Monday, May 24, 2021Shawwal 12, 1442 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Mehidy helps Bangladesh beat SL inCovid-hit ODI

Rays beat Blue Jays to extend winning streak to nine

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FOOTBALL

Liverpool, Chelsea seal Champions League placesPage 2

Verstappen makes most of Leclerc’s Monaco miseryGearbox issue forces Leclerc’s withdrawal Dutchman wins to go top of the championship as Hamilton finishes 7th

FORMULA 1

AFPMonaco

Max Verstappen capi-talised on Ferrari pole-sitter Charles Leclerc’s cruel last-

minute withdrawal to win yester-day’s Monaco Grand Prix and go top of the drivers’ world champi-onship for the fi rst time.

Carlos Sainz for Ferrari took second with Lando Norris of McLaren completing the po-dium.

Red Bull’s Verstappen dis-placed Lewis Hamilton at the top of the 2021 standings after the Mercedes world champion fi n-ished in seventh.

The Dutch driver pitched up in the Principality trailing Hamilton by 14 points, and leaves it four points ahead.

“It’s so special to win. The fi rst time for me on the podium here. It was all about looking after the tyres. I was pretty much in con-trol,” said Verstappen after taking the chequered fl ag waved by ten-nis superstar Serena Williams.

Hamilton had a low key week-end, qualifying in seventh and fi nishing in seventh.

His teammate Valtteri Bottas was in contention to pounce on any mistake by Verstappen.

But then his race came to an embarrassing end when a routine pitstop took a disastrous turn as a wheel refused to come off .

The Finn’s frustration will have been nothing to the heart-ache Leclerc suff ered just be-fore the start when he reported a gearbox problem on his Ferrari.

For the locally-born Leclerc it was a cruel end to his dream of winning his home grand prix.

‘DIFFICULT TO TAKE’“In the garage it was very diffi cult to feel ok, but I guess now I’m getting used to this feeling here unfortunately,” said Leclerc.

“I’ve never fi nished a race here — this year, I don’t start it. It’s a diffi cult one to take and I also feel for the team.”

His last minute absence was all the more unexpected as a couple of hours earlier Ferrari had an-nounced repairs had been carried out without a grid penalty after Leclerc’s accident in qualifying 24 hours earlier.

For the 23-year-old it was just the latest misfortune at Monaco.

Despite his familiarity with the narrow, unforgiving street circuit his record at his home race re-mains bleak.

His ill luck at the Mediter-ranean jewel in F1’s crown had already resurfaced on Thursday after gearbox problems ruined his opening practice session.

From then on his fortunes fl ipped. He topped FP2, then qualifi ed in pole for the fi rst time since Mexico in 2019.

But his crash, which ended qualifying prematurely left him anxiously waiting for the all-clear from the mechanics work-ing on his damaged car.

That came yesterday morning, only for heartache to follow as

he made his way around the cir-cuit to the start when he came on the team radio reporting he had a problem, saying “No, no, no — the gearbox guys”.

Back in the pits Ferrari me-chanics pounced on the car to see if anything could be done to even allow him to start from the pitlane.

When it became obvious

that wasn’t possible, a dejected Leclerc emerged from his strick-en car’s cockpit to head for the grid and the pre-race ceremo-nies, receiving a consoling hug from Prince Albert II of Monaco.

Leclerc’s absence will have come as a bitter disappointment to his supporters in the 7,500 crowd allowed to watch the race from the grandstands as coronavirus re-strictions are gradually lifted.

Verstappen inherited pole po-sition which takes on greater signifi cance in Monaco where overtaking opportunities are as rare as a royal fl ush at Monaco’s mythic Casino.

And so it proved with the Red Bull driver becoming the 12th win-ner from pole in the last 16 editions to enhance his claims as the main obstacle between Hamilton and a record eighth world title.

The F1 circus next heads to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku in two weeks’ time.

RESULTS (top 10)1. Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull) 1:38:56.820

2. Carlos Sainz (ESP/Ferrari) +8.9683. Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren) +19.4274. Sergio Pérez (MEX/Red Bull) +20.4905. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Aston Martin) +52.5916. Pierre Gasly (FRA/AlphaTauri) +53.8967. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mer-cedes) +1:08.2318. Lance Stroll (CAN/Aston Mar-tin) 1 lap9. Esteban Ocon (FRA/Alpine) 1 lap10. Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA/Alfa Romeo) 1 lapFastest lap: Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 1:12.909 on 69th lap

Drivers’ championship (top 3)1. Max Verstappen (NED) 105 pts2. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 1013. Lando Norris (GBR) 56

Constructors’ championship (top 3)1. Red Bull 149 pts2. Mercedes 1483. McLaren 80

CAF Super Cup 2020 to be held in Qatar with fans present

FOOTBALL

By Sports ReporterDoha

The Total CAF Super Cup 2020 Local Organising Committee (LOC) has announced that the 29th

edition of the match will be held in Doha, Qatar, with fans present.

The match will be contested by TOTAL CAF Champions League winners Al Ahly SC, of Egypt, and Moroccan team RS Berkane, who won the TOTAL CAF Con-federations Cup.

The match will take place at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Qatar on Friday, with the kickoff at 7pm. In line with measures implemented by Qatar’s Minis-try of Public Health (MoPH), the stadium’s capacity will be limited to 30 percent in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Only fully vaccinated people and those

who contracted Covid-19 in the last nine months will be permit-ted to attend the match.

To ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in attendance, the LOC and MoPH have imple-mented the following measures: Only fans aged 12 and above who have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine or those that have been infected by the virus during the preceding nine months will be permitted to at-tend the matchAll spectators and organisers must adhere to the preventative measures outlined by the MoPHNo food or beverages may be served or taken into the stands by spectators Spectators will not be per-mitted to gather at any point, inside or outside the stadium, particularly at entrances Spectators must adhere to social distancing guidelines and

wear masks at all timesThis is the third year in a row

that Doha has hosted the TOTAL CAF Super Cup as part of a collab-oration between the Qatar Football Association and the Confedera-tion of African Football (CAF). The previous two editions were won by Egyptian team Zamalek SC and Moroccan side Raja Casablanca. The runners-up on both occasions were Tunisian side Espérance Sportive de Tunis.

Al Ahly are the TOTAL CAF Super Cup record holders hav-ing claimed the title six times, the latest of which came in 2014 when they beat Tunisian side CS Sfaxien. Berkane, meanwhile, are appearing in their fi rst Super Cup.

Al Ahly qualifi ed for the Su-per Cup after defeating Zamalek in the Champions League fi nal, while Berkane defeated Pyramids FC in the Confederations Cup.

Hamilton keeps calm aft er losing leadFOCUS

ReutersMonaco

Lewis Hamilton and Mer-cedes lost their Formula One championship leads at the Monaco Grand

Prix yesterday but the sport’s most successful driver said he was calm and ready to come back stronger.

The seven times world cham-pion, who fi nished seventh as Red Bull and Max Verstappen triumphed to take over at the top of the standings, told re-porters it had been a boring race and he was glad it was over.

“I don’t really feel like any pain,” said the Briton, winner of a record 98 races. “Of course it’s not a great weekend but I’m not dwelling on it.

“I’m sure for Max it was a pretty chilled afternoon. For me personally, I’ve switched off . The weekend is done. I probably won’t re-watch this race.

“I’ll probably watch the high-

lights for a better understanding of where I lost potentially three places. Otherwise I’ll focus on something else.”

Hamilton lost out with a pit-stop strategy that backfi red and said Mercedes, who also had Valtteri Bottas retire in the pits when a wheel could not be

removed, had not done a good enough job.

“We underperformed as a team all weekend from the get-go,” he said.

He added, however, that les-sons learned from the errors and the bad days were part of what the team’s success —

winning the last seven drivers’ and constructors’ titles — was built on.

“We win and we lose as a team and collectively not a good job from all of us across the board, and we don’t take it lightly, but there’s no point like getting all depressed,” he said.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton drives during the Monaco Grand Prix yesterday. (AFP)

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen celebrates winning the Monaco Grand Prix yesterday. (Reuters)

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (left) talks to Prince Albert II of Monaco after the former’s last-minute withdrawal from the race due to gearbox issues yesterday. (Reuters)

2

FOOTBALL

Liverpool, Chelsea seal Champions League places

Leicester blow CL chance as Kane wins Golden Boot

Aguero signs off in style in Man City romp

PREMIER LEAGUE SPOTLIGHT

TOP OF THE LINE

Chelsea lose 1-2 at Aston Villa but are saved by Tottenham’s 4-2 win over Leicester

Gulf Times Monday, May 24, 2021

AFPManchester, England

Sergio Aguero signed off for Manchester City in style yesterday, scoring twice in a 5-0 romp for

the Premier League champions against Everton.

City’s record goalscorer, who is leaving the club after next week’s Champions League fi nal, hit a quickfi re double after com-ing off the bench with 25 minutes remaining.

His eff orts added to earlier strikes from Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus and Phil Foden as City showed no sign of letting up ahead of the showpiece clash against Chelsea in Porto.

Everton were overwhelmed on an emotional occasion, with City presented with the Premier League trophy and fans returning to the stadium after 14 months away due to coronavirus restrictions.

It was the fi rst chance for the supporters to salute the champi-ons and acknowledge their Euro-pean exploits.

Before the game large num-bers spilled into the road as City’s

team coaches made what is nor-mally a straightforward journey from the training complex to the stadium.

Only 10,000 were permitted inside the Etihad but the atmos-phere they generated inspired the team and few left before the post-match ceremonies, which includ-ed the club tributes to Aguero.

Everton formed a guard of honour to greet City onto the fi eld and players from both sides

then did likewise for Aguero.Supporters would have to wait

to see the Argentine in action, however.

The striker, having been trou-bled by injury in recent weeks, was not fi t enough to play the full 90 minutes and had asked man-ager Pep Guardiola if he could start from the bench.

City, who were 3-0 up, sent on Aguero with just under half an hour remaining and he soon

made his mark.The Argentine made it 4-0 as

he jinked through the area in the 71st minute and deftly fl icked the

ball past Everton goalkeeper Jor-dan Pickford with the outstep of his right boot.

He claimed his second, and

City’s fi fth, soon after as he leapt from the edge of the area to plant a header past Pickford from a Fernandinho cross.

He could even have had a hat-trick as he connected with an-other header but this time Pick-ford saved.

