Dominant Qatar beat India thanks to Hatim’s strike

Friday, June 4, 2021Shawwal 23, 1442 AH

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TOKYO GAMES

Olympics ‘100 percent’ on, with 50 days to goPage 2

Qatar only need a draw against Oman on Monday to confirm top spot in the group

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), together with the National Olym-pic Committees (NOCs) and

government authorities of Qatar and Rwanda, has established two further pre-Games vaccination opportunities for Olympic and Paralympic Games participants.

These two vaccination hubs allow Games participants who will be unable to be vaccinated in their home coun-tries in advance of travelling to Japan for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 to get inoculated.

The two hubs will both off er the Pfi zer-BioNTech vaccine, in line with the IOC announcement on May 6 of the signing of a Memorandum of Un-derstanding (MoU) with Pfi zer Inc. and BioNTech SE to donate doses of the companies’ Covid-19 vaccine to Games participants from National Olympic and Paralympic Committees around the world.

The IOC is in contact with a few NOCs whose athletes are not yet able to access vaccination programmes and

who would therefore be eligible to trav-el to either the hub in Doha or Kigali, Rwanda. They have been set up respec-tively by the Qatar Olympic Committee and the Rwanda Olympic Committee in relation with the relevant government and medical authorities in their regions and with Pfi zer’s support. Concerned NOCs can apply for travel support from

Olympic Solidarity should they need it.On this important development, IOC

NOC Relations and Olympic Solidarity Director James Macleod said: “We can-

not thank enough the two NOCs, their national governments and Pfi zer for their generosity and great show of will-ingness and support. The progress in preparation of work on the ground has been outstanding, and these additional vaccination opportunities are enabling the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 to be safe and secure not only for the partici-pants, but also for the Japanese people.”

HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani, President of the Qatar Olympic Committee, said: “We are delighted to be a part of this excellent initiative and to contribute to safe Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. We are grateful to our col-leagues in Japan and the IOC for their tremendous eff orts in ensuring the Games can go ahead safely. We all have a responsibility to repay this hard work by doing everything we can to protect the health of the Japanese people and all Games participants.”

The Doha vaccination hub comes in addition to the Qatar Olympic Com-mittee’s confi rmation that it will also host the Refugee Olympic Team in early July in a training camp in Doha prior to

the team travelling to Tokyo.Meanwhile, IOC Member in Rwanda

Felicite Rwemarika explained the ra-tionale behind the decision to create a hub in Rwanda: “We were also driven to join this initiative in solidarity with our friends at the Japan Olympic Commit-tee, who have constantly supported our NOC by generously hosting training camps for our athletes.”

This is yet another example of the spirit of solidarity that has been wit-nessed between NOCs, and one that the IOC is supporting in every possible way. From the outset, the IOC has un-derlined the importance of solidarity in the fi ght against the virus, and to see this become a reality is testament to the commitment of Olympic Movement stakeholders to making the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 safe and secure for all involved.

Currently as many as 75 per cent of the residents of the Olympic Village are already vaccinated or have secured vaccination; and there is good reason to believe that this fi gure will be well over 80 per cent at the time of the Games.

Hubs established in Qatar and Rwanda for fi nal vaccination opportunity for Olympic and Paralympic Games participants

SPOTLIGHT

HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani, President of the Qatar Olympic Committee, said Qatar was delighted to be a part of this excellent initiative and to contribute to safe Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

By Sports ReporterDoha

A dominant Qatar were too good for India as the hosts won 1-0 in the Asian Qualifi ers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 yester-day. At the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Qatar stretched their lead in Group E thanks to Abdel Aziz Hatim’s strike in the 34th minute winner.

The last time the two teams met in September 2019, India had held the Asian champions to a goalless draw. Yesterday, victory was never in doubt for Qatar even though they missed plenty of scoring opportunities.

The victory took Qatar to 19 points, seven ahead of Oman who have two matches in hand and will face Felix Sanchez’s side on Monday. Qatar only need a draw against Oman to confi rm top spot in the group. Indian, mean-while, stay on three points from six matches.

It was all Qatar from the very begin-ning as Sanchez’s men put India under pressure in the fi rst minute with Ab-delkarim Hassan blasting his eff ort just wide from outside the box. Hassan then had another chance at goal in the fourth minute but his eff ort off Karim Boudi-af’s corner was saved by India custo-dian Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.

Despite defending deep, Igor Sti-mac’s side continued to show determi-nation on counter-attacks with Glan Martins pulling the strings in midfi eld alongside Bipin Singh Thounaojam and Suresh Singh Wangjam. Qatar came close to scoring in the 15th minute after Yusuf Abdurisag did well on the right to cut back in and relay the ball to Abdel Aziz Hatim, who however hit his volley over the bar.

India suff ered a blow in the 18th minute when defender Rahul Bheke re-ceived his marching orders after pick-ing up a second yellow card for han-dling the ball outside the box. Despite being a man down, India continued to

deny Qatar with Gurpreet Singh Sand-hu foiling the West Asians’ attempts at goal.

However, Qatar scored the opening goal in the 33rd minute after Mohamed Muntari found space down the left be-fore slipping the ball to Abdel Aziz Ha-tim who converted off a rebound from his fi rst attempt as Sanchez’s side took a 1-0 lead going into the break.

In a tactical move, Stimac replaced Sunil Chhetri with Udanta Singh as In-

dia started the second half with hope that they could salvage a point against the reigning AFC Asian Cup titlehold-ers. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, who kept a clean sheet against Qatar in their pre-vious encounter, continued to frustrate Qatar when he kept out Abdelkarim Hassan from close-range in the 47th minute and later Muntari’s eff ort from inside the box. The remainder of the match saw neither side able to fi nd the net.

DRAW DENTS BANGLADESH, AF-GHANISTAN’S HOPES

Earlier, Bangladesh scored late to hold Afghanistan to a 1-1 draw at the Jas-sim Bin Hamad Stadium. The result did neither team a favour for their qualifi -cation hopes with Afghanistan mov-ing to fi ve points while Bangladesh are on two points. Up next for Bangladesh are India on Monday, while Afghani-stan will face Oman on June 11 with both teams’ hopes of automatically ad-

vancing to the third round of the Quali-fi ers for the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 hanging in the balance.

Bangladesh, who lost 1-0 in the teams’ fi rst meeting in September 2019, started on the backfoot as Afghanistan dominated the early possession with Faysal Shayesteh, Ahmad Omran Hay-dary and Amir Sharifi forming a three-pronged attack.

Afghanistan had a chance to take the lead in the 13th minute when they were awarded a free-kick but Shayesteh fi red his eff ort into the sea of Bangladesh de-fenders.

Bangladesh gave Afghanistan a mi-nor scare in the 16th minute when Masuk Miah Zoni found a way past his markers down the left fl ank but his cross was intercepted by Milad Intezar.

Afghanistan had another half chance in the 23rd minute but David Ahmed

Najem’s shot from inside the box was easily saved by Bangladesh custodian Anisur Rahman.

Anoush Dastgir’s faith in his strik-ers, however, fi nally paid dividends eight minutes after the restart when Mohamed M. Sharif set Najem free on the right and the defender found Shar-ifi who calmly slotted the ball into the bottom left corner.

Bangladesh had a chance to draw level in the 74th minute when Rakib Hossain broke free of his markers down the right fl ank but the forward’s shot on goal left much to be desired.

Bangladesh’s persistence was, how-ever, fi nally rewarded in the 83rd minute when Sohel Rana nodded down a cross into the path of Topu Barman, who controlled the ball beautifully be-fore slotting home the equaliser past Afghanistan’s Ovays Azizi.

Qatar’s Abdel Aziz Hatim (right) vies for the ball with India’s Pritam Kotal during the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

Qatar’s coach Felix Sanchez (left) congratulates Almoez Ali (centre) and Bassam al-Rawi after the victory against India. (Reuters)

2

SPORT

Indian shuttler Sindhu shuns favourite’s tag in Marin’s absence

Taiwan pulls out of baseball qualifying tournament over Covid-19 fears

Qatar’s al-Attiyah ready forRally Kazakhstan campaign

SPOTLIGHT

FOCUSMOTORSPORT

‘The biggest challenge will be how we can control and manage the flow of people’

Gulf Times Friday, June 4, 2021

AFPTokyo

The Tokyo Olympics are “100 percent” certain to go ahead, the chief or-ganiser said yesterday,

but warned that a major corona-virus outbreak mid-Games could slam the door shut on fans.

Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto made the comments exactly 50 days before the pan-demic-postponed Olympics, which remain plagued by public opposition.

“I believe that the possibility of these Games going on is 100% that we will do this,” Hashimoto told BBC Sport, adding that fans could be locked out during the Games.

“The biggest challenge will be how we can control and manage the fl ow of people,” she said.

“If an outbreak should hap-pen during the Games times that amounts to a crisis or an emer-gency situation then I believe we must be prepared to have these Games without any spectators.”

Overseas fans have already been barred, and a decision on whether to allow domestic spec-tators is expected after Tokyo’s coronavirus state of emergency ends on June 20.

Despite the lingering uncer-tainty, organisers marked 50 days to the July 23 opening ceremony by revealing details of the medal ceremonies, including podiums made with recycled plastic. They also released the victory music for the gold-medallists.

“We have 50 days left. I feel like I can hear the sound of the athletes’ footsteps heading to Tokyo,” Hashimoto said at the ceremony in the Ariake arena, a Games venue.

“We’re fully ready and pre-pared with infection prevention measures, so please feel safe and reassured coming to Japan,” she added.

“And for Japan to feel safe in welcoming you, I ask you, all the athletes, to be responsible with your actions, to follow the rules.”

Japan has seen a smaller Covid-19 outbreak than many countries, with just over 13,000

deaths. Around three percent of the population has been fully vaccinated.

But organisers face persist-ent domestic opposition, with around 80 % of people in nation-al polls backing a further delay or cancellation.

Hashimoto earlier told Japan’s Nikkan Sports daily that post-ponement was not an option, and a cancellation was virtually inconceivable.

“If various countries around the world experience very seri-ous situations, and delegations from most countries can’t come, then we wouldn’t be able to hold it,” she said.

“But conversely, unless such a situation emerges, the Games will not be cancelled.”

Organisers confi rmed Thurs-day that around 10,000 of the 80,000 Games volunteers had quit – many over coronavirus concerns, according to Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto, as well as for scheduling or other logisti-cal reasons.

Some also dropped out in pro-test at sexist remarks by Hashi-moto’s predecessor, who was forced to resign in February after saying women talk too much in meetings.

Organisers have said the re-duction in volunteers will not af-

fect the Games because the event has been scaled back.

As well as the ban on non-do-mestic fans, the number of over-seas offi cials and participants has been cut by about half, to around 78,000, with calls for further re-ductions.

Olympic offi cials are look-ing to build positive momentum as the Games draw nearer, with Australia’s softball team this week becoming the fi rst athletes to arrive in Japan.

