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Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Sha’baan 19, 1440 AH
GULF TIMES
SPORT
ASIAN ATHLETICS
Chinese women win relay
gold with world leading time
The quartet of Liang Xiaojing, Wei Yongli, Kong
Lingwei and Ge Manqi were driven by purpose,
having lost to Bahrain at the 2018 Asian Games
By Mikhil Bhat
Doha
C
hinese women com-
bined for a sizzling
championship record
and world leading time
of 42.87 seconds in the 4x100m
relay, even as 4x400m mixed
relay saw a thrilling debut at the
Asian Athletics Championships
at the Khalifa International Sta-
dium yesterday.
The quartet of Liang Xiao-
jing, Wei Yongli, Kong Lingwei
and Ge Manqi were driven by
purpose, having lost to Bahrain
at the 2018 Asian Games by a
whisker.
Yesterday, with smooth ba-
ton changes and some blistering
speed, they stepped on to the
top podium together for what
was China’s second gold of the
day.
“We wanted badly to win to-
day, because at the previous
Championships we lost to Bah-
rain. We had a very good race
with smooth baton changes. We
can run faster though and reach
the final at the World Champi-
onships in Doha later this year,”
said China’s Xiaojing.
A few minutes later, even
though the Chinese men went
past the finish line first, they
were later disqualified for lane
infringement, handing Thai-
land, who had run a champion-
ship record in the heats the day
before, a victory in a time of
38.99 seconds.
The disqualification also
meant that Oman won their first
medal of the championships af-
ter they were upgraded to bronze
Athletes make a splash during the women’s steeplechase. At right, the Indian quartet celebrate after finishing second in the 4x400m mixed relay.
RESULTS (ALL FINALS)
Women
3,000m Steeplechase
1. Winfred Mutile Yavi (BRN) 9:46.18
2. Shuangshuang Xu (CHN) 9:51.76
3. Tigest Mekonen (BRN) 9:53.96
Heptathlon
1. Ekaterina Vornina (UZB) 6198 pts
2. Swapna Barman (IND) 5993
3. Qingling Wang (CHN) 5829
Pole Vault
1. Ling Li (CHN) 4.61m
2. Huiqin Xu (CHN) 4.36
3. Natalierose Uy (PHI) 4.20
4x100m Relay
1. China 42.87 secs
2. Kazakhstan 43.36
3. Bahrain 43.61
Triple Jump
1. Parinya Chuaimaroeng (THA)
13.72m
2. Rui Zeng (CHN) 13.65
3. V. Heenatimullage Dona (SRI) 13.53
High Jump
1. Nadezhda Dusanova (UZB) 1.90m
2. Nadezhda Dubovitskaya (KAZ) 1.88
3. Svetlana Radzivil (UZB) 1.88
4x400m Mixed Relay
1. Bahrain 3:15.75
behind Chinese Taipei.
In the first mixed relay of the
competition, the final lap saw
Arokia Rajiv jostling for the in-
side line with Bahrain’s Abbas
Abubaker on the first bend, with
the latter taking the advantage
and finishing in a time of 3:15.75,
while India took silver in a time
of 3:16.47. The Japanese quartet
took home the bronze finishing
a little less than four seconds
Pistons to advance,
Jazz stave off
elimination
2. India 3:16.47
3. Japan 3:20.29
10,000m
1. Shitaye Habtegebrel (BRN) 3:15.62
2. Hitomi Niiya (JPN) 31:22.63
3. Sanjivani Baburao Jadhav (IND)
32:44.96
Men
4x100m Relay
1. Thailand 38.99 secs
2. Chinese Taipei 39.18
3. Oman 39.36
Decathlon
1. Keisuke Ushiro (JPN) 7872 pts
2. Majed al-Zaid (KUW) 7838
3. Akhiko Nakamura (JPN) 7837
TODAY’S FINALS
5:04pm Discus Throw (Women)
5:05pm 100m Hurdles (Women)
5:15pm 110m Hurdles (Men)
5:30pm 200m (Women)
5:36pm High Jump (Men)
5:46pm Long Jump (Men)
5:48pm 200m (Men)
6:06pm 1,500m (Women)
6:24pm 1,500m (Men)
6:50pm Hammer Throw (Men)
6:53pm 5,000m (Men)
7:30pm 4x400m (Women)
7:50pm 4x400m (Men)
later.
China’s two time pole vault
winner Li Ling won her third ti-
tle at the Asian Championships
with 4.61m effort. The 29-year-
old, who had already bagged the
gold at 4.46m, aimed for the
Asian record when she asked to
push the bar up to 2.71m, but
couldn’t clear the mark on either
of her three attempts.
“Sadly I made some techni-
Chinese women celebrate after winning the 4x100m relay gold at the Asian Athletics Championships at the Khalifa International Stadium in
Doha yesterday.
cal mistakes which I must avoid
in my next competition, which
will be the Diamond League in
Shanghai,” Li said.
In the men’s Decathlon, it
went right down to the wire,
with a single point deciding
the silver medal, even as Asian
Games champion Keishuke
Ushiro managed to hold on to his
gold in a nerve-wracking finish.
In the deciding 1,500m race,
Iraq’s Abd al-Sajjad al-Suaiha-
wi, fifth in the overall standings,
put in a blistering run, finish-
CRICKET
Watson shines in
Super Kings’ win
over Sunrisers
Page 4
ing almost seven seconds ahead
of Kuwait’s Majed al-Zaid, who
ran a 4:15.06 for his haul of 846
points. Al-Zaid’s haul wiped
out second-placed Akhiko Na-
kamura’s 36-point lead, giving
the Kuwaiti a personal best and
a national record haul of 7838
points, and taking silver by a
point. Ushiro finished fourth
in 4:42.68 for his haul of 664,
which saw his winning mar-
gin whittle down to 34, but still
good enough for a gold.
In the women’s Heptathlon,
SPOTLIGHT
Qatar’s El-Seify fires warning
shot in hammer throw
By Mikhil Bhat
Doha
Q
atar’s former double
World U20 champion
Ashraf El-Seify fired
the warning shot in
the men’s hammer-throw quali-
fying with a season’s best effort
of 74.92m at the 23rd Asian Ath-
letics Championships at Khalifa
International Stadium yester-
day.
With the qualifying mark set
at 70m, Tajik Olympic cham-
pion Dilshod Nazarov didn’t
bother with his second or the
third attempt, crossing the
mark with a 71.46m on his first
attempt.
While El-Seify fired 69m+
marks on the first two attempts,
his third was the top throw of
the day, setting a fun contest be-
tween the two, considering the
only time Nazarov has lost at a
continental level was when he
finished second to the Qatari at
the 2018 Asian Games.
former Asian champion Ekat-
erina Voronina of Uzbekistan
won the 800m run in a season’s
best time of 2:15.26, helping her
to the gold with a world lead-
ing 6198 points. The 2018 Asian
Games gold medallist Swapna
Barman had to settle for silver
with a tally of 5993, after she
finished third in the 800m be-
hind Japan’s Yuki Yamasaki.
China’s Qingling Wang took
bronze with 5829 points.
Bahrain’s Winfred Mutile Yavi
ran to her second gold of the
Qatar’s Ahmed El-Sify too
made it to today’s final round af-
ter with his second attempt was
his season’s best 65.54m.
Earlier in the day, Qatar’s Femi
Ogunode locked his spot in the
men’s 200m final with a win in
the third semi-final heat yester-
day, but left the track feeling his
left hamstring.
competition, when she ran her
season best 9:46.18 in the wom-
en’s 3000m Steeplechase. Yavi,
the Asian Games gold medallist,
had won gold in the women’s
5000m on the first day.
China Shuangshuang Xu
edged out Tigest Mekonen
(9:53.96) of Bahrain for the sil-
ver with a time of 9:51.76. Bah-
rain’s Shitaye Habtegebrel won
the women’s 10,000m gold,
ahead of Japan’s Hitomi Niiya
and India’s Sanjivani Baburao
Jadhav.
The 27-year-old, who holds
the Asian record in both the
100m and the 200m, ran the
third fastest time of the day in
the discipline at 20.63 seconds,
while the top two in the first
semi-final heat, China’s Zhenye
Xie and 2018 Asian Games win-
ner Yuki Koike of Japan posted
the two fastest times at 20.35 and
20.60 respectively.
“It didn’t go well. My left
hamstring hurts. I am not sure I
will be able to compete in the fi-
nal,” Ogunode, who was the only
athlete in the semifinal startlist
to have ever dipped under 20
seconds, said after the run.
Today’s men’s 1,500m final
will see two local heroes Muhand
Khamis Saifeldin and Musaab
Ali lining up for a shot at gold.
With Bahrain’s Mohamed
Ayoub Tiouali setting the mark
in the second heat at 3:49.14,
Saifeldin (3:49.24) finished third
behind India’s Ajay Kumar Saroj
(3:49.20) for a spot in the final,
while Ali made it through with a
time of 3:49.57.
 2 Gulf Times
Wednesday, April 24, 2019

FOOTBALL
SPOTLIGHT FOCUS

Stephanie Frappart to
Everything to become first female
referee in Ligue 1

do with Qatar is AFP

Paris

A
men’s top-flight match
in France will be ref-
ereed by a woman for
the first time this week-

stunning: Hurst end when Stephanie Frappart

takes charge of the Ligue 1 game
between Amiens and Strasbourg,
the French Football Federation
(FFF) announced yesterday.
Frappart, 35, makes the step up
having been a referee in France’s
Ligue 2 since 2014. She will also
England legend Sir Geoff Hurst speaks of excitement ahead of Qatar 2022 referee at the women’s World
Cup, which will be held in France
in June and July. Frappart previ-
ously officiated at the 2015 edi-
tion of that tournament and took
charge of the women’s under-20
World Cup final last year.
The FFF said the appointment
for Sunday’s match followed a
request from FIFA to help ref-
erees involved in the World Cup
“prepare in the best conditions”.
In a recent interview with AFP,
Frappart said she would see be-
ing appointed to a Ligue 1 game
as “an acknowledgement of my
competence.” “I don’t want to be
given top billing or put in Ligue 1
just because I am a woman,” she
added.
Germany’s Bibiana Steinhaus
became the first female referee in
one of the top European leagues
when she took charge of a Bun-
desliga match between Hertha
Berlin and Werder Bremen in
September 2017.

