely to Mohamed Ali,” said Farah, who last year withdrew from the meet-ing because he felt drained by the coverage of the doping allegations against his coach Alberto Sala-zar, who denies all wrongdoing. “My sympathy goes to his family, he was a great man. He was a real infl uence on me as I wrote in my biography, I looked up to him.”

The meet had been interrupted earlier for a minute’s applause to honour Ali, a former heavy-weight champion and Olympic gold medallist.

Farah, who timed 7min 32.62sec to take a 10th of a sec-ond off Moorcroft’s record, added he wanted to go and make history at the Olympics in Au-gust by defending his 5,000 and 10,000m titles.

“I’m in great shape. I’ve just got to believe in myself,” said the Somalia-born athlete. “I want to make history in Rio. It’s never been done before and I know I’m going to have to dig deep.”

A couple of other Olympic gold medallists from London suf-fered diff erent fortunes. Sublime Kenyan 800m champion David Rudisha won a thrilling 600m whilst Britain’s Greg Rutherford suff ered his fi rst defeat in the long jump since July 2015—Buf-falo Bills wide receiver Marquise Goodwin winning.

Rudisha was pushed really hard in the rarely-run 600m by Frenchman Pierre-Ambroise Bosse but repelled him in the dy-ing metres to win in 1min 13.10sec, just outside the world record of 1:12.81 set by Johnny Gray in 1986.

“I had my eye on the world record, but I lost it in the last 100m,” said Rudisha. “However, this is great preparation for my Olympic bid as running over this distance sharpens my speed.”

His compatriot Asbel Ki-prop coasted home in the men’s 1500m, the 26-year-old 2008 Olympic champion and three-time world champion recording the fastest time ever run in Brit-ain and the best in the world this

term of 3min 29.33sec.Kendra Harrison left a top

notch 100m hurdles fi eld in her wake as the American—who had run a stunning 12.24 last weekend in the Prefontaine Classic Dia-mond League meet, the fastest time in 28 years—timed 12.46sec.

Australia’s defending Olym-pic champion Sally Pearson was never at the races in what was her fi rst competitive race in over a year, fading to fi nish second last.

“I’m not disappointed, obvi-ously not nice to run over 13sec

but this is my fi rst race in over a year,” said Pearson, who broke two bones and dislocated her wrist at a Rome Diamond League meeting in June last year. “This is the fi rst of many races for me in the next few weeks and I want to give it my best in defending my title in Rio.”

There were to be rare reverses for two female giants of the fi eld events. New Zealand’s two-time shot put Olympic champion Valerie Adams had to make do with second behind the United States’ Tia Brooks.

And Caterine Ibarguen’s ex-traordinary run of 34 straight victories over four years came to an end in the triple jump. The Co-lombian two-time world champi-on lost out to Kazakhstan’s Olym-pic title-holder Olga Rypakova, who reserved her best hop, skip and jump for her last eff ort, post-ing a mark of 14.61 metres.

Kim Collins continues to defy the years as the 40-year-old 2003 world champion edged American Michael Rodgers and Briton CJ Ujah in an exciting

100m, timing 10.11sec. “As you get older you have to be wiser and taking care of the body is a little bit more tricky,” said Collins.

The women’s 100 went to the US’ English Gardner, who made the most of world silver medal-list Dafne Schippers’s poor start which left the Dutch girl fuming. “I had a really bad race, what can I say? A very poor start and then I was chasing the leader,” said the 23-year-old Dutchwoman, who won world 200m gold last year but fi nished second to Gardner.

ATHLETICS

‘It was a tribute definitely to Mohamed Ali. My sympathy goes to his family, he was a great man. He was a real influence on me as I wrote in my biography, I looked up to him’

AFPJakarta

Lee Chong Wei beat Denmark’s Jan O Jor-gensen in a hard-fought fi nal to win the

Indonesia Open yesterday, raising hopes the Malaysian badminton ace may be on course for Olympic victory.

World number two Lee bat-tled back from one set down to defeat Jorgensen 17-21, 21-19, 21-17 in a thriller featuring a series of long rallies and dra-matic smashes.

Fifth seed Jorgensen domi-nated in the early stages of the men’s singles fi nal and ap-peared to be heading for vic-tory as he took the lead in the second set. But second seed Lee fought back doggedly, winning a series of tough ral-lies to cling on.

By the fi nal stages of the third set, Lee was fi rmly in control, winning point after point as Jorgensen’s initial confi dence faded.

Lee said he was “very hap-py” to win his sixth Indone-sia Open title after the tough match, that lasted one hour and fi ve minutes, but admit-ted he did not play well at the start. “In the second game he

was leading 19-17, I was pre-paring myself to lose,” he said.

Jorgensen said he was “very disappointed” at his loss. “I felt that I had the game in my hand and I think I should have won it,” he said.

The victory will be a boost for Lee as he heads to Rio this summer, where the 33-year-old will again try for Olympic gold. At the last two Olympics, Lee lost in the fi nal to his arch-rival, China’s Lin Dan.

In another boost for the Ma-laysian, Lin was knocked out of the Indonesian Open earlier in the tournament, losing in a shock defeat to unseeded In-donesian Jonatan Christie.

Top seed Chen Long of China withdrew, blaming an injury. Despite his loss in the fi nal, Jorgensen’s impressive performance will be a boost for the Danes, coming hot on the heels of their maiden Thomas Cup victory last month.