But in a sign of the challenges ahead, a member of Ghana’s Un-der-24 Olympic football team tested positive upon arriving for a friendly late on Wednesday, the

Japan Football Association said.All of Ghana’s team, who will

play Japan’s U24s on Saturday, tested negative in the 72 hours before their departure.

Japanese swimmer Daiya Seto said Hashimoto’s comments had given him confi dence for the fi nal stage of his preparations.

“Hashimoto said that the Games wouldn’t be cancelled or postponed. As an athlete, if you believe that they’re going to go ahead, then you can prepare for it in the best way possible,” he said.

“I want to make the most of the 50 days I have left, so that I can do myself justice when I race.”

By a correspondent Akatu City, Kazakhstan

Nasser Saleh Al-At-tiyah holds a seven-point advantage over Carlos Sainz as sev-

eral of the leading contenders descend upon the Republic of Kazakhstan next week to con-tinue the battle for supremacy in the 2021 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. Rally Kazakhstan takes place over fi ve desert selective sections be-tween June 9-13.

The championship kicked off in southern Spain last month with the Andalucia Rally and this year’s expanded series will see competitors visit the Silk Way Rally in early July, Portugal and Morocco in September and October and then conclude with back-to-back events in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia in No-vember and early December.

Al-Attiyah and Sainz were closely matched in Spain, with the Qatari pinching a second successive win and his Toyota team-mate Yazeed Al-Rajhi fi n-ishing third overall. The Saudi sealed victory in Kazakhstan in 2018 and will be hoping to boost his title bid with a repeat suc-

cess against a strong line-up of international challengers.

Among the 41 entries re-ceived by the Automotorsport Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan (AMFK) in the FIA section are a number of leading contenders in both the FIA T3 and T4 categories. The popu-larity of both has given a major boost to cross-country motor sport and made it one of the fastest growing disciplines in the global calendar.

Spanish female star Cris-

tina Gutierrez will arrive on the shores of the Caspian Sea at-tempting to defend the 10-point T3 advantage she earned in An-dalucia. She drives one of two OT3 off -road machines pre-pared by Overdrive Racing, the other being in the hands of Bel-gium’s Guillaume de Mevius. He showed an impressive speed in Spain but came away pointless from his fi rst event in the car.

Gutierrez’s closest challenger after round one is the Spaniard Fernando Alvarez and he also

makes the trip to Kazakhstan to continue his challenge for hon-ours in a South Racing Can-Am.

Other T3 racers who featured in the top 10 in Spain and have entered Rally Kazakhstan in-clude José-Luis Pena Campo (Polaris), Jean-Pascal Besson (Can-Am) and Enrico Gaspari (Polaris). They face further competition from the likes of G-Force Motorsport’s Boris Gada-sin and Andrey Novikov and An-var Ergashev and Pavel Lebedev.

Nine entrants grace the entry

list in the FIA T4 category, with the Monster Energy Can-Am driver Austin Jones arriving in Aktau City with a nine-point cushion over Qatar’s Khalifa Saleh al-Attiyah.

South Racing-built Can-Ams dominated the opening round in Spain and Dutchman Kees Koo-len, Chile’s Hernan Garces and Argentina’s David Zille fi ll the top fi ve places in the champion-ship standings.

Koolen and Garces are also making the trip to Kazakhstan, where they will face further re-sistance from AMFK President Marat Abykayev (Yamaha YXZ 1000R) and additional Can-Ams in the hands of Italy’s Eugenio Amos, Argentina’s Diego Mar-tinez, Germany’s Annett Fischer and Spain’s Ricardo Suarez.

Initial administration and technical checks will be held next Tuesday (June 8) before the ceremonial start takes cen-tre stage in Aktau City from 20.00hrs the same evening.

Standings1. Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (QAT) 29pts2. Carlos Sainz (ESP) 22pts3. Yazeed al-Rajhi (SAU) 17pts4. Erik van Loon (NLD) 12pts5. Mattias Ekström (SWE) 10pts

ReutersNew Delhi

India’s PV Sindhu believes there is little to choose be-tween the top 10 women badminton players and the

absence of injured champion Carolina Marin has not cleared a path for her to win Olympic gold in Tokyo.

Three-time world champi-on Marin, who beat Sindhu to claim gold at the 2016 Games, said this week that she had torn her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and both meniscus in her left knee and would not defend her title in Tokyo.

Rio de Janeiro silver medallist Sindhu, however, told reporters at a media event yesterday that the competition for top honours in Tokyo would still be fierce.

“I must say, in the women’s circuit the top one to 10 are of same standard,” Sindhu said.

“You can’t take it easy if you know that one player is out be-cause of injury. There are a cou-ple of really good players.

“Everybody would be prepar-ing for the Olympics and every-body would want to give their

100% and will be in full form. So from my side I have to keep working hard. I can’t relax... I need to just be focused and give my best.”

While the 2019 world cham-pion is reluctant to accept the favourite’s tag for the women’s singles, she knows expectations in India, which has been starved of Olympic success, will be massive.

She is banking on her expe-rience, however, to handle the pressure.

“Yes there will be a lot of ex-pectations, but for me, I just have to focus and give my best,” the 25-year-old said.

“In 2016, it was completely different. I just didn’t know how it would be. The first time, I was not aware of the atmos-phere and the feel of an Olym-pics.”

“Everyone is going to come to Tokyo with improved skills and technique. We won’t know each other’s games,” Sindhu added, pointing to the lack of tourna-ments in the leadup due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Everyone will come with one-two new skills. I’ll have a couple of additional skills too.”

ReutersTapiei

Taiwan has pulled out of the fi nal baseball quali-fying tournament for the Tokyo Olympics after

failing to secure a training facility and because of concerns over the health of the players in Mexico.

Ranked fourth in the world, Taiwan was originally sched-uled to host the tournament be-fore a spike in Covid-19 cases in the country forced the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) to move it to Puebla, Mexico.

Mexico is still reporting thou-sands of new Covid-19 cases a day and health ministry data re-leased on Wednesday said that 228,146 people had died since the start of the pandemic.

The surge in Covid-19 cases in Taiwan was also behind the refusal of the Yunlin County lo-cal government to let the squad prepare at training fi elds under their jurisdiction, the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association said in a statement.

Despite the baseball team

dropping out, Taiwan’s foreign minister said yesterday that the government supported the Ol-ympics going ahead.

“We understand that the Japa-nese government and the Inter-national Olympic Committee have been working very hard in making sure that the Olympics can take place in Tokyo,” Joseph Wu told the foreign press in To-kyo via a video conference call.

Taiwan, which competes as Chinese Taipei at the Olympics, has won only 22 medals at previ-ous Summer Games, including a baseball silver in Barcelona in 1992.

Baseball is returning to the Games for the fi rst time since Beijing 2008. Six nations will compete for gold in Tokyo with hosts Japan, Israel, Mexico and South Korea already qualifi ed.

The Americas qualifying tour-nament, which off ers one ticket to Tokyo, is ongoing in the United States with the fi nal berth up for grabs in Puebla from June 22-26.

China pulled out of the fi nal Olympic qualifi cation tourna-ment last month, leaving a fi ve-team event now reduced to four with Taiwan’s withdrawal.

PV Sindhu poses after winning the silver medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.

Olympics ‘100 percent’ on, with 50 days to go

ASSERTION

Tokyo Olympic torch relay participants lie in a circle during an alternative event for the torch relay, amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak in Toyama, Japan, yesterday.

Kenya says training camp in Kurume to go ahead

Nairobi: Kenya still plans to hold a pre-Olympics training camp in Kurume, its Olympics committee said yesterday, a day after announcing the Japanese city had pulled out of hosting them over Covid-19 concerns. Kenya’s Olympics committee said on Wednes-day that Kurume off icials had told them that the city was withdrawing from hosting the pre-Olympics training camp as infections had spread rapidly there since mid-April creating a critical situation.

Francis Mutuku, secretary general of the National Olym-pic Committee of Kenya, told Reuters that the camp was back on.“As of today, the information we have as of now is that we are on,” he said in a telephone interview.Mutuku said Team Kenya plans to fly to Kurume on July 5 to set-up camp in the city.Japan’s embassy in Kenya said in an emailed statement that news of the cancellation was “erroneously reported”.

SPORT3Gulf Times

Friday, June 4, 2021

Inter name Inzaghi as Conte successor

Doha Artistic Gymnastics World Cup to be held from June 23 to 26

Koeman to stay as Barcelona coach next season

SERIE A

SPOTLIGHTLA LIGA

ReutersBarcelona

Ronald Koeman will remain as Barcelona coach next season af-ter the club agreed to honour his contract, president Joan Laporta

said yesterday. Koeman, who was ap-pointed last August by Laporta’s pred-ecessor Josep Maria Bartomeu on a two-year deal, led Barca to victory in the Copa del Rey in his fi rst season in charge.

But the Catalans fi nished a disappoint-ing third in La Liga, prompting specula-tion the club were looking for a replace-ment. Last month Laporta declared “a cycle has come to an end” and refused to back the coach publicly, saying the club needed more time to analyse the season.

But he brought the uncertainty to an end after the club agreed to ratify the coach’s future following a board meeting. “After the period of refl ection we asked for after last season, we’ve decided to al-low Ronald Koeman to continue under the terms of his current contract,” Lapor-ta told a news conference.

“We’re very satisfi ed with how the conversations have gone, it was impor-tant that we had this period to get to know each other and we have spoken very frankly with each other.

“I want to highlight the impeccable behaviour of our coach in this time and we’ve tried to fi nd some solutions to little diff erences we’ve had and we believe this is the best outcome for Barca, for us and for Ronald Koeman.”

Koeman’s agents had been confi dent for some days of this outcome, although they hit out at Laporta in a hastily re-moved tweet last Friday after the presi-dent said “we are in a period of refl ection with him to see what we do”. They wrote: “Imagine: I want to marry you, but I have doubts. Give me two weeks to fi nd a bet-ter partner… If I can’t fi nd the right per-son, we will get married anyway!”

The decision to persist with Koeman comes in a week of busy if low-budget transfer activity. Sergio Aguero, Eric Garcia and the right-back Emerson Royal have been added to the squad and Georginio Wijnaldum is also signing. Talks are ongoing with Memphis Depay and the club are confi dent of landing the forward, whose deal at Lyon is about to expire.

Meanwhile contract negotiations continue with Lionel Messi. This week Laporta said discussions with Messi were “going well” and that “Leo wants to stay”.

Laporta had indicated during the pres-entations this week of Agüero and Gar-

cia that he was leaning towards retain-ing Koeman and talks between, coach, president and vice-president Rafa Yuste and sporting director Mateu Alemany have been ongoing over the past few days. Chief among the negotiations has been Laporta’s preference for a settled style on the pitch. Koeman used a variety of for-mations during his fi rst season in charge, often opting for three at the back, but his employer has laid out a condition for his continued position in the dugout: Barça

will play a 4-3-3 and with a more attack-ing style.