BUNDESLIGA

Gnabry ‘the biggest

surprise of the
Former England forward Sir Geoff Hurst (third left) poses during his visit to Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy’s Legacy Pavilion.
season’: Hoeness
AFP back here and see if he can play in

E
ngland legend Sir Geoff Hurst –
the only man to score a hat-trick
in a FIFA World Cup final – re-
everyone they’ve got to get here in 2022 – three years’ time. I’m always very confi- have got the managerial style right to get Berlin the odd game’,” said Hoeness in
it’s going to be fabulous. dent England are going to do well and I’m the team to perform – and with a fairly an interview with Kicker maga-
even more confident now with the timing young and inexperienced team, who zine. “Now he is a first-team
have played very little league football. Alf

cently visited Qatar to find out
more about preparations for the next in-
stalment of football’s premier event.
Hurst visited the Supreme Committee
for Delivery & Legacy’s Legacy Pavilion
during his stay in Doha and also found
time to tour Khalifa International Sta-
dium – the first tournament-ready venue
for Qatar 2022.
Hurst, whose treble against West
Germany at Wembley in 1966 remains
the pinnacle of English football, spoke
of how impressed he is with Qatar’s
tournament plans and of his confidence
in England’s chance to go all the way
in just over three years’ time. Excerpts
from an interview.
Q. What are your impressions of Qatar
and what do you make of the
preparations for the World Cup 2022?
My impression of everything to do with
Qatar is stunning. Everything has been
fantastic and I can’t tell you how excited I
am to be here having had a taste the plans
are for 2022. The cooling technology is
incredible. I heard yesterday in Khalifa
Stadium that you can get the temperature
down to about 19 degrees, which is amaz-
ing. The problem with any major sport-
ing event is that there’s often negativity
– there was a lot of negativity about Rus-
sia – but after the tournament everyone
I’ve met who was out there said without
question it was an absolutely stunning
World Cup.
Things have to be said from a positive
point of view prior to the World Cup hap-
pening and I’m going to be a strong voice
for that when I get back to the UK and tell
Q. Qatar 2022 will be the first FIFA
World Cup in the Arab world and only
the second in Asia. How important is
it to host the tournament in new coun-
tries and regions?
I am a strong advocate of spreading the
World Cup gospel all over the world. Eve-
rywhere in the world it can be played, it
should be played. Football is a global sport,
a global business. Seventy per cent of the
players playing in the Premier League are
from foreign countries and it means so
many people from those countries are sup-
porting football in the UK. I’ve always felt
that taking the World Cup to as many dif-
ferent countries as possible has got to be the
way forward, so this is a supreme example
of taking it somewhere new.
Q. Qatar’s World Cup will be played
in November and December 2022 – do
you think the timing of the tourna-
ment will help the England team, com-
ing as it does during the middle of the
traditional European season?
Yes I do – November is the peak of the
season for us. After starting in August,
the players will be at their peak – they
should not be tired – so I can only see a
benefit to our country. Also, the resur-
gence of our national team in the last 18
months, at the World Cup and qualifying
for the Nations League, beating Croatia
and Spain and scoring five goals a game,
it’s a really opportune time for us coming
into this tournament. If we continue to
improve and our young players get more
experience, the signs are very good. It’s a
very exciting time for our national team
and coincides with the World Cup here in
of the tournament.
Q. What do you make of England’s
recent form and the job Gareth South-
gate is doing?
It’s quite evident looking at the way
the players play, the way they talk in the
media and the way they celebrate goals
that his management style is proving very
effective. It’s something we haven’t seen
for some time [with the England national
team]. One of the most important aspects
of a sport doing well is the people at the
top – the leaders. We were very fortunate
in our time to have a great leader in Sir Alf
Ramsey – he was instrumental in pick-
ing the right players and playing the right
way. And Gareth Southgate seems to have
a knack of doing that.
What is amazingly different – and I
often state I played in medieval times
– is that what we’re seeing now is play-
ers playing for England who have hardly
kicked a ball for their Premier League
clubs, Hudson-Odoi for example. I look
back now and say retrospectively I should
have been playing for England three years
earlier, when I was scoring goals regularly
for West Ham and winning the FA Cup
and Cup Winners’ Cup. So it’s changed
dramatically, but overall, Southgate’s
managerial style and what he’s doing, and
the way they’re playing, is just fantastic.
Q. Are there any parallels between Sir
Alf Ramsey and Gareth Southgate?
None – Ramsey’s won it [the World
Cup] and Southgate’s won nothing – at
the moment. That’s the straightforward
answer. On a serious note, he seems to
Ramsey was fortunate to be able to pick
some very experienced players, what I
would call hard-nosed professional play-
ers, who to use his words, would never let
him down and were the backbone of the
team.
One of the important ingredients for all
national teams is to have that team spirit
and camaraderie during a World Cup,
when you’re away from your family and
friends. We had it in ’66 and that feeling
seems to have generated quite strongly
([in the current squad).
Q. You played in – and won – the
World Cup on home soil. What advice
would you give to the Qatari players
who will experience the tournament on
their own patch in 2022?
Enjoy the experience, because these
experiences don’t last very long. Very few
players play in the World Cup, so just be
excited about it. Give it your all, work to-
gether as a group and just enjoy the un-
believable experience of playing on home
soil in front of your own country and your
own fans. Just enjoy it.
Q. Finally, what does the World Cup
mean to you?
Professionally it’s the most unbeliev-
able experience I’ve ever had. I look back
on it with so much pride. Sometimes, in
quieter moments, I find it hard to believe
I was actually there playing in it – it’s al-
most like a dream that I was ever a part of
it. That I ever played football is a dream
to be honest, especially when you get to
my age.
F
ormer Arsenal winger
Serge Gnabry has ex-
ceeded all expectations at
Bayern Munich this sea-
son with his blistering form, club
president Uli Hoeness has said.
Gnabry has notched up 12 goals
and nine assists in all competi-
tions, establishing himself as the
undisputed successor to the de-
parting Arjen Robben and leading
Bayern’s remarkable comeback in
the Bundesliga title race.
Having signed for Bayern in
2017, Gnabry initially impressed
on a loan spell at Hoffenheim
before coming back to prove
himself in Munich this season.
Bayern president Hoeness has
admitted that the 23-year-old’s
fabulous form has caught many
by surprise, even within the club.
“We thought ‘let’s get him
regular, is great fun to watch and
is the biggest surprise of the sea-
son, in a positive sense.”
Having emerged as an exciting
young talent at Arsenal several
years ago, Gnabry’s promising
career appeared to have stalled
when he left the Gunners in 2016.
Yet he has flourished since then,
going from strength to strength
in spells at Werder Bremen, Hof-
fenheim and Bayern in the last
three years.
He has scored eight goals since
December, helping Bayern over-
turn what was a nine-point defi-
cit and overtake Borussia Dort-
mund at the top of the table.
Today, he faces former club
Bremen in the semi-finals of the
German Cup, as Bayern look to
complete a fifth domestic double
in this decade.

DEMISE

‘Lisbon Lions’ captain McNeill dies aged 79 fought bravely to the end, showing McNeill was the captain of the mourn Billy McNeill’s passing and we
AFP
London the strength and fortitude he always Celtic side under celebrated manager send our thoughts and prayers to his
has done throughout his life.” Jock Stein that dominated Scottish family and friends, while we also give
McNeill joined Celtic from jun- football in the late 1960s and the ear- thanks for Billy’s life and the incred-

F
ormer Celtic captain Billy
McNeill, the skipper of the
‘Lisbon Lions’ side that be-
came the first British team to
win the European Cup in 1967, has
died aged 79, his family announced
yesterday. McNeill, who spent the
whole of his playing career with the
Glasgow giants, also went on to man-
age Celtic.
McNeill had suffered from de-
mentia for a number of years and a
statement issued by his children on
the club’s website said: “It is with
great sadness that we announce the
death of our father Billy McNeill. He
passed away late last night (Monday,
April 22) surrounded by his fam-
In this file photo taken on August 29, 2013 former Scottish footballer Billy McNeill poses ily and loved ones. He suffered from
with the Champions League trophy in Monaco. (AFP) dementia for a number of years and
ior side Blantyre Victoria in 1957
and the defender went on to make a
club record 822 appearances for the
Hoops over 18 seasons. He also won
29 caps for Scotland. But it was ar-
guably as the captain of the Celtic
side that overcame the notoriously
defensive Inter Milan 2-1 in the 1967
European Cup final in Lisbon that he
will be best remembered.
McNeill enjoyed two spells as Celtic
manager and, in total, won 31 trophies
during his lengthy association with the
Parkhead club. “While this is a very sad
time for all the family and we know our
privacy will be respected, our father
always made time for the support-
ers so please tell his stories, sing his
songs and help us celebrate his life,” the
statement added.
ly 1970s, winning nine league titles
in a row, seven Scottish Cups and six
League Cups.
He retired as a player in 1975 but
returned to the club for two stints
as manager, from 1978-83, and
1987-91 with spells at Manchester
City and Aston Villa in between.
Even after his second term as man-
ager he retained a strong link with
Celtic, becoming a club ambas-
sador in 2009 and six years later a
statue of McNeill holding aloft the
European Cup was unveiled outside
Parkhead.
Paying tribute to McNeill, Celtic
chief executive Peter Lawwell told
the club’s website: “This is the sad-
dest of days for the Celtic family, and
also for the wider football world. “We
ible joy he brought to so many people
as a Celtic player, a Celtic manager
and a great Celtic man.”
Neil Lennon, the current Celtic
manager, added: “Billy was a brilliant
Celtic player, and a great manager,
and as a player and a fan myself, it was
always a great experience whenever I
would meet him and chat to him.”
Meanwhile McNeil’s former
team-mate Jim Craig tweeted he was
“heartbroken over the passing of my
great friend and captain Billy Mc-
Neill”.
McNeill’s managerial career also
included a stint at Manchester City
and the English side tweeted: “We
are sad to learn of the passing of
Billy McNeill who managed the Club
between 1983-86.”