Manchester City’s players lift the Premier League trophy after their finale against Everton at Etihad Stadium in Manchester yesterday. (Reuters)

Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero is thrown in the air by teammates after their last match of the EPL season yesterday. (Reuters)

AFPLondon, England

Liverpool and Chelsea seized the fi -nal two Champions League places in a dramatic end to the Premier League season yesterday, leav-

ing Leicester heartbroken for the second consecutive campaign.

With Manchester City already guaran-teed a third title in four years and Man-chester United certain to fi nish second, the focus was on the battle for the fi nal two places in the top four.

Heading into the 38th and last round of fi xtures, just one point separated Chelsea in third place from Leicester in fi fth.

Two Sadio Mane goals gave Liverpool a 2-0 win at home to Crystal Palace while Thomas Tuchel’s side were indebted to a late Leicester collapse against Tottenham at the King Power Stadium.

Chelsea lost 2-1 at Aston Villa but were saved by the 4-2 defeat for Brendan Rodgers’ FA Cup winners.

Jamie Vardy ramped up the pressure on deposed champions Liverpool and Chel-sea early on a see-saw afternoon, putting Leicester ahead from the penalty spot.

That meant, as it stood, Liverpool, playing in front of the biggest crowd at Anfi eld since they became English cham-pions least season, dropped out of the Champions League qualifi cation places.

But after an uncertain start, Mane calmed nerves in the 36th minute and minutes later Harry Kane, possibly play-ing his fi nal game for Spurs, levelled for the visitors at the King Power.

Chelsea were rocked when Bertrand Traore fi red Villa ahead just before the break when he met Matt Targett’s corner and his shot looped over Edouard Mendy and in off the bar.

Vardy then scored again from the pen-alty spot shortly after half time and min-utes later Villa doubled their lead when Anwar El Ghazi beat substitute goalkeep-er Kepa Arrizabalaga from the penalty spot.

At that stage it looked as though Chel-sea, playing Manchester City in next week’s Champions League fi nal, would miss out on the top four.

LEICESTER PAINThey pulled a goal back but the key ac-tion took place at the King Power, where a Kasper Schmeichel own goal and two late Gareth Bale strikes turned the game around.

Liverpool, hit by a string of injuries and dogged by inconsistent form earlier this season, have been impressive down the home stretch, winning eight out of their last 10 games to seal their spot in Europe’s premier club competition.

Chelsea, last week’s beaten FA Cup fi -nalists, will be hugely relieved that Tot-tenham did them a favour, with their

season threatening to unravel in the fi nal weeks.

They can now face Manchester City in the Champions League fi nal without the added pressure of needing to win to qual-ify for next season’s competition.

Leicester, forced to settle for a Europa League spot, also missed out on the top four on the fi nal day of last season when they were beaten by Manchester United.

West Ham also secured a Europa League spot by beating Southampton 3-0 while Fulham, West Brom and Sheffi eld United had already been relegated.

Sergio Aguero scored two goals on his fi nal appearance for Manchester City in their 5-0 romp against Everton.

The Argentine, City’s all-time record goalscorer, returned to the squad for his farewell and came on as a second-half substitute.

RESULTSArsenal 2 (Pepe 49, 60) Brighton 0Aston Villa 2 (Traore 43, El Ghazi 52-pen) Chelsea 1 (Chilwell 70)Fulham 0 Newcastle 2 (Willock 23, Schaer 88-pen)Leeds 3 (Rodrigo 17, Phillips 42, Bamford 79-pen) West Brom 1 (Robson-Kanu 90)Leicester 2 (Vardy 18-pen, 52-pen) Tottenham 4 (Kane 41, Schmeichel 76-og, Bale 87, 90+6)Liverpool 2 (Mane 36, 74) Crystal Palace 0Manchester City 5 (De Bruyne 11, Je-sus 14, Foden 53, Aguero 71, 76) Everton 0Sheff ield United 1 (McGoldrick 24) Burnley 0West Ham 3 (Fornals 30, 33, Rice 86) Southampton 0Wolves 1 (Semedo 39) Manchester Utd 2 (Elanga 13, Mata 45+4-pen)

P W D L GD Pts

Man City 38 27 5 6 51 86

Man United 38 21 11 6 29 74

Liverpool 38 20 9 9 26 69

Chelsea 38 19 10 9 22 67

Leicester 38 20 6 12 18 66

West Ham 38 19 8 11 15 65

Tottenham 38 18 8 12 23 62

Arsenal 38 18 7 13 16 61

Leeds 38 18 5 15 8 59

Everton 38 17 8 13 -1 59

Aston Villa 38 16 7 15 9 55

Newcastle 38 12 9 17 -16 45

Wolves 38 12 9 17 -16 45

Crystal Palace 38 12 8 18 -25 44

Southampton 38 12 7 19 -21 43

Brighton 38 9 14 15 -6 41

Burnley 38 10 9 19 -22 39

Fulham 38 5 13 20 -26 28

West Brom 38 5 11 22 -41 26

Sheff ield 38 7 2 29 -43 23

STANDINGS

Liverpool’s Sadio Mane (right) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against Crystal Palace during their Premier League match at Anfield in Liverpool, England, yesterday. (Below) Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. (Reuters)

AFPLeicester, England

Leicester blew the chance to qualify for the Cham-pions League for just the second time in the club’s

history as the Foxes lost 4-2 to Tottenham yesterday.

Jamie Vardy twice put Brendan Rodgers’s men ahead from the penalty spot.

But Harry Kane, on what could be his fi nal appearance for Spurs, a Kasper Schmeichel own goal and a late double from Ga-reth Bale secured seventh place in the Premier League for Tot-tenham and a place in next sea-son’s Europa Conference League.

Leicester spent more days in the Premier League top four than any other club this season, but for the second consecutive year they fell away in the fi nal weeks of the campaign to miss out on the riches and prestige of Cham-pions League football.

Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa opened the door for the FA Cup winners to take advantage and move into fourth.

For much of a dramatic af-ternoon, it looked like Leicester would do just that as Vardy slot-ted home his fi rst penalty on 18 minutes.

Kane is keen to move on from

his boyhood club after Tot-tenham also missed out on the Champions League for a second straight year.

But the England captain se-cured the consolation prize of winning the Golden Boot as he slammed home his 23rd Premier League goal of the campaign four minutes before half-time.

Vardy was spot on again seven minutes into the second-half to put Leicester back in pole posi-tion to round off a fi ne season after lifting the FA Cup for the fi rst time in their history last weekend.

Schmeichel was one of the heroes at Wembley eight days ago, but the Dane’s mistake cost his side dear with a place in the Champions League worth at least £60mn.

The Leicester captain fl apped at a corner to punch the ball into his own net 14 minutes from time.

With the home side then chas-ing a winner, Bale struck twice in the fi nal 10 minutes to also sign off his loan spell from Real Ma-drid on a high.

Leicester were furious Kane was not penalised for handball before he teed up the Welshman to slot into an unguarded goal.

Bale then tapped home his 16th goal of the season after his initial eff ort came off the post deep into stoppage time.

Fornals double powers West Ham into Europa League

ReutersLondon, England

West Ham United se-cured Europa League football for next

season and their best ever Pre-mier League points total after two goals from Pablo Fornals and a late strike from Declan Rice propelled them to a 3-0 home win over Southampton yesterday.Spanish midfielder Fornals followed up a shot from Jarrod Bowen on the rebound to put the Londoners in charge on the half-hour mark then scored again three minutes later,

knocking home a cut-back from Vladimir Coufal.David Moyes’ side were hun-gry for more goals and captain Rice adorned a memorable afternoon back in front of the club’s fans for the first time this year by adding a third in the 86th minute with the help of a Fornals assist.West Ham finished sixth in the standings with 65 points, three more than their previous best total in 2015-16, and a drastic improvement on last season, when they came 16th.Southampton finished 15th on 43 points after a terrible second half of the campaign followed a promising start.

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Monday, May 24, 2021

Champs Inter celebrate ‘special moment’ with fans at San Siro

Barca, Real pay the price for transfer gaff es as Suarez, Llorente lead Atletico to title

Antonio Conte’s side lift their first trophy in 11 years; beat Udinese 5-1 in league finale

SERIE A

LA LIGA

Qatar Olympic team to play four friendliesThe Qatar Olympic football team has started a preparatory camp in Croatia, as part of its preparations for the AFC U-23 Cup qualifiers, which starts in October. The Qatar Olympic team will play four friendly matches to raise the readiness of the 26-player squad. The Qatar Olympic team will meet Malta on May 29, Croatia on June 4, and Bosnia on June 7 and June 11.

South Africa to probe abuse of Ahly coach Mosimane

The South African Football Association (Safa) promised yesterday to deal harshly with those who abused Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane before a CAF Champi-ons League match this weekend. People wearing the colours of host club Mame-lodi Sundowns temporarily blocked a bus carrying the Egyptian team to a Pretoria stadium and held placards, many of which contained abuse aimed at Mosimane. Mosi-mane guided Sundowns with huge success from 2012 until last September when he be-came the first sub-Saharan African to coach Ahly since the club was formed in 1907. South Africa-born Mosimane believes he knows the identity of the person behind the placards that insulted him and his mother, but did not reveal it.

Dutch begin Euro 2020 preparations withthree-day campThe Netherlands begin their European Championship preparations today as an ex-pansive list of players are scheduled to as-semble for a three-day camp. Coach Frank de Boer last week named 34 players in a preliminary squad ahead of next month’s tournament and most are expected for the start of a two-phase preparation plan. Man-chester City’s Nathan Ake and Manchester United’s Donny van de Beek will miss the initial training sessions as their clubs will feature in next week’s Champions League and Europa League finals respectively.

Advocaat ends coaching career in tears and on winning noteA tearful Dick Advocaat brought down the curtain on his coaching career after guiding Feyenoord to a 2-0 win over Utrecht in the Dutch league’s post season playoff yester-day. The 73-year-old fled down the tunnel in tears at the end of the game which secured Feyenoord a place in next season’s Confer-ence League, the new third European club competition. Advocaat, the oldest coach to take charge of a match in the Dutch league, announced earlier in the campaign his decision to step down. He won league titles at PSV Eindhoven, Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg, where he was also successful in the 2008 UEFA Cup.

Hodgson joins UK government review into gameFormer England manager Roy Hodgson has been appointed to the UK govern-ment’s review into football which will hold its first meeting today. Hodgson, 73, who has also worked in Italy and Switzerland during his career, took charge of his final match as Crystal Palace manager against Liverpool at Anfield yesterday. The review was set up in the aftermath of the European Super League aff air and has a broad remit to look into fan concerns and governance issues. The review, headed by former sports minister Tracey Crouch, will hold its first meeting and then tomorrow, the panel will meet fans from Bury and Arsenal, and with representatives of the Football Supporters’ Association.