In the women’s singles fi -nals, unseeded Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan beat fourth seed Wang Yihan of China 21-17, 21-8, capping a miserable badminton tournament for China. Chinese players were also beaten in the fi nal of the women’s doubles and men’s doubles, although a Chinese pair won the mixed doubles.

Lee gets Rio boost with Indonesian win

BADMINTON

Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia shows his medal after winning the men’s singles title at the Indonesian Open in Jakarta yesterday. (AFP)

ReutersLondon

Olympic 100 metres hurdles champion Sally Pearson fi nished seventh on her Dia-

mond League return in Birming-ham yesterday but vowed to be at her best for Rio after an agonis-ing year recovering from injury.

“I’m not disappointed by today, it’s not nice seeing a 13 seconds in front of your name but this is my fi rst real race in just over a year now so I can’t really complain,” the Austral-ian told BBC television.

“I wasn’t running 100 per-cent out there. That’s not an excuse, it’s just I wanted to be out there so badly so I was go-ing to risk not getting a great position and a great time,” added the 29-year-old.

American Keni Harrison won in a time of 12.46 seconds, with Pearson—whose personal best is 12.28—crossing the line in 13.25.

The Australian had clocked 12.75 in a local meet on the Gold Coast last month, her fi rst run-out since she shat-tered her wrist when she fell in a Diamond League meeting in Rome last June.

She had feared her lower left arm might have to be amputat-ed after that injury, and an old Achilles problem further ham-pered her preparations for Rio, where she will be competing at her third Olympics.

Yesterday’s race marked a return to proper competitive action and she said she felt good, despite the odd niggle. “It’s just so nice to be back and being in a competitive envi-ronment. For me it’s just taking one race at a time. I’ve got fi ve in about two weeks so today is the fi rst one of many,” she added.

“We always go out onto the track wanting to win but some days it’s just not our day. I’m going to make sure that I do everything that I can in my power to be at my best at the Olympics,” she added.

Ghribi receives World, Olympic gold medals

Tunisian long-distance run-ner Habiba Ghribi was

offi cially presented with the Olympic 2012 and World 2011 3,000-metre steeplechase gold medals yesterday. The med-als were stripped from Russian Yuliya Zaripova for doping.

The presentation came several weeks after the Court of Arbi-tration for Sport (CAS) ruled in favour of the International Asso-ciation of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which had challenged what it considered to be leni-ent sanctions handed out by the Russian anti-doping agency (Ru-sada). Zaripova had fallen foul of doping rules due to anomalies in her biological passport.

The presentation to Gh-ribi took place in Rades, near Tunis, during the under-23 Mediterranean Games with International Olympic Com-mittee vice-president Nawal el Moutawakel in attendance.

Ghribi, 32, was visibly moved by the presentation as her national anthem rang out. “I’m acquiring two medals that are very prestigious for me and for Tunisia,” she said. “To share this here, at home, with my parents, my family, the sports family, athletics, the Olympic community...”

El Moutawakel, herself an Olympic champion from the 400m hurdles in Los Angeles in 1984, said: “It’s very impor-tant to present this Olympic medal, that is so well deserved, to Habiba, here in her country.”

Pearson says she is on track for Rio

SPOTLIGHT

Great Britain’s Mo Farah strikes a boxing pose after winning the men’s 3000m race at the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham yesterday. (Action Images via Reuters)

SPORT10 Gulf Times

Monday, June 6, 2016

Ali casts shadow over lacklustreheavyweight ranks

SPOTLIGHT

The death of Ali was a sharp reminder of a glittering era of heavyweight boxing that contrasts starkly with the insipid state of the sport’s marquee division today

AFPLos Angeles

The death of Muhammad Ali was a sharp reminder of a glittering era of heavyweight boxing that con-trasts starkly with the anaemic

state of the sport’s marquee division today.Ali, who died of septic shock on Friday at

the age of 74 after decades of battling Par-kinson’s disease, was the cornerstone of a heavyweight triumvirate that also included Joe Frazier and George Foreman, whose fl air and ferocity kept boxing at the fore-front of the cultural conversation.

They were themselves the heirs of Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, Rocky Mar-ciano and Sonny Liston.

And amid the the social turmoil of their age they made the heavyweight world crown relevant worldwide.

Even the names of the bouts still reso-nate: Ali-Frazier 1, known as “The Fight of the Century” pitted the two undefeated

heavyweight champions in famed Madison Square Garden with seemingly the whole world watching and taking sides.

Frazier absorbed tremendous punish-ment but relentlessly out-worked Ali and dropped him in the 15th round to win by unanimous decision and launch an epic trilogy capped by the “Thrilla in Manila”.

In between there was the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, where underdog Ali’s now famous “rope a dope” strategy saw Foreman punch out his energy and Ali pounce for an eighth-round knockout of his previously unbeaten foe.

It would be a decade before another heavyweight erupted on the scene with such force, but the chaos surrounding Mike Tyson extended beyond the ring and eventually doomed a reign that mat-tered less and less to the general populace as a confusing array of sanctioning bod-ies proliferated and niche-marketed pay-per-view became the norm.

Tyson’s meetings with Evander Holy-fi eld came too late, and the emergence of

Britain’s Lennox Lewis foreshadowed a European grasp on the division guaran-teed to dull interest in America.

