Abdullah bin Fahad al-Attiyah’s Coeursamba lands Gr1 in Paris

Qatar’s al-Attiyah races to second straight Andalucia Rally win

Monday, May 17, 2021Shawwal 5, 1442 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Bernal destroys his rivals totake Girod’Italia lead

Miller masters the rain to douse French hopes

MOTOGP MOTOGP | Page 2 CYCLING CYCLING | Page 6

FOOTBALL

Suarez winner keeps Atletico’s title hopes alivePage 7

HORSE RACING

RALLYING

Rafa beats Djoko for 10th Rome win‘It doesn’t get a bigger challenge than playing the final against Rafa’

AgenciesVillamartin, Spain

Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah and Matthieu Baumel guided their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux to a second successive

victory in the fi ve-day Andalucia Rally in southern Spain and got their 2021 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Ral-lies campaign off to the perfect start.

The Qatari and his French teammate became embroiled in a fi erce battle with Spain’s Carlos Sainz and Over-drive Racing teammate Yazeed al-Rajhi for honours over four demanding legs through Andalucia and the neighbour-ing province of Cordoba.

Al-Attiyah led from the opening qualifying stage, but Sainz maintained the pressure right to the fi nal kilome-tres, as the Qatari crossed the fi nish line with a slender winning margin of 2min 43sec.

Al-Attiyah said: “The last stage was not easy. We had to keep the position, the fi rst place, but I am quite happy to win here again. Every race we are fi ght-ing with Carlos (Sainz). He is one of the best drivers in the world. I am quite happy.”

Baumel added: “Andalucia, like last year, was fantastic. Nice places, nice roads, technique, fast and in the moun-tains and in the valleys and between the vegetation and the olive trees. The fi ght

with Carlos and Yazeed was very high. We pushed a lot to win again this year. It is only piste, so navigation is not so dif-fi cult here. It is more about speed than navigation here.”

With regular co-driver Michael Orr still recuperating from a back in-jury sustained in Saudi Arabia in early March, al-Rajhi was partnered by German navigator Dirk von Zitzewitz,

rounded off the podium places and se-cured third place for a second year.

Dutchman Erik van Loon and his French co-driver Sébastien Delaunay delivered an impressive performance in the third of fi ve Overdrive Racing cars to fi nish fourth.

Portugal’s Victor Conceicao teamed up with Brazilian Valeria Nacarato in

the fi fth of the Toyotas.They had a strong start to the event

but a time loss on day two pushed them down to 57th overall and they recovered to finish much higher up the rankings.

Action in the 2021 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies resumes with Rally Kazakhstan on June 7-13.

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (right) and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel celebrate their Andalucia Rally win in Villamartin, Spain, yesterday.

Khalifa al-Attiyah runner-up in T4 categorySouth Racing-built Can-Ams filled the top five places in the Andalucia Rally, round one of the 2021 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. Outright victory fell to the American racer Austin Jones and his Brazilian navigator Gustavo Gugelmin in their Monster Energy Can-Am Maverick XRS.Jones became embroiled in a grip-ping tussle over the varied southern Spanish terrain with Qatar’s Khalifa Saleh al-Attiyah and his experienced French co-driver Xavier Panseri. Al-Attiyah led midway through the rally, but Jones hit back over the last two days to secure the win and al-Attiyah finished second in his South Racing Can-Am Team Maverick.

The Dutch duo of Kees Koolen and Mirjam Pol crewed their South Rac-ing Can-Am to the final place on the podium. Chile’s Hernan Garces and Juan Pablo Latrach were fourth in their Maverick and Argentina’s David Zille and Bruno Jacomy rounded off the top five for the South Racing Can-Am Team.

AgenciesParis, France

In the colours of Abdullah bin Fahad al-Attiyah, Co-eursamba won the French Classic Poule d’Essai des

Pouliches with show-stopping acceleration at ParisLong-champ yesterday.

She was giving her trainer Jean-Claude Rouget his fi fth win in this French Classic for three-year-old fi llies run over a mile. Coeursamba had a per-fect race under Italian jockey Cristian Demuro, coming up in between King’s Harlequin, and the Irish runner and 1000 Guineas winner at Newmarket two weeks previously, Mother Earth, in the closing stages.

She fl ew away in the fi nal metres, pulling a length and a quarter clear of Mother Earth, trained by AP O’Brien and rid-den by Christophe Soumil-lon. Kennella, who is trained in Chantilly by Nicolas Caullery took an excellent third place with Theo Bachelot in the sad-dle, a short head in front of Sweet Lady.

“I wasn’t too worried for this one. The fi lly was in great shape,” Rouget said after the win.

“We gave her the entire win-ter off and sent her to the stud. We couldn’t get her back in very early, but that didn’t worry me too much as she ran quite a lot as a two-year-old. I picked the Prix du Louvre (Class 1) for her seasonal comeback, with orders to give her a gentle race. Every-thing went well for her today: a good draw, in good physical

condition… She showed double the acceleration of some very good fi llies.

“I didn’t enter her in the Cor-onation Stakes (Group 1), due to the complications caused by Covid. I don’t think that she will run in the Prix de Diane (Gr1) as she has limited stamina, but Ascot is a possibility.”

Demuro added: “You always have to have belief! We have a great run. She came back very well from her last race. Today was just a dream. I think it’s Jean-Claude Rouget that makes the diff erence! She stepped up to the distance really well. She acceler-ated brilliantly and the low draw was a defi nite advantage. The open stretch helped her too.”

Coeursamba was bred in Normandy by Julie and Fran-cine Mestrallet of Haras de l’Aumônerie. She was sold as a foal, before subsequently sell-ing as a yearling the following autumn when she was bought by her trainer, Jean-Claude Rouget. She then was pre-sented at the boutique Arqana Arc Sale as a two-year-old last October, at which she was ac-quired her owner Abdullah bin Fahad al-Attiyah. By sire The Wow Signal, a top-class race-horse for Al Shaqab Racing who sadly died prematurely, she is out of the Anabaa mare Marechale, a full sister to mul-tiple Stakes winners Maxwell and Prince Fasliyev.

Cristian Demuro (right) rides Coeursamba to victory in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (Group 1) at ParisLongchamp yesterday. (Scoopdyga)

TENNIS

AFPRome, Italy

Rafael Nadal beat world number one Novak Djokovic to win a 10th Italian Open title yes-

terday and set down a key marker two weeks out from the defence of his Roland Garros crown.

Second seed Nadal won through 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in 2hr 49min against the defend-ing champion in the 57th career showdown between the pair.

“It’s amazing I have this tro-phy in my hands for a 10th time, something impossible to im-agine,” said the world number three who also equalled Djoko-vic’s record of 36 ATP Masters 1000 titles in his 12th Rome final.

“I remember the fi rst fi nal I won here in Rome back in 2005 against (Guillermo) Coria which lasted fi ve hours,” recalled the 34-year-old of his fi ve-set battle past the Argentine.

Djokovic and Nadal were fac-ing each other for the 57th time, having last played in the 2020 French Open fi nal which the Spaniard won in straight sets.

The pair have won 15 of the last 17 Rome titles between them.

“I really wanted this title. This had been one of the most impor-tant titles in my career. I’d won 10 in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Roland Garros and really wanted it here too,” added Nadal.

Djokovic saved a fi rst match point in the eighth game of the third but Nadal made no mistake on his second chance in the fol-lowing to seal his 88th career title after winning in Barcelona earlier this month.

“It doesn’t get a bigger chal-lenge than playing in the fi nal against Rafa,” said Djokovic. “Overall three hours of high qual-ity tennis. I’m disappointed not to win, but pleased with my level.”

Spain’s Rafael Nadal celebrates with the trophy after winning his Italian Open final against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic (not pictured) in Rome, Italy, yesterday. (Reuters)

Swiatek demolishes Pliskova to claim Rome crownFrench Open champion Iga Swiatek served a warning to her rivals ahead of the clay-court Grand Slam with a 6-0, 6-0 demolition of former world number one Karolina Pliskova in the Italian Open final yesterday.The victory in 46 minutes meant the world number 15 from Poland, who shot to fame at Roland Garros last year by beat-ing Sofia Kenin in straight sets in the final, will enter the top 10 for the first time when the new rankings are out today.Swiatek’s third title overall following triumphs at Roland Garros and Adelaide came on the back of one of the most dominant performances of the 19-year-old’s career as she dropped only 13 points against

the Czech, who was the 2019 Rome champion.“I’m really happy to win this tournament in Rome, it’s been a tough week from the begin-ning,” said Swiatek, who won her quarter-final and semi-final matches in straight sets on

Saturday after they were post-poned due to rain.“I’m really happy I got through everything and I was really focused today, so I’m proud of myself. Now I’ve finally earned some tiramisu.”

(Reuters)

Al Shaqab Racing’s Ebro River emerges victorious at Doncaster on second start

AgenciesDoncaster, England

Following on from Joud Al Cham’s victory in France on Saturday

morning, the two-year-old colt Ebro River followed up with another win for Al Shaqab Racing at Doncaster in the Restricted Novices’ Stakes over five furlongs (1,000m) in the afternoon.Ridden by former champion apprentice David Egan, Ebro River was slowly away from the gates, ending up at the rear on the field. He was keen in running and progressed up to hit the front after 400m of

the race. Taking the lead with 200m left to run, he hung to the right, but was quickly corrected by his jockey, running on to the line to win by a length. The Adrian Paul Keatley-trained and Nathan Evans -ridden Kyber Crystal was the runner-up. Koda Legend finished six lengths behind in third for trainer Ralph Beckett and jockey Hector Crouch. This was just the second start for this two-year-old, who is trained by Hugo Palmer in Newmarket. He was bred by Tally-Ho Stud, who stand Galileo Gold on behalf of Al Shaqab Racing. The colt was a Tattersalls yearling purchase.

2

SPORT

Miller masters the rain to douse French hopes

Brazil’s Oliveira KOs Chandler to take UFC lightweight belt

Netherlands’ VeeKay wins IndyCar Indianapolis GP

MOTORCYCLING FOCUS

BOTTOMLINE

‘I felt very comfortable. It’s amazing, I can’t believe we have had back to back wins’

Gulf Times Monday, May 17, 2021

AFPLe Mans, France

Australian rider Jack Miller made it back to back wins on his Ducati with a dramatic

victory in a windy, rain-strewn French MotoGP at Le Mans yes-terday.

Miller, who won the last race in Spain, fi nished ahead of French pair Johann Zarco, rid-ing for Ducati’s satellite Pramac team, and Fabio Quartararo, on a Yamaha, who takes over the lead in the championship.

Quartararo, who has won two races this season and started on pole here, has 80 points, one more than Miller’s teammate Francesco Bagnaia who fi nished fourth.

It was a major bonus for the Frenchman, coming just 12 days after undergoing ‘arm pump’ surgery following problems with his right forearm, which saw him slip to a 13th place fi n-ish last time out at Jerez.

“I’m so happy, it’s like a vic-tory for me,” said Quartararo whose front tyre was completely worn out at the end of the race.

Zarco is third in the title race with 68 points and Miller is just four points further back, leav-ing the top four within 16 points of each other ahead of the sixth race of the season at Mugello in

Italy on May 30.“The wind added to the rain

and I thought the race was going to be stopped,” said Miller who survived two time penalties to become the fi rst Australian ever to win two successive victories in MotoGP.