Ferdinand off ers to ‘educate’ fan arrested for racially abusing himFormer England defender Rio Ferdinand has off ered to meet and educate a fan who was ejected and arrested for racially abusing him at the final Premier League game of the season between Wolverhamp-ton Wanderers and Manchester United yesterday. Ferdinand, who won six Premier League titles with United, was working as a broadcaster for BT Sport when the inci-dent occurred, and West Midlands Police confirmed on Twitter that a fan had been arrested. “It’s pleasing to see and refreshing (to see a person arrested), but listen, I’d love to meet up with the fella and just educate him a little bit,” Ferdinand said on BT Sport. “I think that’s part of the problem — punish-ing people without education isn’t the way forward,” he added.

AFPMilan, Italy

Captain Samir Handanovic celebrated a ‘special mo-ment’ as he lifted Inter’s Milan fi rst Serie A trophy in

11 years yesterday in front of home fans after winning the season fi nale against Udinese 5-1.

Antonio Conte’s side had sealed their 19th ‘Scudetto’ with four games to spare and were able to play their fi nal game of the season with 1,000 celebrating supporters in the San Siro.

“There is great emotion, joy, happiness,” said 36-year-old Handanovic after a game which also saw him overtake Walter Zenga as the goalkeeper with the most league appearances for the club with 329.

The Slovenian stopper joined the club in 2012 after eight seasons with Udinese, and had never won a trophy with Inter.

“We have waited a long time for this day, now we can enjoy it and this must be a starting point. The Scu-detto is the dream of all children.”

The game was watched by fans in-side the 75,000-seater San Siro for the fi rst time in a campaign played behind closed doors because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Outside more than 4,000 had gathered from early in the morning with fi reworks and fl ares, greeting the team bus with chants and cheers.

“It is a special moment for us, for what we have experienced in these past fi ve years,” said Inter’s Chinese president Steven Zhang.

“It is wonderful to be able to share all this with our people, our fans.”

YOUNG BREAKS THROUGHOn the pitch, Ashley Young struck after eight minutes with his fi rst goal of the season following a one-two with Lautaro Martinez.

The former Manchester United

and Aston Villa winger has scored fi ve goals in 59 games since moving to Italy in January 2020.

The 35-year-old also won the Pre-mier League with United in 2013 and is the third English player to win the Italian title after Jimmy Greaves with AC Milan and Gerry Hitchens with Inter in the 1960s.

Christian Eriksen came off the bench and scored with a free-kick

through the Udinese wall just before the break.

Martinez marked his 100th Serie A appearance with the third goal from the penalty spot 10 minutes after the break for a foul on Achraf Hakimi.

Ivan Perisic and Romelu Lukaku added two more in the second half.

There was a party atmosphere with the song of Italy’s Eurovision winners Maneskin blasting out dur-

ing the interval.Handanovic was substituted at

half-time with third keeper Daniele Padelli coming off the bench for his fi rst start this season.

Roberto Pereyra got a goal back for Udinese from the penalty spot with 10 minutes to go for an Eriksen handball.

Dethroned Juve, whose nine-year reign was ended by Inter, are in a three-

team race with AC Milan and Napoli for the fi nal two Champions League places behind Inter and Atalanta.

Juve travel to 11th-placed Bologna later Sunday trying to avoid missing out on the Europe’s top club compe-tition for the fi rst time since 2011-12.

But a win may not be enough with the results of Milan at Atalanta and Napoli at home against Hellas Ve-rona, also deciding their fate.

Inter Milan players celebrate with the Serie A trophy after their final match of the league against Udinese at San Siro in Milan, Italy, yesterday. (Reuters)

ReutersValladolid, Spain

Atletico Madrid’s La Liga title triumph had many protagonists but their two standout players were un-

doubtedly Luis Suarez and Marcos Llorente, who fell into their laps af-ter being spurned by rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Suarez, who joined from Barca last summer for around 6mn euros, fi nished Atletico’s top scorer with 21 goals and was decisive right until the end, grabbing the title-clinching strike in the 2-1 win at Real Valladol-id on Saturday as well as fi ring in an 88th-minute winner against Osasu-na last week.

Llorente, meanwhile, joined

Atletico the previous year after be-ing cast off by boyhood club Real. He got off to a slow start at his new side before transforming himself from a holding midfi elder into an explosive winger.

The Spaniard made a name for himself in his new role last year by scoring twice to knock Liverpool out of the Champions League and has gone from strength to strength, scoring 12 goals and providing 11 assists in the title-winning cam-paign.

“This season has been a real strug-gle but now’s the time to celebrate,” Llorente said on Saturday.

Between them, Llorente and Sua-rez scored almost half of the 67 league goals which saw Atletico be-come champions for the fi rst time since 2014.

Llorente’s great uncle Paco Gento was one of Real Madrid’s greatest ever players, while his father and grandfather also played for the club.

Real, who fi nished two points be-hind Atletico, may now be kicking themselves at letting such a talented player join their neighbours and help lead them to glory at their own ex-pense.

But at least they managed to pock-et around 40mn euros for his trans-fer, and they were well covered in the holding midfi eld role thanks to the ever-reliable Casemiro.

Barca, however, may be feeling particularly sore about parting ways with Suarez, who was forced out of the Camp Nou last summer as part of a clearout of big earners over the age of 30 which also led to Arturo Vidal and Ivan Rakitic leaving.

MESSI PROTESTSThe Uruguayan’s departure came despite the protests of Lionel Messi, who is close friends with Suarez and fi ercely criticised the move.

Suarez, who became Barca’s third-highest scorer with an astounding 198 goals and won four league ti-tles there, recalled his pain at being pushed out by his former club.

“It was a diffi cult situation af-ter being mistreated like that, but Atletico opened a door to me so I could keep showing I’m good

enough, they put their faith in me,” he said in an emotional post-match interview. “This is very special be-cause of how much I suff ered. My statistics show I’ve won fi ve league titles in seven years.”

Atletico coach Diego Simeone added: “Suarez is a competitive ani-mal, a born goalscorer.

“He’s a defi ant guy who had just left an extraordinary club in Barcelo-na but he said ‘I want to continue at the top’ and joined a club which lives football just like he does.”

Atletico Madrid’s Luis Suarez (down) celebrates with teammates after scoring during the La Liga match against Real Valladolid at the Jose Zorilla stadium in Valladolid, Spain, on Saturday. (AFP)

Atletico’s Trippier pleased to prove doubters wrong

AFPMadrid, Spain

Kieran Trippier never thought joining Atletico Ma-drid would make him a La

Liga champion but said Saturday’s title triumph has proved wrong those who doubted his move to Spain. Trippier has been a huge hit for Atletico since leaving Tottenham in 2019, becoming one of Diego Simeone’s most trusted players and integral to the team winning their second league title in seven years. Leaving Spurs, who had just reached the Champions League final, and moving abroad was a brave decision for the defender, who will now be hoping to make Gareth Southgate’s England squad on Tuesday for Euro 2020. Asked if thought it was possible he would win La Liga when he left Tottenham, Trippier said: “Of course not, Madrid and Barcelona have been dominating the league for the last seven years since Atletico won it. “But I looked at the team, the

manager and the players they have and I just thought: ‘why not?’ Go abroad, test myself in a diff er-ent league. It would be good for my family, my kids, and I haven’t looked back. “I am one of those people that doesn’t mind being thrown in at the deep end. And I just give it all that I can. “People doubted the move when I first arrived, people were saying I won’t get past the half-way line in a Simeone system...I don’t listen to anything though. The most impor-tant thing is my wife and my kids and we didn’t think twice about coming here. “It has been an incredible journey and to be a La Liga champion, after 38 games in a season, it’s not easy.” Trippier’s own season has been particularly challenging, after he was banned by the English Foot-ball Association for 10 weeks for breaking betting rules. He missed 10 games between De-cember and March, but Simeone showed his faith by putting Trip-pier straight back in the Atletico team for a crunch game against Real Madrid.

SPORTGulf Times Monday, May 24, 20214

Middleton winner lift s Bucks over Heat, Nets rally to beat Celtics‘I HOPE IT’S GOING TO BE DIFFERENT THIS TIME, I HOPE IT’S NOT GOING TO BE THE SAME STORY’

NBA

AFPLos Angeles

Khris Middleton nailed a clutch two-pointer with less than one second remaining as the Milwaukee Bucks snatched

a thrilling 109-107 overtime victory against the Miami Heat in their NBA Eastern Conference playoff opener on Saturday.

Middleton kept his composure su-perbly to drain the decisive jump shot from 18 feet with just 0.5 seconds on the clock, handing the Bucks a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven fi rst round series.

In other series openers, the Brook-lyn Nets rallied from a 12-point sec-ond-quarter defi cit to beat the Boston Celtics 104-93. In the West, the fi fth seeded Dallas Mavericks rallied late in the fourth quarter to down the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers 113-103 at the Staples Center.

Middleton’s dramatic winner marked the fi nal act of a pulsating battle be-tween the two Eastern Conference ri-vals, who also met in last year’s playoff s with the Heat winning that series 4-1.

Heat talisman Jimmy Butler had taken the game to overtime at the end of the fourth quarter, driving to the basket to make it 99-99 as time ran out at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum. But Mid-dleton’s late winner settled the game in overtime and gives the Bucks the chance to take a grip on the series with game two at home on Monday.

Middleton led the Bucks scorers with 27 points, six rebounds and six assists, with Giannis Antetokounmpo, who ap-peared to be struggling with a sore left arm, adding 26 points with 18 rebounds and fi ve assists. The Bucks were almost left to rue another shaky performance from the free throw line from reigning NBA MVP Antetokounmpo, who made only six of 13 free throw attempts for a 46.2% completion percentage. Jrue Holiday added 20 points for Milwau-kee while Brook Lopez fi nished with 18 points as the Bucks scraped home.

“It’s a good start,” Middleton said. “A lot of mistakes, a lot of missed free throws, a lot of threes from them, and we missed threes. But it’s a great start to what we want to do and where we want to be.”

Middleton meanwhile praised An-tetokounmpo for battling through an uneven personal performance.

“I don’t think he had his night the way he wanted to,” Middleton said. “But he battled, and defended well and that’s what he’s supposed to do - when it’s not your night, do other things.”