Certainly the erudite approach of Vi-taly and Wladimir Klitschko never set the hearts of US fi ght fans racing, and Britain’s Tyson Fury, who out-pointed Wladimir Klitschko in November to seize the Ukrainian’s titles has alienated fans with sexist, anti-semitic and homopho-bic remarks.

#UNDERWHELMED In recent years it’s been left to the little guys to add lustre to the sport.

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacqui-ao can lay claim to boxing’s most recent “Fight of the Century.”

But their 2015 bout in Las Vegas failed to pack the visceral punch fans expected from two fi ghters long considered the best pound-for-pound performers of their generation.

The Hollywood celebrities and sports stars jetted in, but left unsatisfi ed.

“We waited fi ve years for that...#underwhelmed,” “Iron” Mike Tyson tweeted, after a fi ght that will go down in history not for what happened inside the ropes but for the colossal amount of cash it generated.

Mayweather and Pacquiao have both since retired, Pacquiao pursuing his po-litical career in the Philippines as May-weather appears to mull a match with Conor McGregor, a star of the mixed martial arts stage that is taking bites out of boxing’s fan base.

It would be a social media circus wor-thy of fabled boxing promoter Don King — and a far cry from the dazzling de-struction promulgated by Ali and his greatest rivals.

But then Angelo Dundee, who trained Ali for two decades, noted that “Moham-ed ruined us for everybody”.

“He was great outside (the ring); he was great inside,” Dundee said before his death in 2012. We got so accustomed to it, we thought we deserved it.”

Defeat to Ali was best sporting moment of my life, says Dunn

BOTTOMLINE

AFPLondon

A fi fth round stoppage by boxing legend Mu-hammad Ali in a world title fi ght remains

former top British boxer Richard Dunn’s favourite sporting mo-ment he told the Press Associa-tion yesterday.

Dunn, 71, proved to be the late Ali’s last British opponent in his fi nal bout in Europe when he pummelled the then Brit-ish, Commonwealth and Euro-pean champion sending him to the canvas fi ve times including twice in the fi fth round in Mu-nich before the referee stopped the bout in May 1976.

However, Dunn in paying homage to Ali — who died of septic shock on Friday at the age of 74 after decades of battling Parkinson’s disease — said he

would not swap that experience for anything.

“It goes on forever, that night,” Dunn told the Press As-sociation.

“I think it was the best sport-ing moment of my life. Even get-ting there and walking down to the ring and waiting for him to come in was phenomenal.

“It was just a good fi ght. He was the best man on the night and that was it. I had no argu-ments with it.”

Dunn, who became president of his local Parkinsons UK branch out of respect to Ali, had endured the traditional smart talk from his opponent just weeks before the fi ght on English Television when the American referred to his ex-perience in the British Army.

“So you’ve taken 67 parachute drops,” Ali said on the ITV pro-gramme ‘This is Your Life’.

“Well, I want you to mark this down now: you have one more big drop to come, a big hard drop, it’s going to be the longest sharp drop you’ve ever had.”

Ali predicted to a T how the fi ght would go, for when he handed his gloves over to the promoter after the bout so they could be sold to help a boxer, who had lost an eye, inside one was ‘Ali wins’ and in the other

‘the fi fth’.However, Dunn just remem-

bers him as a hugely impressive person. “He had charisma, style, panache,” he said.

“He had everything and he knew how to work a crowd, he knew exactly what to do.”

Dunn, who lost his subse-quent two bouts prompting him to retire from the ring, saw Ali again when he came for a four day visit to Newcastle in the north east of England in 1977.

“I’ll never forget him. I con-sidered him a friend,” said Dunn.

“I’ve got the original tape of our fi ght. It’s locked away in the bank. I’m not going to lose it so I’ve had copies made and given those out.”

Dunn, though, won’t be mak-ing his way to Louisville for Fri-day’s public memorial service in honour of the great man.

“I’ll say goodbye in my own way,” said Dunn.

AFPIslamabad

Boxer Amir Khan has de-nied betraying his Brit-ish upbringing after be-ing criticised for saying

he would represent Pakistan at the Rio Games, insisting he only wanted to boost the sport in his parents’ country of birth.

But the Bolton-born fi ghter also admitted he would not be willing to face an accompany-ing two-year ban from the World Boxing Council (WBC) that would jeopardise his professional career, making an Olympic ap-pearance unlikely.

Speaking to AFP in Islamabad, where he launched his fi rst box-ing academy on Saturday, Khan said he was a “proud British fi ghter” who had represented his country at the Athens Olympics and would therefore not want to deprive fellow Britons of a ticket to Rio De Janeiro.

“I’m not doing it because I’m not happy being British. I’m a proud British fi ghter, but it’s the way people took it out of context and calling me a traitor — I meant it in a way that I’d rather give someone else an opportunity instead because Pakistan has no boxers,” he said.

“But, you know, at the moment we are just waiting and seeing. I don’t think I’ll be allowed to do that anyway because obviously, the WBC, they won’t allow it.”

WBC president Mauricio Su-laiman has denounced a rule change by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) al-lowing professionals to com-pete in the Olympics where they would face amateurs, call-ing the move dangerous.

He vowed to impose a two-year ban on any professional fi ghter who chose to go amateur for the Games.

Amir’s announcement was also met with consternation by some fans on social media and his former promoter Frank War-ren, who wrote on boxingscene.com he was “a little disappoint-

ed” in Khan for seeking to repre-sent Pakistan, given that it was his 2004 Olympic silver for Great Britain that launched his career.