“I felt very comfortable. It’s amazing, I can’t believe we have had back to back wins.”

The diffi cult conditions which saw rain sweeping across the Bugatti circuit led to numer-ous bikes sliding off the track, leading to a mass bike change for wet tyres when the race went ‘fl ag to fl ag’.

“I know the possibility of a podium is very low,” said Marc Marquez just before the race but when the riders reemerged after the change of bikes, it was the six-times world champion who took charge.

In his third race back after a year out with injury, Marquez opened up a promising lead be-fore sliding off with 19 laps re-maining.

The Spaniard struggled to get his bike upright but remounted and picked his way through the fi eld before sliding off a second time and out of the race.

Miller had made an excellent start taking the lead from pole-sitter Quartararo and these two battled it out for most of the race before and after the bike change. Both were hit with pen-

alties which allowed Zarco, who was fl ying after the change, to close up and chase them to the fl ag.

“Maybe if we had changed bikes a little earlier we could have won the race”, said Zarco.

He did overtake Quartararo but did not have enough in the tank to overhaul Miller who crossed the line over four sec-onds clear to collect only his third MotoGP victory.

FERNANDEZ TAKES MOTO2

Spain’s Raul Fernandez won the Moto2 race to climb to just one point behind his Australian teammate Remy Gardner in the championship standings.

The two KTM team riders dominated a race marred by multiple crashes.

Fernandez, 20, is in his fi rst season in Moto2 and he arrived at Le Mans with his maiden win in the category already secured in Portugal last month.

Completing the podium for this fi fth leg of the season was Italian Marco Bezzecchi who goes third in the standings.

Sergio Garcia, meanwhile, won the Moto3 division with championship leader Pedro Acosta a valiant eighth after the 16-year-old rookie jumped back onto his bike after a crash.

Acosta has enjoyed a dream start to life in Moto3 with three

wins out of the fi ve races staged so far to give him a command-ing 54 points cushion over his Spanish compatriot and near-est rival, Garcia. Garcia’s sec-ond Moto 3 win after Valencia in 2019 came at the main expense of Czech Republic rider Filip Salac and Italian Riccardo Rossi in second and third.

MotoGP:1. Jack Miller (AUS/Ducati) 47 mins 25.473sec, 2. Johann Zarco (FRA/Ducati-Pramac) at 3.970sec, 3. Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yamaha) 14.468, 4. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA/Ducati) 16.172, 5. Danilo Petrucci (ITA/KTM) 21.430, 6. Alex Marquez (ESP/Honda-LCR) 23.509, 7. Takaaki Nakagami (JPN/Honda-LCR) 30.164, 8. Pol Espargaro (ESP/Honda) 35.221, 9. Iker Lecuona (ESP/KTM) 40.432, 10. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Yamaha) 40.577, 11. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha-SRT) 42.198

World championship stand-ings (after five rounds): 1. Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yama-ha) 80 points, 2. Francesco Bag-naia (ITA/Ducati) 79, 3. Johann Zarco (FRA/Ducati-Pramac) 68, 4. Jack Miller (AUS/Ducati) 64, 5. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Yamaha) 56, 6. Joan Mir (ESP/Suzuki) 49, 7. Aleix Espargaro (ESP/Aprilia) 35, 8. Franco Mor-bidelli (ITA/Yamaha-SRT) 33, 9.

Takaaki Nakagami (JPN/Honda-LCR) 28, 10. Pol Espargaro (ESP/Honda) 25

Moto2:1. Raul Fernandez (ESP/Kalex) 40min 46.101sec, 2. Remy Gardner (AUS/Kalex) at 1.490, 3. Marco Bezzecchi (ITA/Kalex) 4.599sec, 4. Tony Arbolino (ESP/Kalex) 7.503, 5. Bo Bendsneyder (NED/Kalex) 11.887

World championship stand-ings (after five rounds): 1. Remy Gardner (AUS/Kalex) 89 pts, 2. Raul Fernandez (ESP/Kalex) 88, 3. Marco Bezzecchi (ITA/Kalex) 72, 4. Sam Lowes (GBR/Kalex) 66, 5. Fabio di Gian-nantonio (ITA/Kalex) 60

Moto3:1. Sergio Garcia (ESP/GasGas) 42min 21.172sec, 2. Filip Salac (TCH/Honda) 2.349, 3. Ricardo Rossi (ITA/KTM) 5.589, 4. John McPhee (GBR/Honda) 7.158, 5. Ayumu Sasaki (JPN/KTM) 14.882Selected: 8. Pedro Acosta (ESP/KTM) 29.880

World championship stand-ings (after five rounds): 1. Pedro Acosta (ESP/KTM) 103 pts, 2. Sergio Garcia (ESP/Gas-Gas) 49, 3. Andrea Migno (ITA/Honda) 47, 4. Romano Fenati (ITA/Husqvarna) 46, 5. Niccolo Antonelli (ITA/KTM) 44

AFPLos Angeles

Rinus VeeKay used some bold moves to win the IndyCar Indianapolis Grand Prix on Satur-

day, capturing his fi rst win in the US open-wheel series ahead of pole-sitter Romain Grosjean.

The 20-year-old from the Netherlands became the third fi rst-time winner in the series

this season and the fourth driver under the age of 25 to win in fi ve races in 2021 after Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward and Alex Palou.

He started in seventh and powered his way up with speed and determination, making a big move on lap 42 when he split the Chip Ganassi Racing cars of Palou and Jimmy Johnson to overtake them both.

He passed Grosjean – who held a comfortable early lead – with 37 laps remaining and won

by 4.951sec. VeeKay, who gave Ed Carpenter Racing a fi rst vic-tory since 2016, surrendered the lead briefl y through a pit stop cycle, but led the fi nal 20 laps of the 85-lap race on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course at In-dianapolis Motor Speedway – where the Indianapolis 500 will be run on the famed oval course in two weeks.

“We had an awesome start to the weekend, best start I’ve ever had,” VeeKay said. “I knew we

had the car, and we were so fast. Just the perfect day. It’s amaz-ing. “Palou was third, with Josef Newgarden and Graham Rahal rounding out the top-fi ve.

The signs were good for VeeKay when he was fastest in the morning warm-up. He had some success before on the In-dianapolis road course with a pole position and third-placed fi nish last October.

He crashed heavily on the Indy oval in Indianapolis 500

testing to start 2021, breaking a fi nger. But he still fi nished in the top 10 of three of the next four races. For Grosjean, a fi rst Indy-Car podium marked a stunning return from his horrifying fi ery crash in Bahrain last November that ended his Formula One ca-reer.

“That’s really a good day,” said the 35-year-old Frenchman, who received massive cheers from the limited crowd as he was interviewed post race.

AFPHouston

Brazil’s Charles Oliveira rallied with brutal ef-fi ciency to knock out American Michael

Chandler early in the second round at UFC 262 in Hou-ston, Texas, on Saturday and be crowned new lightweight cham-pion.

“I am proving to everybody I am the lion of lions,” Oliveira said inside the cage afterwards. “I told you I was going to knock him out and I came and knocked him out.”

The 31-year-old Oliveira’s next challenge will be to carve his legacy in the blue riband UFC weight class previously domi-nated by Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.

“I wanted to come here tonight and show that I am the best,” said Oliveira.

The 35-year-old Chandler had been fast-tracked to a title shot after the former Bellator organi-sation lightweight champion’s stunning UFC debut in January with a fi rst-round knockout of New Zealand veteran Dan Hook-er.

An all-American wrestler in his college days, Chandler has evolved into an explosive stand-up force and appeared to have been ahead after the fi rst round.

He somehow managed to es-cape Oliveira’s clutches after the fi ght had gone to the ground early and he landed some huge headshots, particularly from his left hand, when they got back to their feet.

But it was Oliveira who came out swinging hard and fast in the second. A left hook put Chan-dler down and was followed by a barrage of unanswered blows with the referee stepping in af-ter only 19 seconds of the round.

The jubilant Oliveira vaulted the fence and embarked on an

impromptu victory lap from the cage-side commentary desk into the crowd.

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu mas-ter had arrived in Texas boast-ing more submission wins than anyone else in UFC history with 14 and his TKO win gave him an-other record – 17 fi nishes inside the distance.

“Michael said I couldn’t take pressure and he hit, hit, hit and I’m still here. Here’s the belt.”

While Nurmagomedov, argu-ably the greatest MMA cham-pion of all time, retired last October with a record of 29-0, McGregor remains in the light-weight mix.

The Irish 32-year-old is ranked sixth, despite losing two of his past three fi ghts, and he is set to face the top-ranked American Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in Las Vegas on July 10.

McGregor topped Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s richest sportsmen for the past 12 months, with earn-ings inside and outside the cage of an estimated $180mn.

Local media reported Satur-day that about 17,500 tickets had been sold for the event, with the UFC was claiming the $4 mn gate receipts were a record at a venue that is usually home to the Houston Rockets NBA team.

America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had on Thursday eased its mask-wear-ing guidance for fully vaccinated people, with those vaccinated now free to stop wearing masks outdoors and in most indoor settings.

Fans were encouraged to wear masks Saturday but there were no restrictions enforced.

Oliveira was one of many fi ghters on the 12-bout card who noted that having a full house back in full voice had made a big diff erence.

“Thank you Houston, thank you Brazil. This belt is for all of us,” he said.

Charles Oliveira lands a kick on Michael Chandler during their UFC bout on Saturday. PICTURE: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Rugby world pays tribute as All Blacks’ Read retires

Tokyo: World Rugby and the All Blacks led tributes yesterday to Kieran Read who announced his retirement from rugby after a semi-final defeat in Japan’s Top League.The third most-capped player in New Zealand rugby history con-firmed before leading Toyota Verblitz against the Panasonic Wild Knights on Saturday that he would finish playing at the end of the Japanese season.That came at the final whistle of the match as Verblitz lost 48-21, unable to extend Read’s storied career to next weekend’s final.“I’m looking forward to return-ing to New Zealand and spend-ing time with my family,” Read posted on social media.The towering No 8 made 127 Test appearances for New Zealand, 52 of them as captain after taking over the armband from Richie McCaw in 2016.He was part of two Rugby World Cup-winning All Blacks sides and was voted World Rugby’s player of the year in 2013.At club level, he won four Super Rugby titles with the Canter-bury Crusaders.World Rugby posted on social media a list of Read’s incredible honours as a player with the simple sign-off : “What a career,” and a clapping emoji.“Thank you, Reado. We wish you all the best in your retire-ment from professional rugby,” said New Zealand Rugby on

their off icial Twitter feed.“One of the greats. Enjoy retire-ment,” added NZR alongside a black heart emoji.Read made his All Blacks debut in 2008 and formed, with McCaw and Jerome Kaino, the formidable back row that was a fundamental part of the World Cup-winning sides in 2011 and 2015.“Congrats on an incredible career, Kieran,” tweeted the Rugby World Cup with a video of Read leading the haka at his final Rugby World Cup game, the 2019 third-fourth playoff against Wales in Japan.“All the best in retirement mate” posted arch-rivals Australia on their off icial Wallabies social media pages.Read was co-captain this sea-son at Toyota Verblitz, where his former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen is director of rugby.

Ducati Lenovo Team’s Jack Miller (also inset) crosses the line to win the French MotoGP at Le Mans yesterday.