Goran Dragic led the Miami scorers with 25 points, while shooting guard Duncan Robinson fi nished with 24 points. Butler, the star of Miami’s run to the NBA Finals last season, fi nished with 17 points. In Brooklyn, Kevin Du-rant scored a game-high 32 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to lead the Nets, who had 29 points from Kyrie Irv-ing and 21 from James Harden.

It was just the ninth time all season that the Nets’ “Big Three” played to-gether, and Durant acknowledged it took them awhile to settle in before a crowd of 14,391 at the Barclays Center.

“Most of it was settling down,” he said of the Nets’ struggles in the fi rst half, in which they made just one of 13 from three-point range. “I think we rushed a lot of shots early. Our fans were in the stands for the fi rst time at this capacity, I think there was a lot of

adrenalin out there. “We calmed down a little bit in the second half,” Durant added, “and we were able to be smart with our defensive principles and we made some shots.”

Consecutive three-pointers from Harden, Irving and Durant in the open-ing minutes of the third quarter saw the Nets gain a lead they wouldn’t relin-quish.

DONCIC PROPELS MAVS They led by as many as 17 in the fourth quarter. “It was one of those games where we stayed with it when our shot wasn’t there and our defense was there for us,” Durant said.

Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 22 points. Marcus Smart added 17 and Kemba Walker had 15 for a Boston team that will try to fi ght back in game two in Brooklyn on Tuesday. Mavs star Luka

Doncic scored a 31-point triple double with 10 rebounds and 11 assists as Dal-las pulled away to win after trailing by three points with fi ve minutes remain-ing. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 21 points while Dorian Finney-Smith added 18 as the Mavs took a 1-0 series lead against the Clippers, who beat Dallas in six games at the same stage of the playoff s last season. “I hope it’s going to be dif-ferent this time, I hope it’s not going to be the same story,” Doncic said after-wards. “I forgot how much fun it was to play in the playoff s.”

Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers scor-ers with 26 points, with Paul George adding 23. In the late game, Damian Lillard scored 34 points to power the Portland Trail Blazers to a 123-109 win over the Denver Nuggets in the opener series. Lillard fi nished with fi ve threes as the Blazers hit 19 of 40 shots from

three point range. Carmelo Anthony and Anfernee Simons added four each as the Blazers outscored Denver by two dozen points in three point shooting. CJ McCollum added 21 points and An-thony scored 18. Nikola Jokic, who is in the running for league MVP, led Den-ver with 34 points, and Michael Porter chipped in 25.

PLAYOFF RESULTS (all series best-of-seven)Eastern ConferenceMilwaukee 109-107 Miami(Milwaukee lead series 1-0)Brooklyn 104-93 Boston(Brooklyn lead series 1-0)Western ConferenceDallas 113-103 Clippers (Dallas lead series 1-0)Portland 123 Denver 109(Portland leads series 1-0)

Fleury and Golden Knights shut down WildReutersNew York

Marc-Andre Fleury posted his 16th career playoff shutout as the Ve-gas Golden Knights defeated the Minnesota Wild 4-0 in Game 4

of their fi rst-round series Saturday night in St Paul, Minn.

Fleury moved into a tie for third place on the NHL’s all-time playoff s shutouts list.

Vegas took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 se-ries between the West Division rivals. Nico-las Roy scored twice for Vegas, including an empty-netter with 1:28 remaining, while Alex Tuch and Mark Stone also tallied.

Fleury made 35 saves. With the shutout, Fleury moved into a tie for third with Cur-tis Joseph. The only goaltenders with more playoff shutouts are Martin Brodeur (24) and Patrick Roy (23).

Cam Talbot stopped 14 of 17 shots for the Wild, who have been outscored 9-0 since the start of the second period of Game 3. Roy opened the scoring at 10:37 of the fi rst pe-riod.

Following a scramble in front of the Vegas net, Roy tracked down the puck in the corner and skated it out of the defensive zone before a quick give-and-go along the right wing boards to Keegan Kolesar at center ice.

Roy got the puck back just before crossing the blue line and beat Talbot with a wrister from just inside the top of the right faceoff circle.

The Wild appeared to tie the score just 19 seconds later on Joel Eriksson Ek’s shot from the top of the left faceoff circle past a screened Fleury. But a video review deter-

mined Minnesota’s Marcus Foligno had in-terfered with the goaltender and the tally was waved off .

Tuch made it 2-0 at 9:08 of the second. Teammate Chandler Stephenson chipped the puck forward from near center ice and Tuch skated onto it just outside the blue line. He split two defenders, went in alone on Talbot and lifted the puck over the sprawling goal-tender.

Stone extended the lead to 3-0 with an unassisted short-handed goal at 13:41 of the second. Stone stole the puck after Minne-sota’s Matt Dumba fell down in the off ensive zone and skated down the right wing from his own blue line before deking Talbot and jam-ming the puck into the net before knocking it off its moorings.

KILLORN, LIGHTNING PUSH PANTHERS TO BRINK OF ELIMINATION

Alex Killorn collected two goals and two as-sists and Nikita Kucherov added a four-point performance to lead the host Tampa Bay Lightning to a 6-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Saturday afternoon.

The defending Stanley Cup champions hold a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Tampa Bay will look to close out the fi rst-round series on Monday in Sunrise, Fla.

Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde and On-drej Palat also scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy

sparkled in net with a 39-save performance for the Lightning.

Jonathan Huberdeau and Carter Verhaeghe tallied for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky was victimised for fi ve goals on 14 shots be-fore being replaced by Chris Driedger, who made 11 saves. The win may have come at a high price for Tampa Bay.

Kucherov, who missed all of the regular season following hip surgery exited the game midway through the third period after being slashed on the knee by Anthony Duclair.

Tampa Bay defenseman Mikhail Sergachev also left the game after crashing into the boards following a hit from Patric Hornqvist with 3:36 remaining.

Looking to claim the fi rst home-ice vic-tory of the series, the Lightning opened the scoring on Cirelli’s breakaway goal just three minutes into the game.

Gourde doubled the lead off a defl ection at the 7:24 mark.

Huberdeau, who also notched an assist, put the visitors on the board when he buried a long rebound chance for a power-play goal 85 seconds later. Palat, however, regained Tam-pa Bay’s two-goal edge after his defl ection beat Bobrovsky with 3:15 left in the period.

Killorn scored a pair of second-period goals 94 seconds apart to make it a 5-1 clash before the midway point.

His fi rst goal came on the power-play at 5:41 before he was left alone in the slot during a rush. That spelled the end of the afternoon for Bobrovsky.

Verhaeghe’s power-play tally with 75 sec-onds left in the second period trimmed the Panthers’ defi cit, however Kucherov buried a one-timer for a man-advantage goal at 4:47 of the third.

NHL

Heat guard Oladipo could be cleared for

activities in November

Miami Heat guard Victor Oladipo could be cleared to resume full-contract basketball activities as soon as November after last week’s quadriceps surgery, his ortho-paedic surgeon Dr Jonathan Glashow told ESPN on Saturday. Oladipo underwent the surgery on May 13 and it was his second in 28 months to repair his right quadriceps. Glashow, who didn’t perform the first procedure, said he was stunned over the dam-age he found. “I repaired the quad tendon and did it a little diff erently than it was done before,” Glashow told ESPN. “The quad wasn’t really hooked up. It was torn, and I reattached it. I was amazed he was playing with what he had. I’m very optimistic that I could clear him in six months, by November. I think he’s go-ing to play really well again.“It went extremely well, and it’s healing beautifully. I’m confident he’ll play next year.”Oladipo has played in just 52 games over the past two sea-sons, including 33 this season when he played for the Indiana Pacers (nine games), Houston Rockets (20) and the Heat (four). He averaged 19.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists. Oladipo, 29, went to Houston as part of the mid-January trade in which James Harden went to the Brooklyn Nets. He was trade by the Rockets to Miami in late March. The two-time All-Star was shut down by the Heat after aggravating the quad while injuring his right knee in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers on April 8. He also is set to become a free agent this summer after completing a four-year, $85 million contract.Oladipo has career averages of 17.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 454 games (394 starts) in eight NBA sea-sons with the Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, Pac-ers, Rockets and Heat.

NBA eases mask rules for vaccinated coaches

The NBA has relaxed the mask requirements for head coaches as the playoff s tip off , according to the Associated Press. The league report-edly sent a memo Saturday morning that clears the way for fully vaccinated head coaches to ditch their masks during games. Head coaches still will be required to wear masks for pregame, warm-ups, halftime and postgame. Assistants and players on the bench still will have to adhere to the existing masking protocols. The league also encouraged coaches to wear masks should they meet on court after a game. (Reuters)

Khris Middleton of the Milwaukee Bucks reacts after scoring in overtime against Miami Heat during Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Getty Images/AFP)

RESULTS

Golden Knights 4-0 Wild

Lightning 6-2 Panthers

Islanders 4-1 Penguins

Leafs 5-1 Canadiens

Marc-Andre Fleury (right) makes a save while Shea Theodore (left) of the Vegas Golden Knights and Mats Zuccarello of the Minnesota Wild battle in the second period in Game Four of the First Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoff s at the Xcel Energy Center in St Paul, Minnesota. (Getty Images/AFP)

SPORT5Gulf Times

Monday, May 24, 2021

Rays beat Blue Jays to extend winning streak to nine

Evans stays in control to win Portugal rally

MLB

MOTORSPORT

ReutersNew York

Manuel Margot’s tiebreaking single in the eighth plated Randy Arozarena on Saturday night as the Tampa Bay Rays

pushed their major-league-best winning streak to nine games, beating the host To-ronto Blue Jays 3-1 in Dunedin, Fla.

Against Anthony Castro (0-1) in the eighth, Arozarena singled to center, ad-vanced on a groundout, hustled to third on a wild pitch and scored on Margot’s sharp single to left.

Margot (stolen base), Mike Zunino (homer, double) and new shortstop Tay-lor Walls (two doubles, run) each went 2-for-4 for the Rays, who are 15-3 in their past 18 road games.

Walls, 24, contributed fi ve assists and started two double plays in his major-league debut. He also committed an error.

Reliever Andrew Kittredge (5-0) tossed a scoreless seventh to take the staff lead in victories. Center fi elder Kevin Kiermaier went 0-for-1 and departed the game after four innings with left eye irritation.

In a solid no-decision for the Rays, starter Shane McClanahan allowed only one run on four hits over fi ve innings, with two walks and four strikeouts.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. went 2-for-4 in his return to the lineup and Teo Hernandez doubled in a run for Toronto, which lost its fourth straight.

The home side received a sharp seven-inning start left-hander from Robbie Ray, who surrendered one run on fi ve hits while striking out seven without a walk.