The 29-year-old stands at a critical juncture in his career following a stinging loss to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last month, that took his career record to 31 wins and four losses.

“I feel great. I feel young, fresh. I mean, the Alvarez fi ght, everything was going fi ne until I got caught with the big shot and that’s boxing for you sometimes. One punch can change the fi ght. You can be winning the fi ght quite comfortably and I’ve seen it happen to the best of us.

“So, I’m gonna go back to the drawing board and not make those mistakes. I know that my off ence was amazing in that fi ght. But maybe tighten up a few little areas.”

HUNTING FOR CHAMPIONS No longer the brash youngster who was known for his fast cars and fl ashy lifestyle, Khan now speaks passionately about the need to give back to those less fortunate — a trait he says he learned from his idol, the late Muhammad Ali.

Last year, he travelled to the Greek island of Lesbos to lead a charitable drive for Syrian refu-gees, while his current trip to Pa-kistan has seen him raise money and pledge wells for the residents of Thar, a drought-ridden south-ern district home to some of the country’s most destitute people.

Ali, he says, was “not just a champion but a people’s cham-pion and that’s how I want to be”.

His academy in Islamabad — modelled after the one he found-ed in Bolton, northwest England — will seek out talent in a coun-try which only boasts sporadic success in cricket.

He said: “I really believe in the talent we have here, just like I did in the UK. I believed in talent in the UK and I produced amateur world champions and European champions and gold medallists and national champions. I want do the same for Pakistan.”

‘Proud Brit fi ghter’ Khan wants success for Pakistan, too

GIVING IT BACK

Vargas keeps title aft er slugfest with Salido

WBC

AFPLos Angeles

A bloodied Francisco Var-gas retained his WBC belt Saturday by battling to a draw with fellow Mexi-

can Orlando Salido in a match that could earn him a second straight fi ght of the year award.

The 31-year-old Vargas and Sa-lido went toe-to-toe in a 12-round slugfest for the world super feath-erweight championship at the StubHub Center stadium.

Vargas improved to 24-0-1 with 17 knockouts as he had to go the distance despite suff ering bad cuts over both eyes which he claimed were the result of head butts from Salido.

“It was a great fi ght that the fans liked,” Vargas said.”Unfortunately the cuts are always with the head. But I never gave up.

“I am very happy that I won and

I am looking for more challenges.”Rightly so. Vargas then added

he needs some time to “relax” and recuperate.

In November, Vargas got off the canvas and recovered from getting badly cut to take the belt from Japan’s Takashi Miura by ninth-round technical knockout to win the fi ght of the year.

Vargas will need time to heal as he had deep cuts over both eyes, but still managed to land heavy punches on Salido as the two pummelled each other right up to the fi nal bell.

Two offi cials scored the bout 114-114 while the other had it 115-113 for the champion Vargas.

Salido thought he did enough to win on Saturday in front of a crowd of 7,300 at the outdoor facility in south central Los An-geles. “I felt I won. It was a close margin and a tough fi ght, but I feel I won,” he said. But the deci-sion was in favour of Vargas.

A mural with the image of boxing legend Muhammad Ali is seen in Louisville, Kentucky.

Francisco Vargas (R) lands a right to Orlando Salido.

Amir Khan (C) poses for photographs with fans in Rawalpindi.

Muhammad Ali (L) punches Richard Dunn while fighting for the WBC & WBA Heavyweight Title in Munich, May 24, 1976.

SPORT11Gulf Times

Monday, June 6, 2016

Generation Amazing programme opens football pitch in Nepal

FOCUS

Aspire Academy, SAP partner to drive youth development programmes

Aspire Academy, QF to launch junior football league

UAE, Qatar sign agreement for motorsport

SPOTLIGHT

NEW BEGINNING

BOTTOMLINE

By Sports ReporterDoha

Aspire Academy, one of the world’s leading youth athlete acad-emies, and the global

technology company SAP have decided to work together to drive Qatar’s youth sports development programmes, thanks to a partner-ship announced yesterday.

The Aspire Academy coaches, sport scientists, athletes, and management will be able to eas-ily access real-time data on ath-lete performance development, sports science, and sports opera-tions management on any mobile devices, supporting global best practices in youth athlete devel-opment.

On one platform, users can ac-cess data such as match results, development summaries, com-petition plans, and sports sci-ence profi les from Aspire Acad-emy’s clubs and leagues. Aspire Academy and SAP will also ex-plore innovations in feedback visualisation, predictive analyt-ics, and cognitive training.

According to a recent study by the University of Toronto, the glo-bal sports analytics market is set to grow from USD $125 million in 2014 to USD $4.7 billion in 2021, which demonstrates a strong po-tential for the partnership.

“Aspire Academy is at the forefront of transforming youth development with analytics, as coaches can optimize line-ups on tablets, players can review match highlights on smart-phones, and trainers can track player fi tness and fatigue. Co-

innovating with Aspire Academy will leverage global best practices in sports analytics and science, starting from the development level,” said Stefan Wagner, senior vice President and Global general manager of the Sports and En-tertainment Industry at SAP.

The partnership is being touted to be the fi rst time that a national sports academy has signed with a global technology company. Aspire Academy aims to become the world’s leading youth sports academy by 2020 and is expanding with the launch of Qatar’s fi rst national centre for football in 2017.

