TOUR DE FRANCE: STAGE 8 WINNER - Dylan Teuns, Belgium, 3h 54m 41s. Overall Leader - Tadej Pogacar, Slovenia, 29h 38m 25s.

SUNDAY 4 JULY 2021

Brazil beat Chile to reach semi-finals Every match we need to get some tests to make us stronger, show we can do it in every circumstance. We had to stand together. It was very hard to do it.

Sport |18Neymar

SportSUNDAY 4

Brazil beEvery mstrongWe had

Hadman bags second win with title in Ireland

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Carrying the colours of the Al Mamoura Partnership, the two-year-old colt Hadman (IRE) (Starspangledbanner x Anneli) notched up a second career win in just four starts, completing a double when taking the Irish EBF Median Sires Series Race at Naas Race-course, Ireland yesterday.

Hadman is trained by Joseph Patrick O’Brien and was ridden by claiming jockey Dylan Brown McMonagle, who was also on-board for the colt’s first victory at Gowran Park.

Bred by Meribelle Irish Farms Limited, Hadman is a son of Coolmore stallion Star-spangledbanner, a sire on fire this year. He is out of the Galileo mare Anneli, a daughter of two-time listed winner Anne of Kiev.

Qatar Racing Limited’s Mise En Scene clinches impressive victory on debutTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The claret and gold silks of Qatar Racing Limited were carried to victory as Mise En Scene (GB) (Siyouni x Gadfly) won the Irish EBF Fillies’ Novice Stakes at Haydock Park late on Friday.

Trained by James Ferguson, Mise En Scene was having her first racecourse start and was ridden to victory by Oisin Murphy.

Having broken on terms, the bay filly was tucked in behind the leaders throughout the early stages of the seven-furlong Class 5 contest for two-year-olds. Travelling power-fully, she was switched to the outside by Murphy at the two-furlong pole and easily reeled in her rivals. Once asked for an effort, Mise En Scene stretched clear of the field and went on to score impressively by four lengths at the line.

The David O’Meara-trained and Daniel Tudhope-ridden

Ribaldry (IRE) (Ribchester x Greek Goddess) came out of the pack and stayed on well to finish second ahead of long-time leader, here half-sister, the Richard Fahey-trained and Tony Hamilton-ridden Raneen (IRE) (Ribchester x Mahsooba) who was two further lengths behind in third.

Mise En Scene was bred by

the Gadfly Partnership and is the third foal out of the unraced mare Gadlfy (Galileo). The second dam Specifically (Sky Classic) produced the English 1000 Guineas winner Speciosa, along with three other black-type winners. Her sire Siyouni (Pivotal) stands at Haras de Bonneval and is Europe’s second leading sire.

Mise En Scene in action.

Al Sahouti qualifies

for main race

Qatari rider Hamad Al Sahouti of Leopard Junior team qualified for the main race of the 4th round of European Talent Cup at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve – Portugal yesterday. He will start from 30th position of 38 riders in the starting grid today.

Qatari rider Saeed Al Sulaiti in action during the CIV Championship in Spain in Round 3-Cartagena which began on Friday. Abdullah Al Qubaisi is also featuring in the event which will conclude today.

Qatari riders take part in Spain event

Federer ends British hopes at Wimbledon; Barty sees off Siniakova to reach last 16 REUTERS — LONDON

Apparently if there was a perfect time to topple Roger Federer early at Wimbledon, this was the year -- so believed Cameron Norrie and his vast legion of British fans.

A dogged 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 third round win for Federer yes-terday told its own story.

Hopes that the 29th seed could stop Federer’s pursuit of a men’s record ninth All England Club title reached fever pitch after 338th-ranked British wildcard Emma Raducanu had defied the odds to reach the last 16 moments before Norrie walked onto Centre Court for his showdown with the Swiss supremo.

The fact that Federer had barely played in 18 months and was still in the tournament after his lucky escape against Adrian Mannarino in the first round, with the injured Frenchman quitting when the match was at

two sets all, also raised hopes of an upset win for the last British man left in the singles draw.

But Federer, with his surgi-cally patched-up knees and his 39-year-old battle-hardened body, showed that he is pre-pared to take as many knocks as it takes to keep alive his dreams of once again holding aloft the pineapple-topped Challenge Cup.

Just what facing Federer on the world’s most famous tennis stage does to the nerves was evident in the opening game of the match when Norrie kept misfiring his serve to produce three double faults.

