Germany qualify for Qatar 2022, Belgium made to wait

Wednesday, October 13, 2021Rabia I 7, 1443 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

‘England’s WC challenge depends on bowlers’

Salah helps Egypt to crucial win over Libya

CRICKET CRICKET | Page 2 FOOTBALL FOOTBALL | Page 4

FOOTBALL / WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

AFPParis

A Timo Werner double on Mon-day night helped Germany stamp their ticket for the 2022 World Cup with a 4-0 win

over North Macedonia, but Belgium will have to wait until next month after Wales carved out a narrow win in Esto-nia. Hansi Flick’s men avenged a shock 2-1 home loss to the Macedonians earli-er this year to claim their seventh win in eight qualifi ers and take an unassailable eight-point lead at the top of Group J, with two matches remaining.

“We now have fi ve wins from fi ve this season,” Germany coach Hansi Flick said. “You have to compliment the team on their attitude. Of course, the fi rst half was a bit wild, but we can be happy that we won and qualifi ed.”

The 56-year-old coach said 2014 World Cup winners Germany still had “a long way to go”, but insisted his team could compete with the best in the world. “Our players have the quality to rival France, Italy and Belgium. I am very optimistic,” he said.

Midfi elder Leon Goretzka also backed Flick to take Germany back to the top of the world game after failing to make it past the fi rst two rounds at both of their last two major tournament appearances. “We still need to improve to get back to the top, but there are few people better placed than Hansi to do that,” he said.

Goalscorer Werner added that Flick’s faith in him had helped him to shrug off growing criticism of his form in recent months. “When a coach likes you and trusts you, then it helps eve-ry striker, especially me. I need that trust, and Flick gives that to me 100 percent,” he said.

Germany went into their match in Skopje knowing that they could secure their passage if they won and Armenia failed to beat Romania. After a goalless fi rst half, Kai Havertz broke the dead-lock fi ve minutes after the interval before Chelsea’s Werner struck twice in three minutes to clinch the tie for the Germans.

His fi rst came on 70 minutes when Thomas Mueller, who had teed up Havertz, fl icked the ball into the path of Werner who crashed the ball past Stole Dimitrievski in the Macedonian goal. Three minutes later, substitute Florian

Wirtz got the touch through for Werner to curl his shot past Dimitrievski and chalk up his fi fth goal in his last fi ve qualifi ers.

Jamal Musiala, 18 years and 227 days old, rounded things off with his fi rst

goal in international football, becom-ing the youngest person to score for Germany since Marius Hiller, then 17, scored against Switzerland in 1910. More importantly, Musiala sealed the win that sees the Germans become the

fi rst team, other than hosts Qatar, to qualify for the 2022 fi nals.

The second part of the bargain which secured their place in Qatar in 2022 came in Bucharest where Alexan-dru Mitrita’s goal on 26 minutes gave

Romania a 1-0 win at home against the Armenians. Kieff er Moore’s early goal in Tallinn gave Wales a slender 1-0 win over Estonia which keeps their hopes alive of catching Group E lead-ers Belgium, who were not in action after their involvement in the Nations League fi nals. Wales are fi ve points be-hind Belgium with two games to play and can still claim top spot and auto-matic qualifi cation.

The Czech Republic won 2-0 in Bela-rus to remain in the running for second place in the group. They are level on points with the Welsh but have played one match more. Wales are all but cer-tain to drop into the playoff s even if they fi nish below the Czechs, cour-tesy of winning their 2020-21 Nations League group.

“It was one of those performances we needed to dig in and grind out a re-sult,” said Wales captain Aaron Ram-sey. “It was just important to come here and get the three points. We’ve managed to do that and now we can prepare for the games in November. It’s all in our hands.”

Russia and Croatia guaranteed them-selves a top-two fi nish in Group H but top spot remains open. First-half goals from Igor Diveev and Georgi Dzhikiya gave the Russians a 2-0 cushion in Slovenia and, in spite of Josip Ilicic’s strike just before half-time, the visitors held on to claim the three points.

Russia are two points ahead of Croatia who needed Luka Modric’s 71st-minute equaliser to claim a 2-2 draw at home to Slovakia.

The Russians can secure their quali-fi cation when they travel to Croatia on November 14. Memphis Depay scored twice for the Netherlands as they thrashed Gibraltar 6-0.

The Dutch, who missed the 2018 World Cup, top Group G but Burak Yilmaz’s 99th-minute penalty which gave Turkey a 2-1 win in Latvia means they must wait until next month to secure a top-two finish. Norway, without the injured Erling Haaland, are two points behind the Nether-lands in second place after beating Montenegro 2-0.