SPORT3Gulf Times

Monday, May 17, 2021

Rombauer roars to upset win in 146th Preakness Stakes

‘Distracted’ Toulouse stunned ahead of European Cup fi nal

World Sailing wants confi rmation Tokyo Games will go ahead

Aussie McKeown narrowly misses 50m backstroke world record

‘It does feel totally diff erent. What a feeling’

RACING

TOP 14 RUGBY

FOCUS

SWIMMING

AFPSydney

Australian Kaylee McK-eown narrowly missed the 50 metre back-stroke world record

while setting the year’s best time in the 200m individual medley as she ramps up preparations for the Tokyo Olympics.

The 19-year-old was the stan-dout performer at the four-day Sydney Open, swimming the second-fastest 100m backstroke in history and the fourth quick-est over 200m.

She followed up those ex-ploits by setting a new Austral-ian and Commonwealth record of 27.16sec over 50m, just 0.18 outside the world record held by China’s Lui Xiang since 2018.

McKeown fi nished the med-ley in 2min 08.73sec, a time only bettered in the 2020-21 sea-son by her own 2:08.23 at the Queensland State Champion-ships.

“Kaylee takes her body and her mind and she punches through pain barriers like no one else I’ve ever seen in my life and she

doesn’t mind doing it,” her coach Chris Mooney told reporters.

“We really do put a lot of focus and attention on our race proc-esses and we fi nd that if we get those processes done well then the result usually follows.”

The Sydney Open was the last meet before Australia’s Olympic trials in Adelaide next month.

Maddy Gough was also in su-perb form, winning the 1,500m freestyle — which will be a new Olympic distance in Tokyo for women — in a personal best 15min 55.14sec, a time only bet-tered by US superstar Katie Ledecky and Germany’s Sarah Kohler. Zac Stubblety-Cook warmed up for the trials by clocking a new Australian record of 2:07.00 in the men’s 200m breaststroke, the second-fast-est time in the world this year. Former world record holder Matt Wilson sat out the fi nal.

“It does wonders for the confi dence, knowing that all the hard work in training, that comes down to just over two minutes work in the race is cer-tainly paying off and we are on the right track,” said Stubblety-Cook.

AFPParis

Toulouse’s forward coach Jean Bouilhou said his side were distracted af-ter being beaten 32-28 at

home by struggling Bayonne in the French Top 14 on Saturday as Cheslin Kolbe was rested a week before the European Champions Cup fi nal.

South Africa’s Rugby World Cup winner Kolbe and former New Zealand back-rower Jer-ome Kaino were among those given the weekend off ahead of facing La Rochelle at Twicken-ham next Saturday.

Toulouse remain top, how-ever, despite a fi rst home loss to the Basques since 2006.

The result saw Bayonne go three points clear of Pau in the relegation play-off spot, with two games of the regular sea-son to go. “We won’t keep much from the match. Maybe the fact we had a double objective, it’s not easy to prepare with that in mind,” former Toulouse back-rower Bouilhou said.

“We blew what we thought would be a breeze, it’s the last one.”

Bayonne fl y-half Maxime

Lafage slotted 19 points in the win after former Samoa lock Joe Tekori and France full-back Thomas Ramos crossed for tries to help put the league leaders 14-0 up after just a quarter of an hour. Toulouse winger Dim-itri Delibes crossed with two

minutes to go to claim a bonus point which handed his team a guaranteed place in the end-of-season play-off s between the top six teams. They remain in pole position for a direct spot in the semi-fi nals.

It was a diff erent story for La

Rochelle as South Africa winger Raymond Rhule claimed a try double in a 59-0 hammering of already-relegated Agen.

Head coach Jono Gibbes wel-comed back numerous starters after resting the likes of former All Blacks Victor Vito and Taw-

era Kerr-Barlow as well as Aus-tralia lock Will Skelton for two losses in three days earlier this week.

La Rochelle returned to sec-ond in the table, leapfrogging Racing 92 after the Parisians’ win at Pau on Friday.

Elsewhere, Racing’s cross-capital rivals Stade Francais kept their hopes of a play-off place alive with a 32-10 victory over Montpellier, who had made 14 changes ahead of Friday’s Eu-ropean Challenge Cup fi nal with Leicester. Montpellier’s Spring-bok half-backs Handre Pollard and Cobus Reinach, who lifted the Webb Ellis trophy with Kolbe two years ago, were among those to miss the defeat.

“Handre’s had a little calf issue. He’s working a lot,” Montpellier coach Philippe Saint-Andre said.

“I hope to have him back on Monday to prepare for the fi nal.”

Earlier, France fl y-half Mat-thieu Jalibert kicked 15 points as Bordeaux-Begles overcame Castres 20-16 as they also eye a place in the top six places.

The late game saw another World Cup winner, Eben Etze-beth, making his fi rst Toulon start in seven weeks, away at Cl-ermont.

ReutersBerlin

World Sailing has de-layed the approval of its fi nancial statements pending

a confi rmation it has requested from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that this year’s Tokyo Olympics will go ahead.

World Sailing council offi cials said at their mid-year meeting on Friday that they had request-ed a confi rmation from the IOC regarding Tokyo so as to include the expected revenues from the Games in the their accounts.

However, the IOC has yet to respond.

“Haysmacintyre, as auditors,

would be obliged to disclose quite a lot of narrative in the ac-counts in the event of any un-certainty around Tokyo 2020,” World Sailing’s audit committee chairman Phil Cotton told the online meeting.

“For that reason we ap-proached the IOC for confi rma-tion that one, the Games were going to proceed and two, that funding would fl ow. We have yet to receive that confi rmation.”

Every international federa-tion is guaranteed an Olympic fi nancial contribution after each Olympics as part of a revenue-sharing plan established by the IOC. Many of the smaller sports federations depend on those funds to operate in the four years between Games.

AFPWashington

Rombauer charged late to win the 146th Preak-ness Stakes on Satur-day as Medina Spirit,

whose Kentucky Derby victory was clouded by a failed drugs test, fi nished third.

Rombauer, an 11-1 longshot, gave trainer Mike McCarthy a victory with his fi rst entrant in one of US fl at racing’s Triple Crown races.

For US-based French jockey Flavien Prat it was a second Triple Crown win — but his fi rst chance to experience the thrill of taking the wire since his 2019 Kentucky Derby vic-tory aboard Country House was inherited when Maximum Security was disqualifi ed for interference.

“It does feel totally diff er-ent,” Prat said. “What a feel-ing.”

Medina Spirit, trained by Bob Baff ert and ridden by John Velazquez, had been in the spotlight all week but not with the usual anticipation of seeing a Kentucky Derby winner pull off the second leg of the Triple Crown.

The colt tested positive af-ter the Derby victory for beta-methasone, which is banned within two weeks of a race.

With the “B” sample yet to confi rm the positive result and Medina Spirit’s Kentucky Der-by victory still in the balance, racing authorities green-light-ed his Preakness bid.

He went off the 2-1 favourite and broke well from the third post, seizing the lead with 3-1 second choice Midnight Bour-bon pressing the pace.

Midnight Bourbon, trained by Steve Asmussen and rid-den by Irad Ortiz, had taken the lead as they headed into the fi nal turn but would settle for second as Rombauer roared past both of them and powered to victory by 3 1/2 lengths.

“Coming to the quarter pole I started to get excited,” McCa-rthy said. “At the eighth pole it was like an out of body experi-

ence. Fantastic.”Rombauer was coming off

a third place fi nish in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, and didn’t race in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago with his

connections feeling the 1 1/4 mile race at Churchill Downs didn’t suit his style.

“So proud of this horse,” Mc-Carthy said. “Everybody in-volved. To be here, participat-

ing on a day like this... it just goes to show you that small players in the game can be suc-cessful as well.”

Prat, who set up shop in the United States in 2015, said in a post-race interview he didn’t know much about US racing’s Triple Crown of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

“Since I’m here, I realize how important it is,” he said of the treble that only 13 horses have completed. “There’s so much history behind these races. To win one, it’s amazing. To win the Preakness, it’s even better.”

The fact that Baff ert has sad-dled two Triple Crown winners makes his involvement in yet another doping controversy all the more damaging for a strug-gling sport.

The Baff ert-trained Ameri-can Pharoah became the fi rst

horse in 37 years to win the Tri-ple Crown in 2015, and Baff ert guided Justify to the coveted treble in 2018.

Baff ert, who has been at the centre of a string of drugs vio-lations, wasn’t at Pimlico race track in Baltimore on Saturday, preferring, he said in a state-ment, to keep the focus on Me-dina Spirit and the other horses in the fi eld.

“I do not want to serve as a distraction to what has always been of paramount importance — the joy of this great sport and the horses that make it possi-ble,” Baff ert said.

He said there was “never any attempt to cheat the system” and that even if the analysis of the second part of a split sample confi rms the positive test “it would have nothing to do with Medina Spirit’s hard-earned and deserved win.”

Flavien Prat aboard Rombauer reacts after winning the 146th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Satur-day. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Trainer Michael McCarthy (R) and jockey Flavien Prat celebrate in the winners circle.

Australian Kaylee McKeown . PICTURE: Swimming Australia

Andrew wins again as Indianapolis Pro Swim comes to close

Los Angeles: Michael Andrew notched his third win in as many days at the Indianapolis Pro Swim Series Saturday and if his 200m medley victory left something to be desired it was still a good sign with the US Olympic trials coming up.“I think of all the races this weekend, I was most disappointed with this one,” Andrew said after winning the 200m individual medley in 1min 56.84sec.“This evening was a little hard to get in the right frame of mind, I felt a little tired mentally,” added Andrew, who looked impressive in 100m breaststroke and 100m but-terfly victories on Thursday and Friday.“That (medley) race hurt a lot more, but I’m happy with some of the adjustments we were able to make and I’m looking forward to these next three weeks and getting ready

for trials.”In other events on the final day, world record-holder Re-gan Smith won the women’s 100m backstroke in 58.77sec with Phoebe Bacon — who bested Smith in the 200m back — second in 59.62.At the US trials in Omaha, Nebraska, in June, Smith and Bacon will be up against stiff competition in the 100m back as evidenced by results Satur-day across the country in the Atlanta Classic.There, Olivia Smoliga won the women’s 100m back in 58.31sec with Rhyan White second in 58.43.That moved them to third and fourth in the world this season, a list topped by ris-ing Australian star Kaylee McKeown with a 57.63 at the Sydney Open this weekend — the second-fastest time ever behind Smith’s world mark of 57.57 set in 2019.

Toulouse’s full back Thomas Ramos (R) runs with the ball during their French Top 14 rugby union match against Aviron Bayonnais Rugby Prp (Bayonne) at The Stade Ernest-Wallon in Toulouse, south-western France, on Saturday.

SPORTGulf Times Monday, May 17, 20214

Burns leads by one aft er third round

Spieth chases career Grand Slam at PGA Championship‘I felt like a favorite going in and it was the last major. And then the years after, I just didn’t really feel in great form in PGAs’

SPOTLIGHT

GOLF

AFPKiawah Island, United States

Three-time major win-ner Jordan Spieth, who snapped a four-year US PGA Tour win drought

in April, tries to complete a ca-reer Grand Slam by winning next week’s PGA Championship.

The 27-year-old American makes his fi fth attempt to win each of golf’s four major crowns at least once after capturing the 2015 Masters and US Open and the 2017 British Open.

