Friday, June 25, 2021Dhul-Qa’da 15, 1442 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Did what we had to, says Portugal coach of draw with France

Hamilton fears British GP crowd move is premature

FORMULA FORMULA | Page 2 FOOTBALL FOOTBALL | Page 4

TENNIS

Giorgi knocks out top seed SabalenkaPage 3

Palestine rout Comoros to make main draw

Bahrain, Kuwait all set for a tough encounter

Late goal gives Brazil controversial 2-1 win over Colombia

FIFA ARAB CUP QUALIFICATION PREVIEW

COPA AMERICA

Seyam scores a brace as Palestine rally from one goal down to win 5-1

ReutersRio de Janeiro, Brazil

Brazil went behind for the fi rst time in eight games on Wednesday but re-sponded with a contro-

versial equaliser before netting a dramatic winner deep into stop-page time for a 2-1 victory over Colombia in the Copa America.

Brazil had won their previ-ous nine games coming into the match in Rio de Janeiro, all bar one of them without conceding a goal, but they went behind in the 10th minute thanks to a wonder strike from Luis Diaz.

Juan Cuadrado swung in a cross from the right and Porto midfi elder Diaz leapt acrobati-

cally to volley an overhead kick past a helpless Weverton.

Brazil were forced to chase the game and they had most of the ball and almost all the chances, though Colombia did an excel-lent job of closing them down in the fi nal third.

The hosts eventually got an equaliser with 12 minutes re-maining, though it came in con-troversial circumstances.

With Brazil on the attack the ball hit referee Nestor Pitana and as Colombia’s players paused ex-pecting him to order a drop ball the Argentine, who refereed the 2018 World Cup fi nal, allowed play to continue.

Brazil took full advantage as Roberto Firmino headed home a cross from the left, with goal-

keeper David Ospina letting the ball squirm through his hands on the night he tied Carlos Valder-rama as Colombia’s most capped male player with 111 appearances.

The Colombian players were incensed but the goal was al-lowed to stand, even after a check by the Video Assistant Referee.

Colombian coach Reinaldo Rueda refused to be drawn on the decision other than to say, “I think the situation with the ref-eree distracted our players.”

There was worse to come for the visitors.

Their protests after the equal-iser led to 10 minutes of stop-page time being added, and in the 100th minute of the match Casemiro headed home from a corner to give Brazil the win.

Captain Casemiro said Brazil fully deserved the three points.

“Brazil deserve congratulations for their mental strength, for be-ing well on top, and getting our re-ward in the end because we had the coolness to keep plugging away in search of a goal,” he added. “That’s the mentality you have to have.

“They came forward once, scored a goal, sat back and it turned into a game of attack against defence.”

Brazil had already qualifi ed for the quarter-fi nals and with four points from four games Colom-bia join them. Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela are vying for the last two spots from the group.

In Sunday’s fi nal group games, Ecuador face Brazil while Peru play Venezuela.

Colombia’s goalkeeper David Ospina (right) speaks with Argentine referee Nestor Pitana after Brazil scored during the Copa America group match in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday. (AFP)

By Yash MudgalDoha

Bahrain and Kuwait are expected to battle keenly for a place in the main draw of the FIFA Arab Cup at the Khalifa International Sta-

dium today.Both the Gulf rivals enter the match

after failing to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, hoping to secure a spot in the Arab Cup main draw.

“The two teams know each other well and this match is going to be tough,” Bah-rain coach Helio Sousa told a pre-match press conference yesterday.

Bahrain is going into the match as slight favourites, having beaten Hong Kong 4-0 in their World Cup qualifying fi nale.

Bahrain have notched some good re-sults against Kuwait having won the en-counter twice in the last two years. First, Bahrain won 1-0 in the West Asian Cham-pionships, before beating Kuwait 4-2 in the Arabian Gulf Cup in Doha; on both the occasions they emerged as tournament champions.

