Sports x 07CONTACT US AT: 8351-9190, WINDYSJF@HOTMAIL.COM

Tuesday August 8, 2017

KENYA-BORN Bahraini Rose Chelimo edged veteran Edna Kiplagat to win the women’s marathon at the IAAF world championships in London on Sunday.

Kiplagat hit the 40-kilometer mark a second ahead, but Che-limo kicked in the last 2km to win Bahrain’s fi rst medal in the event in 2 hours, 27 minutes, 11 seconds.

Kenyan Kiplagat, a two-time previous champion in 2011 and 2013, claimed silver seven sec-onds adrift, with American Amy Cragg taking bronze.

Earlier, Geoffrey Kipkorir Kirui prevailed in a compelling east African duel with Ethio-pian Tamirat Tola on the streets

of London to win the men’s marathon.

Kirui, victor at the Boston Marathon in April, fi nally broke Tola, the fastest man in the fi eld, with fi ve miles (8.05 km) of the 26.2-mile course left after they had gone head-to-head over the second half of the race.

Kirui forged on so powerfully that by the end of the race as he came towards the line at Tower Bridge, he even had time to tap the hands of some of the hundreds of fans lining the fi nish.

Kenya’s fi fth men’s world champion at the distance clocked 2:08.27, fi nishing 1.22 ahead of Tola (2:09:49).

(SD-Agencies)

PIERRE-EMERICK AUBAMEY-ANG said Sunday that he was the subject of a big-money offer from China, but his club Borus-sia Dortmund insists he will not leave this season.

Aubameyang, who is under contract until 2020, confi rms in Sunday’s edition of Die Welt that there was an offer from an unnamed Chinese club, but Dortmund has said he will not leave in 2017/18.

The 28-year-old had been linked to Tianjin Quanjian, which last month signed French striker Anthony Modeste from Dortmund’s rival FC Cologne in a deal reportedly worth 35 million euros (US$41.2 million).

“Yes, I had an offer. But I think the Chinese were hard pressed to submit a bid to Borussia Dort-mund,” said Aubameyang. “I think the structures are still not as professional as in Europe.”

And the Gabon international admits he was tempted. “It is normal that you think about it, if so much money is offered,” he said. “I think that anybody would think about it when he gets such an offer.”

The Gabon hotshot, the Bundesliga’s top scorer last season with 31 goals, scored in Saturday’s German Super Cup home defeat to Bayern Munich.

Dortmund lost 4-5 in a penalty shootout after it fi nished 2-2 over 90 minutes before Marc Bartra had his crucial spot-kick saved in the preseason showdown.

Meanwhile, Quanjian coach Fabio Cannavaro has warned foreign stars who move to China in the belief that it will be an easy payday are doomed to fail.

The Italian World Cup winner signed Modeste on loan last month from Cologne for his Chinese Super League club.

The Frenchman joins a growing list of expensive sign-ings moving to China on big contracts, with Carlos Tevez at Shanghai Greenland Shenhua reportedly on among the high-est wages in world soccer.

Tevez has fl opped spectacu-larly however and looks sure to leave China at the end of the season in November.

Cannavaro said: “It depends on the character. If the players come here with motivation, they can really enjoy it. But if the players come here just to get money, they won’t enjoy it.” (SD-Agencies)

ARSENAL will start the Premier League season on a high note after mastering the experimental ABBA penalty shootout pattern to beat Chelsea for the Commu-nity Shield on Sunday.

Wembley Stadium provided the biggest stage yet for global trials with the format that mixes up the order of penalties rather than spotkicks alternating between teams A and B.

The long-standing system was deemed by soccer’s lawmaking body to be handing an unfair advantage to the team going fi rst. And going second in the rejigged shootout, Arsenal over-whelmed Chelsea 4-1 to win the traditional curtain raiser to the English season after the match was locked at 1-1 after 90 min-utes.

“We showed great composure to come back to the game,” Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech said, “then it is penalties and who keeps their cool better.”

Only six penalties were required between Premier League champion Chelsea and FA Cup holder Arsenal.

Gary Cahill got Chelsea off to a perfect start before Theo Walcott and Nacho Monreal responded by fi nding the target for Arsenal. But Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois blazed his kick over the crossbar followed by striker Alvaro Morata also missing.

Arsenal duo Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud then converted their kicks in succession to ensure the north London club started the new

Arsenal wins Community Shield

Zverev takes 4th title of the yearChelimo, Kirui sparkle at worlds

season just as it fi nished the last one — by beating Chelsea at Wembley.

Just like in the FA Cup fi nal, Chelsea was reduced to 10 men.

Victor Moses, who was sent off in the May showpiece, made amends this time by putting Chelsea in front a minute into the second half by getting on the end of Cahill’s header.

“Even though we were 1-0 down we didn’t panic and kept control of our game and came back,” Arsenal man-

ager Arsene Wenger said.Arsenal gained a man advan-

tage with 10 minutes to go when Pedro Rodriguez, wearing a mask after being injured on Chelsea’s pre-season tour of Asia, was dismissed for a studs-up sliding challenge on Mohamed Elneny.

It proved even costlier when the resulting free kick by Granit Xhaka was headed in by new defensive signing Sead Kolas-inac, sending the game into the shootout.

“Physically he is naturally very

strong,” Wenger said of Kolas-inac, who was a free recruit after being out of contract at Schalke. “We have players pumped up in the gym and players who were born strong. And he was the second part.”

Defeat for Chelsea added to the uneasy atmosphere around the club since winning the title, with uncertainty and rancor sur-rounding the future of striker Diego Costa, who is up for sale and didn’t play at Wembley.

(SD-Agencies)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Aubameyang confi rms Chinese offer

ALEXANDER ZVEREV issued a warning to top ATP rivals Sunday after winning the Citi Open for his fourth title of the year — he’s not the next genera-tion, he’s the now generation.

The 20-year-old German defeated South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4 to capture the US$355,460 top prize at the U.S. Open tuneup event on the Washington hardcourts.

World number eight Zverev dropped only nine points on his serve and never faced a break point in becoming the youngest player to win four ATP titles in a year, or take the Washington crown, since Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro did it at 19 in 2008.

“I improved a lot in the last few months to get where I can win tournaments,” Zverev said. “The longer the tourna-ment goes for me the better I’m able to play. Hopefully this can continue to be like that.”

Zverev won his first title last September in St. Peters-burg and added trophies this year at Montpellier, Munich and Rome, where he downed Novak Djokovic in the final.

He also ousted number four Stan Wawrinka at Miami and pushed Rafael Nadal to fi ve

sets in the third round of the Australian Open.

“I’m ‘Next Gen’ but the rank-ings say it for themselves,” Zverev said. “I think I showed I can play with the big guys this year.

“I think I showed I’m not an ‘in the future’ kind of guy. I’m right now.”

Only Wimbledon and Aus-tralian Open champion Roger Federer with fi ve titles has won more ATP crowns this year than Zverev, and that’s only because the Swiss star handed the German his lone fi nals loss of 2017 at Halle in June.

(SD-Agencies)

Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud (C) celebrates with teammates after scoring the winning penalty during their Community Shield match in London on Sunday. SD-Agencies

Alexander Zverev of Germany poses with the championship trophy after his match against Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the men’s singles fi nal of the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Sunday. SD-Agencies

Rose Chelimo of Bahrain gestures after fi nishing fi rst in the women’s marathon in London on Sunday. SD-Agencies