BARCELONA HIRE JORDI CRUYFF IN SPORTING DIRECTOR ROLE

Barcelona have appointed former player Jordi Cruyff as assistant sporting direc-tor, strengthening the bond between the club and the Dutchman’s late father Jo-han. Jordi Cruyff , who made 54 appear-ances for Barca’s fi rst team, has worked as a sporting director and coach at several

clubs since retiring as a player.He will leave his role as head coach of

Chinese Super League side Shenzhen on Aug. 1 to work at Barca.

Johan Cruyff was one of Barcelona’s best players and a revolutionary coach who masterminded their fi rst European Cup win in 1992.

He died in 2016 and the club have since built a statue of him outside the Camp Nou and named their youth team’s sta-dium after him.

‘After the period of reflection, we’ve decided to allow Ronald Koeman to continue’

Doha: In accordance with the FINA Constitution, the FINA General Congress 2021will be held in Doha on Saturday June 5, 2021. This new date has been proposed resulting in the post-ponement of the FINA World Championships 2021 to 2022, in Fukuoka, Japan.

Around 119 National Fed-erations, represented by 189 delegates will physically be attending the Congress in Doha, respecting a robust and safe Covid-19 protocol, while another 102 National Federations (202 delegates) will be following the programme via a live stream and cast their vote through a highly secured online system. Some NFs will be represented both on-site and online.

Firstly on the agenda of the Congress will be the report of the FINA Bureau on its activi-ties during the time since the previous General Congress

(2019) presented by the FINA President.

Then will follow the Financial report of the FINA Honorary Treasurer and the reports of the FINA Audit Committee and FINA External Auditor. The approval of the budget and the motions, applications and proposals for alteration of or addition to the FINA Rules will be discussed ahead of the elections, which will take place as follows: 1. Elec-tion of: FINA President, FINA Bureau Members, Five FINA Vice-Presidents, First Vice-Pres-ident & Second Vice-President, FINA Treasurer, Honorary posi-tions (if applicable),

2. Election of FINA Ethics Panel, 3. Election of FINA Audit Committee Members. Individu-als elected at the occasion of the 2021 FINA General Congress will take off ice immediately after their election, i.e. on 5 June 2021.

FINA TO HOLD GENERAL CONGRESS IN DOHA ON JUNE 5

Argentina, Chile coaches worried about Brazilian Copa AmericaAFPBuenos Aires

Argentina and Chile’s football coaches on Wednesday hit out at the decision to play the

Copa America in coronavirus-wracked Brazil, as they prepare for a World Cup qualifi er before the South American extravagan-za begins. Argentina were due to host the Copa alongside Colom-bia but last month both coun-tries were stripped of the right by South American football’s gov-erning body CONMEBOL. In-stead, less than two weeks before the tournament kicks off , Brazil were announced as the new hosts last Sunday.

“If we have to go, we’ll go and play and try to make the Copa the best it can be,” said Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni. “But there are still a lot of uncertainties about accommodation. Hon-estly, it’s alarming and worrying. Brazil is not the best place.”

South America is currently the worst aff ected region in the world by the pandemic. The six countries currently experienc-ing the highest relative Covid-19 death rates in the world are all in South America. “Argentina was pulled out due to logical health reasons, as Colombia was pulled out, and it will surely be a very diffi cult situation to digest,” said Scaloni.

Yet before the Copa kicks off on June 13, at a venue yet to be decided, there will be two full rounds of South American World Cup qualifying involving all 10 member federations of CON-MEBOL hosting a match. But the prospect of bringing those teams to a single location with players arriving from their clubs around the world has left many ques-tioning the wisdom of pushing ahead with the Copa.

“It seems like a huge, giant risk to me, because for me health comes fi rst, a long way ahead” of everything else, said Chile’s Uruguayan coach Martin La-sarte. With more than 465,000 Covid deaths, Brazil is second only to the United States, while its 16.5mn infections is the third

highest in the world. Argentina, by contrast, has recorded 78,000 deaths and 3.8mn cases, al-though its population is just over a fi fth of the size of Brazil’s.

Two of Scaloni’s players — goalkeeper Franco Armani and full-back Gonzalo Montiel — did not travel to the game, around 1,000 kilometres north of Bue-nos Aires, having contracted the coronavirus. Veteran Chile midfi elder Arturo Vidal did not even travel to Argentina as he is receiving treatment for Covid in hospital in the Chilean capi-tal Santiago. Argentina are cur-rently second in the single South American qualifying group after four games, two points behind Brazil, the only side with a per-fect record.

FOCUS

By Sports ReporterDoha

The International Gym-nastics Federation (FIG) announced yesterday that the fi nal event of

its apparatus World Cup series will go ahead. The event will take place in Doha from June 23 to 26 and is the fi nal opportunity for gymnasts to earn points to qual-ify for this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The announcement comes af-ter months of speculation about whether the event would be held. In a statement, FIG said: “The FIG can now confi rm the new dates for the Apparatus World Cup in Doha following the agree-ment from the Qatar govern-

mental authorities. This event, which was initially planned for March 2020, was fi rst postponed to March 2021 and postponed again due to the health situa-tion.”

Doha will also give Italian teammates Vanessa Ferrari and Lara Mori a chance to battle for points on the fl oor exercise. Cur-rently, the duo is tied at 80 points each. A win on the event here for either woman earns a ticket to Tokyo. While Greece’s Elefthe-rios Petrounias, the reigning still rings Olympic champion needs to win in Doha to qualify for To-kyo, some spots are mathemati-cally guaranteed like Jade Carey’s of the United States on vault, China’s Fan Yilin on the uneven bars, and Japan’s Ashikawa Urara on balance beam.

The Doha World Cup is the final opportunity for gymnasts to earn points to qualify for this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Ronald Koeman led Barcelona to victory in the Copa del Rey in his first season in charge. (AFP)

AFPRome

Serie A champions Inter Milan have named Simone Inzaghi as their new coach following the departure of Antonio Conte, the club announced

yesterday. Former Lazio boss and Italy in-ternational Inzaghi, 45, has signed a two-year deal at the San Siro.

Eight of the clubs that fi nished in the top 10 of Serie A have changed coach since the end of the season. Inzaghi, the younger brother of former Juventus and AC Milan striker Filippo, left Lazio last week after a fi ve-year spell in charge, turning down an off er of a contract extension to instead take up the challenge at Inter.

It ended a 22-year association with Lazio for Inzaghi, who steered the club to a sixth-place fi nish in Serie A last term. He also won the Coppa Italia and two Italian Super Cups as coach. As a player, he was part of the Lazio team that won the Scudetto in 1999-2000.

Conte walked away from Inter last month with a year still left on his deal following clashes with the club’s cash-strapped Chi-nese owners. The ex-Juventus and Chelsea coach refused Suning’s planned cost-cut-ting which would have prevented him build-ing the team he wanted to challenge at home and in Europe.

Conte led Inter to their 19th Italian league title, and fi rst since Jose Mourinho’s treble-winning side in 2010. Inzaghi will report-edly earn 4mn euros ($4.9mn) annually, al-most three times less than Conte. However he could see versatile Morocco star Achraf Hakimi depart this summer along with Ar-gentine striker Lautaro Martinez.

Hakimi, 22, is drawing strong inter-est from Paris Saint-Germain, while the 23-year-old Martinez has been linked with

a move to Spain. Slovakia defender Milan Skriniar is another player who could depart, although club offi cials have insisted they will limit the sales of fi rst-team regulars.

Romelu Lukaku confi rmed his future with Inter on Wednesday, revealing he had spoken to Inzaghi before the news of his appointment was made public. “Yes, I’m staying at Inter. Maybe I shouldn’t say it yet but I’ve already talked with the man who is likely to become the new coach. It was a very positive conversation,” Lukaku told Belgian broadcaster VTM.

As per reports, Chelsea’s manager Tho-mas Tuchel is planning a move to bring the striker back to Stamford Bridge. Lukaku,

who has a contract to 2024, was named Se-rie A’s most valuable player after getting 24 goals and 11 assists, beating the Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo to the award. Inter are set to sell players as part of cost-cutting eff orts to cope with the fi nancial impact of the pandemic but do not want to lose Lukaku.

Inter will be Inzaghi’s second job in club management. He coached the youth teams at Lazio, where he spent much of his play-ing career, before taking over the main role in 2016. He led Lazio to the last 16 of the Champions League last season, the club’s fi rst appearance in Europe’s premier club competition since 2007-08.

Simone Inzaghi, 45, has signed a two-year deal at the San Siro. (AFP)

A man adjusts a protest banner reading “we don’t want the Cup, we want vaccine! Out Bolsonaro” outside the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Benzema misses penalty on France returnArsenal confi rm Luiz among four players to leave

Alexander-Arnold ruled out of Euro 2020

FOCUSROUND-UP

SPOTLIGHT

AFPLondon

England defender Trent Alexan-der-Arnold will miss Euro 2020 with a thigh injury suff ered in Wednesday’s friendly against

Austria. Alexander-Arnold limped off in the closing stages of England’s 1-0 win after sustaining the injury while clearing the ball.

The Liverpool right-back looked emotional as he was helped around the pitch and England manager Gareth Southgate admitted after the game that it was “not a good sign”.

Alexander-Arnold had a scan on the problem yesterday and the 22-year-old is expected to be sidelined for six weeks, which will rule him out of the European Championship.

“Trent Alexander-Arnold has been ruled out of UEFA Euro 2020,” a Foot-ball Association statement said. “The Liverpool player sustained a thigh inju-ry in the closing stages of Wednesday’s 1-0 win against Austria in Middles-brough. A scan on Thursday confi rmed the 22-year-old will be unable to play in the forthcoming tournament so has withdrawn from the England squad to return to his club for rehabilitation. Gareth Southgate will not confi rm a re-placement until after Sunday’s return to the Riverside Stadium for the warm-up fi xture against Romania.”

England play their fi rst group match against Croatia at Wembley on June 13, before hosting Scotland and the Czech Republic in their other games. Alex-ander-Arnold’s withdrawal completes a whirlwind period for the defender, who had to endure reports he would not make Southgate’s 26-man squad before learning of his inclusion on Tuesday.

Southgate has plenty of cover for Al-exander-Arnold, who fi nished the sea-son in fi ne form for Liverpool after an erratic period earlier in the campaign. Manchester City’s Kyle Walker, Chel-sea’s Reece James and Atletico Madrid’s Kieran Trippier were the three other right-backs picked by Southgate for the tournament.

Southgate named Jesse Lingard, Ben White, Ben Godfrey, James Ward-Prowse and Ollie Watkins on his out-fi eld stand-by list in case of injuries. He could replace Alexander-Arnold with another defender in Brighton’s White or Everton Godfrey, who both made their England debuts as substitutes against Austria. If Southgate wants to call up a more attacking option, he will choose from Manchester United’s Lingard, As-

ton Villa’s Watkins or Southampton’s Ward-Prowse. Southgate is also sweat-ing on the fi tness of Manchester United defender Harry Maguire, Liverpool midfi elder Jordan Henderson and Aston Villa playmaker Jack Grealish.