It was only a few weeks after his triumph at England’s Royal Birkdale when he fi rst faced the tension of going for the career

Slam. “I think 2017, the fi rst time, was really the only time where it may have weighed on me, only given it was coming right off of a major win,” Spieth said of career Slam pressure.

“I felt like a favorite going in and it was the last major. And then the years after, I just didn’t really feel in great form in PGAs. It’s going to pick you apart if you’re not driving the ball straight and far.”

Spieth struggled with form for years before making a break-through by winning last month’s Texas Open and sharing third at the Masters, raising his idea of what thrills future events like the PGA could hold.

“I’ve made a lot of good

progress, but I feel like that road ahead is still signifi cant for me,” Spieth said. “I’ll have a good stretch coming up here in May and June, and I’m excited for what’s to come.”

Only fi ve golfers have com-pleted the career Grand Slam, but a victory by Spieth at Kiawah Is-land on May 20-23 would see him join Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen.

“Every year I go into that tour-nament it’s like it’s the one that if I could pick one more to win I would pick that one,” Spieth said. “It just kind of excites me a little bit more going into it.”

Spieth had not won since taking his third major title in 2017 until

the Dallas product won in his home state. In his attempts to complete the Slam, Spieth has shared 28th at the 2017 PGA, 12th in 2018, third in 2019 and 71st last year.

‘FEEL THAT MOMENTUM’

Spieth has regained his touch this year, serving notice with a fourth-place fi nish at Phoenix - highlighted by a third-round 61 - and a third-place eff ort at Pebble Beach in February and a fourth at Bay Hill in March.

“It was getting to where it could just kind of start to click and really feel that momen-tum, and that will get me want to go out and nail it inasmuch as possible,” Spieth said after last month’s Masters. “So I’m hop-

ing I can continue to move that forward.”

A week after winning in Tex-as, Spieth shared third at the Masters, showing more signs of progress with his best major showing since sharing his third at the 2019 PGA. “I hit some good putts, burned a lot of lips, cer-tainly struck the ball well enough to win and they just didn’t go in,” Spieth said at Augusta.

“I wish I had the control of my swing that I think is com-ing soon because it would have made things a little easier and I did strike the ball really well. I hit a lot of fairways.”

If he fi nds that control at Kia-wah Island, it might be one for the history books.

AFPHouston

Sam Burns will take a one-shot lead into the fi nal round of the Byron Nelson tournament in Texas after shooting a three-under-par 69 on

Saturday to remain on course for back-to-back PGA Tour victories.

The 24-year-old from Louisiana - who clinched his fi rst PGA Tour win at the Valspar Championship a fortnight ago - edged clear of the fi eld with a birdie on the fi nal hole of a roller-coaster third round after rolling a long eagle putt to the edge of the cup. Burns had dominated the TPC Craig Ranch layout in suburban Dallas with a 10-under-par 62 on Friday, but was forced to battle to stay on top of the leaderboard with a round that in-cluded fi ve birdies and two bogeys.

The American was in trouble from the opening hole, missing an 11-foot par putt before responding with a birdie on the third after curling in a 28-foot putt from the fringe. A deft chip to six inches gave Burns another birdie on the fi fth before a bogey on the next hole stalled his progress.

That was the last blemish of the day how-ever, and three more birdies and nine pars ensured he will defend the lead when the fi -nal round tees off early on Sunday in order to avoid forecasted storms.

Burns’ birdie on the 18th left him just ahead of South Korea’s Lee Kyoung-hoon,

who had briefl y grabbed a share of the lead after his sublime bunker shot from 80 feet left him with a tap-in for a closing birdie.

It capped another fl awless round from Lee, whose bogey-free 67 included fi ve bird-ies and 13 pars. Lee has birdied the 18th on all three of his rounds this week, and so far has only one bogey through 54 holes for a 19-under aggregate 199.

Burns and Lee will be nervously glanc-ing over their shoulders on Sunday however with a cluster of four players lurking just off the pace at 17 under, three adrift of the lead and two behind second place. That group includes South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel, Matt Kuchar, Sweden’s Alex Noren, and

three-time winner Jordan Spieth. Spieth drew one of the biggest roars of the day with a 31-foot eagle putt from just off the green on the 18th to breathe new life into his chal-lenge after a late stumble.

Spieth looked to be on the charge after reaching the turn at three under for the day, before rattling off three more birdies on the 10th, 12th and 14th holes to move to six un-der. But back-to-back bogeys on the 15th and 16th saw him tumble down the leader-board until the late eagle sealed a six-under-par 66 and revived his hopes of a second victory of 2021 following his Texas Open win last month.

“This tournament’ s done a lot for me in the past and I’m glad I’m in contention,” Spieth said, admitting that his last-hole ea-gle couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I was kind of leaking oil coming in over the last few holes and I made up for it there.”

LEADING THIRD-ROUND SCORES (USA unless noted, par-72)196-Sam Burns 65-62-69197-Lee Kyoung-hoon (KOR) 65-65-67199-Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 65-68-66, Matt Kuchar 67-66-66, Jordan Spieth 63-70-66, Alex Noren (SWE) 65-64-70200-Seamus Power (IRL) 65-68-67, Doc Redman 64-67-69201-Scott Stallings 67-71-63, Harris English 70-68-63, Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP) 64-71-66, Bronson Burgoon 68-66-67, Ben Martin 65-69-67, Joseph Bramlett 64-70-67

Rangefi nders make major debut at PGA Championship

Rangefinders will make their major debut at next week’s PGA Championship, aimed at speed-ing the pace of play even as several top golfers worry it will do nothing or cause slowdowns instead.The golf tech distance-measur-ing devices, using lasers or GPS systems, were approved last February for majors sanctioned by the PGA of America but remain banned for US PGA Tour rounds.“We’re always interested in methods that may help improve the flow of play during our championships,” PGA of Ameri-ca president Jim Richerson said.World number two Justin Tho-mas, the 2017 PGA Champion-ship winner, doubts it’s going to make a great change.“I certainly don’t think it’s go-ing to speed pace of play up,” Thomas said. “Unless you hit it on another hole or some kind of crazy angle where it would take you a long time to get a yardage.”Fellow American Webb Simpson, the 2012 US Open champion, says many players will continue to have caddies walk off dis-tances relative to fixed-position landmarks such as sprinkler heads.“I don’t think it will really make a diff erence,” ninth-ranked Simpson said.“It’s not going to speed up play because everybody I know and have talked to, we still want front numbers, and the range-finder, you can’t always get the accurate front number.“So you’ll probably have the player shoot the pin, the caddie walk off the number because I’m going to want what’s front, what’s the pin.”Reigning US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau won’t check it in routine situations.“It’s going to help me when I hit it off line. We’re not going to have to go to a sprinkler head and walk 40, 50 yards away,” he said.“If players use it in a way that allows them to speed up play that’s great. If they’re always double checking, it could slow play down a little bit, which I’m not a fan of at all.”Players are not allowed to use a rangefinder slope feature to measure elevation changes and can’t use rangefinders to judge wind speeds or obtain recom-mended club selections.Thomas sees rangefinders as taking away the benefits of a great caddie.

“I don’t think we’ll use them,” he said. “I don’t really like them. I think it takes away an advantage of having a good caddie that goes out there and does the work beforehand.“Kiawah Island isn’t some course where the greens are going to be really soft and you just see pin, hit pin. You’re still going to need to get all that information, but then it’s just going to add another element that’s going to add time to the rounds in terms of shooting it with the range-finder.“I enjoy that process... but if an opportunity arises where I hit it off line then yeah, I might use it.”Some players have used them in practice rounds and while in the amateur ranks, includ-ing defending champion Collin Morikawa.“In college I pulled out a range-finder for every shot that I hit,” Morikawa said.“It’ll definitely give you accurate numbers, but so many caddies are used to walking everything off , adding their numbers. Will guys do both? I could definitely see that.“Will some guys want to stay the way they are and not change anything? Absolutely. It’s a rou-tine. We’re so used to it.”Morikawa, who won his first major title last August at Hard-ing Park in San Francisco, does see the move helping certain players pick up the pace.“Will you see pace of play improve like 10 or 15 minutes? I don’t think so. But will it help certain players pick up speed? I think it’ll be tremendous in that sense,” Morikawa said.“It’s going to be interesting to test it out at a major cham-pionship. Is it going to solve anything? We won’t know until we try it.”Australian Jason Day, the 2015 PGA winner, doesn’t plan to use rangefinders.“I don’t mind the idea. Golf is always evolving and changing,” Day said. “It’ll be interesting to see how many guys will do it. I’m not going to do it.”Mexico’s Abraham Ancer sees the devices helping after woe-fully off -target shots.“It will be nice when you’re way off line,” he said. “That’s where it will come in very handy. But when you’re on a tee box, I feel like everybody’s going to use it but also double check, so I don’t know if it’s going to help (pace) that much.” (AFP)

England pacer Archer out of NZ series with elbow injuryReutersLondon

England fast bowler Jofra Archer has been ruled out of their two-Test series against New Zealand starting next month due to pain in his elbow, the England and Wales

cricket Board (ECB) said yesterday.Archer had surgery in March to remove a glass

fragment from a tendon on his right hand, an injury he sustained in January when an attempt to clean his fi sh tank went wrong.

The 26-year-old was having treatment for a long-term elbow problem at the time. Archer re-turned to action for county side Sussex against Kent this week at Hove but only bowled fi ve overs in Kent’s second innings due to pain in his right elbow.

He did not bowl during the fi nal two days of the county championship match.

“The England and Sussex medical teams will seek guidance, and Archer will see a medical con-sultant later this week to determine the next course of action on the management of his elbow,” the ECB said in a statement.

Archer featured in two of England’s four Tests and all fi ve Twenty20 matches during their recent series in India. He missed the start of the now-sus-pended Indian Premier League season.

The fi rst Test against New Zealand will be held at Lord’s from June 2-6 before the second game in Birmingham from June 10.

CRICKET AUSTRALIA OPEN TO NEW INFORMATION ON BALL-TAMPERING SCANDALCricket Australia has said it was open to hearing any new information regarding the 2018 Cape Town scandal in the wake of batsman Cameron Bancroft’s comments suggesting that the team’s bowlers were aware of the ball-tampering tactics.

Following an investigation former Test opener Bancroft was banned for nine months for his role in the incident, while then-captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were stripped of their lead-ership positions and handed year-long suspensions. The CA review had at that time cleared the rest of the team and the support staff from any wrongdo-ing or knowledge of the damaging incident but Ban-croft’s interview to The Guardian has reopened old wounds. “CA has maintained all along that if anyone is in possession of new information in regards to the Cape Town Test of 2018 they should come forward and present it,” the board said in a statement.

“The investigation conducted at the time was detailed and comprehensive. Since then, no one has presented new information to CA that casts doubt on the investigation’s fi ndings. All I wanted to do was to be responsible and accountable for my own actions and part,” Bancroft told the paper when asked if Australia’s bowlers were aware of what he was doing. “Obviously what I did benefi ts bowlers and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory.” When pressed further to clarify if the bowlers knew, he replied: “Uh... yeah, look, I think, yeah, I think it’s pretty probably self-explanatory.”