The left-handed McClanahan got into trouble in the bottom of the fi rst when he walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with two outs and the bases empty. Hernandez then sliced an opposite-fi eld drive that banged off the right fi eld wall and back

toward the infi eld - a double that allowed Guerrero to score.

Outscoring the opposition 72-30 and hitting at a.305 clip, Tampa Bay en-tered the contest averaging nine runs per game during the winning streak. But Ray buzzed through the lineup though the fi rst 4 1/3 innings, allowing just a second-inning double to Ji-Man Choi.

However, Zunino clubbed a change-up to left for his team-best 11th homer to knot it 1-1 in the fi fth. Walls then followed by shooting a double off the wall in right for his fi rst big-league hit, but Ray retired the next two batters.

The Rays added an insurance marker when Walls doubled, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Jansen’s sec-ond throwing error in the ninth.

Diego Castillo recorded his eighth save in 10 chances with a scoreless ninth.

Meanwhile Josh Harrison belted his fi rst career grand slam and Ryan Zim-merman added a three-run blast as the Washington Nationals rallied from an early fi ve-run defi cit for a 12-9 win over the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Satur-day. Baltimore jumped to a 5-0 lead in the fi rst inning on Freddy Galvis’ RBI double and Ryan Mountcastle’s grand slam to left fi eld off Jon Lester.

Zimmerman had three hits and scored three runs for the Nationals, who opened the three-game series with a 4-2 win on Friday. Lester allowed six runs on fi ve hits over four innings.

Austin Voth followed Lester, allowing one run in two innings of relief.

Daniel Hudson (3-0) earned the win, pitching a scoreless eighth inning, and Brad Hand threw a scoreless ninth for his sixth save in eight opportunities.

Orioles right fi elder Anthony Santander went 3-for-4 with a walk and home run. Santander also scored three runs for Bal-timore, which has lost fi ve straight and 12 of its past 14 games.

Washington trailed 6-1 in the middle of the third before responding with eight runs over the next two innings. Harrison cleared the bases with one out in the third with a grand slam off Bruce Zimmer-mann, who allowed fi ve runs on seven hits over three innings.

The Nationals scored four runs again in the fourth inning, moving ahead 9-6 when Trea Turner doubled in a run and Zimmerman crushed a 436-foot three-run homer off Adam Plutko.

Santander, playing in his second game since returning from the injured list, cut the lead to 9-7 with his solo homer in the fi fth off Voth.

AFPLisbon

Elfyn Evans surged to victory in the Rally de Portugal winning three of the fi ve stages yester-day to put recent near misses

behind him.The 32-year-old Welsh Toyota driver

took control of the race late Saturday, when Estonian Ott Tanak retired while in the lead.

Evans fi nished the last of the 20 stag-es 28.3 seconds ahead of Spaniard Dani Sordo 28.3 seconds back in a Hyundai.

“It feels good,” said Evans. “We perhaps weren’t the fastest crew this weekend, but we had really good pace and kept out of trouble and obviously did enough to keep Dani at bay today. It comes at a good time, so I’m happy to take this one.”

Reigning world champion Sebastian Ogier fi nished third in his Toyota Yaris, 1min 23.6 seconds behind Evans. Ogier remains top of the drivers champion-ship, but is only two points ahead of Evans.

“It hasn’t been a very pleasant week-end for us, but from a points point-of-view, it’s okay,” Ogier said.

The result ends the recent hold the French driver seemed to have on the Welshman.

Evans won two races last season but Ogier grabbed the drivers title by tak-ing the last the fi nal rally a Monza while Evans fi nished 29th.

Evans was second to Ogier, the open-ing rally this season, at Monte Carlo.

In the last race, in Croatia in April, Evans lost control on the fi nal corner allowing Ogier to grab victory by 0.6 seconds. Sordo said he was happy with his fi nish.

“I am so happy to come back with second place,” the Spaniard said. “I was disappointed not to catch Elfyn today, but he was faster, and when you are faster you win.

Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta recorded his best result at the elite level, coming fourth in a Toyota despite failing to fi nish higher than sixth in any of Sunday’s stages.

“Defi nitely, I stepped forward com-pared to before,” Katsuta said. “I en-joyed the rally except from today, but this is part of the game.”

“I will try to improve on the next one.”

Hyundai had a diffi cult weekend, with Belgian Thierry Neuville retir-ing on Friday when he was second and Tanak also suff ering a broken suspen-sion late on Saturday.

Tanak and Neuville took consola-tion yesterday by grabbing the fi rst two places in the power stage which carries separate bonus points towards the driv-ers title, ahead of Ogier.

That was not enough to prevent Neu-ville from being overtaken by Evans in the drivers standings. Because he re-tained fi rst place in the standings, Ogier will again have to open the road for the next race in Sardinia, which starts on

June 3. Like Portugal, Sardinia is run on gravel and going fi rst can be a disad-vantage.

“No one wants to open the road in Sardinia, but let’s see what happens,” Ogier said.

FINAL RESULTS1. Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (GBR-Toyo-ta) 3hrs 38 min 26.2sec, 2. Dani Sordo/

Borja Rozada (ESP-Hyundai) at 28.3sec. 3. Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (FRA-Toyota) 1min 23.6, 4. Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (JPN/GBR-Toyota) 2:28.4, 5. Gus Greensmith/ Eliot Edmondson (GBR/IRL-M-Sport Ford) 4:52.7, 6. Adrien Fourmaux/Renaud Jamoul (FRA/BEL-M-Sport Ford) 5:03.4 7. Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (FIN-Volkswagen) (WRC2) 9:37.2, 8. Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (FIN-M-Sport Ford) (WRC2) 11:20.0, 9. Mads Ostberg/Torstein Eriksen (NOR-Citroen) (WRC2) 12:01.5, 10. Nikolay Gryazi/Konstantin Aleksandrov (RUS-Polo Gti) (WRC2) 12:53.8STAGE WINNERS: Tanak (SS1, SS6, SS8, SS9, SS10, SS11, SS13, SS20), Evans (SS12, SS14, SS16, SS17, SS19), Sordo (SS2, SS3, SS5, SS15), Rovanpera (SS4), Ogier (SS7), Neuville (SS18)Power stage: 1. Tanak, 2. Neuville, 3. Ogier, 4. Rovanpera, 5. Evans

DRIVER STANDINGS1. Sebastien Ogier (FRA/Toyota) 79 points, 2. Elfyn Evans (GBR/Toyota) 77, 3. Thierry Neuville (BEL/Hyundai) 57, 4. Ott Tanak (EST/Hyundai) 45, 5. Kalle Rovanpera (FIN/Toyota) 41, 6. Takamo-to Katsuta (JPN/Toyota) 36, 7. Dani Sordo (ESP/Hyundai) 29, 8. Craig Breen (IRL/Hyundai) 24, 9. Gus Greensmith (GBR/M-Sport Ford) 22, 10. Adrien Four-maux (FRA/M-Sport Ford) 20CONSTRUCTORS 1. Toyota 183 points, 2. Hyundai 146, 3. M-Sport Ford 64, 4. Hyundai 2C Com-petition 28

Harrison, Zimmerman power Nationals past Orioles 12-9

Manuel Margot of the Tampa Bay Rays runs to first after hitting an RBI single to go ahead in the eighth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at the TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Florida. (Getty Images/AFP)

Fury signs contract for trilogy fi ght with USA’s WilderReutersNew York

World Boxing Coun-cil (WBC) cham-pion Tyson Fury has signed a contract to

fi ght American Deontay Wilder for a third time in Las Vegas on July 24, Top Rank Boxing said yesterday.

Fury, 32, had been set to face fellow Briton Anthony Joshua on August 14 in Saudi Arabia in a world heavyweight unifi ca-tion title fi ght, but an American arbitrator ordered Fury to fi ght Wilder again before September 15.

Fury fi rst fought Wilder, who is now 35, in 2018 and took the WBC title from him in a rematch in February 2020 with a sev-enth-round stoppage.

“Shall we do it and put him out of his misery? Crack the other side of his skull? Give him another shoulder injury, another bicep injury, a leg injury... the whole lot,” Fury said in a video posted by Top Rank Boxing.

“Wilder, contract’s signed, you’re getting smashed... You’re getting knocked out, end of, one round, you’re going. I’ve got your soul, your mojo, every-thing, I own you.”

The World Boxing Organiza-tion (WBO) has ordered Joshua to defend his heavyweight title against mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk.

WBO ORDERS JOSHUA TO DEFEND TITLE AGAINST USYKThe World Boxing Organization (WBO) ordered Anthony Joshua to defend his heavyweight title against mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk after the Briton’s bout with domestic rival Tyson Fury was thrown into doubt.

Joshua, who also holds the IBF and WBA titles, was set to face Fury – who holds the WBC belt – on August 14 in Saudi Ara-bia. But Fury was ordered by an American arbitrator on Monday to fi ght Deontay Wilder for a third time before September 15.

The WBO said it had sent a letter to Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn on Wednesday to “show cause” within 48 hours why the WBO should not order a fi ght with Usyk, asking for confi rma-tion of the Joshua-Fury bout.

Hearn asked the WBO for an extension on Friday, but the re-quest was denied. Joshua and Ukrainian Usyk have until May 31 to reach an agreement for the fi ght, the WBO said or purse bids will be called, opening the proc-ess to any promoter who wants to bid for the bout.

If the fi ght goes to a purse bid, Joshua would receive 80% of the bid, while former undisputed world cruiserweight champion Usyk would get 20%.

“Such calculation is based upon the average purse of each fi ghter’s last three bouts,” the WBO said, adding that the mini-mum bid would be $1 million.

BOXING

RESULTS

Rays 3-1 Blue Jays

Nationals 12-9 Orioles

Padres 6-4 Mariners

Yankees 7-0 White Sox

Brewers 4-3 Reds

Dodgers 6-3 Giants

Red Sox 4-3 Phillies

Braves 6-1 Pirates

Rockies 7-6 D’Backs

Indians 5-3 Twins

Rangers 8-4 Astros

Royals 7-5 Tigers

Marlins 3-1 Mets

Cardinals 2-1 Cubs

Athletics 6-2 Angels

Olympic medallist wrestler arrested over murder caseAFPNew Delhi

Two-time Olympic wres-tling medallist Sushil Kumar was arrested yesterday Indian police

said, after a week-long manhunt over the alleged murder of a fel-low athlete.