While he survived that inauspicious start, Norrie was left floundering in the seventh game when Federer broke him to love. That was enough to give the sixth seed the opening set.

The second set again started with a bit of misfortune for the Briton, who struck a ball that

bounced into the stands and hit a little boy in the face. After making sure the child was okay, he tossed an official Wimbledon towel to the boy.

While the crowd applauded the gesture, Norrie’s own for-tunes dipped further when Federer broke him for a 2-1 lead.

The Swiss, who turns 40 next month, held on to the

advantage to take the set and appeared to be heading for a straight sets victory when he held break point at 5-5 in the third.

Instead a streaky backhand from Federer kept Norrie alive and within a flash it was the Swiss who was broken to love in the next game as he handed Norrie the set with a wild forehand.

Norrie kept Federer on his toes by breaking back for 3-3 in the fourth but the 20-time Grand Slam champion survived a fall in the ninth game to break for a 5-4 lead.

A netted service return handed Federer his 104th win at his favourite tournament as he made it into the second week at the All England Club for the 17th time in his last 18 appearances.

Meanwhile, top seed Ash Barty beat Czech Katerina Sin-iakova having fended off an opponent who would have fancied her chances after dropping serve just once in the last two rounds and with six career wins against top-10 opponents.

The world number one pre-vailed 6-3, 7-5 on Centre Court to reach the last 16 after Sini-akova posed a resolute challenge while failing to find answers to the Australian's immaculate sliced returns and spin.

Roger Federer celebrates his win.

Men’s Singles (Third Round)Hubert Hurkacz (14), Poland, def. Alex-

ander Bublik, Kazakhstan, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.Matteo Berrettini (7), Italy, def. Aljaz

Bedene, Slovenia, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.Lorenzo Sonego (23), Italy, def. James

Duckworth, Australia, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.Felix Auger-Aliassime (16), Canada, def. Nick Kyrgios, Australia, 2-6, 6-1, 0-0, ret.

Alexander Zverev (4), Germany, def. Taylor Fritz (31), United States, 6-7 (3),

6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (4).Roger Federer (6), Switzerland, def.

Cameron Norrie (29), Britain, 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

Women’s (Singles Third Round)Angelique Kerber (25), Germany, def.

Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Belarus, 2-6, 6-0, 6-1.

Ajla Tomljanovic, Australia, def. Jelena Ostapenko, Latvia, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Emma Raducanu, Britain, def. Sorana Cirstea, Romania, 6-3, 7-5.

Coco Gauff (20), United States, def. Kaja Juvan, Slovenia, 6-3, 6-3.

Paula Badosa (30), Spain, def. Magda Linette, Poland, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Barbora Krejcikova (14), Czech Republic, def. Anastasija Sevastova, Latvia, 7-6

(1), 3-6, 7-5.Ashleigh Barty (1), Australia, def. Kateri-na Siniakova, Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-5.

RESULTS (SELECTED)

Kane stars as England storm into semi-finalsREUTERS — ROME

England roared into the European Championship semi-finals for the first time in 25 years after two goals from Harry Kane helped Gareth Southgate's side thrash Ukraine 4-0 yesterday to book a clash with Denmark.

Kane got his side up and running in their quarter-final tie with a fine finish inside four minutes at the Stadio Olimpico, England's earliest goal in a Euros match since 2004.

Harry Maguire's bullet header less than a minute into the second half made it two, before captain Kane nodded home his second of the game and third of the tournament four minutes later.

Substitute Jordan Hend-erson completed the rout with his first international goal to ensure England's comfortable passage into the last four, where they face the Danes at Wembley on Wednesday for a place in the final at the same stadium.

Earlier yesterday, Denmark beat the Czech Republic in a nervy European Championship quarter-final to reach the semi-finals of the competition for the first time since they won the title in 1992.

Denmark opened the scoring in the fifth minute when

Thomas Delaney scored with a downward header from a corner kick and the Danes doubled the lead just before halftime when Kasper Dolberg fired home from an inch-perfect cross from Joakim Maehle.

Czech striker Patrik Schick struck four minutes after the

restart, guiding a Vladimir Coufal cross into the bottom corner for his fifth goal of the tournament to go level with Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the scoring charts.

"It's hard to put into words," said Denmark keeper Kasper Schmeichel.