CRICKET

Jordan Spieth hits from the fairway on the 5th hole during the final round of the AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. (Getty Images/AFP)

SPORT5Gulf Times

Monday, May 17, 2021

LeBron returns as Lakers beat Pacers, stay in playoff hunt

Bryant inducted posthumously into Basketball Hall of Fame

NBA

SPOTLIGHT

AFPLos Angeles

LeBron James made a successful return from injury as the Los An-geles Lakers kept alive their hopes of an automatic NBA playoff spot

with a 122-115 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday.

James fi nished with 24 points while Anthony Davis led the scoring with 28 as the Lakers served notice that they have no intention of surrendering their NBA crown without a fi ght as the postseason approaches.

Saturday’s victory means that the Lak-ers can still secure the sixth seed and avoid the play-in tournament if they win their fi nal game of the regular season against the New Orleans Pelicans on Sun-day and Portland lose to Denver in their fi nal game.

On Saturday’s evidence, the Lakers ap-pear to be hitting the sort of form that de-livered last season’s championship at just the right time, with James linking bril-liantly with Davis while other key mem-bers of the roster returned from injury.

As well as James’ return, Germany’s Dennis Schroder was back from a seven-game layoff due to Covid-19 protocols, scoring 14 points, while Lakers coach Frank Vogel confi rmed Alex Caruso is now fi t again despite not featuring on Saturday.

Any lingering doubts about James’ re-turn to fi tness were wiped away early on Saturday, with the Lakers star throwing down a monstrous one-handed dunk from a Schroder alley-oop as the Lakers imposed themselves early on. Six Lakers players fi nished in double fi gures, with Schroder adding 14 points on his return.

James meanwhile was happy to see his return from injury pass off without a glitch, saying afterwards that while his ankle was sore it felt much improved.

“A lot more mobility, a lot more move-ment, it was warm,” James said. “Tiny bit of soreness now that the game is over which is expected, but I didn’t have a set-back today which is a damn good job for myself and the medical team.”

James added that he had been wrong-

footed by the early afternoon scheduling of Saturday’s game, initially expecting a night-time fi xture.

“It threw me for a loop,” James said. “I knew I had to get my engine revved up early and I wasn’t sure how my ankle was going to respond.

“But it responded very well and I’m ex-cited about what tomorrow holds.”

In other early NBA games on Satur-day, the Phoenix Suns delayed Utah’s coronation as top seeds from the West-ern Conference after demolishing the San Antonio Spurs 140-103. A Phoenix

defeat would have guaranteed top spot in the West to the Jazz, who must now wait for Sunday’s fi nal round of regular season games to clinch the top seed. Devin Book-er led Phoenix’s blowout victory with 27 points while Mikal Bridges added 18.

Elsewhere, the Brooklyn Nets warmed up for the playoff s with 105-91 defeat of the Chicago Bulls. The game marked the fi rst time Brooklyn’s big three of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irv-ing had taken to the court together since February. Irving led the Brooklyn scorers with 22 points while Durant fi nished with

12 and Harden 5. “The fact they’re on the court together is positive,” Nets coach Steve Nash said of Durant, Harden and Irving. “Just the chance to feel it so it’s not so brand new when we start the play-off s next weekend.”

“It wasn’t a great game, we weren’t very sharp,” Nash added.

“We weren’t fi ring on all cylinders but we got out of it with a win. “We got the job done and we move on tomor-row. Hopefully we can have a good game and that sets us up for a good week of practice.”

AFPNew York

Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant was inducted posthumously into the Nai-smith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday part of a star-studded group

that also included Tim Duncan and Kevin |Garnett.

Bryant was inducted as part of the Class of 2020, almost 16 months after he and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were killed in a helicopter crash along with seven others in southern Cali-fornia. Bryant’s wife, Vanessa Bryant, took the podium Saturday to speak movingly about his love for basketball, his family, his teammates and his fans.

“You did it. You are in the Hall of Fame now. You are a true champion, not just an MVP. You are an all-time great,” Vanessa said.

San Antonio Spurs star Duncan, Minne-sota Timberwolves and Boston Celtics big man Garnett, two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich and WNBA legend Tamika Catch-ings were among those also inducted on Satur-day night.

The delayed enshrinement stretched over two days at the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, with Vanessa Bryant and Kobe’s oldest daughter, Natalia, accepting Bryant’s Hall of Fame jacket and ring on Friday night. Bryant and the others were voted into the Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class, but the formal induction ceremony was delayed be-cause of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There will never be anyone like Kobe,” Va-nessa said. “Kobe was one of a kind. He was spe-cial. He was humble – off the court – but bigger

than life.” Vanessa was helped to the stage by NBA legend Michael Jordan, who acted as a pre-senter for Kobe and three-time NCAA cham-pion coach Kim Mulkey.

“He and Gigi deserved to be here to witness this. Gigi would have been so proud of her dad getting into the Hall of Fame,” Vanessa said.

Like Kobe, Garnett went straight out of high school to the NBA. Garnett talked of his respect and admiration for both Duncan and Kobe.

“I appreciate you,” Garnett said to Duncan from the stage. “It’s an honour to go into the hall with you, bro. You and Kob.”

Garnett played 21 seasons for Minnesota, Boston and Brooklyn, averaging 17.8 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. “My only regret with Minnesota is that I didn’t get to bring a cham-pionship,” Garnett said. “But like I said, I look forward to rebuilding Minneapolis.”

Duncan had an immediate impact in the NBA, winning the rookie of the year award. His fi rst NBA title came just one year after that.

‘MOST NERVOUS’

“This is the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life,” the retiring Duncan said. “Been through fi nals, game sevens, this is offi cially the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life. I’ve been pac-ing in my room all day.”

In 19 seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, Duncan averaged 19.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.2 blocks per game.

Catchings overcame a number of obstacles leading up to her stellar basketball career.

“Basketball chose me, an awkward, lanky, in-troverted tomboy, born with a hearing disabil-ity, a speech impediment, and a will to overcome obstacles, dream big and to change the world,” Catchings said.

‘A LOT MORE MOBILITY, A LOT MORE MOVEMENT, IT WAS WARM’

RESULTS

Bucks 122-108 Heat

Nets 105-91 Bulls

Lakers 122-115 Pacers

Knicks 118-109 Hornets

Suns 140-103 Spurs

Celtics 124-108 Wolves

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James shoots the ball in the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Field-house in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. (USA TODAY Sports)

Dowd scores overtime winner to lift Capitals past Bruins 3-2ReutersWashington

Nic Dowd scored the winning goal to give the host Washington Capitals a 3-2 overtime

victory over the Boston Bruins in Saturday’s Stanley Cup playoff s opener.

Tom Wilson and Brenden Dil-lon also scored for the Capitals, while goaltender Craig Ander-son stopped 21 of the 22 shots he faced after being forced into action midway through the fi rst period due to an injury suff ered by starting netminder Vitek Vanecek. Jake DeBrusk and Nick Ritchie replied for Boston, and goaltender Tuukka Rask made 29 saves in the loss.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven East Division series will be today in Washington.

Dowd was battling in front of the Boston net when TJ Oshie unloaded a long slap shot and Dowd defl ected the puck into the net at the 4:41 mark of the extra period for his fi rst career playoff overtime goal. Oshie collected a pair of assists.

Anderson, who will celebrate his 40th birthday on Friday, saw his fi rst playoff action since May 25, 2017, while with the Ottawa Senators. The veteran played in only four NHL games this sea-son, in which he posted a 2-1-0 record with a 2.13 goals-against average and .915 save percentage.

Washington’s No. 1 goalie Ilya Samsonov was removed from the league’s Covid-19 protocol list on Saturday but didn’t play. When Anderson took the net, fourth-string goalie Pheonix Copley dressed as backup.

Wilson, who had a two-point game, opened the scoring by taking advantage of a bad break for Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy, whose stick broke when he attempted a point shot. Wil-son executed a give-and-go with Oshie on the resulting odd-man rush before he buried a shot from the left circle at the 6:22 mark.

However, DeBrusk evened the score seven minutes later. After Curtis Lazar won the off ensive-zone faceoff , pulling the puck back, DeBrusk quickly fi red a long shot that eluded Vanecek as he did the splits and appeared to

suff er a pulled groin muscle that forced him from the game.

Dillon restored the Washing-ton lead at 8:44 of the second period when his point shot de-fl ected off the stick of Bruins defenseman Jeremy Lauzon for his fi rst career playoff goal, but Ritchie’s power-play goal 0 an-other defl ection while creating havoc in front of the net 0 with 3:22 remaining in the second pe-riod again drew the visitors even.

AVALANCHE’S MACKINNON AIMS FOR PLAYOFF

OPENER AGAINST BLUESColorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon was back at practice Saturday and is ex-pected to play in today’s Game 1 of a fi rst-round playoff series against the visiting St Louis Blues. MacKinnon missed four of the fi nal fi ve regular-season games due to a lower-body in-jury. But coach Jared Bednar said Saturday that the 25-year-old is on track to play.

“He’s such a big part of our hockey team, especially driv-ing our off ense,” Bednar said of MacKinnon. “To have him in for the start of the series would be what the doctor ordered.”

MacKinnon scored 20 goals and 45 assists in 48 games this season. His 65 points were sec-ond on the Avalanche behind linemate Mikko Rantanen (30 goals, 36 assists).

MacKinnon was a big-time performer in last season’s play-off s when he opened by scor-ing in 14 straight games. It tied Hall of Famers Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins in 1970 and Mark Messier of the Edmonton Oilers in 1988 for the second-longest such streak in NHL playoff his-tory. Bryan Trottier of the New York Islanders holds the record of 18 when he scored in every game of the 1981 postseason.

“He’s one of our stars and a guy that really looks forward to this time of year,” Bednar said. “We saw what he could do in the playoff s last year.”

Bednar also said forward Brandon Saad also could return Monday. Saad has missed the past 11 games with a lower-body injury. Saad, 28, had 15 goals and nine assists in 44 games for Colorado. The Avalanche went 5-3 against the Blues this season.

NHL

Washington Capitals’ Nic Dowd (No 26) celebrates with teammates after scoring the game winning goal against the Boston Bruins in overtime in game one of the first round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoff s at Capital One Arena in Washington. (USA TODAY Sports)

(L-R) Class of 2020 inductees Rudy Tomjanovich, Kim Mulkey, Tim Duncan and Vanessa Bryant (accepting for her late husband Kobe Bryant) pose together on-stage during the 2021 Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. (Getty Images/AFP)

SPORTGulf Times Monday, May 17, 20216

Escobar powers Diamondbacks past Nationals

Bernal destroys his rivals to take Giro d’Italia lead‘I CAN’T TELL YOU JUST HOW HAPPY I AM TO BE HERE TALKING TO YOU NOW’

MLB

CYCLING

ReutersCampo Felice, Italy

Colombia’s Egan Bernal soared into the Giro d’Italia overall lead yes-terday when he acceler-

ated away from his key rivals to win stage nine’s mountaintop showdown.

The Ineos leader, and win-ner of the 2019 Tour de France, pulled away from a select group on a gravel ski slope above the clouds with the other overall contenders only able to watch as he skipped away.

Remarkably this was Bernal’s fi rst stage win on a Grand Tour, impressive in the manner of its execution and setting.

Giulio Ciccone was second on the day at 7sec and Alexandr Vlasov was third in the same time. Remco Evenepoel and Dan Martin came in 10 seconds back and Romain Bardet also clung on at 12 seconds.

Britain’s Simon Yates again lost a handful of seconds but there are still 12 tough stages re-maining.