Kumar went into hiding after 24-year-old Sagar Dhankad was badly beaten during a brawl be-tween two groups of wrestlers at a stadium in the capital New Delhi on May 4. Dhankad, a former jun-ior champion who was training as a senior wrestler, later died in hospital. Kumar was arrested early yesterday with another suspect, Delhi police said. “They were switching their location when they were arrested,” the po-lice offi cer told AFP. Police had of-fered a reward of 100,000 rupees ($1,370) for information leading to the arrest of the 37-year-old

star after two of Dhankad’s asso-ciates injured in the fi ght named Kumar as one of the attackers. Kumar is viewed as one of India’s fi nest sportsmen and the only to win two individual Olympic med-als - a freestyle wrestling silver at the 2012 London Games and a bronze at the Beijing Olympics four years earlier.He also won three C’Wealth Games golds and one gold at the World Wrestling Championships in 2010.

SPOTLIGHT

Wrestler Sushil Kumar sits inside a vehicle after he was arrested by police over alleged involvement in the murder of a fellow wrestler in New Delhi yesterday. (AFP)

British driver Elfyn Evans (right) and co-driver Scott Martin celebrate after winning the Rally of Portugal in Matosinhos, yesterday. (AFP)

SPORTGulf Times Monday, May 24, 20216

Tsitsipas blasts to Lyon title ahead of ‘adored’ French Open

Mehidy helps Bangladesh beat SL in Covid-hit ODI‘Boys are really happy. We hope we can put on a better show next time’

TENNIS

CRICKET

AFPDhaka

Spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz claimed four wickets as Bangladesh overcame a late fi ght-

back from Wanindu Hasaranga to beat Sri Lanka by 33 runs in the fi rst one-day international yesterday.

Mehidy returned fi gures of 4-30 from 10 overs of his off spin to help bowl out Sri Lanka for 224 in the tourists’ chase of 258. Number eight Hasaranga hit a valiant 74 off 60 balls.

Mustafi zur Rahman took three wickets with fellow fast bowler Mohamed Saifuddin claiming two.

Earlier Mushfi qur Rahim (84) and Mahmudullah Riyad (54) put on 109 runs for the fi fth wicket to guide Bangladesh to 257-6 af-ter they opted to bat at the start of the three-match series.

In reply, Sri Lanka were in trouble at 102-6 before Hasaranga put on 47 runs with Dasun Shanaka and then 62 with Isuru Udana for the eighth wicket to revive their hopes.

Saifuddin (2-49) bowled Shanaka for 14 and then claimed the wicket of Hasaranga, who hit three fours and fi ve sixes in his 60-ball knock.

Mustafi zur, who fi nished with fi gures of 3-34, sent back Udana for 21 on the very next ball.

Sri Lanka suff ered a blow be-fore the match as all-rounder Shiran Fernando was ruled out after being tested Covid-19 pos-itive twice in two days.

The match was thrown into uncertainty as fast bowler Udana and bowling coach Cha-minda Vaas also tested Covid-19 positive alongside Fernando.

A second test cleared Udana and Vaas of the virus and the match began on time. Sri Lankan players, who are also involved in pay row with country’s cricket

authorities ahead of the series, were led by Kusal Perera.

“Losing isn’t good, but we had a lot of positives. The bowl-ers bowled in the right direc-tions. Batting wise Wanindu (Hasaranga) did a good job,” said Perera.

Bangladesh skipper Tamim Iqbal hit 52 before Dhananjaya de Silva’s two wickets in two

balls in the 23rd over put them in trouble at 99-4.

Mushfi qur and Mahmudul-lah then put on a key stand to thwart the Sri Lankan bowling with some attacking batting.

Mushfi qur’s 87-ball innings ended when he was caught by Udana at short third man off Lakshan Sandakan while at-tempting a reverse sweep.

“It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on, we lost a couple of early wickets but I thought Tamim batted really well. I took my time and Riyad too batted well,” said player of the match Mush-fi qur.

Mahmudullah’s dismissal to de Silva, who claimed 3-45, meant Bangladesh were un-able to fi nd a late spark they

were looking for. Number seven Afi f Hossain’s 22-ball 27 helped Bangladesh go past the 250-run mark.

“Winning is happiness. Boys are really happy. We hope we can put on a better show next time,” said Bangladesh captain Tamim.

The second match will be held at the same ground tomorrow.

AFPLyon

World No 5 Stefanos Tsit-sipas swept to the Lyon ATP clay court title yes-terday with a 6-3, 6-3

victory over Briton Cameron Norrie.With a week to go before the pres-

tige Roland Garros tournament the 22-year-old Tsitsipas lifted his sev-enth career title and his second red surface win this year.

Tsitsipas lost in the Barcelona fi nal to Rafael Nadal but landed the Monte Carlo ATP with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Russian Andrey Rublev.

Playing with confi dence and power Tsitsipas rampaged around the Lyon court with his shoulder length hair kept under a headband and lost just a single set all week, in the semi-fi nal against Lorenzo Musetti.

“I kept my objectives in mind and it worked,” said Tsitsipas.

“Now I’m going to rest up and get back to training for Roland Garros. It’s the Grand Slam I adore the most,” he said. “I hope to do well there.”

Yesterday, he blasted his way

through the fi rst set in 39 minutes and fi nished off the victory by taking the second set in just 30 minutes, losing a

single point in the last two games. The loss left the 25-year-old Norrie still seeking his fi rst tournament victory.

Birthday boy Djokovic building up ‘to shine’ at Roland Garros

Novak Djokovic celebrated his 34th birthday this weekend at the Belgrade tennis centre which car-ries his name but with one eye on Roland Garros where he intends “to shine”.The world number one is top seed at the pre-French Open event in the Serbian capital before heading to Paris where he seeks a second career triumph.“We are working so that I reach my maximum, that everything is perfectly adjusted in Paris, where I want to shine,” Djokovic said at a news conference on Sunday.Djokovic, who turned 34 on Saturday, has endured a roller-coaster clay court season.He lost in the third round at the Monte Carlo Mas-ters before reaching the semi-finals when Belgrade staged its first event of the spring in April.He then lost the final of the Rome Masters last weekend to Rafael Nadal, the 13-time champion at Roland Garros.“I’m really satisfied to be able to play at home twice. It brings me mental serenity and the joy of being able to prepare at home for one of the most important tournaments of the year,” said Djokovic.The Serb is an 18-time Grand Slam title winner with his lone Paris triumph coming in 2016.If he wins another Roland Garros, he will become the first man in more than 50 years to have won all four majors more than once. (Reuters)

Campenaerts goes ‘all-in’ for Giro 15th stage as Bernal holds race leadAFPGorizia, Italy

Qhubeka Assos’ Belgian rider Victor Campe-naerts said his team went “all-in” as he

won yesterday’s 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia with Colombian Egan Bernal holding the leader’s pink jersey.

Campenaerts, 29, fi nished ahead of Dutch breakaway com-panion Oscar Riesebeek of Al-pecin-Fenix on the 147km stage which crossed into neighbouring Slovenia.

Germany’s Nikias Arndt, rid-ing for Team DSM, fi nished third seven seconds behind the lead-ing pair on a road made slippery by heavy rain late in the day.

Ineos’ Bernal, the 2019 Tour de France winner, fi nished 21st, over quarter of an hour off the winner, but holds a 1min 33sec overall race lead ahead on Brit-ain’s Simon Yates before the mountainous 16th stage in the Dolomites.

“It was just an amazing day for the team,” said Campenaerts.

“As we don’t have climbers for the next few stages in the moun-tains, we decided to go all in to-day. We rode as one.”

For the Belgian time-trial spe-cialist it was a fi rst Grand Tour win, and third for his South Af-rican outfi t this year after Swiss

Mauro Schmid and Italian Gi-acomo Nizzolo in the past week.

“Now we have three victories in the Giro, which is simply fan-tastic for a team that struggled to stay alive,” Campenaerts said.

“We’re making an important statement as we are racing for the greater purpose of changing lives with bicycles: to provide bicycles in Africa for better edu-cation and better lives.”

The day’s racing in north-eastern Italy from Grado to Go-rizia had been halted for half an hour following a spectacular mass crash that knocked several riders, including Emanuel Buch-mann, out of the race.

German Buchmann, who rides for Bora-Hansgrohe, started the day sixth overall but pulled out after hitting his head in a mass fall a few kilometres outside Grado.

The two-time Paris-Nice winner had been a contender for the Giro podium.

Organisers neutralised the race to allow medical staff to reach injured riders.

Three others, Cofi dis’ Eritrean Natnael Berhane, EF Education’s Portuguese rider Ruben Guer-reiro and Jumbo-Visma’s Jos van Emden from the Netherlands, also quit the race.

Today’s stage includes three major climbs over 212km be-tween Sacile and the ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo.

CYCLING

Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan Miraz holds the Man-of-the-Match prize after the first one-day international (ODI) match against Sri Lanka at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka yesterday. (AFP)

Multan sign Windies duo Hetmyer and Charles for rest of PSLMultan Sultans have signed the West Indies duo of Shimron Hetmyer and Johnson Charles for the rest of this year’s Pakistan Super League, set to resume in Abu Dhabi next month, the league said.The six-team tournament was stopped after 14 games in March after seven

people, including six players, tested positive for Covid-19, and the franchises were allowed to add two more players to their squads in Saturday’s virtual players draft. Hard-hitting left-handed batsman Hetmyer will be making his PSL debut, while wicketkeeper-batsman Charles had

earlier played for the Quetta and Multan teams. Afghan spinner Rashid Khan re-turned to Lahore Qalandars, having exited the tournament in February to honour international commitments. “My eff ort will be to help the team win matches. I want to be the most economical bowler and take

as many wickets as possible,” Rashid said in a video released by the franchise, which lost to Karachi in last year’s final. He will be expected to fill an important void in the team after Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan pulled out of the Abu Dhabi leg of the tournament. (Reuters)

Qatar’s al-Sulaiti, al-Darwish and al-Qubaisi excel at CIV Round 2 in SpainBy Sports ReporterDoha

Qatar’s Saeed al-Sulaiti claimed a podium place fi nishing third in the Campeonato inter-

aautonomico de Velocidad (CIV Round 2) Championship, organ-ised by the Andalusian Motor-cycle Federation and held at the Jerez Ángel Nieto Speed Circuit in Andalusia, Spain, yesterday.

Al-Sulaiti of CIV Motorsport Yamaha clocked 19:45.621secs in the Open 600cc class behind race winner Angel Heredia and

second placed Carlos Torrecillas.Also excelling were Qatar

riders Yousef al-Darwish and Abdullah al-Qubaisi. While al-Darwish (CIV Motorsport) Yamaha fi nished in 20:06.365 to claim the sixth position, al-Qubaisi (CIV Motorsport) Yamaha 20:06.605 fi nished in 7th position.