Maguire is unlikely to be fi t for the Croatia game as he recovers from an-kle ligament damage, while Henderson hasn’t played since February after groin surgery. Grealish, just back from a shin injury, needed an ice pack on his leg af-ter being subjected to a series of rough tackles in the Austria clash.

Unable to call on players from Chel-sea, Manchester City and Manchester

United following their European fi nals, Southgate sent out an experimental team against Austria. It was Bukayo Saka who staked a claim for a place in the starting line-up for their tourna-ment opener against Croatia at Wem-bley on June 13.

The 19-year-old Arsenal winger was a lively presence on the left fl ank and capped his eye-catching display with a composed second half fi nish for his fi rst England goal. “It’s an amazing feeling for me, probably the biggest moment of my career,” Saka said.

Aside from his selection issues, Southgate will be alarmed that a section

of the 8,000 crowd loudly booed the England players when they took a knee in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement before kick-off .

“I did hear it. It’s not something on behalf of our black players that I wanted to hear, because it feels like a criticism of them,” Southgate said. “Some people think it is a political gesture that they don’t agree with, but that is not the case. I was pleased it was drowned out with applause.”

England lacked a cutting edge in the fi rst half but they carved open the Austrians to take the lead in the 57th minute. Harry Kane’s pass picked out

Jesse Lingard just inside the Austria area and his attempt to fi nd Jack Greal-ish was diverted to Saka, who had the simple task of slotting into the empty net from close range.

Southgate had challenged Lingard to “show me I’m wrong”, but the Man-chester United forward was unable to replicate the fi ne form he showed on loan at West Ham. Grealish was more impressive as the midfi elder off ered fl ashes of his playmaking quality. “Jack showed some lovely touches. You can see he’s still getting to full fi tness, with the bursts you know he can make. He’s a quality player,” Southgate said.

Liverpool right back withdrew from the England squad with a thigh injury he sustained on Wednesday

AFPNice

Karim Benzema said he was happy with his performance despite a missed penalty as he made his fi rst France appearance in almost six

years in Wednesday’s 3-0 Euro 2020 friend-ly win over Wales in Nice.

Benzema had been left out of Didier Des-champs’ squad since October 2015 due to his alleged role in a blackmail plot.

Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele were on the scoresheet for the World Cup winners against the Euro 2016 semi-fi nalists, who had Neco Williams sent off for handling the ball in his area. “I felt good throughout the match. It’s a good omen for what’s to come. The key is to create chances, win and do better the next time to score more goals,” Benzema said.

Deschamps handed goalkeeper Hugo Lloris his 100th start as captain but mid-fi elder N’Golo Kante was rested after win-ning the Champions League with Chelsea on Saturday. Deschamps’ counterpart Rob-ert Page, standing in for regular boss Ryan Giggs as the former Manchester United winger faces charges of assault, kept Juven-tus midfi elder Aaron Ramsey on the bench having last played in Serie A in April.

Benzema, who had scored twice against Armenia at the Allianz Riviera on his last in-ternational appearance, forced a save from Danny Ward after four minutes. His 82nd cap took a turn for the worse after 22 min-utes despite his shot that resulted in Liv-erpool defender Williams’ red card and a penalty.

The Real Madrid forward stepped up but Ward saved the spot-kick superbly low to his right. Les Bleus stepped up the pressure with an extra man and broke the deadlock 10 minutes before the break. Adrien Rabiot’s shot from outside the box was pushed away by Ward but Mbappe poked home the volley for the opener.

Griezmann doubled the lead three min-utes into the second half with a curled ef-

fort past a fully-stretched Ward. Dembele claimed his side’s third goal — and just his fourth for his country — with 11 minutes left after Benzema’s shot fi red back off the post. France face Bulgaria on Tuesday before opening their Euro 2020 campaign by play-ing Germany in Munich on June 15. Wales host Albania on Saturday before heading to Baku to play Switzerland on June 12.

DEPAY RESCUES NETHERLANDS AGAINST DEPLETED SCOTLAND

Memphis Depay scored twice to salvage a 2-2 draw for the Netherlands in a pre-Euro 2020 friendly on Wednesday against a Scot-land side missing seven players following midfi elder John Fleck’s positive Covid-19 test Celtic centre-back Jack Hendry drilled in from 20 yards to give Scotland an early lead in Faro with his fi rst international goal, but Depay soon equalised with a crisp volley.

Kevin Nisbet put the Scots back ahead after coming on as a substitute on the hour, also netting his fi rst Scotland goal in just his second appearance. David Turnbull curled

just over and Craig Gordon made a fi ne save from Patrick van Aanholt’s defl ected strike.

However the Scotland goalkeeper was rooted to the spot as Depay bent an 89th-minute free-kick around the wall to snatch an equaliser for the Dutch.

David Marshall, Stephen O’Donnell, Nathan Patterson, Grant Hanley, John McGinn and Che Adams all stayed behind at Scotland’s training base in Spain as a mat-ter of precaution, with Fleck confi ned to his hotel room.

The Netherlands have also been aff ected by Covid-19, as goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen was dropped from the squad by coach Frank de Boer after testing positive last week.

Scotland will appear at the fi nals of a ma-jor tournament for the fi rst time since the 1998 World Cup, while the Dutch return to the big stage after failing to qualify for Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup.

Steve Clarke’s Scotland face England, Croatia and the Czech Republic in Group D. The Netherlands are in Group C along with Austria, Ukraine and North Macedonia.

Arsenal have confi rmed Brazil defender David Luiz will leave the club when his contract

expires, while Martin Ode-gaard, Dani Ceballos and Mat Ryan are also set to depart the Emirates Stadium. Luiz opted not to accept Arsenal’s off er of a new contract as he called an end to his two-year stay in north London.

The former Chelsea centre-back endured some diffi cult times with the Gunners as he struggled with inconsistent form before missing the end of this season due to injury. Luiz, 34, helped Mikel Arteta’s side win the FA Cup in 2020 and gave an emotional speech to his team-mates before their last game of the Premier League season.

Australian keeper Ryan made three appearances during his loan spell but will now return to Brighton. Real Madrid duo Odegaard and Ceballos returning to the La Liga side following the end of their loan spells.

Denmark midfi elder Odegaard joined the Gunners in Janu-ary, while Spanish midfi elder Ceballos spent two years with the club.

IRAN BEAT HONG KONG TO REVIVE WC CAMPAIGN

Iran bounced back from two straight defeats to put their 2022 World Cup qualifi ca-tion campaign back on track with a 3-1 win over Hong Kong yesterday. The fi ve-time World Cup fi nalists struck twice in the second half of their Group C game in Muharraq, Bahrain,

to take their tally to nine points from fi ve matches, two behind leaders Iraq.

Iran had beaten Hong Kong 2-0 in their opening match in September 2019 before thrash-ing Cambodia 14-0 but suff ered shock back-to-back defeats against Iraq and Bahrain, leaving them with little scope for error in their remaining matches.

Midfi elder Ali Gholizadeh put Iran ahead from an acute angle after dribbling his way into the box in the 23rd minute before Vahid Amiri and Karim Ansari-fard scored in the second half to give them a 3-0 cushion.

An 85th minute goal by Cheng Siu Kwang came as little conso-lation for Hong Kong for whom it was their third defeat in six matches in a format where only the group winners are guaran-teed progress to the next round.

INJURED VAZQUEZ AGREES NEW MADRID DEAL

Spain right-back Lucas Vazquez has signed a new contract to keep at him Real Madrid until 2024, the Spanish club said. Vazquez, 29, who will miss Euro 2020 due to an anterior cruciate ligament tear joined Madrid from Espanyol six years ago.

According to media reports Vazquez had off ers from Bayern Munich and other European clubs but chose to stay on under newly-appointed coach Carlo Ancelotti. Vazquez, who was moved from his usual position on the right wing by former boss Zinedine Zidane, is likely to return from injury for the new La Liga season.

Club captain Sergio Ramos’ contract is also up at the end of this month.

‘PROUD’ BENTEKE COMMITS TO PALACE

Belgium striker Christian Benteke said he is “happy and proud” to have committed his future to Premier League side Crystal Palace after sign-ing a two-year extension. The 30-year-old scored 10 times in last season’s Premier League campaign to take his tally to 31 in 137 league appearances for the Eagles since joining for a club record fee reported to be £27mn ($38.3mn) in 2016 from Liverpool.

Benteke — who is part of the Belgium squad for Euro 2020 — has committed himself despite the club being without a man-ager after Roy Hodgson stepped down at the end of the season.

Berlin: The late arrival of a quartet of Premier League stars is set to give Germany a timely boost as head coach Joachim Loew looks to fix his misfiring side in their final preparations for Euro 2020.

The Chelsea trio of Cham-pions League winners Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Antonio Ruediger, as well as Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, had all joined the squad yesterday. They were given extra time off after Saturday’s European final.

Their arrival boosts the Loew’s side, who hit the woodwork twice with 16 shots on goal as Wednesday’s friendly against Denmark finished in a disappointing 1-1 draw. Loew is running out of time to get Germany ready to face world champions France on June 15 in their open-ing game of the European Championship before facing holders Portugal four days later in Group F.

“The problem has been with us for a long time,” Loew said after Germany’s lack of finishing was again an issue Wednesday. “We create a variety of opportunities, but we don’t reward ourselves. We have to work on that.”

Loew has praised Havertz, who showed his “enormous quality” with the goal which decided Chelsea’s win in the Champions League final. The 21-year-old attacking midfielder gives an extra option up front, while City’s top-scorer Gundogan is a potent attacking threat in central midfield.

However, Werner joins the camp having often strug-gled to take his chances this season, yet Germany’s lack of finishing also remains an issue. Apart from the opening goal by Borussia Moencheng-ladbach midfielder Florian Neuhaus midweek, Serge Gnabry and Joshua Kimmich could both only hit the cross-bar. Loew expects to have his full squad together for the first time Friday and admits there is plenty to do before Monday’s final warm-up friendly against Latvia.

Germany must tighten their three-man defence in order to contain France’s star-studded attack led by Kylian Mbappe, who scored in a 3-0 friendly win over ten-man Wales. “We have to put in a few intensive sessions before the Latvia game,” said Loew. “We can also work on communication on the pitch,” he added.

Premier League quartet set to

boost misfi ring Germany

FOOTBALL4 Gulf Times

Friday, June 4, 2021

England’s defender Trent Alexander-Arnold (left) leaves the pitch injured during the friendly match against Austria in Middlesbrough, north-east England. (Reuters)

France’s Ousmane Dembele (left) celebrates with Karim Benzema after scoring during the friendly match against Wales at the Allianz Riviera Stadium in Nice, southern France. (AFP)

SPORT5Gulf Times

Friday, June 4, 2021

Sixers, Hawks and Jazz advance

Dodgers score 11 runs in 1st to maul Cardinals

NBA

MLB

AFPLos Angeles

The Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks and Utah Jazz powered into the conference semi-fi nals of the NBA playoff s on Wednes-

day as an electrifying display from Luka Doncic took the Dallas Mavericks to the brink of a series victory.