"The Czech Republic is an insanely difficult team to play against. We played well in the first half, but the second was difficult. We can fight and fight, and we did. It was a great relief when the final whistle came."

The Czechs had pulled off a shock in the last round by beating the Netherlands 2-0 but the determined Danes proved too strong, ending their hopes of reaching a first Euros semi-final since 2004 and a first final since 1996.

"It's a big disappointment," said goalscorer Schick.

"I think we did all we could. At the end we just didn't have the strength to turn it around. It looked hopeful with a quick goal but unfortunately we didn't have an answer at the end."

Czech Republic coach Jaroslav Silhavy said: "We are very disappointed. There were some tears... It wasn't easy, but I think we managed something that we can be proud of," Silhavy told reporters.

"I am very, very proud of my

boys and I believe the fans that watched us also must appre-ciate our great performance. We fought till the very end. We wanted to equalise and we didn't. You could see how exhausted they were," he added.

Quarter-finals

Denmark bt Czech Republic 2-1

England bt Ukraine 4-0

England’s Harry Kane scores their third goal.

18SUNDAY 4 JULY 2021SportBrazil beat Chile; Peru edge Paraguay on penalties to reach semi-finalsAP — RIO DE JANEIRO

Defending Copa America cham-pions Brazil advanced to the semi-finals with a 1-0 win over Chile on Friday after substitute Lucas Paquetá scored the only goal of the match.

Paquetá’s winner to the left corner of Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo in the 46th minute gave Brazil fans some hope that the Selecao would ease into the next stage. But only two minutes later Brazil striker Gabriel Jesus was sent off after hitting Chile’s Eugenio Mena with a flying kick.

Brazil didn’t stop threat-ening Chile with Neymar’s dribbles and quick counter-attacks. But Chile was much closer to the equalizer; it had an Eduardo Vargas goal disallowed for offside.

An exhausted Neymar said after the match that playing with 10 men was a great test for Brazil.

“Every match we need to get some tests to make us stronger, show we can do it in every cir-cumstance,” Neymar said.

“We had to stand together. It was very hard to do it.”

P e r u a d v a n c e d

to the semifinal after beating Paraguay on penalties 4-3 after a 3-3 score in regular time, in the most thrilling Copa America match yet.

Brazil and Peru played the latest Copa America final in 2019, with the hosts winning 3-1. Jesus was also sent off in

that match at Rio’s Maracana S t a d i u m . T o m o r r o w ’ s encounter will be at the same Nilton Santos Stadium where Brazil beat Chile.

The decisive moment in the match came after Peruvian goalkeeper Pedro Gallese stopped Alberto Espinola in the

shootout. Daniel Martinez and Braian Samudio had also missed for Paraguay. Santiago Ormeño and Christian Cueva were stopped by Paraguay’s Antony Silva.

“This was an amazing match,” a tired Lapadula said after the shootout, in which he

converted from the spot. “We can’t choose adversaries, we have to think we are in the semi-final. Now we have to work to get there well.”

Paraguay opened the scoring in the 11th minute with Gustavo Gómez pushing the ball to the empty net after a corner.

Lapadula scored in the 21st and 40th minutes to put the Peru-vians ahead. His team looked all but certain to go to the semifinal after Paraguayan defender Gómez was sent off in added time after a second yellow.

But Paraguay started the second half well and put pressure on Peru. Junior Alonso levelled the scoring in the 54th minute. Opportu-nities kept coming, especially in corners.

Peru’s Yoshimar Yotun frus-trated Paraguayans with a goal from the edge of the box 80th minute. But more twists were to come.

Five minutes later, Peruvian striker André Carrillo also received his second yellow. Par-aguay decided to charge forward with a late goal by Gabriel Avalos leveling the match and sending it to penalties.

Brazil’s Lucas Paqueta (right) celebrates after scoring their first goal with Neymar.

REUTERS — STYRIA

Formula One leader Max Verstappen put his Red Bull on pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix yesterday, with title rival Lewis Hamilton managing only fourth on the grid for Mercedes.

McLaren’s Lando Norris joined Verstappen on the front row, a sensational career high for the young Briton, with Ver-stappen’s Mexican team-mate Sergio Perez qualifying third at the scenic Red Bull Ring.

The pole was Verstappen’s third in a row and set him up perfectly for a hat-trick of wins after winning the Styrian Grand Prix last Sunday and the French race the previous weekend.