Qatar is rapidly developing its national teams in line with be-coming a global sporting hub, as the country is hosting the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

“Qatar has high expectations for sport, but a small talent pool. By becoming a global leader in data management and analytics using SAP HANA, Aspire will continue to deliver unparalleled coaching and training for Qatari youth, and players across our worldwide net-work of clubs, in order to develop Qatar’s sporting culture and com-petitive sporting advantage,” said Aspire Academy director of Strat-egy Markus Egger.

SAP will share expertise from its SAP Sports One solutions in Big Data analytics, which has been used by the German Na-tional Football team to help win the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Clubs and leagues co-innovating with SAP include City Football Group, FC Bayern Munich, and TSG Hoff enheim among others.

By Sports ReporterDoha

Aspire Academy and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Develop-

ment (QF) have signed an agree-ment to launch a junior football league for school children in Qatar.

The Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) was signed by Aspire Academy deputy director general Ali Salem Afi fa and Mo-hamed al-Soud, head of Recrea-tion Services, QF Facilities and Community Services, yesterday.

As part of the agreement, As-pire Academy will host the tour-nament, to run from October to June, giving children in age groups Under-7 to Under-11 the opportu-nity to play on some of the world-class football pitches and facilities available at Aspire Zone.

“Aspire Academy and Qatar Foundation both play a central role in the realisation of the Qa-tar National Vision 2030. Both entities actively support and contribute to the Human Devel-opment Pillar, through sports and community development respectively,” Afi fa said.

Al-Soud added: “We, at Qatar Foundation, are delighted to be joining forces with Aspire Acad-emy. This junior football league represents our ongoing commit-ment to creating a sports-loving society and to encouraging the community to live healthy, ac-tive lifestyles from a young age. Together, we are using football as a platform for change.”

This agreement demonstrates two key national institutions joining forces to position Qatar as a centre of excellence for the development of sports, in par-ticular, football.

AgenciesDubai

Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE (ATCUAE) and Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federa-tion (QMMF) yesterday signed

a collaboration agreement for motorsport in the two countries.

The agreement was signed by ATCUAE president Mohamed Ben Sulayem and QMMF president Abdulrahman bin Ab-dulatif al-Mannai in the presence of Lo-sail Circuit Sports Club general manager Khalid bin Hassan al-Rumaihi and Abu Dhabi Motorsport Management chief ex-ecutive Al Tariq al-Ameri.

Commenting on the agreement signa-ture, Ben Sulayem said: “We are pleased to sign this agreement with the QMMF, which will contribute to the development of many aspects of motorsports in both countries. The UAE and Qatar both hold prestigious positions and world class infrastructures to organise and attract international events like the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, a round of both the FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup and the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Cham-pionship. This agreement will contribute

to uniting the eff orts of both countries to promote and grow motorsport through-out the region.”

Al-Mannai added: “This landmark agreement between our two federations is key, not only for Qatar and the UAE, but for motorsport across the entire Gulf. We already share many competitors and

championships, so closer cooperation is vital in ensuring that we continue our mandates of growing sustainable motor-sport. Competitors are our fi rst priority, by coordinating our annual calendars we will make it easier for them to participate in events taking place in Qatar and UAE, and I would like to thank Mohammed Ben

Sulayem for his support in this.” The agreement, which was signed at

the ATCUAE’s offi ces in Dubai, outlines collaboration across many aspects of motorsport in UAE and Qatar, including coordination of the annual events calen-dar of both countries to enable maximum competitor participation in each other’s events, at both the national and interna-tional levels.

Another point of co-operation is in re-gards to the launch and inaugural season of the new UAE Formula 4 Championship, which will feature teams sponsored by both the Emirati and Qatari federations.

Furthermore, both federations will work together in the area of offi cial’s safety training for motorsport volunteers and offi cials in both countries, as well as exploring the possibility of delivering joint motorsport offi cial’s safety train-ing projects worldwide in their mutual capacity as FIA Institute-appointed Re-gional Training Providers.

The agreement also supports under-taking joint research projects within the motorsport industry, such as economic impact studies, volunteer and offi cials welfare, and offi cials and competitors safety between the federations and in conjunction with the FIA and FIM.

SAP senior vice president Stefan Wagner at Aspire Academy.

‘...football has the power to unite people and bring about social change’

The power of football has travelled from Qatar to Kaski as the Su-preme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) opened a new com-

munity football pitch in Nepal. Nestled in the foothills of the breath-

taking Himalayas, SC assistant secretary general Nasser al-Khater joined Nepal’s Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun at the offi cial inauguration of the pitch in the village of Bhandardhik.

Located in the Kaski region, the facil-ity was funded by the SC and opened in conjunction with partners Right To Play and Mercy Corps as part of the fl agship CSR programme Generation Amazing. It is the third pitch to be opened in Nepal in 2016. A fourth will be launched on Friday in nearby Kailali.

Addressing an audience of around 2,000 people, al-Khater spoke with pride as he refl ected on the impact the 2022 FIFA World Cup is already having throughout Asia.

He said: “I was honoured to be involved in this event and open the pitch with the Vice President of Nepal. There are around 500,000 Nepalese people living in Qatar. They are a huge part of our country, help-ing to build our country and prepare for the World Cup.

“This programme and these pitches are

our opportunity to give something back to the communities in Nepal when Nepal has given so much to us.

“Today is what the World Cup is all about. To see the sheer joy that football can bring to people’s lives is why we bid in the fi rst place. We have always said football has the power to unite people and bring about social change. This is living proof of that belief.”