PREMIER LEAGUE
Old Trafford holds no
fears for City’s Guardiola
City boast an impressive run of
five wins and a draw in their last
seven league visits to Old Trafford
AFP
Manchester, United Kingdom
M
anchester City man-
ager Pep Guardiola said
Old Trafford is no long-
er a “scary” place to
visit ahead of tonight’s derby at the
home of Manchester United. Vic-
tory for City in the Premier League
clash will keep the reigning cham-
pions on course to become the first
team in English football history to
win a treble of all three major do-
mestic trophies in the same season.
City boast an impressive run of
five wins and a draw in their last
seven league visits to Old Trafford
— a sequence that includes 6-1 and
3-0 victories. Guardiola, however,
refused to use that form guide as a
reason for confidence, although he
accepted a trip to Old Trafford was
not as daunting as in previous years.
“I don’t make theories about
what happened in the past for what
is going to happen in the future,”
Guardiola told reporters yesterday.
“Every game is completely differ-
ent. The reason why is the fact this
club in the last decade grew a lot
and it is not scary to go there. Be-
fore it was maybe more difficult.
The players Manchester City had
in the last decade made this game
a little bit more equal.”
Man City can move one point
clear of title rivals Liverpool at
the top of the table heading into
their final three games of the sea-
son with victory over United. This
latest derby takes place against the
backdrop of United’s woeful 4-0
loss away to Everton on Sunday, a
lacklustre display that was roundly
criticised.
Guardiola, however, did not ex-
pect the Goodison Park perform-
ance to have a major bearing on the
derby. “A little bit, yeah but even a
good result, the confidence will be
higher,” said Guardiola when asked
SPOTLIGHT
Chelsea up to fourth after frustrating Burnley draw
AFP
London
C
helsea accused Burnley of time-
wasting and playing “anti-foot-
ball” after Blues boss Maurizio
Sarri was sent off before a touch-
line skirmish marred their frustrating
2-2 draw on Monday night. Sarri’s side
fell behind to Jeff Hendrick’s fine finish
before N’Golo Kante equalised moments
later.
In a frantic opening 24 minutes at
Stamford Bridge, Gonzalo Higuain put
Chelsea ahead, only for Burnley’s Ashley
Barnes to punish more dismal defending
from the Blues. Without a win in their last
two league games, Chelsea will take only
slender comfort from climbing one point
above fifth placed Arsenal into fourth
place, level on points with third placed
Tottenham.
Chelsea would have gone third with a
victory, but instead they have now played
a game more than top four rivals Totten-
ham, Arsenal and Manchester United,
who are three points behind in sixth. It
was a missed opportunity after defeats
for Tottenham, Arsenal and United at the
weekend and Chelsea were booed off at
full-time. In a fitting coda to a damag-
ing evening, Sarri was sent to the stands
for protesting in the final seconds before
several members of the Blues bench were
involved in a tetchy touchline clash with
their Burnley counterparts.
Sarri’s assistant Gianfranco Zola said
his boss was so “emotional” after the
game that he couldn’t fulfil his media du-
ties. “He was very upset because he has
heard not good words towards him from
the Burnley bench. The only reason he
walked over there was to get our players
to go into position, he was trying to help
the ref,” Zola said.
Zola took a swipe at Burnley’s per-
ceived gamesmanship, which included
Clarets keeper Tom Heaton being booked
in the first half for time-wasting. “We
are unhappy. There was too much time
wasting. Five minutes injury time wasn’t
enough to compensate. We couldn’t build
important rhythm,” Zola moaned.
“We expected it to be a tough game. We
didn’t expect so much time wasting. We
expected (referee) Kevin Friend to give
more extra time. That’s why we’re very
unhappy.”
Chelsea defender David Luiz went even
if United’s defeat by Everton made
his task harder.
“It is a derby and all the times
we play against United, the derbies
are always special games and the
players do their best for the fans,
the club. I saw the game, I imagine
what will happen against us. The
game against Everton is over,” the
Catalan boss added.
City will visit Old Trafford with-
out inspirational playmaker Kevin
De Bruyne who suffered a ham-
string injury in the weekend win
over Tottenham Hotspur that came
just days after a dramatic Champi-
ons League semi-final loss to Spurs
ended hopes of a quadruple.
It is the latest problem to ham-
per the Belgian in a campaign that
has seen him plagued by knee trou-
ble and Guardiola said De Bruyne
would required a concerted training
programme ahead of next season.
“Muscular problems, he had two or
three,” recalled Guardiola. “In Eng-
land you don’t have time to make a
preparation. You play every three
days that is not the best way. You
have to make a good pre-season.
Now he has to pay attention, the lit-
tle details, see if he can play one or
two more games this season and next
season make a good pre-season.”
Meanwhile Guardiola denied
claims that winger Riyad Mahrez
— the club’s £60mn record sign-
ing from Leicester last season — is
unhappy at his lack of first-team
opportunities and keen to move
on from City. “Riyad will be with
us for the next season here and the
next one and the next one,” he said.
“I don’t need to speak with him.
He will be with us next season,” the
former Barcelona and Bayern Mu-
nich boss added. “He is a player for
us. We are delighted with him and
the way he plays. He is happy we
are here. Everyone knows the com-
petition we have here. He came last
season to stay longer. It is not nec-
essary to speak to him.”
Burnley’s Ashley Barnes (let) and Chelsea’s David Luiz go for a header during the Premier League match on Monday night. (AFP)
further in his criticism of Burnley. “It’s
anti-football. Wasting time all the time,
especially when you have the ball. Their
players went to the floor and stopped the
game,” he said.
Now Arsenal can replace Chelsea in
fourth if they avoid defeat at Wolves to-
night. “We need to improve but we’re in a
good way. We care, as we showed today,”
Zola said. Brushing off the bench-clear-
ing clash, Burnley boss Sean Dyche said:
“By the time I turned round there was
something going off in the tunnel. I don’t
know what you can call it now. Hand-
bags? Manbags? Bumbags?”
Chelsea were stunned in the eighth
minute when Hendrick’s rocket put
Burnley ahead. It was a poor goal for
Chelsea to concede as Cesar Azpilicueta
could only head a Burnley corner to the
edge of the area, where Hendrick was
left unmarked to volley a superb dipping
strike past Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Eden Hazard’s majestic assist helped
Chelsea draw level four minutes later,
underlining why the club are so keen to
keep their talisman out of Real Madrid’s
clutches. Cutting in from the left, Haz-
ard twisted and turned so rapidly that
Burnley defender Matt Lowton fell flat
on his backside as the Belgian picked out
Kante for a powerful shot that flashed
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City can move one
point clear of title rivals Liverpool at the top of the
table heading into their final three games of the
season with victory over United. (AFP)
past Heaton from 10 yards out.
Pushing forward with pace and preci-
sion, Chelsea went in front two minutes
later when Higuain turned smartly to
pick out Azpilicueta. The Chelsea de-
fender executed a deft back-heel to Hi-
guain, who continued his run and crashed
a brilliant finish into the roof of the net
from an acute angle.
But Burnley punished more poor de-
fending to equalise in the 24th minute.
With Chelsea slow to react to a Burnley
free-kick, Ben Mee’s header was glanced
on by Chris Wood and the unmarked
Barnes apply the finishing touch with a
close-range volley.
FOOTBALL
FOCUS
Champions League
qualification in
Arsenal’s hands,
says Emery
Reuters
London
A
rsenal’s hopes of fin-
ishing in the Premier
League’s top four and
qualifying for the
Champions League are still in
their own hands despite losing
ground over the weekend, man-
ager Unai Emery said yesterday.
Arsenal, who were looking to
move up to third over the week-
end, now find themselves fifth
in the table after Crystal Palace’s
3-2 win at Emirates Stadium on
Sunday. With four games to go
this season, Emery’s side are a
point behind third-placed Tot-
tenham Hotspur and fourth-
placed Chelsea, although the lat-
ter have played a game more.
“We have it in our hands,”
Emery told reporters ahead of
tonight’s trip to Wolverhampton
Wanderers. “At the beginning
of the season, after winter, we
struggled in the table. We were in
a worse position than we are now.
“Our way is not changing. We
are in our way at the end of the
season with a big possibility to
take our target. I’m still proud of
our season, knowing that the key
moments are now. Tomorrow is
a big moment, match and chal-
lenge for us.”
Emery brushed aside sugges-
tions that mid-table Wolves,
who have nothing to play for this
season, might take their foot off
the pedal. The newly-promoted
side have an impressive record
against the top six teams, picking
up 13 points so far.
“They’re going to push a lot to-
morrow,” Emery said. “I worked
one thing here very quickly, we
are playing against all of the
teams and they want to battle us,
Gulf Times
Wednesday, April 24, 2019 3
Sterling calls
for nine-point
racism penalty
London: Raheem Sterling has
called for clubs whose fans
racially abuse players to be
hit with a nine-point penalty,
saying current punishments
meant the issue was “no-
where near being sorted” by
football authorities.
The Manchester City
forward has become increas-
ingly outspoken on racism
in football, having received
abuse on the pitch while
playing for both his club and
on England duty. Recently, he
cupped his hands to his ears
in response to derogatory
chants from Montenegro fans
while playing for England last
month. Now Sterling has be-
come one of the signatories
to a manifesto published in
The Times newspaper calling
for more black, Asian and mi-
nority ethnic (BAME) people
in positions of power within
football, more severe punish-
ments for racist abuse and
greater action by social media
organisations, sponsors and
traditional media.
“When I was a boy growing
up in London, going to school
and playing football, I didn’t
know what racist abuse was
because I never suffered any,”
Sterling wrote in The Times.
“So it seems crazy that,
in 2019, I feel the need to
write a piece in a newspaper
calling for radical changes to
the game that I love. But I do
because the racism problem
in football is so bad, runs so
deep and is nowhere near
being sorted.”
He added: “You will all
have read about the various
high-profile racist incidents
in recent months: the abuse I
received playing for Manches-
ter City away to Chelsea; the
booing that the black England
players were subjected to in
Montenegro; the nastiness
that Moise Kean of Juventus
endured in Italy and the end-
less insults thrown at players
on social media.
“But that is sadly just the tip
of the iceberg. Up and down
the game, across the world,
black and Asian players, fans
and coaches are subjected to
racism. Every day, from park
football to the Champions
League. In my opinion, the
people who run the game are
doing nowhere near enough
to solve the problem.”
fighting and playing with a big
motivation. One is the motiva-
tion in the table for each player
and one is the motivation against
Arsenal. Every team wants to
battle us because they respect us
and also because it’s important to
try to win against us.”
Emery also refused to com-
ment on whether midfielder
Granit Xhaka would return from
a hip injury but confirmed Aaron
Ramsey (hamstring) and Barce-
lona loanee Denis Suarez (groin)
would not be available. “I want to
keep all the information we can
have for tomorrow,” he said when
asked about Xhaka’s possible re-
turn. “Sorry. It’s because I think
it’s better for us. You know Aaron
Ramsey cannot play, Denis Sua-
rez cannot play.”
4 Gulf Times
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
CRICKET
SPOTLIGHT
‘Losing isn’t fun, but removing DK not discussed’
IANS
Kolkata
K
olkata Knight Riders
head coach Jacques Ka-
llis yesterday said he
hasn’t been in touch
with skipper Dinesh Karthik or
co-owner Shah Rukh Khan since
their loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad.