Seth Curry’s 30-point display helped the Sixers shrug off the injury absence of Joel Embiid as the top seeds completed a 4-1 playoff series win over the Washing-ton Wizards with a 129-112 win in Phila-delphia.

The fi fth-seeded Hawks brought the New York Knicks’ season to an end with a 103-89 victory at Madison Square Gar-den to clinch the best-of-seven series 4-1 after a bruising contest. The Sixers and Hawks will now meet for a place in the Eastern Conference fi nals.

In the Western Conference, top seeds Utah outclassed the Memphis Grizzlies 126-110 to wrap up a 4-1 win in the best-of-seven series, with Donovan Mitchell’s 30-point haul steering the Jazz into the next round.

But the individual performance of the night came at the Staples Center, where Slovenian prodigy Doncic erupted for 42 points to help the Mavericks to a 105-100 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

It was the fi fth straight road victory of a roller coaster series, and leaves the Mav-ericks 3-2 ahead with two games to play.

“I played terrible at the end but we got a win and that’s all that matters,” said Doncic, who wants Dallas to replicate their away form in game six in Texas.

“We’ve got to play like we play on the road,” he said.

‘TEAM WIN’ Tim Hardaway Jr was the only other play-er to crack double fi gures for Dallas with 20 points.

The Clippers meanwhile were left ru-ing a costly late missed layup by Nicolas Batum with less than 10 seconds remain-ing which would have given them a 102-101 lead.

Instead the Mavs defence held fi rm to leave the Clippers needing to win their fi -nal two games to stay alive.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Philadelphia shrugged off the news of Joel Embiid’s knee injury to dispatch Washington.

“It was a great team win,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said afterwards.

“I just love how we played. We got down early, but no panic set in.

“They really believed they were the better team today. They played with

that kind of confi dence. It was what you would call an all hands in, team win for sure.”

After a tight fi rst half, Philadelphia pulled clear in the third period, outscor-ing the Wizards 38-31.

Another burst of scoring midway through the fourth period sealed the con-test, with Curry, Ben Simmons and Tobi-as Harris scoring six unanswered points to put Philadelphia 118-100 ahead with just under six minutes to play.

YOUNG SINKS KNICKSHarris fi nished with 28 points while Sim-mons completed a triple double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. Dwight Howard, Tyrese Maxey and Fur-kan Korkmaz also made double fi gures. Rivers reserved praise for Simmons’ per-formance. “I keep saying it – stick with him, he’s a hell of a player,” Rivers said. “He just does so much for the team, he re-ally does.”

Bradley Beal led the Wizards scoring with 32 points while Russell Westbrook was unable to add another triple double to his season tally, falling just short with 24 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

In New York, Trae Young delivered a 36-point masterclass for Atlanta in an ill-tempered victory at the Garden.

Players from both sides scuffl ed as they left the court at half-time in a game pep-pered with technical fouls.

Young led the Atlanta scorers with sup-port from De’Andre Hunter (15 points) and John Collins (13). Clint Capela weighed in with 14 points and 15 rebounds.

Julius Randle led the Knicks scor-ing with 23 points while RJ Barrett had 17 points. In Utah, the Jazz proved too strong for Memphis, with Jordan Clark-son (24 points) and Rudy Gobert (23) backing Mitchell.

Utah will face either the Mavericks

or the Clippers in the conference semi-fi nals.

PLAYOFFS RESULTS (all series best-of-seven)Eastern ConferenceWashington Wizards 112 Philadelphia 76ers 129(Philadelphia wins series 4-1)Atlanta Hawks 103 New York Knicks 89(Atlanta wins series 4-1)Western ConferenceMemphis Grizzlies 110 Utah Jazz 126(Utah wins series 4-1)Dallas Mavericks 105 Los Angeles Clip-pers 100(Dallas leads series 3-2)

ReutersMontreal

Cody Bellinger had a grand slam and six RBIs during an 11-run fi rst inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers rolled to a 14-3 victory at home Wednesday against the

St Louis Cardinals.The Dodgers sent 14 batters to the plate in the

inning and didn’t make their fi rst out until No 9 hitter Walker Buehler struck out. Los Angeles had scored six times by then.

It was the most runs in any inning for the Dodgers since moving to Los Angeles in 1958 and the largest inning since the Brooklyn Dodg-ers scored 15 in one frame in 1952. The Dodgers scored 11 runs in the fi rst inning of Game 3 in the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves last season.

Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez (3-5) re-corded just two outs, giving up 10 runs on six hits with four walks and one strikeout. The out-ing set a Dodger Stadium record for most runs allowed by a starter in less than a full inning of work. The Cardinals actually held a 1-0 lead on a Paul Goldschmidt home run three batters into the game. It was Goldschmidt’s seventh of the season and 33rd all-time against the Dodgers.

Justin Turner drove in the Dodgers’ fi rst run in the opening inning on a single and Bellinger fol-lowed with a two-run single to give the Dodgers the lead for good.

Gavin Lux had an RBI single for a 4-1 lead and Zach McKinstry’s two-run single made it 6-1. After Buehler struck out, Mookie Betts singled for a 7-1 lead. Bellinger’s grand slam, just over the wall in right, made it 11-1. It was the fi rst home run of the season for Bellinger, who spent

46 days on the injured list with a hairline frac-ture in his lower left leg.

Buehler (4-0) gave up three runs on seven hits over six innings, with two walks and eight

strikeouts. In addition to Goldschmidt’s home run, Dylan Carlson also went deep off Buehler for his sixth of the season. The Dodgers took two of three against the Cardinals and went 3-4 on

their just-completed homestand. The Cardinals went 5-5 on a 10-gam.

MANAEA PITCHES CG SHUTOUT OVER MARINERS

Sean Manaea pitched a four-hit shutout as the Oakland Athletics defeated the host Seattle Mariners 6-0 Wednesday night. Mitch More-land homered for the A’s, who won the fi nal two games of the series after dropping the opener.

Manaea (4-2), a left-hander, walked two and struck out eight in his second career nine-in-ning complete game. The other came on April 21, 2018, when he no-hit the Boston Red Sox.

Mariners right-hander Chris Flexen (5-3) gave up fi ve runs on seven hits in six innings, with one walk and three strikeouts. Flexen re-tired the side in order in the fi rst two innings be-fore running into trouble in the third, when the A’s scored fi ve runs. Matt Chapman led off the inning by drawing a walk. An out later, Elvis An-drus fouled off several pitches before doubling down the left-fi eld line. Mark Canha lined the next pitch into center fi eld for a two-run single. Canha advanced to second on a groundout and scored on Matt Olson’s line-drive single up the middle.

Moreland then hit a 1-0 pitch halfway up the batter’s eye in center fi eld for a two-run homer to make it 5-0. The ball traveled an estimated 444 feet, according to Statcast. Manaea didn’t allow a hit until Mitch Haniger’s hard one-hop-per up the middle to lead off the fourth, with the ball going off the end of second baseman Jed Lowrie’s glove as he was shifted to the left side of the base. The Mariners loaded the bases in the fi fth on singles by Tom Murphy and Jack May-fi eld and a walk to Jake Fraley, but Manaea got J.P. Crawford to ground out to second to end the

threat. The only other runner the Mariners put on base came on Mayfi eld’s ground-ball single to left leading off the eighth. Fraley hit a broken-bat grounder to second and was thrown out, but fi rst baseman Olson saw that Mayfi eld had rounded second and threw to shortstop Andrus to complete the 4-3-6 double play.

Anthony Rizzo snapped a 1-1 tie with a two-run double in the fi fth and Javier Baez rocketed a two-run homer two innings later to lead Chi-cago to a win and a three-game sweep of visit-ing San Diego. The game featured Padres left fi elder Tommy Pham and shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, who knocked in the Padres’ only run on a fourth-inning single, both leaving early after a scary collision in short left fi eld in the bottom of the fourth.

Cubs starter Adbert Alzolay (4-4) got the win, allowing a run on three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in fi ve innings. Padres starter Dinelson Lamet gave up a run on four hits and a walk with six strikeouts in four innings.

‘We’ve got to play like we play on the road’

Philadelphia 76ers guard Seth Curry drives for a shot against Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal (left) and center Daniel Gaff ord during the first quarter in game five of the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoff s at Wells Fargo Center. (USA TODAY Sports)

Rantanen tallies overtime winner, Avs take 2-0 series leadReutersSan Diego

Mikko Rantanen scored at 2:07 of overtime and the Colorado Avalanche

beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in Game 2 of the West Divi-sion fi nal in Denver on Wednes-day night.

Tyson Jost and Brandon Saad also scored goals, Samuel Girard had two assists and Philipp Gru-bauer stopped 39 shots for the Avalanche, who lead the series 2-0.

Colorado is the third Presi-dent’s Trophy winner to start a postseason 6-0. The 1994 New York Rangers and the 1999 Dal-las Stars both did it on their way to winning the Stanley Cup.

Alec Martinez and Reilly Smith had goals, Shea Theod-ore added two assists and Marc Andre-Fleury had 22 saves for the Knights.

Game 3 is today night in Las Vegas.

The Avalanche got a power play 44 seconds into over-time when Smith was called for slashing. Nate MacKinnon had

the puck on the left side of the Knights’ zone and sent a pass across to Rantanen. His snap shot went off Fleury’s left shoul-der and in for his third goal of the playoff s.

Saad gave Colorado a 1-0 lead when his whiff ed shot crossed up Fleury and went through his pads at 3:39 of the fi rst. It was Saad’s fi fth goal of the playoff s.

The Knights got even on a power play midway through the fi rst. Max Pacioretty had the puck near the left circle and sent a pass to Martinez at the op-posite circle, and his one-timer beat Grubauer at 9:32. It was Martinez’s second of the posts-eason.

The Avalanche made it 2-1 on a power play when Jost got a pass from Girard in the slot and beat Fleury at 17:08. It was his second goal of the postseason.

Smith tied it in the second pe-riod when he roofed a backhand-er past Grubauer at 10:28 for his second of the playoff s.

Both teams had chances in the third period, with the best com-ing when Alex Tuch came out of the penalty box and went in alone on net, but Grubauer made a glove save to keep it 2-2.