The Generation Amazing programme was borne as a result of the original Qatar 2022 Bid Committee. By the end of 2016 a total of 12 community pitches will have been launched in Nepal as a result of the Generation Amazing programme.

On Saturday the initiative was taken to a whole new level as the village of Bhandardhik ground to a halt to wit-ness the arrival of their Vice President and participation of a number of foot-ball personalities, including former Ne-pal national goalkeeper Upendra Man Singh.

In 2015, the region was devastated by an earthquake – but on Saturday there were only smiles and laughter as the commu-nity felt the positive impact of football.

Praising the work of the SC and its partners Right to Play and Mercy Cops, Bahadur Pun promised the pitch was just the start for the community and the en-

tire country as it looks to develop its own football infrastructure.

He said: “Today we celebrate this occa-sion with the launch of this new pitch. It is a great day for the community but it is only the beginning.

“This pitch, this stadium will become a vital facility for the community. It will get bigger and better. Football can inspire in so many ways and I hope this pitch can help do that for our people.

“Nepal has strong ties with Qatar and we are thankful for the work and contri-bution of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy. Today is a day to re-member.”

When the drills were over, two mixed teams created their own piece of history as the fi rst football match on the new pitch got under way.

Watching on was Rakshya Pandit, an 18-year-old Nepali girl whose life changed forever in 2014 when she became a Generation Amazing Youth Ambassa-dor. She joined fellow Youth Ambassa-dors Sudarshan Shrestha, Muna Pangali, Dipesh Khadka, Karuna Syangtan and Suman Kingring.

Rakshya travelled to Qatar and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil as part of the Generation Amazing programme – and subsequently started running her own

football tournament for the community as a result of the experience.

“I can’t really say enough about what this programme means and the experi-ence it has given me,” she said.

“I became an Ambassador in 2014 after undergoing a wide community selection process and I was lucky enough to go to Qatar and travel to Brazil during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I am grateful that the community, my school and my parents all supported me in this epic adventure.

“Thank you to Generation Amazing for this opportunity. It is an experience that I will never forget.”

The facility will be run and used by the Adarsha Youth Club – whose main offi ce showcases a framed picture of a Genera-tion Amazing programme nestled among their silverware.

Laxmi Prashad Bhandari, president of the Adarsha Youth Club, struggled to hide his emotions as he refl ected on what had been a monumental day for his club.

He added: “So many people have worked hard for this moment. This has been our dream and our vision for such a long time. We are thankful to the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy for helping to make this happen. This facility will be here for-ever. It will change people’s lives and I am proud to be part of that.” (SC.qa)

The agreement was signed by ATCUAE president Mohamed Ben Sulayem and QMMF president Abdulrahman bin Abdulatif al-Mannai.

The MoU was signed by Aspire Academy deputy director general Ali Salem Afifa and Mohamed al-Soud, head of Recreation Services, QF Facilities and Community Services.

SC assistant secretary general Nasser al-Khater speaks at the off icial inauguration of the pitch in the village of Bhandardhik.

Monday, June 6, 2016

GULF TIMES SPORT

Rossi hails ‘one of my best’ at sombre Catalunya

Amir included in Pakistan squad for England Tests

Qatari swimmer Arakji heads to her second Olympics

MOTOGP CRICKET

FOCUS

‘This is a great, great victory, one of the best of my career. It is for Salom and for his family’

By Sports ReporterDoha

Qatari swimmer Nada Arakji will become the fi rst female athlete to represent Qatar twice in the Olympics when

the Rio Games begin. Arakji wrote her-self into the history books at the Lon-don 2012 Games when she became Qa-tar’s fi rst-ever female Olympian.

Rio 2016 will mark the fi rst time the Olympics are held in South America and will see over 10,000 athletes from 206 nations compete in Rio de Janeiro. The best athletes from around the globe will challenge themselves to the abso-lute limit of their ability before a global TV audience of 4.8 billion people.

Qatar will send its biggest delegation to the Olympic Games since its debut in Los Angeles 1984. Thirty six athletes will compete across seven sports – ath-letics, swimming, shooting, handball, equestrian, table tennis and judo.

To support its athletes on their jour-ney in Rio, Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) has launched the #YallaQatar

campaign across its social media chan-nels with the aim of showcasing Qatar’s athletes and their incredible feats. The Olympic Dreams fi lm series will profi le each team and athlete, and explore the highs, lows, motivations and dreams of Qatar’s Olympians.

“I did basketball, netball, ballet and swimming obviously. My favourite one was swimming and I felt the most con-nection with that sport. Everything else felt ok but it didn’t feel right. But when I started swimming I felt this is for me.”

For Arakji, sport runs in the family – her father Mohamed Wafa Arakji was Qatar’s national football team goal-keeper in the 1970s and ‘80s, as well as a player for iconic Qatari club Al Sadd. It was this early exposure to sport that laid the framework for the 22-year-old swimmer.

“It’s pretty great having a football player as a father. He gives me a lot of advice and he keeps me motivated. So that’s one of things that keeps me go-ing and he tells me all these experiences that he’s had and things that he’s done so it’s pretty interesting to know and relate with that.”

Her love of swimming soon permeat-ed her life, with Arakji creating a school presentation on her idol, Italian Olym-pic gold medallist Frederica Pellegrini, who she then had the opportunity to meet when competing at London 2012.