KKR decided to let a few of
their players travel to Mumbai
and train at their academy before
the next game against Rajasthan
Royals tomorrow, even as rest of
the team was given time to re-
group.
This was after they lost their
last game – fifth in a row – to Hy-
derabad at the Rajiv Gandhi Inter-
national Stadium. While the likes
of Andre Russell headed back to
Kolkata, Karthik and some other
players headed to Mumbai. Kal-
lis was asked about Shah Rukh’s
message after the loss last Sun-
day which pegged them further in
their bid to make the playoffs for
the fourth time in row.
“I haven’t chatted to him since
the guys have been in Mumbai.
In fact, I think DK went home for
a day as well. So we will catch up
IPL
Watson shines in
Super Kings 6-wkt
win over Sunrisers
‘I knew I was in good nick, just needed to get my head right, get my technique right’
IANS
Chennai
S
hane Watson smashed a
belligerent 96 as Chennai
Super Kings zoomed back
to the top of the table with
a commanding six-wicket vic-
tory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in
an Indian Premier League (IPL)
clash at the MA Chidambaram
Stadium yesterday.
Watson, who took 53 balls
and hit nine fours and six sixes,
missed out on a fifth IPL hun-
dred as Bhuvneshwar Kumar
(1/18) got his wicket.
But riding his devastating
knock, CSK made light of a 176-
run target after skipper M.S.
Dhoni asked Sunrisers to bat
first. CSK scored 176/4 in 19.5
overs. For the visitors, Manish
Pandey (83 off 49 balls, not out)
and David Warner (57; 45 balls,
4x3, 6x2) struck half centuries.
CSK lost Faf du Plessis (1)
early but that mattered little as
Watson roared back to form on
a day star spinner Rashid Khan
(1/44) had an off day.
The former Australia opener
forged a 77-run stand for the
second wicket with Suresh Raina
(38) and then shared a 80-run
stand with Ambati Rayudu (21) to
guide his team to a win after two
losses win with one ball to spare.
Once Watson was out, caught
behind trying to hook Sunrisers
skipper Bhuvneshwar, the run-
flow ebbed with CSK managing
just seven runs off the last two
overs hitting no boundaries.
In the last over, the defending
champions needed nine. Kedar
Jadhav (11 not out) hit Sandeep
Sharma for a six despite Pandey’s
brilliant effort on the boundary
to save it but then Rayudu was
out with one run needed off two
balls. Dwayne Bravo (0 not out)
came to crease but did not face
a ball as Jadhav completed the
formalities.
Earlier, Pandey remained un-
beaten on 83 with the help of sev-
en fours and three sixes but could
not lead his team to an imposing
total as Sunrisers managed only
51 runs in the last six overs after
Warner’s dismissal. Sunrisers
managed 175/3 in 20 overs.
Warner cracked his seventh
fifty this season as the dashing
southpaw combined with Pan-
dey for a 115-run stand for the
second wicket which formed the
bedrock of Sunrisers’ innings.
For CSK, Harbhajan Singh was
the pick of the bowlers with fig-
tomorrow and have a debrief and
plan away going forward again
for the next game,” Kallis said.
Shah Rukh had tweeted after
KKR’s loss to Royal Challengers
Bangalore that the team should
win some games for Russell who
has been their lone ranger.
Asked if SRK is unhappy, Kal-
lis said: “We all want to perform
a little bit better. Yeah, I think
everyone’s in that space where
we just want to get up and play
better cricket and get back on
winning ways. Losing certainly
isn’t fun.”
While SRK has spoken about
winning games for Russell, the
Windies all-rounder isn’t happy
with his own batting position
and feels he should be batting
higher in the order. Kallis too
admitted that it is an area that
needs to be looked into.
“Rinku (Singh) went in, in the
8th over and certainly haven’t
sent Andre in that early. They got
a partnership (51 runs with Chris
Lynn) going.
“In hindsight, maybe we could
have sent him a bit earlier. But it
certainly hadn’t been one of our
plans. But if a situation arises
then it’s something that we will
Chennai Super Kings’ Shane Watson plays a shot during the 2019 Indian Premier League match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the MA Chidhambaram
Stadium in Chennai yesterday. (AFP)
ures of 2/39 in four overs. The
visitors lost Jonny Bairstow (0)
– playing his last IPL game –
early, as the England stumper-
batsman was out caught behind
trying to cut Harbhajan.
From there on, Warner and
Pandey paced their innings per-
fectly as Sunrisers raced to 91/1
at the halfway stage. Harbhajan
removed Warner in the 14th over
think of,” he said.
Russell came out to bat at No
7 and scored a 9-ball 15 as KKR
could manage 159/8, which was
not enough in the end as they
lost by nine wickets.
Coming back to skipper
Karthik, Kallis backed him to get
with a slower one which the vet-
eran Australian failed to read and
came down the track only for
Dhoni to effect a brilliant stump-
ing. Vijay Shankar (26; 20b, 4x2,
6x1) then joined hands with Pan-
dey for a 47-run partnership be-
fore holing out to Ravidra Jadeja
at deep midwicket off Deepak
Chahar. Shankar never really got
going and after he was removed,
back among runs.
“Hopefully he can get in and
get us some big runs. That will
certainly mean a lot to the team
and as much as he wants to do
it,” the South African great said
of DK who averages 16.71 from
nine innings this season.
Yusuf Pathan (5 not out) also
could not up the ante.
“I was due runs, that’s for sure.
I can’t thank Stephen Fleming
and MS Dhoni enough to have
kept faith in me. In any other
team, I may have been dropped
sooner. Happy to repay that
faith. I knew I was in good nick,
just needed to get my head right,
get my technique right, had a bit
“In the last game he came up
in the order and unfortunately
got run out. It’s about matching
up players and situations. He’s
a vital player for us and a world
class player,” he said.
Kallis said there’s been no
discussion on removing Karthik
of luck by playing and missing
in the beginning,” man-of-the-
match Shane Watson said.
BRIEF SCORES
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 175/3
(Manish Pandey 83, not out;
David Warner 57; Harbhajan
Singh 2/39) vs Chennai Super
Kings: 176/4 (Shane Watson 96;
Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1/18).
from the captaincy at the busi-
ness end of the season. “No, we
haven’t discussed it, nor has it
been brought up,” he said.
On the Mumbai break, Kallis
said the guys needed to regroup,
adding there is no pressure on
Karthik regarding his captain-
cy. “We felt the guys needed a
break. Guys are given freedom
to do what they want to for the
next couple of days. It has been
a disappointing couple of games
for us so we thought that guys
can go and do what they want
– go home or some guys felt
they wanted to have some mid-
dle practice which we couldn’t
get here, which we could get in
Mumbai.”
Kallis admitted the players are
frustrated, but realise they can
still turn it around. “I think the
guys are frustrated. They do re-
alise that we still have chance of
qualifying and we’re just going
to play some good cricket and I’ll
say the longer we are in it in this
format, there are little percent-
ages that you need to improve
in order to turn these things
around and we’re not far off,” he
explained.
KKR now need to win all of
FOCUS
Australia’s Turner
registers dubious
duck record
Reuters
Jaipur
A
ustralia all-rounder
Ashton Turner be-
came the first bats-
man to register five
straight ducks in Twenty20
cricket after another tame dis-
missal for Rajasthan Royals in
an Indian Premier League (IPL)
match on Monday.
Turner was dismissed in the
first ball that he faced, caught
off the bowling of Ishant
Sharma, for his third straight
“golden duck” in the tourna-
ment as Delhi Capitals defeat-
ed Royals by six wickets. The
26-year-old’s three score-
less IPL innings follow an-
other first-ball duck for Perth
Scorchers in a Big Bash League
loss to Adelaide Strikers and a
five-ball nought for Australia
against India during their two-
match T20 series in February.
Turner, who was left out of
Australia’s squad for the World
Cup beginning in England and
Wales on May 30, has fared
better in the 50-over format
scoring an unbeaten 43-ball 84
against India in a one-day in-
ternational match last month.
Delhi, with 14 points from
11 games, leapfrogged Chennai
Super Kings to top the stand-
ings on net run rate while Ra-
jasthan remained in seventh
place in the eight-team league.
Hyderabad will host the fi-
‘Shattered’: Sri Lankan player
recounts church bombing horror
Negombo, Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan cricketer Dasun
Shanaka barely survived
one of the deadly blasts that
killed more than 320 people
in the island nation on Easter
Sunday, and says the horrific
scenes have left him “scared”
to go out.
The 27-year-old allrounder
skipped Easter service at
St Sebastian’s Church in his
hometown of Negombo
because of a long trip the day
before, he told Cricinfo.
It was among six churches
and hotels targeted by suicide
bombers who killed 321
people and injured hundreds
more – the worst violence
seen in the country since a
civil war ended a decade ago.
The government has blamed
the attacks on Islamist
militants. “Normally I would
have gone to church... (but) I
was tired,” Shanaka told the
website in comments pub-
lished on Monday.
“That morning, when I was at
my house, I heard a sound,
and then people were saying
a bomb had gone off at the
church. I rushed there, and I’ll
never forget the scene.
“The entire church was de-
stroyed, absolutely shattered,
and people were dragging
lifeless bodies outside.”
their remaining four games in
order to qualify for the playoffs
smoothly.
“We’ve done it before. We
have won 11 in a row... Certainly
it’s possible and the guys will try
hard both off the field and on the
field. We will be up for the game,
that’s for sure. It’s almost like
there is no tomorrow for us now.
Hopefully we can repeat that
again this year.”
In 2014, KKR had won nine
games on the bounce including
the final to lift their second IPL
trophy under Gautam Gambhir.
KKR are currently placed sixth in
the points table with eight points
from 10 matches.
KKR, sans India’s World Cup
bound players including cap-
tain Karthik and Kuldeep Yadav,
trained at the Eden Gardens. The
likes of Karthik, Kuldeep, Robin
Uthappa and Shubman Gill were
given a couple of days break and
trained in Mumbai.
They will join the team on the
eve of the match. Andre Rus-
sell trained at the nets alongside
Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Carlos
Brathwaite, Lockie Ferguson,
Matt Kelly and Prasidh Krishna
among others.
nal of this year’s IPL on May
12, the organisers announced
on Monday.
Top two finishers will clash
in Qualifier 1 in Chennai on
May 7 with the winners reach-
ing the title clash.
Visakhapatnam will host the
eliminator, between the third
and fourth-placed teams, on
May 8.
Qualifier 2, between the
winner of the eliminator and
loser of Qualifier 1, will decide
the second finalist at the same
venue two days later.
Meanwhile South African
fast bowler Beuran Hendricks
will replace injured Alzarri
Joseph of West Indies at Mum-
bai Indians for the rest of the
Indian Premier League, the
franchise announced yester-
day. Joseph, who came into
the Twenty20 tournament in
place of Adam Milne of New
Zealand, had a dream debut
after returning best-ever IPL
figures of 6-12 against Sunris-
ers Hyderabad on April 7.
The destruction at St Sebas-
tian’s was still visible yester-
day – parts of broken religious
statues and smashed pews
littered the floor – as funerals
of victims were held.
More people are believed to
have died in the blast at St
Sebastian’s than any of the
other attacks, with the local
hospital receiving more than
100 bodies.
“If you saw the scene, you
would know there was no way
anyone inside could have sur-
vived, because simply the de-
bris from the blast had injured
everyone even in the vicinity,”
Shanaka told Cricinfo.
After the blast, the cricketer
rushed to the church looking
for his mother and grand-
mother, who were at the
Easter service. Both survived,
he said, but his grandmother
required surgery because
she was hit in the head with
shrapnel.
Shanaka – who has played
three Tests, 19 one-day inter-
nationals, and 27 Twenty20s
for Sri Lanka – described his
hometown as “a safe haven of
sorts” where there have never
been communal problems.
But he told Cricinfo that the
Easter blasts have shaken that
sense of security: “I’m scared
to go onto the streets.”