NHL

RESULTS

Dodgers 14-3 Cardinals

Athletics 6-0 Mariners

Cubs 6-1 Padres

Mets 7-6 D’Backs

Orioles 6-3 Twins

Yankees 4-3 Rays

Nationals 5-3 Braves

Blue Jays 6-5 Marlins

Astros 2-1 Red Sox

Rockies 6-3 Rangers

Mikko Rantanen of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates after scoring the winning goal against the Vegas Golden Knights during overtime in Game Two of the Second Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoff s at Ball Arena on June 2, 2021 in Denver, Colorado. (Getty Images/AFP)

Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Cody Bellinger follows through on a two-RBI single during the first inning as St Louis Cardinals catcher Andrew Knizner looks on. (USA TODAY Sports)

Ireland coach Farrell to join up with Lions for Springbok series

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell is to be part of the British & Irish Lions coaching team for a third time and will join up after the Irish play two Tests in July. The 46-year-old Englishman will oversee Ireland’s two home Tests against Japan and the United States (July 4/10) and then join up with Warren Gatland’s squad at least a week ahead of the first Test (July 24) with world champions South Africa. He had originally ruled himself out of contention for the tour due to the Irish being scheduled to play a Test series in Fiji, but that was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Farrell was defence coach on the past two Lions tours under Gatland – the series win over Australia (2013) and the epic drawn one with then-world champions New Zealand in 2017. “We were always happy to do that, Warren was always happy to have Andy there,” said David Nucifora, Irish rugby Football Union performance director, on permitting Farrell to join the Lions. “It’s good for Andy, it’s good for our players that are on the Lions tour.” Farrell guided Ireland to third place in last season’s Six Nations, ending it with three successive victories including an away win over Scotland and an impressive 32-18 home victory over England. Farrell is not the only national head coach to be in Gatland’s team with Scotland’s Gregor Townsend filling the role of attack coach. (Reuters)

SPORTGulf Times Friday, June 4, 20216

Ricciardo ready to get his train back on track

New Zealand’s Conway hits debut double centuryBURNS-ROOT STAND FOR ENGLAND KEEPS TEST EVENLY BALANCED

MOTORSPORT

CRICKET

AFPLondon

New Zealand’s Devon Conway made exactly 200 on his Test debut before England captain

Joe Root helped the hosts re-cover from a top-order collapse on the second day of the series opener at Lord’s yesterday.

Opening batsman Conway was last man out in a fi rst-in-nings total of 378. England, who slumped to 18-2, ended the day on 111-2, a defi cit of 267 runs.

Burns was 59 not out and Root unbeaten on 42, with their part-nership worth 93 runs.

Earlier, South Africa-born left-hander Conway was in sight of becoming the very fi rst bats-man in the 144-year history of Test cricket to carry their bat throughout the entire innings in their fi rst knock in the format when he was run out to end a stay of more than nine-and-a-half hours.

Nevertheless, it needed a re-view of a close call before it was confi rmed Root had taken the bails off in time.

Even so, Conway was only the seventh batsman to make a dou-ble hundred on Test debut.

He faced 347 balls, with 22 fours and went to 200 in style when he hooked fast bowler Mark Wood for the only six of his innings.

New Zealand No 11 Neil Wag-ner, also born in South Africa, made 25 not out off 21 balls that included a superb straight six off Stuart Broad during an en-tertaining last-wicket stand of 40.

Sussex paceman Ollie Rob-inson, like Conway making his Test debut, led England’s attack with four wickets for 75 runs in 28 overs.

But New Zealand, who face India in the inaugural World Test Championship fi nal at South-ampton later this month, then struck twice despite being with-out left-arm spearhead Trent Boult, who had been on family leave following a stint in the In-dian Premier League.

Towering paceman Kyle Jamieson had Dom Sibley lbw for a duck with a ball that straight-ened the decision upheld on ‘umpire’s call’ after a review.

But there was no room for doubt when Zak Crawley was caught behind off Tim Southee for two.

Burns and Root, however, then held fi rm in an often at-tritional stand, although left-

hander Burns did go to fi fty in 90 balls. New Zealand resumed on 246-3, with Conway 136 not out after Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson had won the toss.

But they lost four wickets for just six runs as they slumped

from 288-3 to 294-7, with Mark Wood, the fastest member of England’s pace quartet, insti-gating a collapse.

Conway shared a fourth-wicket stand of 174 with Henry Nicholls before his fellow left-

hander was caught holed out to long leg off Wood for 61 by Eng-land debutant Ollie Robinson.

It was a welcome moment for Robinson, who found himself having to apologise after play on Wednesday when racist and sex-

ist tweets he had fi rst posted as a teenager were published again. Wood then removed BJ Watling for just one, with the aid of a sharp slip catch by Sibley.

Fellow seamer Robinson, who took two wickets on Wednesday, then had Colin de Grandhomme lbw for nought on review, with Mitchell Santner also out for a duck when he chipped Wood to mid-off .

Robinson, however, was de-prived of a place on the Lord’s honours board when Broad dropped Southee at mid-off to deny him a fi fth wicket.

England batting coach Gra-ham Thorpe said on BBC: “We said yesterday that, although we only picked up three wickets, we never let them get away. We knew if we made inroads today we could come back in. To bowl New Zealand out from where we were at the start of the day, we’re really pleased.”

ReutersLondon

Daniel Ricciardo said he had complete faith in his ability to deliver and was ready to put the

‘train’ back on track after a tricky start to the Formula One season since switching to McLaren.

Speaking to reporters at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix yesterday, the Australian said he knew the situation would come good.

“It’s not something that I have any self-doubt. I know deep in-side me what I’m capable of and I know if I was driving with an ele-ment of fear or hesitation then I would know that this sport’s not for me any more,” he added.

“But it’s very much not the case. I know it’s just about putting it together now. “I know that once it clicks and it becomes right, people will all of a sudden be back on the Ricciardo train. If you jumped off , it’s OK. It’s still going to go forward. There’s tick-ets still to be sold, I’ll let you back

on.” The Australian has seven grand prix wins to his credit, all with Red Bull between 2014-18, and is in his 11th season in the sport as one of the highest-paid drivers.

Yet the 31-year-old, a winner in Baku in 2017, has scored only 24 points compared to 21-year-old British teammate Lando Nor-ris’s 56. Norris has been on the podium twice in fi ve races and is third overall, while Ricciardo is eighth and has not fi nished high-er than sixth.

“I did spend a good few days on the simulator last week and it was really just trying to take a step back and understand what’s going on and how the car works and what needs to be done to get the car working well,” said Ric-ciardo. “We just tried lots of dif-ferent things, even things that don’t feel correct... just played around a lot. Certainly some things now do seem more clear to me and I think it was really pro-ductive to do that. “So I am just looking forward to putting that in play now on track.”

Thomas stuns peloton with Criterium du Dauphine stage winAFPSaint-Vallier, France

A surprise break a kilo-metre from the line saw Geraint Thomas open a gap and just hold on to

win stage fi ve of the Criterium du Dauphine yesterday.

The Welshman won the race in 2018 before going on to clinch the Tour de France that year.

His daring tactic this time around saw him earn 10 bonus seconds and climb to sixth over-all, 14 seconds off the lead.

The move sits well with the ‘cycling with a smile’ philosophy Ineos principal Dave Brailsford is touting and with which the team recently won the Giro d’Italia twice in succession.

Bora-Hansgrohe’s Austrian Lukas Poestlberger of retains the race leader’s yellow jersey, but with three mountain stages remaining he will likely wear it for a fi nal time Friday. “It wasn’t planned,” Thomas insisted of his break after edging sprinter Son-ny Colbrelli to the line.

“I knew it was all lined out and the last bit was a little twisty and just said: ‘Sod it, just go for it’,” said former Olympic and world team pursuit Thomas.

Coming into a corner a kilo-metre out and leading the pack Ineos rider Michal Kwiatkowski slowed to allow Thomas to open a small gap that he held but al-most lost at the last gasp.

“To be honest I didn’t think I had it on the line,” Thomas said. “Man, Colbrelli passed so fast he nearly took my arm off .”

After his third second place fi nish Colbrelli congratulated Thomas but complained about his own luck.

“Second again,” he said.

“Thomas went at the right mo-ment, bravo to the winner.”

The 35-year-old Thomas adds this stage win to the Tour of Ro-mandy he won this season. It is the fi rst time that he crossed the line at the front of the pack since stage 12 of the 2018 Tour at the iconic Alpe d’Huez.

“The real test will come in the mountains,” Thomas said, with a hilltop fi nish on Friday and major mountain slogs on Saturday and Sunday. Former Ineos star Chris Froome dropped another three minutes yesterday and is now 8min 46sec off the lead. Friday’s sixth stage takes in four mountains in the fi nal 50km of a 167.2km run from Loriol-sur-Drome to Le Sap-pey-en-Chartreuse.

CYCLING

Tsunoda says Red Bull asked him to move to Italy

Formula One rookie Yuki Tsunoda has moved from Britain to Italy so he can be closer to his Red Bull-owned AlphaTauri team and improve.The 21-year-old Japanese told reporters at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Thursday that the switch was suggested by his unhappy employers two weeks ago after he crashed in second practice in Monaco.“They decided for me to move to Italy, to have more chats with the en-gineers and to go also to the factory and have more opportunity to talk about the car,” said Tsunoda.“Actually I was asking Red Bull from the beginning of the season if it was possible to go and move to Italy but they said at first no,” added the rookie, who had been based at Milton Keynes near the main Red Bull fac-tory. “Now I can go to Italy and spend more time with the team so that’s positive for me. And generally I like more Italy. The food is nice and the weather is much nicer.”Tsunoda said he flew direct from

Monaco to the Faenza factory and the first day had been busy, with team boss Franz Tost drawing up a schedule of activities. “From nine o’clock – gym session until 11, which I never had (before).“Eleven to 12.30 was an engineer meeting and lunch and having also an English lesson because my English is not perfect. Three to 4.30 is again engineer meeting and 4.30 to six is a big gym session.“I didn’t enjoy last week, but it is what it is... the gym session is timed much longer than usual. Hopefully I won’t be like a body-builder by the end of the year but we’ll see.”Tsunoda was acclaimed as the best rookie in years when he finished ninth on his debut in Bahrain but his form has slipped since. He has not scored since the race at Sakhir, with a best finish of 12th in the four rounds since the season opener. He has not raced previously in Azerbaijan, with last year’s Formula Two race can-celled due to the pandemic. (Reuters)

New Zealand’s Devon Conway celebrates reaching his double century against England on the day two of the First Test at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London yesterday. (Reuters)

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo addressing the media in Baku, Azerbaijan, yesterday. (Reuters)

RESULTSStage1. Geraint Thomas (GBR/Ineos) 4hr 02min 15sec, 2. Sonny Colbrelli (ITA/BAH) same time, 3. Alex Aranburu (ESP/AST) s.t., 4. Carlos Barbero (ESP/QHU) s.t., 5. Mads Schmidt (DEN/ISR) s.t., 6. Michael Valgren (DEN/EF1) s.t., 7. Patrick Konrad (AUT/BOR) s.t., 8. Alejandro Valverde (ESP/MOV) s.t., 9. Harry Sweeny (AUS/LOT) s.t., 10. Franck Bonnamour (FRA/ARK) s.t.Overall standings1. Lukas Postlberger (AUT/Bora) 16hrs 59min 22sec, 2. Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ/AST) at 01sec, 3. Kasper Asgreen (DEN/DEC) 06, 4. Ion Izagirre (ESP/AST) 09, 5. Wilco Kelder-man (NED/BOR) 13, 6. Geraint Thomas (GBR/INE) 14, 7. Ilan Van Wilder (BEL/DSM) 14, 8. Richie Porte (AUS/INE) 16, 9. Patrick Konrad (AUT/BOR) 32, 10. Ben O’Connor (AUS/AG2) 34