The 23-year-old is 18 points clear of seven-time world champion Hamilton after eight races, with Red Bull chasing a fifth successive victory to pull further ahead in both championships.

Verstappen’s pole lap of one minute 03.720 seconds was only 0.048 faster than Norris’s effort, Mercedes-powered McLaren’s first front row since 2012.

“I think Q3 was pretty bad. I’m of course happy to be first but not the way we got it,” said

Verstappen of the tight margin, with Norris quicker all the way to turn nine but just missing out at the end.

“Of course to be twice on pole here nevertheless is very good. Hopefully we can finish it off tomorrow.” The Dutchman was cheered on by the biggest crowd of a COVID-19 affected season, the majority in orange shirts -- although Norris, whose car is papaya orange, jokingly ques-tioned their allegiance.

“I feel epic,” said the Briton. “It was probably one of my best laps I’ve done.

“The fans are cool here, everyone in orange supporting McLaren, not Max. It’s cool to have them back. I know tomorrow’s race is going to be tough but we did the best job we could today.”

Hamilton, whose last pole was in Spain in May, recog-nised he faced even more of a challenge than last weekend, when he was on the front row but could not match Verstap-pen’s speed.

Hamilton’s team mate Valtteri Bottas will line up fifth, with Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda sixth and seventh for AlphaTauri.

Sebastian Vettel qualified eighth for Aston Martin but was summoned to stewards for blocking Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, with George Russell an impressive ninth on merit for Williams.

Spaniard Alonso was furious over the radio with the four times world champion for a move that left him 14th after being third fastest in the first phase.

“I think we lost an oppor-tunity to be tomorrow P5 or P6 on the grid, and a different race,” he said.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in action during qualifying.

Austrian GP: Verstappen pips Norris to pole, Hamilton 4th

Hamilton commits to Mercedes through 2023 seasonREUTERS — STYRIA

Lewis Hamilton will race in Formula One for at least two more years, signing a contract to stay with Mercedes until the conclusion of the 2023 season.

Financial terms were not announced.

Hamilton, who is tied with F1 legend Michael Schumacher with seven world titles, has a record 98 victories on the circuit. Of those, 77 have come since he joined the Mercedes team from McLaren at the start of the 2013 season, as have six of his world championships.

He is second in the cham-pionship standings behind Max Verstappen as he seeks his eighth title.

Hamilton, 36, said in a statement posted yesterday to social media that he still has more to accomplish in the sport and in his fight for racial equality with Mercedes as a partner.

“It is hard to believe it’s been nearly nine years working with this incredible team and I’m excited we’re going to continue our partnership for two more years,” Ham-ilton, of Great Britain, said. “ W e ’ v e a c c o m -plished so m u c h together but we s t i l l have a lot to achieve, both on and off the track.

“I’m incredibly proud and grateful of how Mercedes has supported me in my drive to

improve diversity and equality in our sport. They have held themselves accountable and made important strides in cre-ating a more diverse team and inclusive environment.... We’re entering a new era of car which will be challenging and exciting and I can’t wait to see what else we can achieve together.”

Mercedes Team principal Toto Wolff said was happy to have Hamilton’s contract settled.

“As we enter a new era of F1 from 2022 onwards, there can be no better driver to have in our team than Lewis. His achievements in this sport speak for themselves, and with his experience, speed and race-craft, he is at the peak of his powers,” Wolff said.

“I have always said that as long as Lewis still possesses the fire for racing, he can continue as long as he wants.”

F1 action continues today with the Austrian Grand Prix. Hamilton will start in the fourth position.

d,w p-

te up nd nd

ed ut ds do ell rit

ashe or erst

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partner.“It is hard to believe it’s

been nearly nine years workingwith this incredible team and I’m excitedwe’re going to continue our partnership for two more years,” Ham-ilton, of GreatBritain, said. “ W e ’ v e a c c o m -plished so m u c h together but we s t i l l have a lot to achieve, both on and off the track.

“I’m incredibly proud andgrateful of how Mercedes has supported me in my drive tosupported me in my drive to

with the Austrian Grand Prix. Hamilton will start in the fourth

position.

Copa America

Lewis Hamilton

Tour de France: Teuns wins eighth stage as Pogacar grabs yellow jerseyREUTERS — LE GRAND BORNAND

Defending champion Tadej Pogacar put the hammer down on the Tour de France yesterday as he claimed the overall leader's yellow jersey with a vintage ride on the eighth stage, a 150.8-km Alpine trek from Oyonnax to Le Grand Bornand on Saturday.