The 24-year-old Bernal had been suff ering back problems that forced him out of last year’s Tour de France and limited his competition time since.

“I sacrifi ced so much to be here,” an emotional Bernal said at the line. “I can’t tell you just how happy I am to be here talk-ing to you now.”

Italian Gianni Moscon guided Bernal up the fi nal steep slope beyond the treeline to its high-est altitude so far with 9 percent average gradient with sections at 12 percent.

“I hadn’t been planning to win the stage, but my team-mates were encouraging me to go for it,” said Bernal, who produced his exhilarating at-tack 600 metres from home in a fi nale contested ‘off piste’, on a gravel track used as a ski slope in winter.

CAMPO FELICE The Campo Felice terrain pos-sibly suited the man from the Andes, who learned his trade on mountain bikes and is a re-nowned bike handler.

Evenepoel said ahead of the race “everyone is looking forward to the last climb” but the Belgian rookie was forced to dig deep when

Ineos set a blistering pace as the race climbed through the clouds. With predictions the 21-year-old Belgian would take the pink jer-sey from Hungary’s Attila Valter it was instead Bernal’s brilliant burst that provided the day’s fi reworks. He leads Evenepoel by just 15sec, with Vlasov third at 21sec and the entire top ten separated by 61 sec-onds.

Yesterday’s stage featured a spectacular crash on the descent of the Passo Godi at the 35km mark when Matej Mohoric hit a crack in the road, snapping his bike in two and landing on his head after a midair somersault.

The Slovenian, who was

one of the pioneers of the now banned downhill ‘supertuck’ position, remained conscious but was taken to hospital for x-rays and kept under observation.

Earlier the peloton was given a Covid-19 all clear with no posi-tive tests amongst the riders or staff on the 23 teams.

However one cyclist Tomasz Marczynski of the Belgian Lot-to-Soudal team was withdrawn as a precaution because of symptoms related to the deadly virus.

RESULTS FROM NINTH STAGE STAGE1. Egan Bernal (COL/INE) 4hrs

08mins 23sec, 2. Giulio Ciccone (ITA/TRE) 07sec, 3. Aleksandr Vlasov (RUS/AST) same time, 4. Remco Evenepoel (BEL/DEC) 10, 5. Dan Martin (IRL/ISR) same time, 6. Damiano Caruso (ITA/BAH) s.t., 7. Romain Bardet (FRA/DSM) s.t., 8. Marc Soler (ESP/MOV) s.t., 9. Daniel Martinez (COL/INE) s.t., 10. Joao Almeida (POR/DEC) s.t.SELECTED14. Simon Yates (GBR/BIK) s.t., 18. Tobias Foss (NOR/JUM) 35, 21. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/TRE) s.t, 25. Attila Valter (HUN/FDJ) 49

OVERALL1. Egan Bernal (COL/INE)

35hrs 19mins 22sec, 2. Remco Evenepoel (BEL/DEC) at 15sec, 3. Aleksandr Vlasov (RUS/AST) 21, 4. Giulio Ciccone (ITA/TRE) 36, 5. Attila Valter (HUN/FDJ) 43, 6. Hugh Carthy (GBR/EF1) 44, 7. Damiano Caruso (ITA/BAH) 45, 8. Dan Martin (IRL/ISR) 51, 9. Simon Yates (GBR/BIK) 55, 10. Davide Formolo (ITA/UAE) 1min 01sec

SELECTED11. Daniel Martinez (COL/INE) 1:12, 12. Marc Soler (ESP/MOV) 1:20, 13. Romain Bardet (FRA/DSM) same time, 15. Emanuel Buchmann (GER/BOR) 1:46, 16. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/TRE) 2:12

ReutersNew York

Eduardo Escobar had two home runs and seven RBIs, and the Arizona Dia-mondbacks’ pitching, including Seth Frankoff in his fi rst major league start,

subdued the visiting Washington Nationals 11-4 on Saturday night.

Frankoff , a 32-year-old right-hander who toiled in the minors and professionally in South Korea, lasted 4 2/3 innings – matching his three relief appearances combined in his big-league career.

He was recently called up from Triple-A Reno to be a spot starter after Zac Gallen (right elbow sprain) went on the 10-day in-jured list. Frankoff , who pitched profession-ally in South Korea in 2018 and 2019, pitched for the Chicago Cubs in 2017 and the Seattle Mariners last year.

He allowed three hits and two runs with four strikeouts and four walks before he was pulled by manager Torey Lovullo after Wash-ington loaded the bases with two outs in the fi fth. Alex Young (1-3) came on to strike out Kyle Schwarber and preserve the 6-2 lead.

Arizona, which is 4-10 in its last 14 games, had 12 hits on Saturday. Escobar went 3-for-5 with his eighth and ninth home runs, and David Peralta was 2-for-5 with his fourth homer. Daulton Varsho, playing at catcher after Carson Kelly (fractured left big toe) was placed on the 10-day injured list Saturday, went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

The Diamondbacks answered Washing-ton’s run in the fi rst inning with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Escobar had a two-run single, and Varsho later singled him in.

After Washington cut the lead to 3-2 on Victor Robles’ RBI single in the second, Esco-bar’s three-run home run with two outs in the fourth inning off Washington starter Joe Ross (2-3) increased the lead to 6-2.

Arizona scored twice in the bottom of the fi fth against Ross, including Andrew Young’s RBI single, to take an 8-2 lead. Escobar belted

another two-out home run, a two-run shot, in the eighth inning to increase the lead to 11-3.

BIG INNINGS PROPEL RAYS IN ROUT OF METS

Pinch hitter Austin Meadows drove in the go-ahead run in a fi ve-run fourth inning and Shane McClanahan won for the fi rst time in the majors as the Tampa Bay Rays posted a 12-5 win over the New York Mets on Saturday in St Petersburg, Fla.

As they did in Friday’s 3-2 series-opening win, the Rays had to battle back against the Mets. Tampa Bay received fi ve hits in the fourth inning and secured a 5-4 lead off Joey Lucchesi (1-3) on a double by Meadows. Joey Wendle (three doubles, two RBIs, two runs scored) went 4-for-5 and Yandy Diaz and Randy Arozarena each produced three-hit performances for the Rays, who won their third straight game.

In a career-long 5 1/3 innings, the left-handed McClanahan (1-0) surrendered four runs and two homers but struck out seven – all career-high marks. He allowed six hits and walked just one in the 75-pitch outing. New York’s Jose Peraza belted a three-run homer and Pete Alonso went deep for the first time in 16 games. Francisco Lindor also homered for the Mets. Drew Smith served as the opener, logging two innings and yielding one unearned run on two hits before being relieved by Lucchesi. With the bases emp-ty in the bottom of the first, Diaz sliced a ground-rule double and Wendle reached on an infield dribbler.

Giants sign Benjamin, running back ClementAFPAintree, United Kingdom

The New York Giants an-nounced the signings yesterday of former fi rst-round wide receiv-

er Kelvin Benjamin and former Philadelphia Eagles running back Corey Clement.

Both veteran free agents tried out for the team at this week-end’s rookie minicamp, with Benjamin working out prima-rily as a tight end. Both received one-year deals. Benjamin, 30, was drafted in the fi rst round (28th overall) by Carolina in 2014 and caught 73 passes for 1,008 yards and nine touchdowns as a rookie that season.

His career went south after that and he hasn’t appeared in an NFL game since 2018. Ben-jamin’s career totals include 209 receptions for 3,021 yards and 20 touchdowns in 61 games (52 starts) with the Panthers, Buff alo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. “In terms of Benjamin working a dif-ferent position today, we’re going to work diff erent guys at a vari-ety of things right now,” Giants coach Joe Judge said on Friday.

“He’s a big guy (6-5, 245). He’s always been a big receiver. He’ll work receiver. He’s working a little bit fl ex tight end as well. I wouldn’t really pin him down to any one position at this point. We’re going to use the weekend to move him around to diff erent spots and see how it works out.”

Giants general manager Dave Gettleman served in the same role with the Panthers when they drafted Benjamin. Clement, a hero of Philadelphia’s Super Bowl LII victory against the New Eng-land Patriots, appeared in 46 reg-ular-season games over the past four years with the Eagles. He has rushed for 655 yards and seven touchdowns and has 37 catches for 340 yards and two scores.

Clement, 26, caught four passes for 100 yards and a touchdown in the 41-33 victory against the Patriots in SB LII.

The Giants also waived run-ning back Jordan Chunn and tight end Nate Wieting.

ETIENNE WORKS AT WR FOR MEYER, JAGUARS

The Jacksonville Jaguars made a somewhat mysterious selec-tion by picking Clemson running back Travis Etienne in the fi rst round of the 2021 NFL Draft.

The team already had a strong No. 1 running back in James Rob-inson and had signed depend-able veteran Carlos Hyde in free agency. On Saturday, fi rst-year Jaguars coach Urban Meyer pro-vided a pretty big clue.

Meyer is using Etienne as a wide receiver at this week-end’s rookie minicamp, form-ing a pass-catch combo with Etienne’s college quarterback – and the No. 1 overall pick – Trevor Lawrence.

“That’s the reason we drafted him is the opportunity to be a dual-threat guy and our history as long as we’ve had a guy like that and we saw him as a guy like that in the draft this year,” Meyer said on a conference call Satur-day.

“Right now, we’re focusing on the fundamentals of wide re-ceiver play, learning the off ense from wide receiver.

“Like I said, worst-case sce-nario is you have a running back that’s elite with receiver skills and best-case scenario he’s a le-gitimate dual-threat guy.

Etienne, the 25th overall pick, is up for the challenge.

“I feel like I create a prob-lem outside for a linebacker, so I feel like football is a game of matchups. We’re just trying to get the best matchups for us to go out there and make plays and do what’s best for the team,” Etienne said to CBS Sports.

“I feel like if I really hone in on my skills and just keep work-ing at it, work on my route run-ning ability and really focus in on what the plan is and buy into that, we’ll make plays, we’re playmakers. I feel like, like I said, football is a game of matchups, and this creates the best match-ups for us.”

Etienne, 22, caught 102 passes for 1,155 yards and eight touch-downs in four seasons at Clem-son. He also rushed for 4,952 yards and 70 scores.

NFL

Team Ineos rider Colombia’s Egan Bernal crosses the finish line to win the ninth stage of the Giro d’Italia, 158km between Castel di Sangro and Campo Felice (Rocca di Cambio), yesterday. (AFP)

Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eduardo Escobar celebrates after hitting a two run home run against the Washington Nationals during the eighth inning at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. (USA TODAY Sports)

Kelvin Benjamin.

RESULTS

D’Backs 11-4 Nationals

Rays 12-5 Mets

Dodgers 7-0 Marlins

Pirates 8-6 Giants

Reds 6-5 Rockies

Blue Jays 4-0 Phillies

Tigers 9-8 Cubs

Yankees 8-2 Orioles

Royals 5-1 White Sox

Braves 5-1 Brewers

Twins 5-4 Athletics

Red Sox 9-0 Angels

Astros 6-5 Rangers

Mariners 7-3 Indians

Padres 13-3 Cardinals

FOOTBALL7Gulf Times

Monday, May 17, 2021

Suarez winner keeps Atletico’s title hopes alive

Real Madrid is where Raul wants to be

AFC chief condoles deaths of young Palestinian footballers

Napoli tighten grip on top-four spot with Fiorentina win

Barcelona are out of the running after they lost 2-1 at home to Celta Vigo

LA LIGA

FOCUS

COMMENT

SERIE A

AFCKuala Lumpur

AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifah has expressed his deep anguish on the

tragic deaths of Balata FC youth team player Sa’id Yousef Odeh and Al Namaa youth player Mo-hamed Abu al-Ata and conveyed his sincere condolences to the Palestinian football family.