The Andalusian and interter-ritorial speed competition ‘Me-morial Luis Gil’ saw 5 events be-ing raced in the presence of fans after a suspension of more than 14 months. The events will close on November 13 and 14 at the same stage.

MOTORSPORT

Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas poses with the trophy after winning the Lyon Open yesterday. (AFP)

Qhubeka Assos rider Victor Campenaerts (right) of Belgium celebrates crossing the finish line to win stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia ahead of Alpecin-Fenix rider Oscar Riesebeek of Netherlands. (Reuters)

Hinch back againin a familiar role

Barrett ends Japan stint empty-handedBiles returns to competition with historic vault

RUGBYGYMNASTICS

AFPLos Angeles

US gymnastics super-star Simone Biles re-turned to competition with a bang Saturday,

completing an historic vault to launch her fi nal run to the Tokyo Olympics.

The fi ve-time Olympic gold medallist, who hadn’t competed since winning fi ve golds, includ-ing a fi fth all-around title, at the 2019 World Championships, de-livered on the vault she’s been preparing – a Yurchenko double pike – at the US Classic in Indi-anapolis, Indiana.

The vault, featuring a roundoff onto the springboard and back handspring into a piked double backfl ip, had never before been done in women’s competition.

Biles sailed through it with so much power that she over-rotat-ed slightly and stepped back on the landing.

“I was just thinking, do it like training,” she said of her mindset as she took off down the runway.

“Don’t try to overdo anything, because I have a tendency as soon as I raise my hand to kind of over-power things. I did a little bit, but at least I still was on my feet and

it’s a new vault.”Posts of Biles completing the

vault in practice had set social media sites buzzing. NBA super-star LeBron James had retweeted a video of Biles landing it.

“It’s nice to see all the sup-port,” Biles said, adding that she was “feeling confi dent” heading into the US championships June 3-6.

They’ll be followed by the US Olympic Trials June 24-27, where the top two fi nishers will book Tokyo berths, along with two other gymnasts named by USA Gymnastics selectors.

Biles wasn’t perfect on Satur-day. In addition to her step back on the vault landing she had a bobble on her fl oor routine and on the asymmetrical bars.

AFPTokyo

All Black Beauden Barrett ended his one-season stint in Japan empty-handed after losing in yesterday’s Top League fi nal, but hinted he may

return after the 2023 World Cup.Barrett will now join Super Rugby’s Blues

on a two-year contract that takes him up to the World Cup in France, where he hopes to appear for the All Blacks in his favoured fl y-half position.

But the 29-year-old said he could come back to Japan one day, having had his short stay in the country dampened by the corona-virus pandemic.

“I’ve signed for two more years with New Zealand Rugby, and after that, who knows?” Barrett said after his Suntory Sungoliath side lost 31-26 to Panasonic Wild Knights in To-kyo.

“I’d love to come back. I’ve really enjoyed my time here and there’s a lot of rugby to be played between now and the World Cup, so I’m just looking forward to getting back to New Zealand and focussing on what I can do there in the next few years.”

Barrett arrived in Japan in January, just days before Tokyo and other parts of the country declared a virus state of emergency, with infections surging.

Restrictions have remained in place for most of the year, denying Barrett the oppor-tunity to make the most of his sabbatical.

“We were hoping to experience the social aspect of it as well, but given the situation, it’s not possible,” he said.

Barrett had an afternoon to forget in the fi nal, with Panasonic centre Dylan Riley in-tercepting his pass in the fi fth minute to score the opening try.

A late Suntory fi ghtback was not enough to prevent Panasonic from lifting the trophy, with former Japan winger Kenki Fukuoka stealing Barrett’s thunder in his last game be-fore retiring. Fukuoka, who was instrumental in Japan’s run to the quarter-fi nals on home

soil at the 2019 World Cup, was playing his last game before quitting to train to become a doctor.

The fl ying winger went out with a bang, scoring in the fi rst half to put Panasonic in control.

“I haven’t really been thinking too much about retiring, so it hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said Fukuoka, who began his studies in April.

“I think it will when I’ve been away from the game for a while. But what I can say for

sure right now is that I did everything I want-ed to in my career.” Fukuoka was set to play for Japan’s sevens team at the Tokyo Olym-pics, but decided to focus on his studies in-stead when the Games were postponed for a year because of the pandemic. Fans at yes-terday’s game paid tribute to one of Japanese rugby’s most popular fi gures.

“I start welling up just thinking about how it’s his last game today,” Panasonic fan Me-gumi Omura told AFP before the game.

Simone Biles lands the Yurchenko double pike while competing on the vault during the 2021 GK US Classic gymnastics competition at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. Biles became the first woman in history to land the Yurchenko double pike in competition.

SPORT7Gulf Times

Monday, May 24, 2021

ReutersLondon

Goalkeeper Maddie Hinch thought she had played her last match for Britain when she

stepped away from the interna-tional hockey arena in the wake of her gold-medal winning ex-ploits at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Nine weeks before the sched-uled start of the delayed Tokyo Games, however, the 32-year-old is back in her familiar role as her country’s last line of de-fence.

Hinch became a household name in 2016, saving all four penalties in an Olympic fi nal shoot-out against the Nether-lands.

Two years later she relin-quished the jersey and moved to the Netherlands to play club hockey, later saying she had struggled with the self-imposed pressure to perform like a “su-perhero” ever time she put the pads on.

After time out of the spot-light, in 2019 Hinch returned and this weekend keeps goal for Britain against the US in the FIH Pro League in London as the Games build-up gathers pace.

“Taking a break I knew would put pressure on the shirt, having worked pretty hard to try and get it in the fi rst place,” Hinch told Reuters in an interview.

“Once you’ve got it and you’re playing well you have to really play badly to lose it. When I let it go the other two were doing well and I knew if I came back I would have to earn it. It took a while to settle back in and prove to myself that I could still play at that level and still belong.”

Hinch said the past year has been an emotional rollercoaster with matches cancelled and lit-tle time for team bonding.

To keep herself in shape she has spent hours working out in her garage with gym equipment pro-vided by energy drink company Red Bull, whose stable of interna-tional athletes she is part of.

But while the 12-month post-ponement of the Games because of COVID-19 was frustrating, Hinch says it could benefi t her-

self and a squad that is vastly diff erent to the one that won gold in Rio.

“When it was cancelled it was a bit of a relief,” Hinch, who dis-closed recently that she was di-agnosed with depression, said.

“It maybe helped me as I had more time to bed in with the group. We had a new coach, a lot of new faces, so it gave me a bit more time to get more comfort-able around the group.

“That took me longer than I anticipated. In that sense I’ve been grateful to have the extra year, another year to settle.”

Hinch knows Britain will have a target on their backs this time, even if the Dutch are favourites, and says despite Britain being

ranked fi fth by the FIH, they can defend their title.

She is careful, however, not to predict anything quite as dra-matic as what happened in Rio.

“The fashion we did it last time would be hard to top,” Hinch said. “That game was ridiculous really. It had eve-rything and the showcase for hockey was amazing. But maybe if we can defend it the feeling would be even better.

“People have written us off but we still have the target on our backs. We are still the team that people will pay attention to. So I think it would be even sweeter to do it again.”

Her knowledge of having “been there and done it” will

hold the British team in good stead, with Hinch saying that whatever happens in the build-up often goes out the window in the pressure cooker of an Olym-pic tournament.

“We were seventh in the world before Rio and were bot-tom of the tournament just be-fore,” Hinch, capped 151 times, said.

“But within our bubble we knew where we were at and where we could be and we brought it together at the right time.”

With Hinch between the posts, Britain will have a chance – and pity anyone trying to score a penalty against her.

Unlike soccer, since 2011

hockey’s shoot-outs involve a one-on-one in which the out-fi eld player has eight seconds to dribble from the 23-metre line and beat the keeper.

It’s a scenario Hinch loves, just ask the Dutch.

“It’s a little bit more of a showcase of skill,” Hinch, who is launching her own training app for budding keepers, said.

“What I love about it is that it is very much a test of keeping in all aspects, being active, being brave, the mental aspect. I think it’s a great way to decide a game.

“In the old days (of the pen-alty stroke) you expected the player to score and they if they did it’s not really on the keeper. Now I back myself to save them.”

Hinch became a household name in 2016, saving all four penalties in the Olympics final

AFPMontreal

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has approved an innova-tive method of screen-

ing dried blood for banned sub-stances which will be trialled for the Tokyo Olympics.

The decision marks a “very important step” in the fi ght against doping, its scientifi c di-rector Olivier Rabin said in an interview with AFP, as the so-called dried blood spot (DBS) testing technique will ultimately strengthen WADA’s capacity to track down cheaters.

Q. When will you start ap-plying this technique in a major competition?

A. “The Tokyo Olympics will be the fi rst time that DBS will be used in a major multisport competition as part of the fi ght against doping... In order not to create double constraints for the athletes, the idea is that the blood that we will collect as part of the Athlete Biological Passport, a few drops will be taken and put on the dry matrix (a kind of blot-ting paper) which will allow us to analyse in a more precise way certain substances... At fi rst this will be complementary to what we are doing today (blood tests and urine analyses). For the Bei-jing Olympics next year, there is a progression planned, we will integrate new analyses.”

Q. What are the benefi ts?A: “To start with it’s less in-

trusive for the athletes. Some samples are taken from the fi n-gertip, from the earlobe, from the shoulder, from the thigh... The other advantage of DBS is

that from the moment you put it on a piece of paper, the liq-uid will dry and it stabilises the matrix... You have to put that in parallel with the increasing-ly elaborate doping strategies of certain athletes, who know very well how to use substances which stay a relatively short time in the body. Certain sub-stances, after 24, 36, 48 hours, you no longer fi nd them... As well, the collection of the sam-ple itself is often less expensive, you don’t need all the usual tubes paraphernalia. And you do not have a bunch of bot-tles to store in large fridges... Rather you just have a kind of postcard that stores much more easily... In addition, it is some-times diffi cult to go and take (traditional) samples in remote areas that are far from our anti-doping labs.”