TENNIS

Medvedev powers through at rain-hit Indian WellsPage 3

‘You have to compliment the team on their attitude. Of course, the first half was a bit wild, but we can be happy’

Germany’s forward Timo Werner (second right) celebrates with teammates after scoring his team’s second goal during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualification Group J match against North Macedonia at the Toshe Proeski National Arena in Skopje on Monday night. (AFP)

AgenciesNakhon Ratchasima, Thailand

Qatar’s Al Arabi Sports Club stormed into the semi-fi nals of the 2021 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship

following a brilliant 25-12, 25-20, 25-12 victory over AGMK in their last prelim-inary Pool B match in Nakhon Ratch-asima, Thailand, yesterday.

Arabi have won the Asian Club title in 2012, while fi nishing runners-up in 2010, 2015 and 2016. They have also fi nished third thrice in 2007, 2009 and 2017. Following the scintillating vic-tory against the Uzbekistan Premier League champions yesterday, Arabi fi nished second to Sirjan Foulad of Iran in Pool B, but both advanced to tomor-row’s semi-fi nals. It will be the Arabi’s eighth semi-fi nal appearance in the Asian Championship and they will go up against Pool A winners Burevestnik Almaty of Kazakhstan.

Yesterday, AGMK mounted a strong challenge but their determined eff ort were in vain as the Arabi came all out in attack. As expected, the Uzbek side

could not cope with the formidable rivals’ power-and-speed tactics and went down in the fi rst set to the well-established Qatari counterparts 12-25.

The Uzbeks still failed to make their mark in the second set, leaving Al Arabi to seize the opportunity to attack eff ec-tively and block solidly for the crucial 25-20 win. With Brazilian Felipe Ban-dero and Serbian Konstantin Cupko-vic continuing to notch crucial points through their spectacular attacks, the Qataris remained exceptional in the third set and captured the lopsided win 25-12 and match.

Felipe Bandero chipped in with 16 points including 14 attacks for Al Arabi, while Bunyod Egamkulov led AGMK with 13 attacks and one solid block.

“We are here to take the fi rst place and fi ght for the gold medal. We knew it was going to be tough. One more time, congratulations to the Iranian team for the win yesterday. I think we still have our chances but we need to be one hun-dred percent focused on the semifi nals because as we saw, Burevestnik Almaty are a very strong team. I do not want to underestimate them,” Al Arabi’s Boris-lav Georgiev said.

Al Arabi breeze past AGMK to enter Asian Club Championship semisVOLLEYBALL

Al Arabi players celebrate after their win over AGMK in the Men’s Club Volleyball Championship in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, yesterday.

SPORTGulf Times Wednesday, October 13, 20212

Hunter becomes youngest international centurion

SPOTLIGHT

By Simon BurntonThe Guardian

England might have fi ve of the batsmen ranked in the Interna-tional Cricket Council’s Twen-ty20 top 20 but, although Chris

Jordan admits that department of the team is “phenomenal” and “can chase down any score”, he has insisted it is the success or failure of the bowling unit that will determine whether their attempt to win the forthcoming World Cup ends in success or failure.

“I genuinely believe to win a tourna-ment you will be as good as your bowlers,” Jordan said.

“Obviously our batting lineup is well-stacked and is phenomenal and we can chase down any score, but I defi nitely be-lieve that we can (succeed) if we gel really well as a bowling unit. If we can hold our

nerve and be nice and calm at the back end of games, assess the pitch, assess conditions, assess everything, and make nice, clear and decent decisions, I think we should go alright.”

Jordan joined the squad at their train-ing camp in Oman over the weekend after completing his duties at the IPL, where following the tournament’s resumption in the UAE last month he played only one match for Punjab Kings, an experience he believes has been useful despite his lack of match action.

“It’s been worth it solely from a weath-er point of view, because it’s been very, very hot in Dubai and playing when it gets so hot you start to get tired, and that’s when decision-making starts to come into question,” he said.

“So being acclimatised to the tem-peratures has been the biggest one, so when you do get in those high-pressure moments you can still be making clear decisions.”

This will be Jordan’s third World T20, and the importance of making clear de-cisions in high-pressure moments was made crystal clear to him and all England followers at the conclusion of the last.

In the 2016 fi nal Jordan bowled the penultimate over, conceding eight runs and leaving West Indies needing 19 off Ben Stokes’ fi nal over to win; Carlos Brathwaite famously hit sixes off each of the next four balls. “When I bowled a dot ball with my fi nal ball, [victory] defi nitely did feel a lot closer than it ended up,” Jor-dan said.

“Having that feeling after that ball, I’ll never take myself to that place ever again. We came out stronger for it as a unit and a team and I defi nitely won’t be thinking that way until it is fully, fully over.”

With the benefi t of experiences like these across 65 T20 internationals, mak-ing him the most experienced bowler in England’s squad, Jordan has become one of the quiet leaders of the side.