“We met them two times two years ago and both were tough matches. They have quality players in their line-up. We are aware of their strong points and also who their top players are; the FIFA rankings (Bahrain are 98 and Kuwait 148) do not refl ect the quality of the team. It’ll be a diffi cult match,” Sousa said.

He added the boys are keen to make up for their exit from the Asian qualifi ers.

“We are disappointed because of our

exit from the World Cup qualifi ers and we want to make amends and qualify for the Arab Cup,” the Portuguese said. “We were in a very tough group with Iran and Iraq, but we played well and hope to do well to-morrow to win.”

Kuwait coach Thamer Enad also feels today’s tie will be a diffi cult one.

“The match will be a tough one. The two teams are similar, but Bahrain will enter the match having a better chance of winning. They are a good team with a good coach,” Enad said.

“After the exit from the Asian qualifi ers it’s our chance to prove a point. We hope we can come up with a solid performance. I have 23 players in whom I completely trust to play a great match. All the play-ers are determined to compensate for the failures in the qualifi ers,” he said.

Bahrain player Ali Abdullah said it will be an interesting match.

“We have played each other in recent times and we are aware of each other’s playing style. The chances of the two teams are equal. It will be an interesting match as both teams have an open way to attack, but we have to be at our best to beat them,” Abdullah said.

Talking about the facilities in Qatar, Sousa said, “We have played here during the last Gulf Cup and the experience was fantastic. Things are good here and excit-ing. Every detail is taken care of and the Arab Cup is a good step before hosting the World Cup,” he said.

The winner of the match will enter Group A which also includes hosts Qatar, Iraq and Oman.

Bahrain coach Helio Sousa (right) speaks at the pre-match press conference yesterday.

By Sports ReporterDoha

Palestine fi red a warning to their FIFA Arab Cup rivals by making the main draw of the tournament with an em-

phatic 5-1 win over the Comoros in their one-off qualifi er at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium last night.

After failing to make the cut for the third and fi nal phase of qualifying for next year’s World Cup in Qatar, yesterday’s victory came as a sooth-ing salve for the Palestinians whose struggles in sport mirror the prob-lems they endure on a daily basis due to the Israeli occupation.

Yesterday, they found themselves trailing by an early goal scored by the hard-running Comoros mid-fi elder Djoumoi Moussa but hit back in style with a dominating display, with three of the goals coming in the second half.

The Comoros played aggressive football but Layth Kharoub opened the fl oodgates for the Palestinians with a left-footed sliding shot from close fol-lowing a free-kick in the 35th minute.

A few minutes later, Oday Dab-bagh found himself in great position to strike but the Comoros goalkeeper Moyadh Oussesi brought off a spec-tacular save.

The Comoros’ initial enthusiasm began to wane as the Palestinians went about asserting their superi-ority with Dabbagh being the main protagonist.

The forward put his team ahead for the fi rst time with a beautifully crafted goal as he scythed through the defence on the right fl ank before beating goalkeeper Ousseni with a powerful shot.

The Comoros fell further behind early after the break, thanks to a diving header by midfi elder Tamer Seyam off a Dabbagh pass from the right fl ank.

Although not in a great position to score, Seyam did well to time his leap to perfection and head home, the ball taking a defl ection off the upright.

By this point the Comoros had

given up as the Palestinians created several opportunities as Ousseni was kept on his toes.

But the lively goalkeeper couldn’t stop Seyam from adding to his tally as got on the end of a pass from Dab-bagh to help Palestine go 4-1 up.

The Comoros’ rout was complete when substitute Islam Batran drib-

bled past a throng of defenders to beat Ousseni all ends up.

Palestine will however fi gure in Group C of the tournament prop-er where they will have to face the might of not only Asian giants Saudi Arabia, but also African favourites Morocco and Jordan.

Meanwhile, the president of the

Comoros Football Association, Ali Sayed Othman, has praised the “per-fect” organisation of the 2021 Arab Cup qualifi ers.