“Being able to meet her in the Olympics was, honestly, something quite amaz-ing for me.”

Arakji, who was accepted into Carn-egie Mellon University Qatar right before she competed in London 2012, and grad-

uated this year ahead of Rio 2016, walks a fi ne line to fi nd the balance between her education and her swimming career.

“Balancing between swimming and my studies is hard, but since I’m pas-sionate about both it’s all about organ-ising your time. I think that’s the key thing to success,” Arakji said, adding, “Nothing’s going to get in your way if you love what you do.”

It is Arakji’s love and passion for her sport that led her to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

“The historic moment being the fi rst Qatari female to represent my country in the Olympics was really something big for me. Competing in the London 2012 Olympics was a dream come true,” she said. “It gives me such honour that I will carry with me forever and I’m just really proud and happy.”

With her university graduation be-hind her, Arakji continues her tireless training in the state-of-the-art Hamad Aquatic Centre, and she hopes to uti-lise her previous experience when she competes in Rio.

“My experience in London has helped. I’ve gone to the fi rst Olympics,

seen what it’s like. I have an idea of what the atmosphere will be like in Rio. My goals for the Olympics Games are to be the best I can be and defi nitely to get a personal best time. With all the train-ing I’ve done I hope that I’ll be able to improve my times and for everyone to be happy,” Arakji said.

Arakji has high hopes that her par-ticipation in the Olympic Games for the second time will inspire young Qatari girls to take up sports and to challenge the status quo. “I defi nitely hope to inspire more young athletes to take up sport, especially women. I encourage all the girls out there to not be afraid and take risks. It doesn’t have to be sports. Whether it’s education or sports or other things,” Arakji said, adding “I think they should be confi dent and do what they love.”

Arakji will be competing in the 200m freestyle and 100m butterfl y at Rio 2016. You can follow her Olympic Dreams on the Qatar Olympic Twit-ter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube channels under the hashtag #YallaQa-tar. The Rio 2016 Olympic Games take place from August 5-21.

AFPBarcelona

Valentino Rossi gave his MotoGP world title prospects a massive boost with success in the Grand Prix of Catalunya yesterday at

a sombre Montmelo circuit reeling from the tragic death of Luis Salom.

Motorcycling’s headline act got the better of a gripping dogfi ght in the clos-ing laps with pole sitter Marc Marquez, who crossed in second to take the cham-pionship lead.

Jorge Lorenzo lined up leading the Mo-toGP standings but came away pointless after being wiped out by Andrea Iannone.

Marquez now leads the championship after this seventh leg of the season on 125 points from Lorenzo on 115 points and Rossi in third on 103 points.

Salom suff ered fatal injuries in a crash in Friday’s practice for the Moto2 Grand Prix won earlier yesterday by Johann Zar-co, who like Rossi and Moto3 winner Jorge Navarro dedicated victory to Salom.

Salom was honoured by a minute’s si-lence before racing.

The stricken Spaniard was only eight years old when Rossi notched up his fi rst world championship win in 2000.

Sixteen years later the 37-year-old Italian veteran posted his 114th career victory and 88th in the top division after employing all his skill, nerve and experi-ence to shake off a determined Marquez.

Given the diffi cult circumstances, there was a touching moment when the riders dismounted as Rossi and Marquez shook hands, drawing a line under their bitter rivalry from 2015.

“This is a great, great victory, one of the best of my career. It is for Salom and for his family,” said the Yamaha star.

By lap fi ve Rossi had fought his way up to second from fi fth on the grid, and he then pushed past teammate Lorenzo, who slipped back to fourth.

Lorenzo’s hopes of a third straight win after Le Mans and Italy disappeared when an impetuous Iannone tried an ill-fated and dangerous overtaking move with nine laps left.

Lorenzo was clearly furious at the Ducati rider’s antics. The stewards sent Iannone to the back of the grid for the next race, the Dutch TT at Assen on June 26, and imposed two penalty points.

As the defending world champion trudged back to the stands, Marquez went in hot pursuit of his arch rival Rossi.

The two-time world champion nudged his Honda up the inside of Rossi’s bike to take a look with fi ve laps remaining, only for Rossi to close the door.

Two laps later Marquez muscled his way past, and it was nip and tuck between the pair until Rossi regained the lead to pull away and take the win by over two and a half seconds.

“I knew it would be hard, I was worried because when I was in front I was push-ing a lot, but not enough to escape from Marc,” said Rossi.

Marquez, like Rossi and third-placed Dani Pedrosa wearing shirts in tribute to Salom, said: “Of course this battle is for Salom.” He added: “When I saw Lorenzo

KOed my mentality changed.” Rossi claimed his seventh race here but

fi rst since 2009. He will be encouraged by the fact that 15 of the last 19 Catalonia winners have gone on to clinch the title.

Earlier, Zarco won the Moto2 race from pole.

After holding off Kalex teammates Alex Rins and Japan’s Takaaki Nakagami, the defending world champion’s thoughts turned to his departed Spanish colleague.

“This victory was for Salom. I give it to him. Now I will celebrate on the podium

with all the riders together thinking of him,” the Frenchman said.

This was his third win of the season and it moved him up a place into third on 106 points behind new leader Rins on 116 and Briton Sam Lowes, who came in sixth, on 108.

Spaniard Jorge Navarro thrilled his home fans with a debut success in the Moto3 category.