“I’ve been privileged enough to travel the world and play with so many diff er-ent players, play under so many diff erent coaches and captains as well, and to tap into that knowledge is something I’ve been very grateful for,” he said.

“To be in a position to share it with a lot of guys is again a real honour for me. I’m just there, just being myself on a daily ba-sis and lending a helping hand.”

England’s squad contains only four players below the age of 31 and just one younger than 28, and Jordan believes the experience they have accumulated both individually and collectively could prove decisive once the competition starts.

“Having been together for so long the chemistry is there, the talent is there, all the ingredients are there for us to make a decent run in this competition,” he said.

“But we do have to bring it back to one game at a time, to do what’s in front of us, and try to build through the tournament that way.”

England’s World Cupchallenge depends on bowlers: Jordan

TWENTY20

PACEMAN BELIEVES BOWLING UNIT HOLD KEY FOR MORGAN’S SIDE

Australia’s Marsh heads into T20 World Cup eyeing Test side recall

FOCUS

ReutersSydney

Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh is hop-ing a strong showing at the Twenty20 World

Cup could lead to a recall to the Test squad ahead of the Ashes series with England later in the year.

Marsh is currently in the Unit-ed Arab Emirates fi nalising prep-arations for the T20 World Cup, which will be cohosted by the Gulf state alongside neighbours Oman, but is keeping one eye on the meeting with Joe Root’s team in December.

“I’d love to play Test crick-et again for Australia at some point,” Marsh, who last played for Australia’s Test side two years ago against England, told report-ers.

“I’m not going to have a lot of red-ball cricket to put my name up there for selection, but like many before me if I can perform in white ball then you’re still in the selectors’ eyes.

“But fi rst things fi rst is to be part of this World Cup, which is going to be very exciting.”

The 29-year-old is part of an Australian squad that is aiming to win the T20 World Cup for the fi rst time as the tournament returns after a fi ve-year hiatus partially caused by Covid-19.

Australia’s best performance came in 2010 when they fi nished as runners-up behind England in the West Indies.

Marsh believes the Aaron Finch-captained team is strong enough to go far in the competi-tion and a positive showing will give the country a boost ahead of the Ashes.

“Leading into the summer, everyone wants to be playing good cricket and a lot of our guys in this T20 side will be a part of the Ashes squad,” he said.

“There’s no doubting if we can go well here it will set us up for a really great summer of cricket.

“I feel like we have the squad every summer to go all the way. We’ve got a great core group of players and hopefully this year we can go one better.”

AFPHarare

Ireland’s Amy Hunter became international cricket’s youngest centurion on Monday after striking an unbeaten 121 against Zimbabwe on her 16th birthday.

Hunter hit eight fours in her 127-ball innings at number three and reached her century with a leg-side fl ick for four as Ireland sealed a 3-1 series win in Harare. The youngest male batter to score a century in one-day internationals was Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi, who scored 102 against Sri Lanka in 1996 aged 16 years and 217 days.

India’s Mithali Raj held the women’s record with an unbeaten 114 against Ireland in 1999 at the age of 16 years and 205 days. Hunter is also younger than all male and female centurions in Tests and Twenty20 internationals.

“It feels really good – it’s a bit surreal,” said the schoolgirl from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who was named player of the match.

“I didn’t really know what to think when I was coming up to my fi fty. I just wanted to stick by and get there. When I reached my hundred, I had no idea what to do, whether to take the helmet off or keep it on. It was unbelievable.”

Hunter made her international debut against Scotland in May aged 15. She is just the fourth woman to hit an ODI century for Ireland and the fi rst since 2000, eclipsing Karen Young’s 120 against Pakistan that year to post Ireland’s high-

est individual score. Her historic achievement remarkably comes after her previous three ODI innings yielded single-fi gure scores of 2, 1 and 4. Ireland’s women were on the wrong end of teen-age prodigy heroics in 2018 when New Zealand’s 17-year-old Amelia Kerr smashed the highest score in women’s ODIs with an unbeaten 232.

Ireland claimed their fi rst bilateral ODI series win away from home after their 85-run victory.

Hunter’s century propelled the Irish to 312-3 after 50 overs – their highest team score in ODIs – and the hosts were restricted to 227-8.

England’s paceman Chris Jordan

Gulf Lights beat Asian XI in openerBy Sports ReporterDoha

Gulf Lights defeated Asian XI by four wick-ets in the inaugural match of the 4th Gulf

Lights Cricket Tournament 2021 at the Losail Cricket Complex.

Winning the toss, Gulf Lights captain Neyamat elected to bowl. Asian XI openers started well and scored 14 runs in the fi rst over.

But, Gulf Lights struck well

and kept on taking wickets at regular intervals. Asian XI were all out for 89 in 14 overs.

Kukila made 22 runs in 18 balls with one six and one four. For Gulf Lights, Salman took three wickets for 13 runs and Ehsaan took two wickets for 22 runs.