NBA
Bucks sweep Pistons
to advance, Jazz
stave off elimination
‘It’s a good night for Milwaukee. It’s a good night for the Bucks’
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo looks to pass the ball in the first-half of their match against Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports
AFP
Los Angeles
T
he Milwaukee Bucks
wiped away 18 years of
frustration on Monday
by beating the Detroit
Pistons 127-104 to complete a
four-game sweep of their first
round Eastern Conference play-
off series.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
scored 41 points as the Bucks
reached the second round of
the postseason for the first time
since the 2000-01 season when
they made it all the way to the
NBA semi-finals.
Top-seeded Milwaukee
cruised through the first three
games and after a slow start in
game four, they took control
late and won by a comfortable
23 points.
“I think it’s important that we
NHL
Stars edge Predators to advance, Hurricanes force game seven
AFP
Los Angeles
D
efenseman John Kling-
berg scored with less
than three minutes
remaining in overtime
as the Dallas Stars advanced to
the second round of the NHL
playoffs with a 2-1 win over the
Nashville Predators on Monday.
The Stars are the third wild
card team to knock off a division
winner in the NHL playoffs this
season and that trend could con-
tinue on Wednesday if the Caro-
lina Hurricanes beat the reigning
Stanley Cup champions Wash-
ington Capitals in game seven.
Russian forward Alexander
Radulov fired a sharp pass to
Klingberg, who made no mistake
by wristing a shot over the glove
of Nashville netminder Pekka
Rinne to give Dallas a 4-2 series
victory. The Stars captured a
playoff series on home ice for the
first time since 2008.
Blake Comeau scored his first
take a second tonight. Enjoy it,”
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer
said. “It’s a good night for Mil-
waukee. It’s a good night for the
Bucks.”
Breaking their streak of eight
straight playoff exits so quickly
means Milwaukee has more
time to prepare for their next
opponent – the Boston Celtics,
who are coming off a sweep of
Indiana.
The Bucks matched their reg-
ular season dominance over the
Pistons, winning all four games.
They had met in the postsea-
son four times with the Pistons
winning them all.
Antetokounmpo had a quiet
night in game three with just 14
points but he had all his weap-
ons at his disposal in the close-
out game.
“I remember our first play-
off series (in 2015),” Antetok-
ounmpo said. “Chicago, the last
goal of the series and goaltender
Ben Bishop stopped 47 shots for
the Stars, who will face the St.
Louis Blues in the second round.
Bishop broke into the NHL with
the Blues back in 2008-09 and
played parts of two seasons for
them. The Blues eliminated
Winnipeg in six games during
their first-round series.
Austin Watson scored a goal
and Rinne finished with 49 saves
for the Predators, who failed on
all four power-play opportuni-
ties to finish 0-for-15 with the
man advantage in the series.
Elsewhere, the Hurricanes
bounced back from a game five
beatdown to rally and defeat the
Capitals 5-2, forcing game seven
in their first-round series.
Jordan Staal and Dougie Ham-
ilton each had a goal and an as-
sist as the Hurricanes scored
three third-period goals to stay
alive in the first round Eastern
Conference best-of-seven se-
ries. Defenseman Brett Pesce
said Carolina is starting to figure
out the formula needed to upset
game, game six, they beat us
by 50 or something insane. But
where we were and where we are
right now, it’s been an unbeliev-
able journey.”
Milwaukee finished the third
quarter with a 17-3 run, taking
a 10-point lead into the fourth
after the Pistons had led much
of the way.
The Blake Griffin-led Pistons
set an NBA record with their
14th consecutive playoff loss,
a losing skid that began in
2008.
Milwaukee was also the sec-
ond team in playoff history to
sweep their first round series by
at least 15 points in each game,
joining the 1980 Celtics.
Last year, the Bucks lost to
the Celtics in a seven-game se-
ries. This year’s second round
series will have some new faces.
Milwaukee has Brook Lopez
as a starter and added veterans
the reigning NHL champs, after
the Capitals had put the Hurri-
canes on the brink of elimination
by dominating game five 6-0.
“We have been underdogs all
year,” said Pesce, an American
who assisted on Justin Williams’
third-period goal. “We didn’t
give them much time and space.
We don’t give up. We are going to
be ready for it (game seven). We
have so much resilience in this
group. It showed tonight.”
Williams scored the insurance
goal on Monday just seconds af-
ter the Capitals had a potential
tying goal disallowed.
Canadian forward Warren
Foegele and Teuvo Teravainen
also scored, Hamilton added
the empty-netter and Czech
goaltender Petr Mrazek made 23
saves to extend their first posts-
eason appearance in 10 years by
at least one more game.
Capitals superstar Alex
Ovechkin became unglued at
the end of the game and took a
two-handed swing with his stick
at Carolina’s Saku Maenalanen
George Hill and Nikola Mirotic.
Gordon Hayward and Kyrie
Irving were out with injuries for
the Celtics last year.
Elsewhere, Donovan Mitchell
scored 19 of his 31 points in the
fourth quarter as the Utah Jazz
staved off elimination in game
four with a 107-91 victory over
the Houston Rockets.
“It’s not over,” Mitchell said.
“We have another one, and an-
other one, and another one.”
Jae Crowder added 23 points,
Ricky Rubio tallied 18 points
and 11 assists and Derrick Fa-
vors finished with 12 points and
11 rebounds for Utah, who trail
three games to one.
Utah outscored Houston 31-
12 in the fourth quarter to set up
game five on Wednesday.
Mitchell said they now real-
ise what they have been doing
wrong and what it is going to
take to win the series.
which earned the Russian an
ejection from the game. Game
seven is on Wednesday in Wash-
ington. The winner will play the
well-rested New York Islanders
in the second round.
Meanwhile the Carolina Hur-
ricanes bounced back from a
beatdown in game five to come
from behind Monday and defeat
the defending champion Wash-
ington Capitals 5-2, forcing
game seven in their NHL playoff
series. Jordan Staal and Dougie
Hamilton each had a goal and an
assist as the Hurricanes scored
three third-period goals to stay
alive in the first round Eastern
Conference best-of-seven se-
ries. Defenseman Brett Pesce
said Carolina is starting to figure
out the formula needed to upset
the reigning NHL champs, after
the Capitals had put the Hurri-
canes on the brink of elimination
by dominating game five 6-0.
RESULTS
Carolina 5-2 Washington
Dallas 2-1 Nashville
“We all been struggling with
our shots all series,” said Mitch-
ell. “We didn’t play hard at the
beginning. The last two games
we played harder.
“There is no way we were go-
ing to go out like that. We fig-
ured out what we have to do.
The best thing for us is to con-
tinue to play team basketball.”
James Harden scored 30
points to lead Houston. Chris
Paul added 23 points, eight re-
bounds and seven assists. Eric
Gordon tallied 16 points.
The Rockets shot a dismal 17
of 46 from three-point range.
Results from the first round of
the NBA playoffs
Eastern Conference
Milwaukee 127 Detoit 104
(Milwaukee wins series 4-0)
Western Conference
Utah 107 Houston 91 (Houston
leads series 3-1)
Dallas Stars defenseman Esa Lindell and Nashville Predators centre Mikael Granlund (right) vying for the
puck during the third period in game six of the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs at American
Airlines Center. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports
SPORT
MLB
Harper gets tossed as
Phillies fall to Mets
Reuters
New York
J
eff McNeil had two hits,
including a solo home
run, to lift the host New
York Mets past the Phila-
delphia Phillies 5-1 on Monday.
The Phillies, who managed only
three hits, saw right fielder Bryce
Harper get ejected in the fourth
inning while arguing from the
dugout.
Mets starter Steven Matz (2-1)
was effective, allowing three hits
and one run in six innings. He
struck out six and walked two. It
was a completely different out-
come from his last start against
the Phillies in which he faced
eight batters and failed to record
an out on April 16.
Juan Lagares had two
hits for New York. RESULTS
The Mets played without Mets
shortstop Amed Rosario,
sidelined due to flu-like Yankees
symptoms. Second base- A’s
man Robinson Cano, who Rockies
was hit in the right hand by
Cardinals
a pitch on Sunday against
the St. Louis Cardinals, Twins
was announced as a pinch Rays
hitter in the seventh inning D’backs
before being called back.
Rhys Hoskins ripped a solo White Sox
homer for the Phillies, who
dropped three of four in Colora-
do before heading to New York.
Cesar Hernandez had Philadel-
phia’s only other two hits.
Phillies starter Jake Arrieta
(3-2) threw six-plus innings and
gave up seven hits and four runs
(three earned). He fanned seven
and walked one. Philadelphia’s
final 16 hitters were retired.
Pete Alonso’s double to right
field scored Brandon Nimmo for
a 1-0 Mets lead in the third in-
ning. One out later, Wilson Ra-
mos singled to center, scoring
Alonso. The Phillies got on the
scoreboard with one out in the
fourth when Hoskins launched
a solo home run to left-center to
get within 2-1.
In a bizarre circumstance,
Harper was tossed with two outs
in the fourth. After a question-
able called strike to Hernandez,
plate umpire Mark Carlson mo-
tioned to the dugout and ejected
Harper for arguing balls and
strikes.
Harper had reached base in
all of his previous 21 games as a
Phillie before going 0-for-2 with
two strikeouts and being tossed.
In the fifth, McNeil put the Mets
ahead 3-1 with a booming solo
New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso hits an RBI double against
the Philadelphia Phillies during the third inning of their MLB game at
Citi Field. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports
Gulf Times
Wednesday, April 24, 2019 5
homer to right. Juan Nicasio hit
Alonso with the bases loaded to
give the Mets a 4-1 advantage in
the seventh. Michael Conforto
then lifted a sacrifice fly to score
another run.
URSHELA LIFTS YANKEES
OVER ANGELS IN 14
Gio Urshela’s two-out RBI sin-
gle in the top of the 14th inning
lifted the New York Yankees to
a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles
Angels on Monday night in Ana-
heim, Calif.
Angels reliever Luke Bard ac-
tually struck out the first three
batters of the inning, but the first
– Gleyber Torres – reached when
strike three was in the dirt and
got away from catcher Jonathan
Lucroy.
5-1 Phillies
4-3 Angels
6-1 Rangers
7-5 Nationals
13-5 Brewers
9-5 Astros
6-3 Royals
12-4 Pirates
12-2 Orioles
Lucroy retrieved the ball in
time to get Torres at first, but his
throw sailed over first baseman
Albert Pujols’ head for an error.
Torres moved to second on a wild
pitch and scored on Urshela’s
single. Bard then struck out Kyle
Higashioka to end the inning, his
fourth strikeout of the inning.
Jonathan Holder (1-0) pitched
two scoreless innings to get the
win over Bard (0-1), who also
went two innings.
The Yankees snapped a 2-2
tie in the top of the 12th inning
when Urshela’s one-out sacrifice
fly drove in Clint Frazier (leadoff
double). But the Angels rallied
against Yankees closer Aroldis
Chapman in the bottom of the
12th.
New York was one out away
from victory when Brian Good-
win’s single on a 97 mph fastball
from Chapman scored pinch
runner Peter Bourjos from sec-
ond base to tie the game at 3-3.
Chapman, though, retired Tom-
my La Stella to get out of the in-
ning.
The win was the Yankees’
fourth straight and sixth in their
past seven games, while the An-
gels have now lost seven of eight.
6 Gulf Times
Wednesday, April 24, 2019