NEW ZEALAND 1st innings (overnight: 246-3)

T. Latham b Robinson 23

D. Conway run out (Pope/Root) 200

K. Williamson b Anderson 13

R. Taylor lbw b Robinson 14

H. Nicholls c Robinson b Wood 61

BJ Watling c Sibley b Wood 1

C. de Grandhomme lbw b Robin-son 0

M. Santner c Anderson b Wood 0

K. Jamieson c Crawley b Robinson 9

T. Southee c Bracey b Anderson 8

N. Wagner not out 25

Extras (b7, lb15, nb2) 24

Total (all out, 122.4 overs, 577 mins) 378

Fall of wickets: 1-58 (Latham), 2-86 (Williamson), 3-114 (Taylor), 4-288 (Nicholls), 5-292 (Watling), 6-293 (de Grandhomme), 7-294 (Santner), 8-317 (Jamieson), 9-338 (Southee), 10-378 (Conway)

Bowling: Anderson 28-7-83-2; Broad 27-5-79-0; Robinson 28-6-75-4 (2nb); Wood 27-8-81-3; Root 12.4-1-38-0

ENGLAND 1st innings

R. Burns not out 59

D. Sibley lbw b Jamieson 0

Z. Crawley c Watling b Southee 2

J. Root not out 42

Extras (b2, lb1, nb5) 8

Total (2 wkts, 43 overs, 199 mins) 111

Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Sibley), 2-18 (Crawley)

Bowling: Southee 11-4-17-1; Jamieson 10-4-29-1 (1nb); De Grandhomme 9-3-12-0; Wagner 10-1-36-0 (3nb); Santner 3-1-14-0 (1nb)

SCORECARD

PSL to be completed in Abu Dhabi in JuneReutersLahore

The remainder of the 2021 Pakistan Super League (PSL) will be played at the Sheikh Zayed Sta-

dium in Abu Dhabi from June 9, with the fi nal set for June 24, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said yesterday.

The sixth edition of the tour-nament was suspended in March after 14 games, after seven in-dividuals, including six players, tested positive for Covid-19.

Karachi’s National Stadium had previously been identifi ed as a possible venue for the remain-ing games.

“There was a consensus be-tween the PCB and the fran-chises that it was imperative to complete the remaining matches in 2021 so that we have a clean 2022 for Pakistan Super Leagu (season) 7,” PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said in a statement.

“Our priority was always to deliver the complete tournament in Pakistan. However, due to ex-tenuating circumstances we had to shift from that thinking for the remaining matches,” Khan added.

The move follows the Indian cricket board’s decision to com-plete this year’s Indian Premier League in the United Arab Emir-ates after a devastating second wave of Covid-19 in India sus-pended the tournament last month.

The PSL will resume with La-hore Qalandars taking on Islam-abad United in the 15th game of the tournament.

The PCB, in consultation with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), also agreed to de-lay the departure of the Pakistan players and support personnel from Abu Dhabi to June 25, ahead of their white-ball tour starting on July 8.

Pakistan are set to play three one-day internationals and three T20s in England in July.

FOCUS

SPORT7Gulf Times

Friday, June 4, 2021

Al Shaqab Racing’s January wins Prix Carling at Saint-CloudHORSE RACING

AgenciesParis, France

The four-year-old fi l-ly January, trained by André Fabre in the Al Shaqab Racing silks, put

her fi rst win on the board in the Prix Carling at Saint-Cloud on Wednesday evening.

Ridden by Augustin Madamet in this 2,000m Class 2 handicap for four-year-olds and older, January was slow away from the starting stalls, but was quickly encouraged forward by her jock-ey from her wide draw to take up the running after just 300m.

Once in front, ears pricked, she set a steady pace with Raja Luna on her fl anks. At the beginning of the back straight, Raja Luna moved to the lead, with January holding her place on the running rail. In the straight, the daughter of Siyouni was initially shut in on the rail, but her jockey sent her wide and once clear, she length-ened well to take the lead, cross-ing the line by one-and-a-half lengths in front of the fi eld for her trainer Andre Fabre.

Four Generations was the run-ner-up. She is trained by Elias Mikhalides and was ridden by Stephane Pasquier. The Yvonne Vollmer-trained and Aurelien Lemaitre-ridden Solkia fi nished further three quarters of a length behind in third.

January is the fi rst foal out of the top-class racemare Al Naamah, who also carried the Al Shaqab silks. She is by the French Champion sire Siyouni and was bred at Al Shaqab Racing’s Nor-mandy stud, the Haras de Bou-quetot.

Augustin Madamet (right) rides January to victory in Prix Carling at Saint-Cloud near Paris, France, on Wednesday. (Scoopdyga)

Qatar Racing’s Sunstrike opens her account on second startAgenciesKempton, England

In the burgundy and gold braids of Qatar Racing Limited, Sunstrike opened

her scorecard at Kempton on Wednesday evening in the Maid-en Fillies’ Stakes over 1,200m for two-year-olds. She was making just her second start for trainers John and Thady Gosden, and was partnered in the race by Qatar Racing Limited retained jockey Oisin Murphy. Sunstrike was somewhat slow into stride out of the stalls and so Murphy settled her in towards the rear. Travelling smoothly around the bend on the all-weather track, she was asked to lengthen by her jockey with 500 metres to run. They stalked the leaders in their acceleration, still three lengths off . Switched to the centre in the final 100 metres, she showed a huge burst of speed to fly to

the lead and just headed the Archie Watson-trained and Adam McNamara-ridden Blaast by a nose in a photo finish. The Saeed bin Suroor-trained and

Callum Shepherd-ridden Wild Place was a half-length further behind in third.Sunstrike is by top juvenile and sprint sire Dark Angel, who inci-

dentally also sired the winner of the Qatar Racing And Eques-trian Club Ballyogan Stakes (Group 3), Sonaiyla, at Curragh minutes later.

Oisin Murphy (second from left) rides Sunstrike to victory in the Maiden Fillies’ Stakes in Kempton, England, on Wednesday. (John Hoy)

Hamilton hails Osaka over pull-out

Bottas raised concerns over Mercedes’ pit stops before Monaco

Verstappen would rather stay in bed than walk the track

AFPBaku, Azerbaijan

Formula One world champion Lewis Ham-ilton hailed Naomi Osaka’s “bravery” for

pulling out of the French Open following her media engage-ment stand-off and criticised the way Roland Garros handled the issue.

The 23-year-old four-time Grand Slam winner quit the tournament on Monday af-ter being fi ned and threatened with disqualifi cation for refus-ing to honour mandatory media commitments, claiming they were detrimental to her mental health.

Hamilton sympathised with Osaka, drawing comparisons with how he felt as a raw rookie starting out on his motor racing career.

“The fact is that when you are young, you are thrown into the spotlight and it weighs heav-ily on you and most of us aren’t prepared,” the Mercedes driver said yesterday.

“When I got into F1, the team had PR (but) I was never pre-pared to be thrown in front of a camera, never guided as to what to look out for, helped to navi-gate through that.

“You kind of learn through mistakes and it’s incredibly nerve-racking, especially when you have all good intentions but people take advantage of it.”

Speaking in Baku ahead of this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix Hamilton added: “I think she is incredible and I applaud her for her bravery because I think it’s now asking those in power to... think about how they reacted, because I think the way they react wasn’t good.

“Someone talking about their personal mental health and then

being fi ned for it, that was not cool.

“I think they could have defi -nitely handled it better and I hope they will take a deep dive into it and fi nd a better way to navigate in the future.”

He said as athletes “we are pushing ourselves to the limit, we are on the edge and we are human beings”.

He said the Osakas of the sporting world needed support.

“Naomi didn’t feel comfort-able for her own personal health to do something and the back-lash is ridiculous.

“People are not taking into account that she is a human being and she is saying I am not well enough to do this right now.

“I think that needs to be re-ally looked into and how people react to that, rather than being supportive and uplifting to her.”

ReutersLondon, England

Valtteri Bottas said he raised concerns about Mercedes’ pit stops ahead of last month’s

Monaco Grand Prix which saw the Formula One champions fail to remove a wheel from his car, forcing the Finn’s retirement from second place.

Bottas, whose arrival in Az-erbaijan for this weekend’s sixth round of the season was delayed by travel disruption, told report-ers yesterday that what happened was not a complete surprise.

The stuck wheel was eventual-ly removed at the factory in Eng-land some 43 hours after the race.

“It was one of my concerns already a few weeks ago, that I raised with the team. It didn’t come from somewhere out of the blue,” Bottas said by video link from Finland before his fl ight to Baku.

“We knew that we are not per-fect in pit stops as we’ve seen, and also other areas like tyre warm up in qualifying. I knew coming to Monaco that it is go-ing to be an issue and it was one of the things that I’d highlighted

much before the weekend.”Bottas had been second in the

race, behind Red Bull’s eventual winner and now overall leader Max Verstappen, when the failed pitstop happened.

Team boss Toto Wolff later said the Finn had stopped slightly be-yond the pit lane markers, mak-ing it harder for the mechanic to get the correct angle to change the wheel.

Bottas said he was surprised by the comments.

“I saw the video and for me

it was pretty spot on where I stopped. Yes, I was quite sur-prised,” he said. “I think I was like 2cm or 3cm off the central line. And if you get that accuracy normally, it’s pretty good.”

The driver, who is out of con-tract at the end of the season, said it had taken him a couple of days to get over the disappoint-ment but he was now keen to get going again.

He won in Baku in 2019, the most recent race there as a result of Covid-19.

ReutersLondon, England

Red Bull’s Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen was in no hurry to get out

and inspect the Azerbaijan Grand Prix circuit yesterday, saying he would rather stay in bed.

The 23-year-old has never been on the podium in Baku but the same fact applied to Monaco until late last month, when he won the sport’s showcase race to take the overall lead before going off for dinner with Prince Albert.

Formula One drivers and their engineers walk around the track on the Thursday morning before it is closed, looking out for any changes.

Some are meticulous in seek-ing any advantage, others evi-dently less so.

“I haven’t done one since 2017,” Verstappen, who is leading for the fi rst time in his career, said in reply to a question about how much val-ue there was in doing a track walk now that teams have such sophis-ticated simulation tools.

“I can’t be asked to walk,” laughed the Dutchman. “I have a few more minutes in bed. And if I want to know the track I will drive my out-lap a bit slower, look around.”

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, ap-

pearing alongside at the briefi ng, had already explained why he felt the walk was useful.

Azerbaijan’s layout blasts along the seafront and winds around the old city on roads and streets used by ordinary traffi c. There has not been a race since 2019 due to the pandemic.