In reply, Gulf Lights lost early wickets and were 33 runs for four wickets in six overs.

Tabish (41runs in 24 balls with fi ve sixes and one four) steadied the Gulf Lights innings and Fa-him 17 unbeaten completed the target in 13.2 overs.

Tabish of Gulf Lights was ad-justed Man-of-the-Match.

In the second match, batting fi rst, defending champions Oryx Challengers defeated Al Fardan by 42 runs. Oryx Challengers made 192 runs for six wickets in 20 overs. Jignesh made 74 runs in 38 balls with eight sixes and two fours.

Satish added 31 runs and Vikrant 25 runs. For Al Fardan Abid and Tanveer took two wickets each.

In reply, Al Fardan were all out for 150 runs in 20 overs. Majeed

(61 runs in 36 balls with six sixes and two fours) fought a lone bat-tle without support at other end. For Oryx Challengers, Rinky took four wickets. Jignesh of Oryx Challengers was adjusted Man of the match.

AR Sanaullah, Managing Partner of Gulf Lights Engg. Co. inaugurated the tournament in the presence of Qatar Veterans Cricket Association offi cials and players. The Tournament is strictly following the Covid-19 protocol of MoPH and the Qatar Olympic Committee.

CRICKET

Players and off icials pose during the inauguration of the 4th Gulf Lights Cricket Tournament 2021 at the Losail Cricket Complex.

Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh

Qatar’s Sultan al-Kuwari won the Under-13 Boys category title at the WTT Youth Contender table tennis tournament in Muscat, Oman, on Monday. Al-Kuwari beat compatriot Rawad al-Naser in a closely contested final 6-11, 11-9, 5-11, 11-9, 11-8. In the semi-finals, al-Kuwari had beaten another Qatari paddler Ahmed Korani 11-1, 5-11, 11-8, 14-12, while al-Naser got past Saudi Arabia’s Ali Altaher 11-2, 11-3, 11-5.

Al-Kuwari triumphs

SPORT3Gulf Times

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Medvedev powers through at rain-hit Indian Wells

TENNIS

AFPIndian Wells, United States

US Open champion Da-niil Medvedev “put the pressure on” to earn his 50th win of the season

at the weather-hit ATP/WTA Indian Wells, defeating Filip Kra-jinovic 6-2, 7-6 (7/1) in the third round on Monday night.

The 25-year-old Russian de-livered a dynamic performance in a second-set tiebreaker to pull away from the Serb and increase his match record to 50-10 this season.

“It was a really tough match,” Medvedev told AFP. “The fi rst set I got lucky in a few moments. The second set I started well, but he raised his level.

“I am happy I managed to fi ght on every point and get it to a tie-break. I was super solid in the tiebreak and really put the pres-sure on.”

World No. 2 Medvedev moves on to the round of 16 where he will face Bulgaria’s Grigor Dim-itrov, who cruised past American Reilly Opelka 6-3, 6-4 during a windy day session.

Medvedev has been ranked second in the world since early in the year and says his goal is to one day be No. 1, which is held by No-vak Djokovic. Medvedev defeated him in the US Open fi nal.

“Since I was six I dreamed about being number one,” Medvedev said.

“But he is the real No. 1 this year. He won three Grand Slams. That is the reality.

“It is one of my goals. I just need to win a hell of a lot of matches and Grand Slams.”

Play was delayed for about an hour in the night session before the start of Medvedev’s match after heavy rain and gusting winds swept through the Palm Springs, California area.

The worst of the bad weather

arrived in the middle of the fi rst evening match between Coco Gauff and Paula Badosa.

Action resumed after a small army of volunteers helped dry

the main stadium court at the Tennis Garden.

Organisers then had to shuffl e the schedule, postponing some doubles matches and moving

others to empty courts to get them started sooner. Medvedev beat Djokovic in the US Open fi nal last month to prevent the Serb from becoming the fi rst man

since the legendary Rod Laver to win all four Grand Slams in the same year. In his US Open victory speech, Medvedev said he forgot to get his wife an anniversary gift.

He said on Monday that win-ning a fi rst Grand Slam title was all she had asked for.

“I love my wife,” he said. “She played tennis until she was 18. We have a saying in Russian -one boat in the journey. It was a bet-ter gift for her, than even for me, that I won the US Open.”

Elsewhere in the men’s draw, Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman defeated Daniel Evans of Britain 5-7, 6-4, 6-0 and Casper Ruud of Norway rallied to beat South Africa’s Lloyd Harris 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-4.

TOP SEED OUSTEDIn the women’s draw, top seed Karolina Pliskova and defend-ing champion Bianca Andreescu both crashed out.

Pliskova lost in straight sets to unseeded Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 7-5 in a third round match.

Playing on one of the outer courts, Brazil’s Haddad Maia jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second set before the Czech picked up her game.