Othman said in a press statement: “We are confi dent that the tourna-ment will be organised perfectly, espe-cially that the State of Qatar is on the verge of organising the World Cup.”

Palestine players celebrate a goal during their FIFA Arab Cup qualification match against Comoros at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium yesterday. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil

SPORTGulf Times Friday, June 25, 20212

Buttler fi res England to big win over Sri Lanka

Hamilton fears British GP crowd move is prematureSilverstone allowed full capacity crowd for July race, last year’s races held behind closed doors

CRICKET

MOTORSPORT

ReutersLondon

Seven times world cham-pion Lewis Hamilton said yesterday Formula One could be moving too

fast with the decision to allow a capacity crowd at his home Brit-ish Grand Prix next month.

The sport announced earlier that hundreds of thousands of fans could attend the July 16-18 grand prix at Silverstone, with some 140,000 on race Sunday.

That would be the biggest crowd at a sporting event since the Covid-19 pandemic trig-gered a national lockdown in March last year. The last pre-pandemic race held at the cir-cuit with spectators in 2019 saw a three-day attendance of 351,000 and 141,000 on Sunday. The circuit hosted two races last year, both without a crowd.

“I’m kind of split,” Mercedes driver Hamilton told report-ers ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix at Austria’s Red Bull ring. “I can’t tell you how excited I am to see people and the British crowd, because it is the best crowd of the whole year. “Obviously I watch the news so I hear about the cases going up massively in the UK and so on that side I wor-ry for people, naturally.”

Hamilton said he did not want to turn the announcement into a negative but “it feels a bit pre-mature to me”.

Informed that everyone at-tending would have to be vac-cinated, or test negative for the virus, Hamilton, who is outspo-ken on social issues, said that was a good thing but it did not change his opinion. “I like to err on the side of caution and slowly build up rather than full pelt and using our British fans as a test,” he said. Other British drivers Lando Norris of McLaren and Williams’ George Russell were more eff usive.

“I’m very, very happy. De-lighted in fact,” said Norris. “We missed it a lot last year. It’s been nice slowly having more and more through this season al-ready here and there.

“Just to have them all back and feeling more normal again is something I’m very excited for.”

Some 15,000 are expected for Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix, with many more to be allowed at the following weekend’s Aus-trian Grand Prix at the same cir-cuit. 15,000 also attended last

weekend’s French Grand Prix.“It is fantastic news that Sil-

verstone will be a full capacity event,” said Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali.

“It will be an incredible week-end with hundreds of thousands of fans being there to see our fi rst ever Sprint event on the

Saturday and the main event on Sunday.” The grand prix will be the fi rst to try out a new format, with qualifying on Friday and then a sprint race on Saturday to determine the grid for Sunday’s race. Points will also be awarded to the top three fi nishers on Sat-urday. Silverstone, a home GP

for the majority of teams, has been included along with Wim-bledon tennis, the golf Open and the Euro 2020 semi-fi nals and fi nal at Wembley, in the British government’s Event Research Programme. “This is something we have all been working to-wards for months and I cannot

wait to welcome a full capacity crowd back to Silverstone this July,” said Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle.

“Many of our fans rolled their tickets over from 2020 but they are now well placed to enjoy what is sure to be one of the highlights of the summer.”

AFPLondon

Jos Buttler saw England to a comfortable eight-wicket win in the fi rst Twenty20 international against Sri

Lanka at Sophia Gardens on Wednesday as the hosts went 1-0 up in a three-match series.

Sri Lanka were restricted to a modest 129-7 after winning the toss, with leg-spinner Adil Rash-id taking 2-17 from his four overs and Sam Curran 2-25 from three overs. Chris Woakes, playing his fi rst international T20 since 2015, went wicketless in an economical return of 0-14 in three overs.

Rashid, however, did not con-cede a boundary while entic-ing Kusal Perera and Wanindu Hasaranga to hole out to Chris Jordan at long-on. Only Dasun Shanaka with 50 off 44 balls re-ally threatened England’s attack.