“There are things that you can’t simulate. I’ve just been around the track seeing how dirty it is at the moment. This is something you can’t really see in the simulator,” said Ocon.

“Also there are some kerbs missing at the moment, which

are diff erent, some lines which are not at the same place. There are a few things that you need to have a look to be sure because otherwise it will be a surprise once you are in the car.

“I tend to always do the track walk. Sometimes you don’t learn much, but sometimes you do and the times that you do are the ones that count,” said the Frenchman.

Verstappen thanked him for the information.

“Esteban just told me a few things about the track. I’ll brake a few metres earlier on the fi rst lap,” he said.

F1 champ sympathises with Osaka, drawing comparisons with how he felt as a rookie

TENNIS / FRENCH OPEN FORMULA 1

SPOTLIGHT

Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka. (Below) British F1 driver Lewis Hamilton. (AFP)

Japan’s Matsushima ‘feels for’ Osaka aft er French Open withdrawalAFPParis, France

Star rugby player Kotaro Matsushima said on Wednesday he sympa-

thised with fellow Japanese athlete Naomi Osaka after she pulled out of the French Open this week due to depression.World number two and four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka withdrew from Roland Garros

on Monday after she was fined $15,000 and threatened with disqualification for refusing to attend press conferences.She claimed on the eve of the tournament in Paris that post-match inquests were akin to “kicking people when they are down” and they had a detrimen-tal eff ect on her mental health.“I think it’s diff icult for her. Tennis is a big sport across the world. Everyone watches her,” Matsushima told AFP.

“Even in Japan, she has a lot of commercials and TV shows. Even in America too. I feel for her,” he added.Full-back Matsushima, who plays for French club Clermont having starred at the 2019 Rugby World Cup hosted by Ja-pan, was born in South Africa to a Japanese mother and a Zimbabwean father.Osaka, 23, is from Osaka, has a Haitian father but has lived and trained in the United States

since being a child.Matsushima said he had learnt from his experience at the Rugby World Cup on home soil two years ago.“For me, I take it seriously but sometimes it gets too much,” the 28-year-old said.“After the 2019 Rugby World Cup, a lot of media were after the Japan players. You have to let it go, don’t take it too seriously. Relax and not put pressure on yourself.”

Friday, June 4, 2021

GULF TIMES TENNIS

Sweet 16 for Djoko, Federer as Swiatek advances

‘Heartbroken’ No. 1 Barty retires injured from French Open

FRENCH OPEN

FOCUS

Teenager Alcaraz reaches his first Major third round after he beat Basilashvili

AFPParis, France

Top seed Ashleigh Barty said it was “heartbreaking” to retire injured midway through the second set of her French Open

second-round match against Poland’s Magda Linette yesterday.

The Australian, who won the title on her last visit to Roland Garros in 2019, left the court for medical treatment af-ter losing the fi rst set 6-1.

She had struggled with a hip prob-lem during her fi rst-round win over Bernarda Pera on Tuesday and called it quits at 2-2 in the second set on Court Philippe Chatrier yesterday.

Barty also retired injured from the Italian Open during her quarter-fi nal against Coco Gauff last month.

“It’s heartbreaking,” admitted the 25-year-old, who said she suff ered the “new” injury in practice last weekend.

“We have had such a brilliant clay-court season, and to kind of get a lit-tle bit unlucky with timing more than anything — to have something kind of acute happen over the weekend and just kind of run out of time against the clock is disappointing.

“It won’t take away the brilliant three months that we have had, as much as it

hurts right now.”It is Barty’s earliest exit from a Grand

Slam tournament since a second-round loss at Roland Garros in 2018.

She missed the majority of last sea-son, including her French Open title defence, due to the Covid-19 pan-demic, but had been in strong form in 2021.

Barty has won three titles this year, including on clay in Stuttgart, and lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the Madrid Open fi nal.

“We have had an exceptional last two, two-and-a-half, three months, a little bit of a setback, and what hap-pened today and this week here in Paris won’t take away from that,” she said.

“It’s disappointing to end like this. I’ve had my fair share of tears this week. It’s all good. Everything happens for a reason.

“There will be a silver lining in this eventually. Once I fi nd out what that is, it’ll make me feel a little bit better.”

Barty will now turn her attentions to getting fi t in time for Wimbledon, which starts on June 28.

“I hope so. I really do,” she said on her chances of being ready for the grass-court Grand Slam, which was cancelled last year.

“We do all the right things now, we continue to do the right things. Give

ourselves the best chance.”Unseeded Linette will face Tunisian

25th seed Ons Jabeur in the last 32.

WIDE OPEN WOMEN’S DRAWBarty’s withdrawal leaves the tourna-ment already without the world’s top three-ranked women’s players.

World number two Naomi Osaka stunned the sport by pulling out fol-lowing a media boycott, saying she has suff ered “bouts of depression” for three years.

Third-ranked Simona Halep, the 2018 French Open winner, withdrew before the event with injury.

That leaves world number four Sabalenka as the top remaining player in the draw, despite the Belarusian never having reached a Grand Slam quarter-fi nal.

The world’s top three will not be the only notable absentees from the third round, with injury-plagued former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu having fallen at the fi rst hurdle.

The draw has opened up for the likes of reigning champion Iga Swiatek and history-chasing Serena Williams.

The 39-year-old Williams, still look-ing to equal Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Slam titles, is the second-highest seeded player left in her half of the draw behind Sabalenka.

Australia’s Ashleigh Barty is treated by medical staff during her French Open second round match against Poland’s Magda Linette (not pictured) at Roland Garros in Paris, France, yesterday. (AFP)

AFPParis, France

Novak Djokovic and Rog-er Federer both reached the French Open third round for the 16th time

yesterday as women’s defending champion Iga Swiatek wasted no time sent out an ominous message to her title rivals with a crushing 6-1 6-1 defeat of Re-becca Peterson.

Top seed Djokovic continued his bid for a second Roland Gar-ros and 19th Grand Slam title with a straight-sets win over Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas.

The 34-year-old, who is look-ing to become the fi rst man in more than 50 years to claim all four Slams multiple times, won 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

“I stayed concentrated. I thought the third set was very diffi cult for me because he lifted the level of his game,” said the world number one after his 350th Grand Slam match in which he fi red 32 winners.

“I’m playing well, feeling great. I’m ready to go deep in this tournament. Hopefully that’s go-ing to be the case, but I’ll take it match by match, and so far the two matches that I have played have been played on a high qual-ity.”

Djokovic will next face Lithua-nian Ricardas Berankis.

Federer stayed on course for a quarter-fi nal showdown with Djokovic but only after becoming entangled in a rare running dis-pute with the chair umpire.

The 20-time major winner and 2009 champion in Paris saw off Marin Cilic for the 10th time in 11 meetings, winning 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2.

Federer was handed a time violation by umpire Emmanuel Joseph at 1-3 down in the second set for taking too long between points.

“I don’t even dare to go my towel anymore,” he said to Joseph.

Federer, the oldest man in the draw at 39, continued to lose his cool and the set before recovering to defeat former world number three Cilic.

“I had very good moments, in the tie-break in particular, and I served really well to fi nish,” said Federer after hitting 47 winners.

Playing in only his second French Open since 2015, Federer goes on to face Germany’s 59th-ranked Dominik Koepfer.

Swiatek needed only 61 min-utes to overwhelm Peterson, the only Swede in the women’s draw.

The 20-year-old, who took Roland Garros by storm last Oc-tober to become the fi rst Polish player to win a Grand Slam sin-gles title, led 5-0 in both sets in a dominant display.

Even a dip in temperature on Court Simonne-Mathieu and

some drops of rain could not slow down Swiatek’s onslaught as she set up a clash with 30th seed Anett Kontaveit who as equally impressing in thrashing Kristina Mladenovic.

Gael Monfi ls’ 6-0, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 defeat by Mikel Ymer means 17 of 18 Frenchmen who started the event are out of the tourna-ment, with Richard Gasquet, who was scheduled to play Ra-fael Nadal later yesterday, the last hope for the hosts.

Elsewhere yesterday, fourth seed Sofi a Kenin, the 2020 run-ner-up, saw off American com-patriot Hailey Baptiste 7-5, 6-3.

Three-time quarter-fi nalist and fi fth seed Elina Svitolina was similarly untroubled against Ann Li of the United States, winning 6-0, 6-4.

However, ninth seed Karolina Pliskova exited at the hands of 2018 runner-up Sloane Stephens as the 59th-ranked American won 7-5, 6-1.

ALCARAZ RECORDCarlos Alcaraz, 18, on Monday became the youngest player to win a match at Roland Garros since Djokovic in 2005.

Yesterday, he reached his fi rst Grand Slam third round when he beat Georgian 28th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4 6-2 6-4, in the process becoming the youngest man to reach the French Open last 32 since Andrei Medvedev in 1992.

With a self-confi dence belying his 18 years of age, Alcaraz pep-pered Court 14 with 27 winners in a one-sided encounter.

World number 97 Alcaraz, the youngest player in the top 100 of the ATP rankings, reached the second round of a major at the Australian Open earlier this year.

Coached by 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz will be looking to further improve his Grand Slam record when he faces German Jan-Len-

nard Struff tomorrow.Late on Wednesday, Daniil

Medvedev bounced back from losing the fi rst set to ease to vic-tory over American Tommy Paul and book a spot in the French Open third round for the fi rst time.

The Russian second seed, who had lost in the opening round on each of his four previous visits to Roland Garros, impressed after a sloppy opening set, winning 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.

The 25-year-old missed two match points when he served for the match at 5-2 in the fourth set, but he broke Paul to love in the following game.

Medvedev, a two-time Grand Slam runner-up, has won all of his 10 ATP titles on hard courts but has got to grips with the Pa-risian clay better so far this week.

The world number two will take on another US player, 32nd seed Reilly Opelka, for a last-16 place.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns the ball to Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas during their French Open second round match at Roland Garros in Paris, France, yesterday. (AFP)

Poland’s Iga Swiatek returns the ball to Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson (not pictured) during their French Open second round match at Roland Garros in Paris, France, yesterday. (AFP)

Switzerland’s Roger Federer argues with the umpire Emmanuel Joseph during the French Open second round match against Croatia’s Marin Cilic (not pictured) at Roland Garros in Paris, France, yesterday. (AFP)

Men’s doubles team removed from French Open aft er positive Covid test

AFPParis, France

French Open organisers said Wednesday that a men’s doubles team had

tested positive for Covid-19 and been removed from the tournament.The two players were not named by organisers.“The Roland Garros tourna-ment organisers confirm that two players from the men’s doubles draw, on the same team, have tested positive for Covid-19,” a statement said late

Wednesday.“In line with the tournament’s public health and safety proto-col, the pair have been removed from the draw and the two play-ers placed in quarantine. “They will be replaced by the first team on the alternate list.”Organisers said that since the start of qualifying for the Grand Slam on May 24, there had been 2,446 tests performed on players and their teams.“This is the first occurrence in which the tournament organis-ers must remove players, in accordance with their health protocol,” they added.