Haddad Maia fought back, clinching the match on her sec-ond set point when Pliskova fl ubbed a backhand off the top of her racquet.

Lucky loser Haddad Maia moves on to face Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit in the round of 16.

The red-hot Kontaveit contin-ued her fi ne run by ousting An-dreescu 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.

Kontaveit, who is seeded 18th, stretched her win streak to eight straight matches and continued her domination over Andreescu, winning all three career matches over the Canadian.

“I have been feeling really well on the court,” said the 25-year-old Kontaveit.

“I have a lot of confi dence.”

Top seed Pliskova, defending champion Andreescu lose

F1 benefi ting from cost cap and rule changes: BrawnReutersLondon

Formula One fans are seeing the benefi ts of this year’s cost cap and the new rules coming

for 2022, the sport’s managing director Ross Brawn said yes-terday with the championship battle on a knife-edge.

Mercedes’ seven times champion Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen have traded the lead repeatedly since March with the latter only six points clear after 16 of the scheduled 22 rounds.

Four teams and six drivers have won races so far, although Verstappen has won seven and Hamilton fi ve. “There is no doubt in my mind that the cost cap and the rules changes that were implemented are hav-ing a positive impact on the closeness and intensity of the championship,” said Brawn in a column for the www.formula1.com website.

“There is no capacity for a team to pour massive resource into a championship and try and run away with it. The re-sources are now limited and the teams are also focused on next year’s car, which is requir-ing a lot of time and resource.

“We still want a meritocracy. We still want the best team to win. But we don’t want them to win by a country mile simply

because they’ve got a bigger budget than anyone else. It’s pleasing to see the way things are developing.”

Mercedes, winners of the past seven drivers’ and con-structors’ championships, said in June that development on this year’s car had stopped with the team focusing on ma-jor changes for next season. The champions were 40 points behind Red Bull after eight rac-es but are now 36 in front. The $145 million budget cap intro-duced this season is set to drop to $135 million in 2023.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner told reporters after Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix that the variety of winners had been a great feature of the season - with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo among them.

“It seems a shame to change it for next year, really,” he added. Brawn disagreed, say-ing there remained underlying problems to resolve with cars still struggling to follow each other closely.

“This weekend I heard some comments around whether the 2022 regulation changes are needed given we’re currently enjoying such a golden season,” he said.

“While the 2022 rules won’t change the situation overnight I think they are a much better platform to improve the racing on the track.”

MOTORSPORT

Daniil Medvedev of Russia serves to Filip Krajinovic of Serbia during their third round match at the Indian Wells Masters. (AFP)

European players to be released from clubs a week before WCReutersParis

Players from the Euro-pean leagues will only be released to their nation-al team a week before

the start of the 2022 World Cup to be hosted by Qatar, French sports daily L’Equipe reported yesterday.

L’Equipe is citing a letter sent by European governing body UEFA to the 55 national federa-tions in Europe.

It says that the players will be freed from club duties on No-vember 14, 2022. The World Cup is usually held during the north-ern hemisphere summer, when most of the European leagues are in close season.

However next year’s edition in Qatar is being held from Nove-meber 21-Dec 18 as the weather will be cooler in the host coun-try. UEFA declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Varane injury leaves Man United short on centre-backs

Manchester United will be with-out Raphael Varane due to a groin injury that leaves Ole Gun-nar Solskjaer short on options at centre-back for a demanding few weeks.

The French defender suff ered the injury during his country’s 2-1 win over Spain on Sunday in the Nations League fi nal.

“Raphael Varane sustained a groin muscle injury in the UEFA Nations League fi nal and has commenced rehabilitation at the club,” United said in a statement. “He will be out for a few weeks.”

United captain Harry Maguire is also sidelined by a calf prob-lem leaving Solskjaer without his strongest centre-back pair-ing. Eric Bailly, whose one ap-pearance this season came in a League Cup loss to West Ham, or Phil Jones, who has not played since January 2020, could now start Saturday’s trip to Leicester in the Premier League.

After a visit to the Foxes, the Red Devils face Atalanta at home in the Champions League before fi xtures against rivals Liverpool and Tottenham later this month.

UEFA SEEKS CANDIDATES TO HOST EURO 2028

UEFA opened the process of fi nding a host for football’s 2028 European Championships yes-terday with a fi nal decision on who will be the host nation in September 2023.

National football federations have until March 2022 to declare their interest, with joint applica-tions welcome from neighbour-ing countries.

UEFA have stipulated that any candidate must possess a “mini-mum of one stadium, preferably 2 stadiums, with at least 50,000 net seating capacity” with seven more at around 30-40,000. Euro 2028 is set to take place over 51 matches and feature 24 teams, as did this year’s rescheduled Euro 2020 won by Italy.