Q. Is this new method a “game changer,” as AMA President Wi-told Banka has predicted?

A. “This is a very important step for the anti-doping commu-nity. In the future, we will be able to extend anti-doping coverage, better analyse certain substances, we will also be able to analyse new substances... We must be very clear, it will not replace the cur-rent tests. It will take some time before we have tests on microli-tres of blood that are as effi cient, if they ever will be, as what can be done today with analyses of urine or larger blood samples. But we think that there is a strong poten-tial in the development of such a matrix. Maybe in 5 years, 10 years, we will be able to measure EPO in a few microlitres of dried blood, in which case we will say: that’s it, we can apply DBS to EPO, but today it would not be realistic to do so.”

Testing dried blood spots a ‘very important step’ in anti-doping: WADA

SPOTLIGHTHOCKEY

Australian ‘Immortal’ Fulton dies aged 73Sydney: Australian rugby league ‘Immortal’ and former Kangaroos captain Bob Fulton died yester-day at the age of 73, his friend Ray Hadley announced.“It’s a very sad day for the Fulton family and rugby league gener-ally,” Hadley said on Australian radio station 2GB.“I’ve announced some sad things on radio but this could be the saddest. I’m going to miss him, he was a great man.”The cause of death was cancer, Australian media reported.Born in England and raised in

Wollongong, Fulton joined Manly as an 18-year-old and won three Premierships while also playing 35 Tests and World Cup matches for Australia.After his retirement from playing, Fulton coached Manly to Premier-ship titles in 1987 and 1996 and also led Australia from 1989 to 1998. He was selected as one of Australian rugby league’s first four ‘Immortals’ in 1981 and is the only person to have won Premiership titles and an Ashes series against Great Britain as a player, captain and coach.

Suntory Sungoliath’s Beauden Barrett catches the ball during the Japan Rugby Top League final match between Suntory Sungoliath and Panasonic Wild Knights at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in Tokyo yesterday.

Britain’s hockey goalkeeper Maddie Hinch. Reuters

Monday, May 24, 2021

GULF TIMES GOLF

At 50, Mickelson chases historic sixth major victory

SPOTLIGHT

AgenciesWilliamsburg

The River Course at Kingsmill Resort in Wil-liamsburg, Va., softened up just in time for moving day, and several women took ad-vantage.

Wei-Ling Hsu of Chinese Taipei and Moriya Ju-tanugarn of Thailand shared the 54-hole lead at 10 under at the Pure Silk Championship after shooting 6-under 65s on Saturday. They lead American Jes-sica Korda by a stroke.

Before Saturday, the lowest round of the event was Hsu’s fi rst-round 66. Five golfers beat that score in the third round alone.

Hsu, who led after 18 holes, made fi ve straight birdies on Nos. 3-7 to make her move up the lead-erboard, while Jutanugarn carded an eagle on No. 7 along with fi ve birdies.

“We only have three par-5s in the course, so my goal this week is try to hit as many birdie (on) par-5,” Hsu said. “So starting on No. 3, yeah, just I think today little drier than past two days, so I think eve-rything just went little further, so I was able to get really close to the green on second shot.”

Hsu said she was glad to be an inspiration for her country as it goes through a spike in COVID-19 cases.

“Defi nitely a little nervous and a little exciting, but also the COVID pandemic in Taiwan — we got so many new (cases) right now, so people are really

nervous and the whole country almost shut down,” Hsu said.

“I don’t know what (I’m) going to end up today, but hopefully... even better performance tomorrow and hopefully I can share this good news to my fam-ily and the people in Taiwan.”

Korda, a six-time LPGA Tour winner, recorded seven birdies to counteract three bogeys and stay in the hunt.

“I think golfers are good at being comfortable and being uncomfortable,” Korda said. “With be-ing in these positions so many times, you just kind of know what you need to stick to. Even if you’re not comfortable, you stick to the same plan. Even though you’re uncomfortable, you still have com-fort in your routine.”

Australian Sarah Kemp, the 36-hole leader, and American Lizette Salas fi nished Saturday tied for fourth at 8 under. Salas shot up the leaderboard with a third-round, 7-under 64, while Kemp is the only player in the fi eld to shoot in the 60s all three days.

Giulia Molinaro of Italy turned in the round of the day, an 8-under 63 with an eagle, six birdies and no bogeys. She rocketed up from 47th place into a tie for sixth at 7 under with Americans Ryann O’Toole and Lauren Stephenson.

“Like at one point I just started parring and miss-ing putts,” Molinaro said. “But again, I played such good golf tee to green that, even though I was not making much from like 4 to 10 or 11, I still was hav-ing a really good score.

AFPKiawah Island

Fifty-year-old Phil Mickelson will try to become golf’s oldest major winner by capturing the PGA Championship at windy

Kiawah Island.The American left-hander, seek-

ing his sixth major title, owned a one-stroke lead over Brooks Koepka as the fi nal round began on the formidable Ocean Course, the longest layout in major history at 7,876 yards.

Mickelson would erase the major age win mark set by American Julius Boros when he won the 1968 PGA Champion-ship at age 48.

World number 115 Mickelson stood on seven-under par 209 through 54 holes with compatriot Koepka, a four-time major champion, one stroke adrift and South African Louis Oosthuizen third on 211.

Mickelson led by fi ve at one stage Saturday before stumbling with a bo-gey and double bogey at the 12th and 13th holes, squandering his huge edge but staying on top after Koepka made a bogey on the fi nal hole.

“I’m playing a lot better than the score is showing,” Mickelson said. “And I think if I can just stay sharp tomorrow, I’ll post a score that better refl ects how I’m actually playing.”

It’s the fi rst time since the 1981 Masters with Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson that the fi nal group in a major has two players with at least four major triumphs, and the fi rst time it happens at a PGA since 1974.

“I’m in the fi nal group. That’s what you want,” said Koepka. “If I strike it anything like I did the last three days, I’ll have a chance.”

Mickelson is 3-for-5 in majors with 54-hole leads or shared leads, winning at the 2004 and 2006 Masters and 2005 PGA but sharing second at the 2006

and 2013 US Opens.With 16 years since his PGA victory,

Mickelson would own the longest gap between wins at the same major if he

collects the Wanamaker Trophy and the top prize of $2.1mn (1.7mn euros).

“Lefty” will try to complete a career Grand Slam next month at Torrey Pines

in his hometown of San Diego by win-ning the US Open, where he holds the record with six runner-up results.

Mickelson is the oldest 54-hole lead-er in PGA history, surpassing 47-year-old Gene Littler from 1977, and only the fourth 50-and-over player since 1934 to lead entering the fi nal round at any major.

Mickelson’s spectacular shotmak-ing in blustery conditions has sparked the biggest cheers from a crowd limited to 10,000 people by Covid-19 safety measures.

Koepka, fi ghting through pain to play after right knee surgery two months ago, could become the 20th player to win a fi fth career major. He took the 2017 and 2018 US Opens and the 2018 and 2019 PGAs.

Koepka, who turned 31 earlier this month, has been in the top fi ve on the leaderboard after 13 of the past 14 rounds at PGA Championships, an un-precedented feat for the event and one unseen at any major since Tony Jacklin from 1969-1973 at the British Open.

American Kevin Streelman was fourth on 212 with South Africans Branden Grace and Christiaan Bezui-denhout on 213 and reigning US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau on 214 with fellow American Gary Woodland, the 2019 US Open winner, and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann.

If Niemann wins, the 22-year-old South American will become the youngest winner in PGA Champion-ship history, eclipsing the mark set by Rory McIlroy at age 23 when he won the 2012 PGA at Kiawah Island.

McIlroy, who snapped an 18-month win drought two weeks ago, was 12 adrift after three rounds.

American Jordan Spieth, who would complete a career Grand Slam with a victory, entered the last round seven off the pace, needing to match the best fi nal-day fi ghtback in PGA history to win.

Mickelson would own the longest gap between wins at the same major if he collects the Wanamaker Trophy

Hsu, Moriya share third-round lead

LPGA

AFPKiawah Island

There’s a guy battling leg pain and a 50-year-old man in the fi nal pairing at the PGA Championship.

Brooks Koepka, coming off right knee surgery in March, hopes he can fi ght through pain and fatigue long enough to win a fi fth major title and deny Phil Mickelson’s attempt at a historic victory.

Koepka fi red a two-under par 70 to stand on six-under 210 after Saturday’s third round at windy Kiawah Island, but a clos-ing bogey cost him a share of the lead with Mickelson, who could become golf’s oldest major winner.

“If I strike it anything like I did the last three days, I’ll have a chance,” Koepka said.

The leader of the under-50 fl ight is happy his knee hasn’t shown any signs of weak-ness as it had before he arrived at the diffi -cult Ocean Course.

“I’ve not had that once this week. Very pleased,” Koepka said Saturday. “I think the strength has increased.

“I don’t know if it was just a little tired, but I’ve kind of toned back the workouts a little bit, especially this week, just because I know what I’ve got to do.”

The 13th-ranked American knew he would get a workout over the sand dunes and unlevel areas of the coastal course, the longest layout in major history at 7,876 yards,

“You’re walking on sand a little bit, play-ing a lot of golf,” he said. “Just toned it back a hair but made sure I’m still doing the im-portant things in the rehab.”

Koepka, the 2018 and 2019 PGA cham-pion, seeks his third title in four years.

Not since Tom Watson won the 1980, 1982 and 1983 British Opens has a player won the same major three times in four years.

Koepka, who still makes somewhat of an awkward stance while lining up putts due to knee issues, says the event feels like any

other major, even though his challenge is unusual.

“It just feels good, feels normal. It’s what you practice for. I’m right where I want to be, and we’ll see how tomorrow goes,” he said. “Just be within three of the lead going into the back nine and you’ve got a chance.”

Koepka was upset at his putting, saying the course seemed faster than the practice putting area.

“That was the worst putting perform-ance I’ve ever had,” he said. “Can’t get much worse. I thought 70 was about the highest I could have shot today. I left a lot out there.

“From inside 10 feet, I’m usually banging it in the back of the cup.”

Koepka is playing in the fi nal pairing as well, so he can keep an eye on that 50-year-old guy.

“At least I can see what Phil is doing and then I don’t have to turn back and look and see what he’s up to,” Koepka said. “And eve-rybody will be in front of me so I know what I’ve got to do.”

Koepka battles leg pain in fi ght for PGA title

FOCUS

Moriya Jutanugarn of Thailand hits her second shot on the 18th hole during the third round of the Pure Silk Championship in Williamsburg, Virginia, on Saturday.

Brooks Koepka of the United States lines up a putt on the 15th green during the third round of the 2021 PGA Championship on Thursday.

Phil Mickelson hits out of the rough on the sixteenth hole during the third round of the PGA Championship on Saturday. PICTURE: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports