SPORTS ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016

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Blue Team emerge overall champions; Yellow, Green teams 1st & 2nd runners up

PIES holds Sportsfest 2016 ‘Unity in Our Community’

Joe Pavelski #8 of the San Jose Sharks, Mark Giordano #5 of the Calgary Flames, and Brent Burns #88 of the San Jose Sharks hoist John Scott #28 of the Arizona Coyotes after the 2016 Honda NHL All-Star Final Game between the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference at Bridgestone Arena on

Jan 31, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AFP)

Unwanted Scottsteals the show

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 1: Preschool, el-ementary and high school students clad in multi-colored sports uniforms took part in two separate colorful opening ceremonies and various sport events of Sportsfest 2016 of the Philippine International Eng-lish School (PIES) in Fahaheel held from Jan 26 to 28.

The fi rst day opening ceremonies of the Lower Level Division (Preschool to Grade 4) were capped by the lighting of the torch by the members of the school administration and parent representa-tive led by the School Principal Antonio A. Casupang, Administration Manager Yakoub Saleh, School Registrar Nenita P. Lesaca, ULD Vice Principal Marivic D.C. Tamondong, LLD Vice Principal Rowena P. Bautista and Parent Repre-sentative Harold Pastor. This was fol-lowed by the Oath of Sportsmanship led by Teacher Romel P. Ramos, the open-ing remarks of LLD Vice-Principal Ro-wena P. Bautista and the singing of the Sportsfest theme “Unity in Our Commu-nity. After School Principal Antonio A. Casupang declared the Sportsfest 2016 open for the lower level, the most await-ed Field Demonstration of preschool to grade 4 pupils followed which highlight-ed the fi rst day where pupils displayed their talents and versatility in gymnastics and dance moves. After the fi eld demo, parentS, teachers and students took part with excitement in various sports games like “patintero” and volleyball as well as in various parlor games like ‘kadang-kadang”, sack race, and tug of war.

The second day was an equally exciting day for all where the Upper Level Divi-sion (Grade 5 to Grade 10) students took part in colorful opening ceremonies that kicked off the day’s activity. It opened by the lighting of the torch led by the team captains of the four houses, namely: Aaron Acierto of the Blue Team, Andrei

Arabis of the Green Team, Rafaan Kabir of the Red Team and Von Novi de Leon of the Yellow Team. This was followed by the Oath of Sportsmanship led by Grade 10 student Wesley Candidato, the opening remarks of ULD Vice Principal Marivic D.C. Tamondong, the singing of the Sportsfest theme “Unity in the Com-munity”. After declaring the Sportsfest 2016 of ULD open by School Principal Antonio A. Casupang open, the elimina-tion games began for basketball, volley-

ball, badminton, table tennis, chess and of course, “patintero”

In their separate opening remarks, Vice Principals Rowena Bautista and Marivic Tamondong, while stressing on the mean-ing of the theme “Unity in Our Commu-nity”, welcomed this activity as an ap-propriate venue to strengthen bonding through friendship in sports. Friendship, they said, as an institutional value being promoted, would bring in camaraderie and closeness or unity in the communi-

ty. Sport, they added further, teaches us teamwork, the importance of fair play and that winning or losing can be done with honor—knowing that one did the very best of one’s ability.

The Championship games that fol-lowed until the third day resulted to the declaration of overall winners. The Blue Team came out to be the Overall Cham-pion; the Yellow Team as 1st Runner-up; the Green Team as 2nd Runner-up; and the Red Team as 3rd Runner–up.

Overall champions Blue Team

Top and above: Action shots taken during the event

Blue Team show off their trophies

2nd runners up Green Team Photo taken during the event 3rd runners up Red Team

1st runners up Yellow Team

New Zealand name spin trio

Pakistan’s Saaed Ajmal targeting World Twenty20tershire.

But speaking on the sidelines of a launch event for Islamabad United, one of fi ve teams taking part in the Pakistan Su-per League (PSL) to be held in the UAE this month, Ajmal said he had worked on technical fl aws and rediscovered his old menace.

“I’ve gotten a good platform and work-ing on my goals. You are going to see the Saeed Ajmal of old,” he said.

“The World Cup is after this and I want to perform well and make myself available for the team.”

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 1, (Agencies): Paki-stan’s discarded off-spinner Saaed Ajmal says he is hopeful of proving his form in a forthcoming domestic league as he targets a return to national colours in the World Twenty20 this March.

The 38-year-old, whose accuracy and deceptive doosra helped drive his team to victory in the 2009 edition, has struggled to make an impact since coming back last February from a fi ve-month ban for chuck-ing.

He took just one wicket in two ODIs when he last played, against Bangladesh, in April, and a paltry 16 wickets at 55 apiece for his English county side Worces-

New Zealand on Monday named three spinners in the Black Caps squad for the ICC World Twenty20 in India, anticipat-ing a wealth of turning wickets.