WENGER SAYS OFFSIDE CALLS COULD BE

AUTOMATED BY NEXT YEAROff side calls could be “auto-mated by 2022”, when the World Cup will be held in Qatar, Arsene Wenger, director of the develop-ment of the world soccer at the FIFA, said.

The former Arsenal manager also said he understood the op-position of many in football to his recommendation, which FIFA has embraced, to stage the World Cup every two years.

Wenger said he could not give details of how the technology would work.

“There is a strong chance that the off side will be automated in 2022,” Wenger said.

“I’m bound to secrecy, but it will be the next big development in refereeing.”

Close off side calls are current-ly decided by video-assisted ref-ereeing (VAR), but FIFA has been working to develop “advanced off side technology”.

FOOTBALL

Get vaccinated if you want to play Australian Open, minister tells playersTennis players planning to compete in the Australian Open at Melbourne Park should get vaccinated for Covid-19 to give themselves the best chance of playing the Grand Slam, an Australian government off icial has said.Victoria state, of which Melbourne is the capital, has introduced a vaccine mandate for all professional athletes but authorities have yet to clarify whether athletes from overseas or other Australian states must also vaccinate.Victoria sports minister Martin Pakula urged players to leave no room for doubt.

“If I was an ATP or WTA player, I’d be get-ting vaccinated,” Pakula told local radio station SEN.“That will give them the best opportunity to play in the Australian Open with the more minimal restrictions that might be in place for those people.”Both the women’s WTA and men’s ATP tours have urged players to get vaccinat-ed but some have expressed reservations, including Australian Open men’s cham-pion Novak Djokovic, who is opposed to vaccine mandates.Tennis Australia, which organises the

Grand Slam, has not disclosed any ar-rangements for players for the upcoming tournament in January.But fully vaccinated players are expected to enjoy more freedoms to move around and may be able to avoid the country’s mandatory 14-day quarantine upon ar-rival. Australia’s borders remain eff ectively shut to non-residents, and Pakula said he did not know whether unvaccinated peo-ple would be allowed to enter the country by the time of the Australian Open which starts Jan. 17.“That’s going to be the subject, I suspect,

of discussion at national cabinet and amongst the federal cabinet,” he said.“As for the rules that might apply around the Australian Open, specifically, we’re in discussions with Tennis Australia and the department of health about that.”Melbourne has been locked down for months as authorities battle to control an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant while rolling out vaccinations.Victoria will lift some lockdown restric-tions when 70% of adults are fully vac-cinated, which should be late-October according to off icial projections.

Ricciardo gives a thumbs-up as F1 learns from Grosjean crash

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo has given a thumbs-up to new flame-resistant gloves, developed by Formula One’s governing body after Romain Grosjean’s fiery crash in Bahrain last year, following trials at the Turkish Grand Prix weekend. Grosjean made a miraculous escape from a fireball crash in November but suff ered burns to the back of his hands as he clam-bered free of the wreckage. The Frenchman’s Haas car speared through the protective barriers lining the track in a 53G impact that split it in half and burst into flames. The governing FIA has been working on improving protection from fire and last week announced that selected drivers would be testing new gloves for comfort and dexterity during Turkish Grand Prix practice. “I used them...I didn’t notice the diff erence,” said Australian Ric-ciardo, one of five authorised to try them out. “I’m also not very fussy with kit...but completely fine for me. It’s a nice addition without any downside.”Race director Michael Masi said the test went well.“Due to..Romain’s incident it was an area we started working on immediately, and I think we identified very quickly that it was an area we could improve,” he told reporters.“The initial feedback from the drivers is ‘Yup, all good’. There is a couple of fine-tuning elements with a couple of the brands but nothing insurmountable.”

Qatar’s Rashid al-Hajri celebrates after completing the Boston Marathon to become the first GCC athlete to finish six major world marathons, including Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. Kenya’s Benson Kipruto won the men’s race in the 125th edition of the marathon on Monday in two hours, nine minutes and 51 seconds, followed by Ethiopians Lemi Berhanu and Jemal Yimer. Kenya’s Diana Kipyogei won the women’s race.

Qatar’s al-Hajri becomes first GCC athlete to finish world’s six biggest marathons

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

GULF TIMES SPORT

Salah helps Egypt to win over Libya

WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

As Qatar prepares to host the fi rst FIFA World Cup in the Middle East and Arab world, health and safety remains at the forefront

of priorities for the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC).

In an eff ort to stage a World Cup that is safely enjoyed by all who attend, the SC has formed a unique collaboration with both internal and external stakehold-ers through its Host Country Health and Safety Assurance Project. The SC un-veiled the project during a virtual pres-entation on October 6, with the Host Country Health and Safety Assurance team fi elding numerous questions from stakeholders about the initiative and how it will work. Among the stakeholders in-volved are: Ashghal, Civil Defence, Min-istry of Public Health, Msheireb Proper-ties, Mosanada, Mowasalat, Ooredoo, Qatar Airways, Qatar Foundation, Qatar Museum and Qatar Rail.