The Honda rider’s win at his 33rd at-tempt over South Africa’s Brad Binder and Italian Enea Bastianini boosted his

world championship prospects.After this seventh leg of the season, the

20-year-old from Valencia moves on to 103 points, 44 points adrift of standings leader Binder.

“I’m feeling emotional,” said Navarro. “This win is for Luis.”

GRAND PRIX OF CATALUNYA RESULTSMotoGP (top ten)1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 44:37.5892. Marc Marquez (Honda) at 2.6523. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 6.3134. Maverick Vinales (Suzuki) 24.3885. Pol Espargaro (Yamaha Tech3) 29.5466. Cal Crutchlow (Honda LCR) 36.2447. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 41.4648. Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia) 42.9759. Danilo Petrucci (Ducati Pramac) 45.33710. Hector Barbera (Ducati Avintia) 46.669MotoGP standings (top three)1. Marc Marquez (Honda) 125 points2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1153. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 103 MOTO2 RESULTS (TOP THREE)1. Johann Zarco (Kalex) 42:31.3472. Alex Rins (Kalex) at 4.1803. Takaaki Nakagami (Kalex) 9.313Moto2 standings (top three)1. Alex Rins (Kalex) 116 points2. Sam Lowes (Kalex) 1083. Johann Zarco (Kalex) 106 MOTO3 RESULTS (TOP THREE)1. Jorge Navarro (Honda) 42:18.2282. Brad Binder (KTM) at 0.564s3. Enea Bastianini(Honda) 0.817Moto3 standings1. Brad Binder (KTM) 147 points2. Jorge Navarro (Honda) 1033. Romano Fenati (KTM) 80

Second-placed Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez (left) applauds first-placed Movistar Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi on the podium after the MotoGP race of the Catalunya Grand Prix at the Montmelo racetrack near Barcelona yesterday. (AFP)

SAG Team Moto2 Spanish rider Luis Salom’s motorbike is parked in the box after a trib-ute for the rider yesterday. (AFP)

AFPLahore

Fast bowler Mohamed Amir has been named in Pakistan’s Test squad to face England in a

four-match series starting next month, six years after he re-ceived a spot-fi xing ban against the same opponents.

The 24-year-old, who also served a custodial sentence for the off ence, is expected to re-ceive his British visa in the next couple of days following a special request for leniency from the Pa-kistan Cricket Board.

Amir along with then-Paki-stan captain Salman Butt and new-ball partner Mohamed Asif, were found guilty of arranging deliberate no-balls in return for money during the Lord’s Test against England in August 2010.

In addition to receiving custo-dial sentences, all three players were banned for fi ve years.

Since returning from his sus-pension last September, Amir has been a regular feature in Pa-kistan’s one-day and Twenty20 sides but has yet to make his re-turn to Tests.

His good form makes him an automatic choice for the team. Barring any visa problem or injury he is set to open the bowling for Pakistan when they take the fi eld for the fi rst Test on July 14 at Lord’s — the same venue where he com-mitted his off ence six years earlier.

Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq said Amir would receive a visa. “Amir is expected to get visa in the next couple of days and (Mohamed) Hafeez is also cleared by medical staff so we have included him,” Inzamam told a press conference.

The Test squad will be led by Misbah-ul-Haq, who took on the captaincy in October 2010, a few months after the spot-fi xing scandal.

Opener Hafeez was selected subject to his full recovery from a knee injury sustained two months ago, with selectors de-ciding to include him after team medics said he would regain fi t-ness in the next few days.

Regular opener Ahmed She-hzad was not selected over dis-ciplinary problems, leaving the opening positions to the inexpe-rienced left-handed pair of Shan

Masood, who has played seven Tests, and Sami Aslam, who has played one.

Aslam, 20, however, starred against England during a Paki-stan junior team tour in 2013, when he hit three centuries.

Pakistan’s batting will also be tested but the experienced Younis Khan — who toured Eng-land in 2001 and 2006 — will be their mainstay.

Besides Younis, Azhar Ali and Hafeez are the only two who have played previously played Tests in England before.

Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, So-hail Khan and Imran Khan will round out the pace attack while leg spinner Yasir Shah and left-armer Zulfi qar Babar are the two spinners.

The squads for fi ve one-day internationals and a single Twen-ty20 will be announced later.

The team are likely to leave for the tour on June 18 and hold a training camp in Hampshire be-fore their fi rst match against Som-erset starting on July 5 and another against Sussex from July 8.

Squad: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Mohamed Hafeez (subject to fit-ness), Shan Masood, Sami Aslam, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Iftikhar Ahmed, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohamed Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Mohamed Amir, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Sohail Khan, Imran Khan.

Two motorcycle riders have died in separate accidents on the opening day of the annual Isle of Man TT races, organisers said.ACU Events said in a statement that locally-based Australian Dwight Beare, 27, was killed in Saturday’s sidecar race while his passenger Benjamin Binns was in a stable condition with a frac-tured ankle.English solo rider Paul Shoesmith, 50, died in evening practice in an accident on the Sulby Straight, with the session then aban-doned.Saturday’s action also saw Northern Irish rider Michael Dunlop record the first sub-17 minute lap on his way to winning the RST Superbike race.The TT races around the island off the north-west coast of Eng-land between Britain and Ireland have been run since 1907 and rank among the most dangerous in motorsport.Including the Manx Grand Prix races, held later in the year, there have been 250 rider fatalities to date on the Snaefell course.

Two riders die on opening day ofIsle of Man TT races