SPORT
GOLF SPOTLIGHT

Heat’s Whiteside
Bjork to defend allegedly embezzled
by lawyer Avenatti

Volvo China Open Reuters

New York

M
iami Heat center
Hassan White-
side was allegedly
embezzled out

crown in Shenzhen
of $2.75 million by attorney
Michael Avenatti 27 months
ago, the Los Angeles Times
reported.
Alexis Gardner, a former
girlfriend of Whiteside, re-
tained Avenatti to negotiate a
‘Alexander was a very popular winner last year and we look forward to welcoming him to Shenzhen’ potential lawsuit against Wh-
iteside and Avenatti struck a $3 than two years ago following
Agencies the feeling when I actually man- million deal. the end of our relationship;
Shenzhen Sweden’s Alexander Bjork with 2018 aged to pull it off and win was Whiteside made an initial a settlement that reflected
Volvo China Open trophy. fantastic,” said Bjork as he builds $2.75 million payment to Ave- Alexis’ investment of time and
up towards his first European natti in January 2017 but none support over a number of years

S
weden’s Alexander Bjork
will be looking to suc-
cessfully defend his title
when he leads the field at
the 25th Volvo China Open at the
Genzon Golf Club in Shenzhen
from May 2-5.
Last year, the 28-year-old
won his maiden European Tour
title when China’s National
Open Golf Championship was
staged in Beijing and the Swede
is one of a number of leading
players from the European and
Asian Tours who have confirmed
their places in the RMB 20 mil-
lion tournament.
“Volvo has been a huge sup-
porter of golf in China since 1995
so it seems fitting that the first
Swede to win the Volvo China
Open will return as defending
champion when we celebrate
the 25th anniversary of the tour-
nament,” said Sven de Smet,
Chairman of the Volvo China
Open Board.
“Alexander was a very popular
winner last year and we look for-
ward to welcoming him to Shen-
zhen for a landmark event in the
history of the tournament.”
It will be the second time
the Volvo China Open has been
staged at the Genzon Golf Club –
the venue hosted the 20th anni-
versary in 2014 – and comes just
months after the club became
the first Chinese addition to the
European Tour Properties’ world
class network of destinations.
For Bjork it is a chance to re-
turn to the country that pro-
vided him with the first Euro-
pean Tour victory of his career
and a final round in Beijing that
the man from Vaxio described as
“the best I’ve ever played.”
Despite fighting jet lag after
a gruelling flight from Moroc-
FIVE ANTI-DOPING VIOLATIONS ACROSS ENGLISH RUGBY LAST SEASON – RFU
Five anti-doping violations
within both the professional and
community game were discov-
ered out of more than 800 tests
conducted across all levels of
Rugby in England in the 2017-18
season, the Rugby Football
Union (RFU) said yesterday.
The programme carried out 739
tests within the professional
game while 99 tests were con-
ducted at community level, the
co, Bjork produced four superb
rounds to lift the stunning tro-
phy and the biggest winner’s
eighth annual report of the RFU’s
anti-doping advisory group said.
There were two professional
anti-doping violations and
three community violations last
season. There were also four
violations of the RFU illicit drugs
policy last season after they
conducted 332 tests. Yorkshire
Carnegie’s South African flanker
Brandon Staples was banned
from all sport for four years
cheque of his life in what was his
44th appearance on the Euro-
pean Tour.
last April after testing positive
for three steroids while Wasps
hooker Ashley Johnson was
handed a backdated six-month
ban last July. The three amateur
players found guilty received
bans ranging from two to four
years each.
“The combination of a compre-
hensive testing and education
programme is the bedrock of our
commitment. We’re confident
“Over the final round and es-
pecially the last nine holes, I
played some really good golf and
this approach is working with
violations remaining low in the
2017-18 season,” Premiership
Rugby director Phil Winstanley
said in a statement.
Richard Bryan, a director at the
Rugby Players Association, said
it was imperative the players
continue to confront the risks
posed by doping and the use of
illicit drugs. “Protection of our
game and our members is an
Tour title defence.
“I’ve played Genzon before
and it’s quite a tough course with
a good layout. I remember it be-
ing a tropical-style course with
hot and humid weather. I en-
joyed it when I was there in 2017
so I look forward to going back
there and I know it will be a great
event.”
Like last year, the 25th an-
niversary of the Volvo China
Open will be tri-sanctioned by
the China Golf Association and
the European and Asian Tours
meaning yet another strong
field of international players
will come together to compete
alongside the best of Chinese
golf.
And while Bjork’s 2018 Volvo
China Open success helped pro-
pel him into the top 75 on the Of-
ficial World Golf Ranking and set
him up to finish in 19th place on
the season-long Race to Dubai,
the Swede is hoping that a return
to the country of his greatest
success will kickstart the 2019
campaign.
“To be honest, it almost feels
like the season hasn’t started
yet,” he added.
“I’ve only played five events
and I’ve taken some time off. I’m
not too happy about the results
in the events but I’m positive
that the work I’ve been putting
in now over the last month will
pay off over the rest of the sea-
son.
“I’m always trying to improve
and want to win more tourna-
ments and be able to compete for
victories in the biggest events.
This year, the immediate goals
are to improve my ranking from
last year, move inside the top 50
on the Official World Golf Rank-
ing and win more events.”
absolute priority and, alongside
the RFU and Premiership Rugby,
we remain fully committed to
the player education and testing
programmes,” Bryan said.
Of the tests conducted in the
professional game, 81 percent
were out of competition and
the report said more than
1,000 players had face-to-face
workshops during the season to
receive anti-doping education.
of the money was passed on
to Gardner, according to the
report. Avenatti was entitled
to just over $1 million in legal
fees but hid the payment from
Gardner, according to pros-
ecutors, and took $2.5 million
to buy a share of a private jet.
Avenatti was indicted on
April 10 by a grand jury in San-
ta Ana, Calif. Gardner is one
of five people who had money
stolen from them by Avenatti,
prosecutors said.
According to prosecu-
tors, Avenatti repeatedly
told Gardner that Whiteside
wasn’t making his payments.
Eventually, Avenatti made
11 payments to Gardner over
a 15-month period - always
misrepresenting them as a
payment from Whiteside - to-
taling $194,000 before stop-
ping in June 2018.
On Sunday, Avenatti com-
mented on this Twitter ac-
count, saying in part: “I look
forward to all the details com-
ing out regarding Hassan Wh-
iteside’s settlement, the mon-
ey received by the client, the
money deducted for fees and
costs, etc. and the reason why
he paid the money.”
The reason for a $3 mil-
lion settlement isn’t publicly
known and Whiteside offered
no explanation in a joint state-
ment provided to the Los An-
geles Times.
“We entered into a mutually
agreed upon settlement more
Hawks coach Pierce joins USA team staff
Lloyd Pierce, coach of the
NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, was
named on Monday as an
assistant coach on the
United States national team,
a replacement for departing
Indiana Pacers coach Nate
McMillan. Pierce will work on
the staff of US coach Gregg
Popovich, who guides the
NBA’s San Antonio Spurs,
directing NBA players in this
year’s Basketball World Cup in
China and next year’s Tokyo
Olympics if they qualify.
Other assistants include Steve
Kerr, coach of the reigning
NBA champion Golden State
Warriors, and Jay Wright, who
coached Villanova University
as Hassan pursued a career
in the NBA,” Whiteside and
Gardner said in a statement
released by Whiteside’s agent.
“It is unfortunate that
something that was meant to
be kept private between us is
now being publicly reported.
We have both moved on ami-
cably and wish nothing but the
best for each other.”
Last month, Avenatti was
charged with attempting to
extort up to $25 million from
Nike by threatening to expose
misconduct by Nike employ-
ees involving payments to
college basketball players. He
mentioned former Arizona
centre Deandre Ayton and Or-
egon big man Bol Bol as players
who received money from Nike
as recruits.
About 10 days later, Aven-
atti said the mother of Duke
star Zion Williamson was paid
by Nike for “bogus consulting
services” as part of the deal to
get Williamson to choose the
Blue Devils.
Avenatti jumped into the
public eye when he was the
attorney for adult film star
Stormy Daniels during her
legal battles with President
Donald Trump. He and Daniels
parted ways earlier this year.
Whiteside, 29, just com-
pleted the third season of a
four-year, $98 million con-
tract. He averaged 12.3 points
and 11.3 rebounds in 72 games
(53 starts) this past season.
to the US college crown in
2016 and 2018.
“It’s an honor to receive this
opportunity to represent our
country and to work with
such great coaches and staff,”
Pierce said.
McMillan resigned due to
scheduling conflicts, accord-
ing to USA Basketball.
The US national team, two-
time defending World Cup
champions, will begin a train-
ing camp on August 5 in Las
Vegas ahead of the 32-team
event August 31-September
15. The Americans’ first-round
foes in Shanghai include
Japan, Turkey and the Czech
Republic.

INTERVIEW

Lab director hits back at ex-WADA head over testing criticism

Reuters that for every step of progress we ‘GOLD STANDARD’
London made, of course, the others adapt.” Van Eenoo said urine testing, first
Howman, who left the World An- introduced at an Olympics in 1968,
ti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2016, had its limitations but would remain

T
he director of a top Belgian
laboratory has criticised
former World Anti-Doping
Agency (WADA) head David
Howman for suggesting drug testing
was stuck in the 1970s and needed to
be more innovative.
Howman, in an address to an an-
ti-doping conference in London last
week, had said urine analysis had
not advanced much over the dec-
ades and that testing was not catch-
ing the real cheats.
“We’re still in a position where
we’re getting the same number of
positive cases each year, and many
of them are in the category of what
I call the ‘dopey dopers’ - the inad-
vertent dopers, or the ones who are
just darned stupid,” he said.
Professor Peter van Eenoo, direc-
tor of the WADA-accredited labora-
tory at the University of Ghent, said
Howman had got it wrong.
“It’s incredible that somebody
said this,” he told Reuters in a tel-
ephone interview.
“What he says is the percentage
of positive samples hasn’t changed
much over the years. And therefore
science has not made any progress.
“What he completely forgets is
is now chairman of the Athletics In-
tegrity Unit board and has previous-
ly criticised his former employers
for failing to support clean athletes
and for allowing the reinstatement
of Russia’s anti-doping agency.
Van Eenoo said the substances
being used, the doses and how they
were being used by drugs cheats had
changed over the decades.
Data from re-testing, using urine
samples from the 2008 Beijing and
2012 London Olympics, had also
demonstrated the advances of sci-
ence.
“There were about 10,000 sam-
ples, 25 positives. What they’ve
done is stored all those samples and
re-tested 1,000 of these negative
samples,” he said.
“Out of those 1,000 samples, 100
at re-testing later turned out to be
positive. That is only through scien-
tific progress, because nothing has
changed. It’s the same urine.
“And because they know we can
now detect substances for a longer
period, they (athletes) switch to
other substances or take them in
smaller doses. So they adapt every-
thing and that is only pushed by sci-
entific progress.”
the ‘gold standard’ for some time to
come. He accepted that some sub-
stances, such as growth hormone,
were hard to detect in urine and that
blood was a better indicator of the
effectiveness of drugs.
“That’s why we are now invest-
ing in looking into blood concentra-
tion - dried blood spots, those kind
of things - to complement urine,”
he said. “If we are looking at a zero
tolerance policy which is impor-
tant for most of the substances and
especially those which are most
performance-enhancing - steroids,
EPO - then urine is the gold stand-
ard and will remain for quite a long
time to come.”
Van Eenoo said it was difficult to
look for 400 or 500 substances in
a drop of blood. “So that’s why I’m
saying urine as a first and then for
some of these substances where you
have issues... you can re-analyse
that drop of blood only for one or
two substances,” he added.
“This makes absolute sense and
we need to progress in that direc-
tion. That’s additional scientific
progress, it doesn’t mean that the
scientific progress we’ve made so far
doesn’t exist.” Former World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) head David Howman.
 Gulf Times
Wednesday, April 24, 2019 7