The project will ensure all relevant stakeholders are aligned on health and safety standards – both in the lead-up to the tournament and during the event. “Through the establishment of this unique initiative, the SC continues to demonstrate its commitment towards

health and safety for the World Cup spe-cifi cally and the country as a whole,” said Abdulla al-Bishri, the SC’s Health and Safety Assurance Director.

“By bringing all of our stakeholders under the umbrella of the SC, the Host Country Health and Safety Assurance Project will ensure that the standards put in place are followed by all of our partners for our events on the road to 2022.”

One of the key objectives of the project is to ensure the compliance of health and safety standards at all offi cial and non-

offi cial Qatar 2022 sites. This includes the formation of a legal register and an extensive checklist. For the upcoming FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021, the SC and its stakeholders will conduct a health and safety inspection and audit process that will align standards for the test event that will take place in six Qatar 2022 venues in November and December.

“The FIFA Arab Cup is an important milestone event, so we need to ensure there are no signifi cant health and safety issues that may arise when it is staged

at our venues,” said al-Bishri. “These planned inspections and audits will not only serve the requirements needed to make the Arab Cup compliant, from a health and safety standpoint, it will also provide us valuable feedback on the proc-ess itself, as we look ahead to Qatar 2022.”

By working closely with its valued stakeholders, the SC plans to make the Host Country Health and Safety Assurance Project another key element in its endeav-our to deliver an amazing experience when the world comes to Qatar in 2022.

By Sports ReporterDoha

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah’s winning run came to an end at the fourth stage of the Rally Morocco yesterday but the rally ace held the overall led at the fourth round of

the 2021 World Cup for Cross Country Rallies. Al-Attiyah and his French co-driver Mathieu

Baumel fi nished second behind Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed al-Rajhi in 367km special stage. With just one stage remaining today, al-Attiyah holds an 11-minute 21-second lead over al-Rajhi.

Baumel said: “We didn’t want to open on the last day so this morning we started off gently. And then we made a small navigation error that cost us a minute or two. At 224 km we were able to work out the times and saw that Yazeed had pulled back almost 5 minutes and Kuba 2 so over the last part of the special we decided to up the pace a little. All in all perfect for tomorrow. The plan will be to come up to Yazeed’s dust and stay behind him.”

Meanwhile, Matthias Walkner fi nished second fastest on the fourth and penultimate stage to regain overall lead in the bike category. The Red Bull KTM Factory rider leads Monster Energy Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla by just 37 seconds with Daneil Sanders third, a further fi ve minute 46 seconds behind. Yes-terday, Sanders won the fourth stage.

AFPJohannesburg

Liverpool star Mohamed Salah helped Egypt to a 3-0 World Cup qualifying triumph over closest rivals Libya on Monday night that

puts them on the brink of winning Group F and reaching the fi nal elimination round. The two-time African Footballer of the Year was a constant threat in Beng-hazi as the Pharaohs completed a double over the Mediterranean Knights having won 1-0 in Alexandria three days ago.

Ahmed el Fotouh broke the deadlock on 40 minutes, Mostafa Mohamed added a second goal in fi rst-half added time and substitute Ramadan Sobhi netted after 72 minutes. Egypt have 10 points, four more than second-place Libya, after four rounds and need one win from fi xtures against Angola and Gabon in November to be sure of making the play-off s.

The 10 group winners will be split into fi ve pairings, and the winners of the two-legged ties in March will represent Africa at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

In Group D, Ivory Coast retained a one-point advantage over Cameroon in what is widely regarded as the toughest of the 10 mini-leagues with the two nations boast-ing 10 World Cup appearances between them. Ivory Coast edged Malawi 2-1 in Cotonou and Cameroon pipped Mozam-bique 1-0 in Tangier to turn the section into a two-team race to fi nish fi rst.

The qualifi ers were played in Benin and Morocco because hosts Ivory Coast and Mozambique lack international-standard stadiums. Arsenal forward Nicolas Pepe gave three-time World Cup participants Ivory Coast a great start by scoring with-in two minutes as he punished a defensive mix-up. Malawi levelled on 20 minutes through Khuda Muyaba, who rifl ed a low shot from outside the box past Sylvain

Gbohouo into the corner of the net.The match-winner came on 67 min-

utes as AC Milan midfi elder Franck Kes-sie gave goalkeeper Brighton Munthali no chance with a rising strike from the penalty spot. Several fl ight delays due to Covid-19 cases among the airline crew meant Cameroon arrived in Morocco only 11 hours before the kick-off .