The young Slovenian attacked on the penultimate ascent of the day, the Col de Romme, to distance all his rivals in a long-range move reminiscent of racing in the 1980s, as Belgian Dylan Teuns won the day’s laurels from the early breakaway.

Pogacar was fourth on the stage

behind Spain’s Ion Izaguirre and Canadian Michael Woods, who were second and third respectively, 49 seconds off the pace but with an advantage of more than three minutes on all his rivals for the general classification.

Overall, Pogacar leads Belgian Wout van Aert by one minute 48 seconds and Kazakhstan's Alexey Lut-senko by 4:38.

The stage got off to a frenzied start with attacks flying before the first proper climbs, which resulted in both Roglic and Thomas being dropped as rain poured down, and the duo finished just over 35 minutes off the pace.

"These were horrific conditions, it was so cold and so wet," said Teuns.

The bunch was split in two early on, and once the dust had settled, a group of a dozen riders formed the day's breakaway in driving rain.

Pogacar jumped away from the group 3.5km from the summit, some 32km from the finish line, and only Carapaz followed before folding when the Slovenian attacked again.

The 22-year-old Pogacar powered up the last ascent, the Col de la Colom-biere (7.5km at 8.5%), swallowing up and spitting out the breakaway riders one by one, with the exception of Teuns.

Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia celebrates on the podium wearing the yellow jersey.

Robinson free to

play again after

ban over racist

commentsREUTERS — LONDON

England fast bowler Ollie Robinson has been cleared to resume playing, after he was deemed to have served a ban over racist and sexist comments he made on social media as a teenager, a Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) said yesterday.

The 27-year-old was fined 3,200 pounds ($4,400) and handed an eight-game ban, five of which are suspended for two years. He missed Eng-land’s second Test against New Zealand and two T20 Blast games for his county during an investigation over the com-ments on Twitter.

The initial one-game sus-pension was imposed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), before Robinson withdrew himself from selection for his county side Sussex for the T20 games.

Robinson has admitted to breaching two ECB directives in relation to a number of offensive comments he made on Twitter in 2012-14 that came to light during his England debut in the drawn first Test against New Zealand in June.

Smith will skip

T20 World Cup

if needed to be

fit for Ashes

REUTERS — SYDNEY

Australia batting spearhead Steve Smith is hopeful of recovering in time from an elbow injury for this year’s Twenty20 World Cup but says he will skip the tournament if needed to be fully fit for the team’s Ashes defence against England at home.

Former captain Smith was ruled out of Australia’s limited-overs tour of the West Indies and Bangladesh with a left elbow injury, with the team scheduled to play five T20 and three one-day internationals in the Caribbean this month followed by five T20 matches in Bangladesh in August.

The T20 World Cup will be played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from Oct. 17 to Nov. 14, having been shifted from India due to the COVID-19 pandemic there.

“There’s still a bit of time between now and (the T20 World Cup), and I’m tracking OK at the moment. It’s slow, but I’m going OK,” Smith told Cricket Australia’s website (cricket.com.au).

“I’d love to be part of the World Cup, for sure, but from my point of view, Test cricket, that’s my main goal: to be right for the Ashes and try to emulate what I’ve done in the last few Ashes series I’ve been involved in.”

The 2019 Ashes series in England ended in a 2-2 draw with the Australians holding on to the trophy having blanked their arch-rivals 4-0 when the five-match contest was last held Down Under.

Australia will meet Afghanistan in a single Test in late November before the first of the five-match Ashes series begins on Dec. 8 in Brisbane.

1st – Max Verstappen

2nd – Lando Norris

3rd – Sergio Perez

4th – Lewis Hamilton

5th – Valtteri Bottas

6th – Pierre Gasly

7th – Yuki Tsunoda

8th – Sebastian Vettel

9th – George Russell

10th – Lance Stroll

11th – Carlos Sainz Jr.

12th – Charles Leclerc

13th – Daniel Ricciardo

14th – Fernando Alonso

15th – Antonio Giovinazzi

16th – Kimi Raikkonen

17th – Esteban Ocon

18th – Nicholas Latifi

19th – Mick Schumacher

20th – Nikita Mazepin

STARTING GRID