According to information received by the AFC from the Palestine Football Association (PFA), Odeh was killed by Israeli soldiers in his home village of Huwarrah while Abu al-Ata died during the Israeli air strikes in Gaza.

“My heart goes out to the fam-ilies and friends of Sa’id Odeh and Mohamed Abu al-Ata whose young and promising lives were

tragically extinguished in the ongoing strife,” said Shaikh Sal-man.

“I would like to extend my heartfelt condolences and sym-pathies to the families and loved ones of Sa’id and Mohamed,” added the AFC President.

Odeh, who was 16 years of age and the proud owner of jersey number 22, had played his last match with Balata against Hilal of Jericho on April 27 at Silwad in the Tokyo Tournament, reaching the Round of 16.

Abu al-Ata, a cousin of PFA executive committee member Salah Abu al-Ata, was a promis-ing 15-year-old player with the Al Namaa club.

The AFC President also wished a quick and full recovery to Gaza referee Sa’ied Abdelwa-hab who suff ered a broken spine and was severely injured during the air strikes.

ReutersMilan, Italy

Napoli captain Lorenzo Insigne scored to help his side beat 10-man Fiorentina 2-0 and

move into provisional third place in the Serie A table on Sunday as they chase a Champions League spot.

The win leaves Gennaro Gat-tuso’s side on 76 points, one point ahead of AC Milan and Ju-ventus in fourth and fi fth respec-tively, before Milan host Cagliari later on Sunday.

Napoli will be guaranteed a place in next season’s Champi-ons League if they win their fi nal game of the season at home to Hellas Verona next Sunday.

Juve had beaten champions Inter Milan on Saturday to move above Napoli, who therefore travelled to Florence needing a victory to ensure they would go into the fi nal round of fi xtures in one of the four Champions League qualifying positions.

Napoli were frustrated by the 13th-placed hosts in the fi rst half as goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano kept out Piotr Zielinski’s strike and Insigne’s free kick rattled the bar, while Fiorentina striker Du-san Vlahovic had a header ruled out for off side.

The breakthrough came after 57 minutes when Napoli were awarded a penalty for a shirt pull at a corner following a VAR review, and Viola substitute Bar-tlomiej Dragowski was shown a straight red card for protesting the decision.

Insigne’s tame spot kick was saved but he fi red home the re-bound, and the Italy winger was

close to a second when denied by the woodwork again with a low shot that struck the post.

Napoli doubled their advan-tage in the 67th minute when In-signe laid off a pass to Zielinski, whose fi rst-time strike took a big defl ection off Lorenzo Venuti on its way in and was awarded as an own goal to wrap up the points.

Later on Sunday, Beneven-to conceded a gut-wrenching stoppage time equaliser against 10-man Crotone at the Stadio Vigorito in a 1-1 draw that left Filippo Inzaghi’s side perilously close to relegation and secured Cagliari’s safety.

Gianluca Lapadula’s strike put the hosts in front before Crotone’s Vladimir Golemic was sent off , but Simy levelled from close range in the 93rd minute.

Benevento have 32 points, three behind 17th-placed Tori-no, who have a game in hand. Cagliari in 16th are now safe with 36 points.

To stay up, Benevento need Torino to lose their game in hand at Lazio on Tuesday and then to win the head-to-head meeting between the two relegation rivals on the fi nal day of the season in Turin next Sunday.

Elsewhere, a late Fabio Quagliarella penalty earned ninth-placed Sampdoria a 1-0 win at Udinese, who are 12th.

RESULTSFiorentina 0 Napoli 2 (Insigne 56, Venuti 67-og)Benevento 1 (Lapadula 13) Crotone 1 (Simy 90+3)Udinese 0 Sampdoria 1 (Quagliarella 88-pen)Parma 1 (Bruno Alves 32) Sas-suolo 3 (Locatelli 25-pen, Defrel 62, Boga 69)

AFPMadrid, Spain

Luis Suarez scored the goal that could win Atletico Madrid La Liga when his 88th-minute

winner snatched a remarkable 2-1 victory over Osasuna yester-day after they had looked set to hand the title advantage to Real Madrid.

Atletico trailed with nine minutes to go at the Wanda Met-ropolitano and faced a defeat that would not just have post-poned their bid to be champions but allowed Real Madrid, who were beating Athletic Bilbao, to go top with one game left.

Instead, Atletico scored in the 82nd and 88th minutes to pull off a stunning turnaround. Re-nan Lodi smashed in an equal-iser before Suarez proved the hero, fi ring in from eight yards to spark mass celebrations.

Atletico’s players and substi-tutes piled onto Suarez. At the full-time whistle, some of their players dropped to their knees, not with ecstasy, but relief, the title just one win away.

To be crowned champions with a game to spare, Atletico needed Real Madrid to slip up at San Mames but Nacho Fern-andez put Real ahead in the sec-ond half and Atletico’s priority

quickly became preservation. Victory maintains their two-

point advantage and another win away at Real Valladolid next weekend will guarantee a second league title in 25 years.

Barcelona are out of the run-ning after they lost 2-1 at home to Celta Vigo.

Santi Mina scored twice, in-cluding an 89th minute win-ner for Celta after Lionel Messi

scored the opener. Suarez, who was forced to

leave Barca last summer, has scored 20 goals this season and the goal against Osasuna en-sured his former team could not win the title.

After more than a year away, fans fi nally returned to La Liga but only for the two games in the Valencia region, where the coronavirus infection rate has

dropped below the target rate set by the government.

At Villarreal the maximum 5,000 fans cheered their team to a 4-0 home victory over high-fl ying Sevilla.

But 60 kilometres (37 miles) down the Mediterranean coast, Valencia, whose relations with their fans are strained, sold ony 3,000 of the available places. The impact was similar as the home team beat struggling Eibar 4-1.

In Madrid, no fans were al-lowed in the Wanda Metropoli-tano, but they gathered outside and cheered as the team bus ar-rived.

The crowd was several hun-dred strong by kick-off , and the chanting audible on the pitch.

Atletico had 16 shots in a fi rst half but could not fi nd a way through. The chances came early and they all fell to Suarez early on.

FIREWORKSThe best of them came from an Angel Correa cross but Suarez took too long and with three Os-asuna players in front of him, he could only pick out the post.

Atletico kept coming as Saul Niguez headed over Kieran Trippier’s pass.

They might have thought Real Madrid had conceded when a huge cheer came from the fans

outside, but it was Barca who had let in an equaliser against Celta Vigo.

All the top three were being held at half-time.

Atletico thought they were ahead on the hour as Stefan Savic fi nished from Trippier’s cross. Fans outside set off two fi reworks, but Savic was just off -side and the goal was ruled out.

Atletico put the ball in the net again, only for fl ag to go up again, Carrasco nipping behind too early before powering in.

The fl ag stayed down at San Mames a few minutes later though as Nacho put Real Ma-drid ahead in the 68th minute, Karim Benzema, who was off -side, failed to control Casemiro’s cross and Nacho prodded in.

Real Madrid were going top and seven minutes later, things got worse for Atletico. Ante Bu-dimir was free at the back post to heading in a free kick.

The fans outside were silent. Atletico coach Diego Sime-

one brought on two substitutes and they combined to level. Joao Felix scooped a superb pass through for Lodi to thunder in with eight minutes left.

There was hope. In the 88th minute there was joy, Carrasco lingering in the area and pulling back perfectly for Suarez, who arrived late, fi red in, and ran to the corner.

Atletico Madrid’s Luis Suarez (centre) celebrates after scoring the winner against Osasuna during their La Liga match in Madrid, Spain, yesterday. (Reuters)

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi reacts during their loss to Celta Vigo at Camp Nou yesterday. (Reuters)

ReutersMadrid, Spain

Real Madrid great Raul has said his future is at the club following Spanish media reports

that current coach Zinedine Zi-dane is to leave at the end of the season.

Raul, who scored 323 goals for the club between 1994 and 2010, has spent the last two years as a coach in Real’s youth system, taking the under-19s last season and the reserve team this cam-paign.

His side missed out on pro-

motion to the second division after a 0-0 draw at Ibiza on Sun-day and the former Spain striker was asked if he would end up becoming fi rst team coach next season after reports Zidane has decided to leave.

“This is my home and where I want to be. But it’s not the time to talk about anyone’s future,” Raul told reporters.

Raul left Real in 2010 to con-tinue playing in Germany with Schalke 04 and then in Qatar with Al Sadd before ending his career with the New York Cosmos.

The 43-year-old has been linked with a move to Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt but said

he was committed to Real.“When I decided to become

a coach three or four years ago I did it so I could be at my home, my club, get experience and get the best possible education,” he added.

“We’ve learned a lot this year and I’m an employee of this club. I’m a club man, I’m happy at my home and I hope to continue.”

Raul led Real’s under-19 team to a UEFA Youth League triumph last year and by coaching the re-serve side Castilla he is follow-ing the same path Frenchman Zidane and predecessor San-tiago Solari took before getting the top job.

Napoli’s Lorenzo Insigne (left) in action with Fiorentina’s Erick Pulgar during the Serie A match at Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence, Italy, yesterday. (Reuters)

Monday, May 17, 2021

GULF TIMES SPORT

Alisson winner keeps Liverpool’s CL dream alive

Dortmund clinch Champions League spot with sixth straight Bundesliga win

World leader Richardson headlines Doha 100m More than 100 entries for 2021 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe

Man Utd’s injured Maguire upbeat ahead of Europa fi nal: Solskjaer

PREMIER LEAGUE

FOCUS

ATHLETICS HORSE RACING

SPOTLIGHT

Spurs move into sixth place after a 2-0 win at home to Wolves

Sha’Carri Richard-son (USA), the fastest woman in the world this year, heads an incredible

100m fi eld at the Wanda Doha Diamond League on May 28 that also features double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah (Jamaica) and defending world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica).

Richardson, the world un-der-20 record holder, clocked a stunning 10.72 lifetime best at the Miramar Invitational in Florida (World Athletics Con-tinental Tour Silver meeting) in April to go sixth on the world all-time list.

The 21-year-old backed that up with another two sub-10.80 performances – 10.74 in the heat

and 10.77 into a headwind in the fi nal – at the USATF Golden Games (World Athletics Conti-nental Tour Gold meeting) held

at Mt SAC in Walnut, California, on May 9.

Thompson-Herah is also in fi ne form and ran 10.78 to win

the Pure Athletics Sprint Elite Meet earlier this month af-ter a windy 10.76 in her heat. A gold medallist over 100m and 200m in Rio 2016, she is ranked fourth-equal in the world all-time rankings (10.70) alongside Fraser-Pryce, double Olympic champion (2008 and 2012) and multiple world champion over 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay.

“As I embark on this next jour-ney of my life as a professional athlete, I’m honoured to partici-pate in the historic Wanda Doha Diamond League meet,” said Richardson, who opens her Dia-mond League campaign in Gates-head a week prior to Doha. It will be the fi rst time she’s travelled to Europe and the Middle East.