After an understandably lacklustre fi rst-half performance by the Indomi-

table Lions, whose seven World Cup ap-pearances is an African record, Portu-guese coach Toni Conceicao gambled. He took off Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Karl Toko Ekambi at half-time and re-placed his third forward, Vincent Abou-bakar, early in the second half.

Minus three of their best known play-ers, Cameroon struggled at times to con-tain the lively Mozambican Mambas, with forward Geny Catamo a constant threat.

But Cameroon defender Michael Nga-deu-Ngadjui succeeded on 68 minutes where the attackers had failed, nodding the ball into the net after a weak punched clearance off a corner by goalkeeper Her-nani Siluane. Meanwhile, Burkina Faso replaced reigning African champions Al-geria as Group A leaders thanks to a nar-rower than expected 2-0 win over whip-ping boys Djibouti, the lowest ranked of the 40 group-phase sides.

Egypt have 10 points, four more than second-place Libya, after four rounds

SC and stakeholders align on health and safety projects

Al-Attiyah closes in on Rally of Morocco title

FOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

Qatar U-23 squad prepare for Asian qualifi ers

FOOTBALL

By Sports ReporterDoha

The training camp of the Qatar U-23 team is in full swing at the Aspire Academy as players pre-

pare for the upcoming qualifying matches for the Asian U-23 Cup in Doha.

The training camp, being su-pervised by coach Nicolas Cor-dova, started on Sunday and will continue till October 20. Besides training, Qatar will also play two friendly matches against Kuwait U-23 – on October 15 and Octo-ber 18.

A total of 24 players are par-ticipating in the training camp, with Al Sadd’s quartet of Mo-hamed Waad, Youssef Abdul Razzaq, Salah Zakaria and Ham-mam al-Amin set to join the team today.

Qatar U-23 player Mohamed Ayyash said the team was pre-paring well for the qualifying matches. “We are happy with the preparations as we target full points in the qualifi ers,” he said before terming friendlies against Kuwait important. “It will be our fi nal games before the qualifying matches and will help us in giv-ing fi nal touches of our prepara-tion,” said Ayyash.

Japan boss urges team to build on crucial

World Cup winSaitama, Japan: Under-fire Ja-pan manager Hajime Moriyasu urged his team to build on the dramatic 2-1 win over Aus-tralia yesterday that jolted their flatlining World Cup qualifying campaign into life. Japan went into the crunch home match having lost two of their opening three games in Group B, but took three crucial points thanks to an 85th-minute own goal from Australia’s Aziz Behich.

Japan still trail Australia and Saudi Arabia in the battle for the group’s two automatic spots for Qatar 2022, but the win blew Group B wide open and ended the visitors’ record of 11 straight victories in one World Cup quali-fying campaign.

There was stalemate mean-while at the top of Asian qualify-ing Group A, with Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min scoring for the second game in a row for South Korea before they conceded with 14 minutes left in a 1-1 draw in Iran.

Embattled Japan boss Moriyasu said: “We kept fighting until the end and never gave up — we are determined to get to the World Cup and we showed that tonight. It was a great win but we still have a lot of tough games to come. We have to make sure we use this win and build on it.”

Japanese media had specu-lated that Moriyasu could lose

his job with anything less than a win over in-form Australia, and the manager made a special point of applauding fans behind the goal after the final whistle in Saitama.

Japan went into the game knowing that anything less than a win would put them in serious danger of missing out on the World Cup for the first time since 1994. Ao Tanaka gave them the perfect start with the opening goal in the eighth minute, only for Australia’s Ajdin Hrustic to equalise with a 69th-minute direct free kick.

But Behich turned the ball into his own net with five min-utes remaining, after Takuma Asano’s shot rebounded off the post. Takumi Minamino played a low cross that Behich failed to cut out for Japan’s opener, and Tanaka was on hand to drill the ball past goalkeeper Maty Ryan. But the Socceroos hit back in the second half, and thought they had been awarded a penalty when Hidemasa Morita tripped Hrustic.

The referee changed the deci-sion to a free kick on the edge of the box after a VAR review, but Hrustic slammed the ball past Shuichi Gonda regardless. Japan went in desperate search of a winner, with Ryan denying Junya Ito and substitute Kyogo Furuhashi before Behich scored in his own net.

Egypt’s Mohamed Salah scored a brace against Libya in the World Cup qualifiers.

Qatar under-23 footballers train at the Aspire Academy.

The SC has formed a collaboration with stakeholders through its Host Country Health and Safety Assurance Project.

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (right) and his French co-driver Mathieu Baumel hold an 11:21.00 seconds lead at the Rally of Morocco.

Ireland’s Troy Parrott (centre) vies for the ball with Qatar’s Assim Madibo (left) and Tarek Salman during the friendly match at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, yesterday. Callum Robinson scored a hat-trick as Ireland won 4-0.

QATAR GO DOWN TO IRELAND IN DUBLIN