SPORT
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

O’Sullivan takes shock loss

to amateur in his stride
Cahill beat five-time world champion
O’Sullivan 10-8 in the first round at the
Crucible Theatre in Sheffield
AFP did well. He held himself together.”
London Meanwhile Cahill, who came through 24 - 04 -2019
three rounds of qualifying to make his
Crucible debut, was delighted with a

S
nooker great Ronnie O’Sullivan
insisted it was “not the end of
the world” after he suffered a
stunning defeat by amateur
James Cahill in the first round of the
World Championship yesterday. In one
of the biggest upsets in snooker history,
Cahill beat five-time world champion
O’Sullivan 10-8 at the Crucible Theatre
in Sheffield.
Not since 2003 had O’Sullivan lost
in the first round of the World Cham-
pionship. O’Sullivan, the current world
number one, had been in fine form
heading into the world championship
after winning five tournaments this
season, compiling his 1,000th career
century en route to victory in the Play-
ers Championship.
But the ‘Rocket’ blamed a below-par
display on illness and recurring bouts
of insomnia. “My limbs are feeling very
heavy. I have no energy,” he said. “You
come here and try to do your best but
if you’re physically not 100% it’s just
one of those things. If you could take a
magic pill to protect yourself from this
stuff you would.”
O’Sullivan tried to put his defeat into
context by adding: “It’s just life, it’s
not the end of the world... If I feel bet-
ter on Friday I’ll be really disappointed,
if I still don’t feel too great it probably
wasn’t the worst thing that could have
happened.”
The 43-year-old, last crowned world
champion in 2013, added: “It’s over,
it’s done and now I can disappear and
have a holiday and just enjoy the rest
of the tournament.” Earlier, O’Sullivan
praised Cahill by telling the BBC: “He
win over his snooker “idol”.
“I’m absolutely over the moon with
that,” said the 23-year-old. “I’m glad
to hold myself together against the best
player in the world on my Crucible de-
but, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Cahill added: “You’ve got to believe
you can beat anyone. I’ve got so much
respect for Ronnie, he’s such a great
player and my idol really, but there’s
only so much respect you can have for
these people because at the end of the
day you have to go out and beat them.”
And with this win under his belt Ca-
hill, who lost his status as a professional
in 2017, was in bullish mood ahead of
his second-round match against Scot-
land’s Stephen Maguire. “I’m here to
win the tournament,” added Cahill,
who beat then-world number one Mark
Selby in the opening round of the 2018
UK Championship.
“I play every tournament to win oth-
erwise I wouldn’t play. You can’t come
to a tournament thinking you’re go-
ing to get beat... or what’s the point in
playing?”
Cahill extended his 5-4 over-
night lead to 8-5 after the match
with O’Sullivan resumed yesterday.
O’Sullivan pulled back to 8-8 with
the aid of breaks of 104 and 89. But he
missed a chance to take the 17th frame,
leaving Cahill 9-8 in front.
O’Sullivan then had the opportunity
to take the match to a final-frame de-
cider, but he inadvertently potted a red
when breaking the pack open from the
blue. Cahill made the most of an un-
expected chance by holding his nerve
with a break of 53.

TENNIS SPOTLIGHT

Osaka ‘dodged bullet’ in Lucky loser Jarry stuns Zverev

Stuttgart as Halep pulls out old beat Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic
AFP
Barcelona en route to winning the ATP Finals at the
end of last year but has since struggled to
maintain momentum. He lost in the fourth
(SVK) 7-5, 6-4; Malek Jaziri (TUN) bt Guido
Andreozzi (ARG) 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2; Albert
Ramos-Vinolas (ESP) bt Cameron Norrie
(GBR) 6-2, 6-2

A
AFP lexander Zverev’s disappointing
Stuttgart, Germany season continued yesterday as the
world number three was beaten
by lucky loser Nicolas Jarry in the
round at the Australian Open in January Second round: Jaume Munar (ESP) bt Franc-
and has now failed to win more than a single es Tiafoe (USA x14) 6-4, 6-3; Kei Nishikori (JPN
match for a fifth tournament in a row. x4) bt Taylor Fritz (USA) 7-5, 6-2; Nicolas Jarry
Jarry, meanwhile, will face either Bul- (CHI) bt Alexander Zverev (GER x2) 3-6, 7-5,

W
orld number one
Naomi Osaka said
yesterday she had
“dodged a bullet”
after Simona Halep, her main
pursuer in the WTA rankings,
pulled out of this week’s tour-
nament in Stuttgart. Japanese
rising star Osaka, 21, launches
her clay season in Stuttgart this
week, and her hopes of hold-
ing on to her spot at the top of
the rankings were given a boost
when world number two Halep
withdrew with a hip injury earlier
yesterday. “She was getting real-
ly close,” said Osaka, who is less
than 200 points ahead of Halep
in the WTA rankings. “I feel like
I dodged a bullet there.”
Osaka said that winning was
not everything in Stuttgart,
where she last played as a quali-
fier in 2017. “I don’t want to ove-
rhype myself and say, ‘I will win
the tournament’,” she insisted. “I
just want to have fun and experi-
ence the German crowd, because
last time I was here, I was kind of
a nobody.”
She is definitely no longer a
Japan’s Naomi Osaka is all smiles as she gives a press conference
ahead of the WTA Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany. (AFP)
ahead of the French Open next
month. “I feel, that on every sur-
face of the season I do have a lot
more experience than on clay.
ments ahead, and then when I’m
in Paris, I will think about the
Paris situation.”
Kerber missed out on Germa-
second round of the Barcelona Open. Zverev
spurned a match point at 6-5 and then a 3-0
lead in the final-set tie-break before going
down 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, (7/5) to Jarry, ranked
81st in the world.
Jarry had even lost in qualifying to Spain’s
Marcel Granollers but, after being given a
reprieve, knocked out the same opponent
in the first round to set up a meeting with
Zverev, long-considered a future star of the
men’s game. The Chilean had upset both
Marin Cilic in Shanghai and Dominic Thiem
in Hamburg last year but this was the big-
gest victory of his career and another set-
back for Zverev, with just over a month to go
before the start of the French Open.
Zverev had taken a late wildcard in Barce-
lona in search of both matches and form af-
ter a string of surprise defeats. The 22-year-
F1
Hamilton now on par with Senna: Berger
Reuters
London
garia’s Grigor Dimitrov or veteran Spaniard
Fernando Verdasco in the third round to-
morrow, with Japan’s Kei Nishikori now the
highest ranked seed left in the bottom half.
Nishikori, Barcelona champion in 2014
and 2015, has also been out of form in recent
weeks but recovered from a slow start to beat
American Taylor Fritz 7-5, 6-2. The world
number seven will be up against either Ca-
nadian Felix Auger-Aliassime or Tunisia’s
Malek Jaziri for a place in the quarter-finals.
RESULTS
(x denotes seeding)
First round: David Ferrer (ESP) bt Mischa
Zverev (GER) 6-3, 6-1; Nicola Kuhn (ESP)
bt Federico Del Bonis (ARG) 7-6 (7/3), 4-6,
6-2; Christian Garin (CHI) bt Martin Klizan
7-6 (7/5)
ELBOW INJURY FORCES
ANDERSON TO SKIP CLAY SEASON
Kevin Anderson has pulled out of all clay
tournaments this season, including next
month’s French Open, to give himself time
to recover from an elbow injury, the South
African said yesterday.
The big-serving 32-year-old, who also
withdrew from Indian Wells and the Mote
Carlo Masters this year, last played at the
Miami Open last month where he was oust-
ed in the quarter-finals by eventual cham-
pion Roger Federer.
Anderson, currently ranked sixth in the
world, will look to return for the grass court
season with an eye on Wimbledon which
begins on July 1.
for poles (65) before Hamilton.
The Brazilian won 41 races and would
surely have gone on to many more had he
not died at the age of 34. “The comparison?