Veteran Nathan McCullum, Mitch-

plan has always been to take three front-line spinners and all three bring something different,” coach Mike Hesson said.

“It’s great to have Nathan available again and his experience in the foreign conditions will be invaluable — both he and Mitch Santner have the ability to bowl in the fi rst six overs, which gives Kane a number of options to work with.”

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Australia captain Aaron Finch is in doubt for next month’s World Twenty20 tournament in India because of a ham-string strain. Cricket Australia said Mon-day that Finch will not require surgery but

his rehabilitation may take some time and his fi tness will not be certain until much closer to the tournament

Finch suffered the injury while running between wickets in the second T20 inter-national against India in Melbourne on Friday. Cricket Australia medical manager Alex Kountouris said the injury is not a recurrence of a previous hamstring strain which needed surgery in April.

He said “we are aiming to have Aaron fi t for the ICC World T20 in India but will have better idea about his fi tness for that tournament in the coming weeks.”

CRICKET

ell Santner and Ish Sodhi were all in-cluded in the 15-man party, which will be captained by Kane Williamson with Brendon McCullum’s retirement pend-ing.

“With the Indian conditions in mind, the

ICE HOCKEY

CRICKET

Pacifi c win All-Star GameWASHINGTON, Feb 1, (AFP): NHL journeyman en-forcer John Scott, beloved by players and fans but unwant-ed by league offi cials, had the last laugh Sunday by taking Most Valuable Player honors at the NHL All-Star Game.

The 33-year-old Canadian left wing, an unlikely write-in All-Star voted to the event by fans thanks largely to an internet campaign, scored twice and was hoisted onto the shoulders of his superstar team-mates after helping the Pacifi c divi-sion win the $1 million top prize up for grabs.

“This has been great. You guys have blown me away,” Scott told fans as they chanted “M-V-P” while every player tapped his stick on the ice in tribute to an everyman living a career moment.

NHL offi cials tried to discourage Scott from taking part, he detailed in an essay on the Players Trib-une website, citing one who asked him, “Do you think this is something your kids would be proud of?”

“That’s when they lost me. That was the moment,” Scott wrote. “Because while I may not de-serve to be an NHL All-Star, I know I de-serve to be the judge of what my kids will and won’t be proud of me for.”

Scott skated with them on the ice after

Scott

the game as his pregnant wife Danielle cried.

“I’m so amazed,” she said. “At fi rst we didn’t take it super seriously but when it started to come through we were really excited.”

NHL offi cials apparently feared ridi-cule to honor a player with a mere fi ve goals in 285 games with six teams and a recent trade to a seventh, the Montreal Canadiens, that sent him to his current club, the developmental St John’s Ice-Caps in distant Newfoundland.

“While I don’t deserve to be an All-Star, I also don’t think I deserve to be treated like I’ve been by the league throughout this saga,” Scott said. “When I’m on the ice or just the bench I make my teammates feel safe to do what they do best.”

So it had to be a bodycheck to the NHL when commissioner Gary Bettman hand-ed Scott an oversized $1 million check on the ice.

“If the league thought this was an em-barrassment, pretty much all of the play-ers I’ve encountered have thought other-wise. And that didn’t happen because of the internet. I busted my ass to be one of them,” Scott wrote.

“This isn’t ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.’ I’m not some random person off the street and I didn’t win a golden ticket to ‘play hockey with the stars.’”

Scott, a 6-foot-8 (2.03m) and 270 pound (120 kg) man-mountain who typically keeps foes from manhandling skilled teammates, has been defying the odds since youth coaches told him he was too big and slow to succeed.

De Lang added

Proteas seek‘redemption’BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa, Feb 1, (AFP): South Africa will be keen to avenge a Test series defeat when they meet England in fi ve one-day interna-tionals, starting at the Mangaung Oval on Wednesday.

“There are no soft series or less impor-tant series, they are all important, particu-larly coming off a Test series loss,” said South African coach Russell Domingo.

Both teams will be looking to build on recent good results following disappoint-ing campaigns in the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

South Africa showed patchy form in the World Cup but reached the semi-fi nals, where they were beaten by New

Zealand. Since then, they have won a home series against the Black Caps and an away series in India.

England had a poor World Cup, failing to reach the knock-out stage after losing all their matches against other Test na-tions. But they then beat New Zealand 3-2 in a home series, lost by the same margin against Australia and beat Pakistan 3-1 in the United Arab Emirates.

Several of England’s leading one-day players did not appear in the recent Test series against South Africa, including wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler, who hit England’s fastest one-day century off 46 balls in the series decider against Paki-stan in Dubai.

Other new faces include captain Eoin Morgan, opening batsman Jason Roy and bowlers Reece Topley, Chris Jor-dan, David Willey and Adil Rashid, who all had some success in England’s comfortable win in a warm-up match against South Africa A in Kimberley on Saturday.

South Africa added fast bowler March-ant de Lange to their squad following the injury-forced withdrawal of Dale Steyn and the unavailability through injury for the fi rst match of Kyle Abbott.