Multiple world medallist

Marie-Josée Ta Lou (Ivory Coast) and Nigeria’s national record holder Blessing Okagbare, an Olympic, world and Common-wealth Games medallist, will also line up in the stellar 100m fi eld at the Qatar Sports Club.

The 2021 Wanda Diamond League comprises 14 meetings – starting with Gateshead (replac-ing Rabat as the fi rst host city on this year’s circuit) on May 23 – leading to a single fi nal across two days in Zurich at the end of the season. Each meeting will be broadcast globally in a live two-hour programme.

The 2021 calendar remains subject to change depending on the global health situation in the coming months.

(Diamond League)

The Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Group 1), which has been crowned on numerous occasions

as the world’s top race, has at-tracted 101 entries this year.

The winner of the 2020 edi-tion, Sottsass, and the third in the same race, Persian King, have since been retired to stud. How-ever, In Swoop (second in 2020) is still on course for the 2021 race. This also applies to Gold Trip (fourth in 2020) and Raabihah (fi fth in 2020).

The 2021 edition takes place on October 3, and it will be all the more exceptional for the fact that it marks the centenary of the race. It is a race which will be international in every way. The best European horses will, of course, be present, with horses that prove themselves in the summer classics may also be supplemented on September 29.

The list features a horse born in Brazil, and one that triumphed

in the biggest race in South America – the Gran Premio In-ternacional Carlos Pellegrini (Group 1) winner Nao Da Mais.

Also present are a Japanese sextet, including Deep Bond, whose connections have already confi rmed the fi rm intention to travel to France.

Horses owned by Qatari own-ers also feature among the en-tries, including Abdullah Fahad al-Attiyah’s Vaucelles, and the Qatar Racing Limited pair, Ocean Road and Twisted Reality.

ReutersBengaluru, India

Manchester Unit-ed skipper Harry Maguire is making good progress in his

recovery from an ankle ligament injury and will be given time to be ready for the Europa League fi nal against Villarreal on May 26, manager Ole Gunnar Solsk-jaer has said.

England international Maguire, who had been ever-present in United’s defence, starting 34 of the second-placed team’s Premier League games this season, suf-fered the problem in last Sunday’s 3-1 victory at Aston Villa.

The 28-year-old, who was hurt when Villa’s Anwar El Ghazi landed on his ankle, missed Unit-ed’s 2-1 defeat by his former club Leicester City and a 4-2 loss to Liverpool, leaving him in doubt for the Europa League showpiece.

“He’s making progress,” Sol-skjaer told the club’s website. “When I spoke to him this morn-ing he was quite positive but, naturally, the day after it hap-pened we were all down.

“We saw early on or we decid-ed that we have to focus, have to be positive and think that you’re going to make it until you have to say ‘no’. I’ve always been an opti-mist, we’re positive.

“But we’ve consciously taken the route of not testing him out too early, too quickly, because we don’t want to aggravate some-thing. He wants this so much, so he doesn’t want to take any risks, either.”

Solskjaer acknowledged Maguire’s importance as he chases his first silverware since being named United manager.

“... Hopefully he’ll speed up the recovery and be ready for the fi nal... I’ll give him as long as he needs, until he says ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”

AFPLondon, England

Liverpool goalkeeper Al-isson’s dramatic 95th-minute goal saw the Reds to a 2-1 victory at West

Bromwich Albion yesterday which maintained their bid to play in the Champions League.

Liverpool moved to within a point of fourth-placed Chelsea and three behind Leicester with two league games left to play this season thanks to Alisson’s late header.

With Leicester and Chelsea still to face off in a repeat of the FA Cup fi nal, won 1-0 by the Foxes on Saturday, victories over Burnley and Crystal Palace will take Liverpool into the top four.

The already-relegated Bag-gies took an early lead through Hal Robson-Kanu before the in-form Mohamed Salah equalised before half-time. But Liverpool were still heading for a damag-ing draw when Alisson headed in from a corner in the fi fth minute of stoppage-time.

Already-crowned Premier League champions Manchester City and Chelsea will contest this season’s Champions League fi nal in Porto on May 29.

But if Chelsea remain in the top four there won’t be an addi-tional Champions League place given to the fi fth-placed side in the Premier League.

Liverpool were stunned when Robson-Kanu, making his fi rst league start of the season for Albion, put the hosts ahead in the 15th minute after he ran onto Matheus Pereira’s pass and found the bottom corner at the Hawthorns.

But Liverpool levelled when Sadio Mane, starting in place of the injured Diogo Jota, inter-cepted a loose pass to Kyle Bar-tley, with the ball then falling to Salah, who hit a fi rst-time shot into the bottom left corner.

The Egypt striker’s 22nd Pre-mier League goal of the season saw him draw level with Harry Kane in the race for the English top-fl ight’s golden boot award.

SPURS STAY IN EUROPEAN HUNT

Meanwhile Tottenham Hotspur moved into sixth place, on goal diff erence from West Ham, after a 2-0 win at home to Wolves.

England captain Kane fi red Spurs ahead on the stroke of half-time by curling the ball into the corner of the net af-ter Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s through ball behind the defence.

Hojbjerg made it 2-0 just after the hour when he followed up Gareth Bale’s shot and tapped the ball in after goalkeeper Rui Patricio could only parry as Spurs bolstered their hopes of at least playing Europa League football next season.

“Today our performance was excellent,” interim Spurs man-ager Ryan Mason told the BBC. “We controlled the game.

“This is Tottenham Hotspur. We want to be playing in the biggest competition in the big-gest games. This season hasn’t gone to plan,” added Mason, ap-pointed after Spurs sacked Jose Mourinho.

Eighth-placed Everton, Liv-erpool’s local rivals, are at home to bottom of the table Sheffi eld United in the day’s concluding Premier League match.

Earlier, Crystal Palace twice came from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-2, with Tyrick Mitchell’s fi rst goal for the club sealing victory six minutes from time.

John McGinn put Villa ahead in the 17th minute at Selhurst Park before Christian Benteke equalised against his former club with a 32nd-minute header.

Palace fell behind again two minutes later when Anwar El Ghazi scored from close range.

The Eagles, however, equal-ised for a second time in the 76th minute when Wilfried Zaha grabbed his 11th goal of the season with a shot defl ected in off Ahmed Elmohamady.

The comeback was complete in the 84th minute when the 21-year-old Mitchell followed-up from close range after team-mate Eberechi Eze had miscued in a victory that lifted Palace to 13th place.

RESULTSCrystal Palace 3 (Benteke 32, Zaha 76, Mitchell 84) Aston Villa 2 (McGinn 17, El Ghazi 34)Tottenham 2 (Kane 45, Hojb-jerg 62) Wolves 0West Brom 1 (Robson-Kanu 15) Liverpool 2 (Salah 33, Alisson 90+4)

Liverpool’s Alisson (centre) celebrates scoring the winner with teammates during the Premier League match against West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns in West Bromwich, England, yesterday. (Reuters)

AFPBerlin, Germany

Borussia Dortmund secured their place in the Champions League for next season as Rap-hael Guerreiro, Marco Reus

and Julian Brandt scored in a 3-1 win at Mainz yesterday.

Guerreiro and captain Reus hit fi rst-half goals before Germany winger Brandt made sure of the three points with a late eff ort.

With one game left, Dortmund, who routed Leipzig 4-1 to win the German Cup in midweek, cannot fi nish outside of the Bundesliga’s top four.

Mainz striker Robin Quaison claimed his 30th Bundesliga goal by netting a 90th-minute penalty.

Qualifying for Europe caps a re-markable turnaround by Dortmund

in the last six weeks.They were fi fth and seven points

from the Champions League places af-ter losing 2-1 to Eintracht Frankfurt in early April.

Dortmund have since won all six league games to guarantee a place next season in the group stages of the Champions League.

“Not many people believed in us,” Dortmund captain Reus told Sky when asked about bridging the seven-point gap. “The team deserves an incredible compliment. We have shown a really strong mentality in the last few weeks.

“When we have to, we are capable of great things.”

Dortmund’s purple patch has ex-tended to the German Cup, winning Thursday’s fi nal after Jadon Sancho and Erling Braut Haaland both scored twice in Berlin.

Qualifying for Europe also reduces

the chance of star striker Haaland leav-ing at the end of the season.

The 20-year-old has made no secret of the fact he wants Champions League football and his agent Mino Raiola has recently fuelled speculation the Nor-wegian could leave.

Haaland has a contract until 2024, but there is reportedly a release clause which becomes active in 2022.

Dortmund are adamant he is stay-ing, with sports director Michael Zorc insisting Haaland “will play for us next season” before kick-off Sunday.

In their previous home game, Mainz pulled off a shock 2-1 win over Bayern Munich, who have since been con-fi rmed Bundesliga champions, but Dortmund allowed no such repeat.

Dortmund took the lead when Guer-reiro unleashed an unstoppable shot from the edge of the area on 23 minutes.

The visitors kept up the pressure and

Dortmund had appeals for a handball turned down when a Reus fl ick caught the hand of Mainz defender Alexander Hack.

Reus got on the scoresheet when Sancho ghosted past defenders and squared the ball for his captain to tap home three minutes from the break.

There was a ten-minute delay to the second-half after a storm drenched the Mainz pitch, but Dortmund picked up where they left off .

Just after coming on, Brandt fi red home having combined with Haaland after the pair opened up the Mainz de-fence ten minutes from the whistle.

There was still time for Quaison to become his club’s all-time top scorer in Germany’s top fl ight.

North Korea withdraws from WCup qualifi cation

QNAKuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The Asian Football Confederation has announced North

Korea has pulled out of qualification for the 2022 World Cup.“The (AFC) has today confirmed the withdrawal of the DPR Korea Football Association from the Asian Qualifiers,” the AFC said in a statement yesterday.Pyongyang has not yet given an off icial reason for pulling out of next months qualifiers for the tournament, to be held in Qatar in November and December 2022, but South Korean media has reported that it is because of concerns over Covid-19.Due to the spread of the virus, there have been no qualifiers in Asia since No-vember 2019 and in order to reduce travel as the games resume, the AFC has ruled that all group matches in the second round of qualification will be played in hubs.South Korea is scheduled to host North Korea, Turk-menistan, Lebanon and Sri Lanka in Group H qualify-ing matches from June 3-15 in the city of Goyang, just north of Seoul.With three games remaining, North Korea was in fourth in Group H of qualification, level on eight points with Leba-non and South Korea and one behind leader Turk-menistan. Only the group winners are guaranteed a place in the third round of qualification, sched-uled to start in Septem-ber, along with the four best runners-up.The AFC said that it will refer the decision on how the withdrawal will aff ect Group H standings to FIFA.The decision also means that North Korea will miss out on the 2023 Asian Cup, to be held in China, as qualification for the World Cup and the continental tournament are combined.North Korea’s Olympic committee also decided to drop out of the Tokyo Olympics to protect its ath-letes from Covid infections.

Dortmund’s Raphael Guerreiro (right) celebrates with teammate Mahmoud Dahoud during the Bundesliga match against Mainz 05 yesterday. (AFP)

Manchester United’s Harry Maguire (left), holding crutches, sits with teammates Luke Shaw (centre) and Paul Pogba during the Premier League match against Leicester City at Old Traff ord in Manchester, England, on Tuesday. (AFP)