‘nobody’, having won back-to-
back Grand Slam titles in the
United States and Australia since
September. However, she admit-
ted finding it difficult to adjust to
her newfound global fame.
“It is something that happened
really quickly. In the beginning it
was tough for me, because I put
a lot of pressure on myself,” she
said. “I feel like there is certain
things, I should be doing, that I
am not doing right now.”
Osaka has not won a title since
her Australian Open triumph in
January, suffering early exits at
three recent WTA tournaments.
She was reluctant to speak about
her split with her German coach
Sascha Bajin earlier this year.
“I feel like I get in trouble for
answering questions like this.
There were irreconcilable differ-
ences,” she said.
Osaka said she hoped to get
more used to playing on clay
The bounces are different and
you have to swing for the ball. For
me it is a little bit difficult, be-
cause I can’t hit as flat.”
Osaka is expected to play her
first game on Thursday, where
she faces a potential clash with
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei, who beat
her in Miami last month. Reign-
ing Wimbledon champion An-
gelique Kerber, meanwhile, has
recovered from illness in time to
launch her clay season on home
soil as she eyes a career Grand
Slam in Paris this year.
Kerber has won every major
except the French Open since
2016, but she has never got past
the quarter-finals at Roland Gar-
ros. “You know clay and me, you
know the story,” she said.
“It’s a tough challenge (to
win all four Grand Slam tour-
naments), but I will not put too
much pressure on my side. Right
now, I will focus on the tourna-
ny’s Fed Cup play-off win over
Latvia last week after she picked
up an illness earlier this month,
but said that she had returned
to full strength. Halep’s absence
has given the German a little
more breathing space.
Instead of playing a first-
round match against Donna Ve-
kic today, Kerber gets a bye to the
second round, where she faces
compatriot Andrea Petkovic.
FIRST ROUND RESULTS
(x denotes seeding):
Daria Kasatkina (RUS) bt Elise
Mertens (BEL) 7-6 (10/8), 7-5;
Anastasija Sevastova (LAT x7)
bt Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) 6-2,
4-6, 6-0; Andrea Petkovic (GER)
bt Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP)6-
3, 6-4; Greet Minnen (BEL) bt
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 7-5, 6-3;
Laura Siegemund (GER) bt Lesia
Tsurenko (UKR) 6-2, 6-2
G
erhard Berger has always rated
former teammate Ayrton Senna in a
league of his own but he says Lewis
Hamilton now ranks alongside the
late Brazilian Formula One champion in his
estimation. Speaking ahead of the 25th an-
niversary of Senna’s death at Imola on May
1, Berger told reporters his friend still led as
a personality and the legend that surrounds
him. In purely sporting terms, however, the
similarities were clear.
“Everybody asks me ‘How do you see this
driver against Ayrton?’ and I always, in all
the years, say ‘I don’t see anybody near to
Ayrton’,” explained the Austrian, who part-
nered Senna at McLaren from 1990-92.
“But Lewis is (now) the first driver I put on
the same level as Ayrton.”
Berger, who won 10 races for Benetton,
McLaren and Ferrari between 1986 and 1997
and now runs the DTM (German Touring
Car) series, said statistics were only one way
of measuring greatness.
“I go more by feeling and watching, and
for me — and there were great champions
like Nelson (Piquet), like Niki (Lauda), like
(Alain) Prost, like Michael (Schumacher) —
there has always been one above: Ayrton,”
he said. “And now Lewis I see in the same
league.”
Hamilton has five championships, one
with McLaren in 2008 and four with Mer-
cedes in the last five seasons. He is leading
the championship into this weekend’s Az-
erbaijan Grand Prix. The 34-year-old Briton
holds several records, including most pole
positions (84), and his 75 wins are second
only to seven times champion Schumacher’s
career haul of 91. Senna won three champi-
onships with McLaren and held the record
I see still Ayrton winning the game because
in the end Ayrton was such a charming guy
and a personality. And obviously if someone
loses his life and stays with us in the way of
a legend, it’s always something special,” said
Berger.
“But I try to see it from a performance
point and from a performance point, Lewis
is going from one pole position to the next
one and Lewis is going from one race win to
the next one. Just like Ayrton did.”
Berger said Hamilton was “outstandingly
fast”, made fewer mistakes than rivals and
knew when to be patient. “It looks like he’s
just running the game in such a good way
that he’s unbeatable at the moment,” said
the Austrian. “Yes he’s in the best car and
best engine, but he also is the best. By far the
best man at the moment.”
He said Hamilton had a good chance of
breaking Schumacher’s records. “I would
like to protect Michael’s success because
such a tragedy, it’s so sad to see these
things,” Berger added, referring to the 2013
ski accident that left the German with se-
vere head injuries.
 Wednesday, April 24, 2019

GULF TIMES SPORT

ASIAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SPOTLIGHT

Almoez shines as More work

to do, says
Duhail beat Al Ain Al Sadd
coach
Ferreira
AFC AFC Champions League’s top
Doha scorer Bounedjah popped up
with a late goal to secure a vital
win.

A
l Sadd coach Jesualdo
Ferreira insists there
is plenty of work to
do in order to qualify
for the 2019 AFC Champions
League last 16 after the Qatari
side secured a hard-fought 2-1
victory over Uzbekistan’s Pa-
khtakor on Monday.
Xavi scored his second free-
kick – and third goal – in two
games as Al Sadd took an early
lead at Jassim bin Hamad Sta-
dium before Egor Krimets lev-
elled proceedings as the sides
went in level at the interval.
But with the clock ticking
down, Baghdad Bounedjah
capitalised on a defensive error
before slotting home to seal all
three points as the 2018 semi-
finalists moved to the top of
the Group D standings.
“We expected the match
to be tough and everyone saw
the strength of the opponent,”
Ferreira told the club’s website.
“The match did not play out
Al Duhail forward Youssef El Arabi celebrates his goal during the AFC Champions League group C football match against the UAE’s Al Ain at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain in the way we wanted it to, but
yesterday. we stayed true to our identity
and tried to create chances to
Agencies stepped over the ball, pulling two defend- score and win on merit.”
Doha ers away from El Arabi who found all the Nothing could separate the
time in the world to apply the finish for his two sides in Tashkent in a 2-2
third goal of the campaign. draw on Matchday Three and a
“In the game against Perse-
polis, we got the win in injury
time; everyone on the team
knows that if they want the
win, they need to fight until
the last minute and this is what
we did today – and Baghdad
was able to score the winner in
the 87th minute,” said the Por-
tuguese coach.
“The changes in the po-
sitions between [substi-
tute] Yasir [Abubakar] and
Abdelkarim[Hassan] had a
positive effect on the result of
the match. All the players per-
formed at a good level and we
succeeded in fulfilling our ob-
jective, which was to win the
game.”
With Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli
defeating the Islamic Republic
of Iran’s Persepolis 2-1 in Mon-
day’s other Group D fixture,
the stage is set for an intrigu-
ing final two rounds of fixtures.
Just three points sepa-
rate top from bottom, with Al
Sadd leading the way on seven
points, Al Ahli on six, Pakhta-
kor on five and Persepolis on
four.
“The task remains diffi-
cult for everyone, because the
competition is very intense,

A
l Duhail maintained their posi-
tion in second place of Group C of
the 2019 AFC Champions League
with a 2-0 victory over Al Ain at
Hazza bin Zayed Stadium yesterday.
Al Ain had been without a win in their
previous three encounters against Al Du-
hail, having lost both legs in the 2018 Round
of 16 and snatched a 2-2 draw in Matchday
Three in Doha two weeks ago.
The visitors started with a bang, open-
ing the scoring after just three minutes
through Almoez Ali.
Edmilson collected Ali’s pass and ad-
vanced down the right, dribbling past his
marker and crossing back to the Qatari
international whose diving header nestled
into the back of Khaled Eisa’s net.
Al Ain quickly regrouped and tried to
get back into the game. Bandar al-Ahbabi
sent his free-kick just over the crossbar
and Ahmed Barman shot wide all inside the
opening 20 minutes.
Edmilson exchanged passes with Youssef
El Arabi before shooting from distance, but
his strike was held by Eisa as the first half
ended with a one-goal advantage for the
away side.
Rui Faria’s men doubled their lead in
style in the 66th minute. A fine passage of
passing football saw the ball reach Ali down
the left wing, and the striker evaded a de-
fender and squared it across the mouth of
goal for Shoya Nakajima.
Almoez Ali (L) and Youssef El Arabi celebrate in Al Ain yesterday. The Japanese international intelligently
Al Duhail played pragmatically after similar scenario seemed to be even if we defeat Al Ahli at
their second goal and relied on the coun- panning out in Doha in what is home,” added Ferreira.
ter-attack. Ali Afif came closest from one a congested group. “We then have to go to Iran
after being set up by El Arabi, but the mid- But Al Sadd had the better to face Persepolis and everyone
fielder’s shot from the left side crept wide of the possession and, just like knows the strength of Iranian
of the upright. in their previous home game teams when they play in front
A second win in four matches for Al Du- against Persepolis, the 2018 of their home fans.”
hail keeps them at the heart of competi-
tion, with seven points, just two behind
group leaders Al Hilal.
Al Ain, meanwhile, drift further off the
pace with two points from four games.
Their hopes are, however, still alive. The
2016 finalists need to win their remaining
fixtures and wait for other results to help
them.
Meanwhile, Saudi’s Al Hilal edged Iran’s
Estheghlal 1-0 for their third win.
Former Juventus player Sebastian Gio-
vinco scored the only goal of the match on
an assist from Nawaf al-Abid
In Group A, Iran’s Zobahan continued
their unbeaten run with a 2-0 win over the
UAE’s Al Wasl in the steel city of Foolad-
shahr, Iran.
Alireza Cheraghali put the hosts ahead
in the second minute and Amir Motahari
made it 2-0 in the 15th as Zobahan recorded
their third win that helped them reach 10
points and sit pretty at the top.
Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr, meanwhile took
second spot in Group A with six points,
bouncing back from a goal down to beat
Iraq’s Al Zawraa in Karbala.
Al Sadd coach Jesualdo Ferreira

JORDAN RALLY

Weather forces organisers to make route changes

By Sports Reporter on Thursday. We concentrated on the
Dead Sea, Jordan ceremonial start in Abdali in the heart
of Amman. We wanted to increase the
exposure of the event, give competitors’

C
ompetitors have arrived at the
Dead Sea and are carrying out
their last minute preparations
for this weekend’s Jordan Ral-
ly, round two of the 2019 FIA Middle
East Rally Championship.
Unusual weather conditions have
forced rally organisers to make further
small changes to the route. While many
parts of northern Europe basked in glo-
rious sunshine and warm Easter holiday
temperatures, the Levant region has
sustained heavy rain and even the occa-
sional snow flurry.
Temperatures are set to climb dramat-
ically this week and should be into the
thirties Centigrade at the Dead Sea by
the weekend, but Jordan Motorsport was
forced into late minor route revisions
and has done away with the second run
through the Dead Sea super special stage
before the ceremonial finish on Saturday.
Clerk of the Course, George Khoury,
said: “We had torrential rain for the last
four weeks actually. We had to redo the
itinerary totally. Our famous Jordan
River stage was initially planned but, be-
Mechanics set up Qatari star Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah’s car ahead of the Jordan Rally.
cause of the rain, we had to reinvent the
itinerary from scratch. We came up with
244 kilometres of special stages.
“We actually had snow a few days ago.
Some areas in the south of Jordan were
covered in snow. They were white over.
We were inspecting them for the last 48
hours and we are happy that they have
held to their status. There have been
minor fixes here and there and we are
working on that now. “This year we will
not be running the super special stage
sponsors more marketing opportuni-
ties and take the rally to the heart of the
city for the spectators. Hopefully we will
have one of the best Jordan rallies ever.”
Today (Tuesday), competitors from
10 nations carried out the first of two
permitted days of reconnaissance of the
special stages, with the remaining stages
scheduled for recce tomorrow (Wednes-
day). A name appearing on the entry list
of a rally outside Lebanon for the first
time is that of 21-year-old Alex Feghali,
the son of 14-time Rally of Lebanon
winner Roger. The youngster began his
motor sporting career in the Lebanese
Karting Championship and took part
in the Spring Rally with a Peugeot 208
RC2. He teams up with the experienced
co-driver Joseph Matar, himself a seven-
time winner of the Rally of Lebanon.
The event is based at the Crowne Plaza
Jordan Dead Sea Resort and gets under-
way with a ceremonial start at Abdali
Boulevard in Amman from 19.00hrs on
Thursday. It will now be fought out over
21 special stages and 244.09 competitive
kilometres in a route of 565.10km.