But a target of 130 proved well within the range of England, the world’s top-ranked T20 side, as they won with 17 balls to spare.

Buttler thrashed eight fours and one six in his innings and shared an opening stand of 80

with Jason Roy. “The thing about batting in partnerships is it al-lows you to try and sit in and keep Roy back on strike,” said player of the match Buttler, whose innings was labelled a “masterclass” by England captain Eoin Morgan

“I think it was a fantastic per-

formance from the boys, early wickets in the power play always keep you in the game,” added Buttler after his ninth half-cen-tury in just 20 T20 innings open-ing for England. Morgan, speak-ing to BBC Radio, was pleased by an all-round display that augurs

well for England’s prospects in October’s T20 World Cup.

“It’s a great way to start a se-ries that’s so condensed,” he said.

“The bowlers really did set the tone, so full credit to them. Chris Woakes has come and performed extremely well. Liam Livingstone has done a really good job and taken his opportunity.

“In the chase, Roy and Buttler at the top of the order are a quite formidable pair, and when they play in the fashion that they can be quite intimidating.”

Sri Lanka captain Kusal Perera added: “Our batting department was not up to the mark - 130 was not good enough against the number one side in the world.

“Our bowlers gave us a little bit of hope. There are a lot of young-sters in our team but that is no an excuse. We have to adapt to con-ditions.”

The series continues with a second match at Sophia Gardens on Thursday.

BRIEF SCORESEngland 130 for 2 (Buttler 68*, Roy 36) beat Sri Lanka 129 for 7 (Shanaka 50, Rashid 2-17) by eight wickets

Rossi hopes to rise again at MotoGP’s ‘Temple of Speed’AFPParis

As one of MotoGPs two great surviving stars unexpectedly blazed again last weekend,

the other seems to be struggling against the inevitable slide into darkness, but the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday could off er Valentino Rossi hope.

As the chequered fl ag fell at the German Grand Prix last Sun-day, it seemed inevitable that six-time world champion Marc Marquez had taken it.

He might have missed a year after an awful arm injury, but he had won the last 10 times he had raced at the Sachsenring.

If the same logic applies at As-sen, then perhaps Rossi, who has won 10 times at the track, will produce an even bigger surprise.

The Italian has won one more world title than Marquez, but at 42 he is struggling to outpace fa-ther time. Demoted to the Yama-ha satellite team SRT this season, the Italian has not fi nished better than 10th in the eight races. He limped in 14th in Germany and sits 19th in the rider standings.

“We need to fi gure out what happened in Germany and work well to make some improve-ments before we are back on track this weekend,” Rossi told the Yamaha web site.

Assen’s ‘Temple of Speed’ has long suited Rossi.

His last victory, back in 2017, came at the Dutch circuit. That triumph, coming 20 years and 311 days after he won the 125cc race in the Czech Republic in 1996, gave him the longest win-ning Grand Prix career. “Assen is a great track for me,” Rossi said.

“I like the layout a lot, it is very fl owing. It is somewhere I really enjoy and you always feel some

great emotion when riding there. “So we need to stay positive,

concentrate on the fi nal round before the summer break and achieve a good result in Assen.”

SRT announced on Wednes-day that their other regular rider, Franco Morbidelli, would miss the race after injuring a knee training on Tuesday. The Ital-ian will be replaced by American Garrett Gerloff .

Marquez meanwhile down-played surging expectations.

He pointed out after his fi rst victory in more than 18 months, that the narrow, winding Sach-senring suited him and his Hon-da, in particular the preponder-ance of left-hand turns put less strain on his weak right arm.

“In Assen we will struggle again,” the Spaniard said.

“We have enjoyed our moment after the Sachsenring, with the team, with my family and with those who helped me,” he told the Honda web site on Tuesday, before striking a cautious note about Assen. “We have had good results there but of course our situation is diff erent now.”

But Marquez, who exposed the caution of other riders by attacking when the rain started to fall in Germany, noted con-ditions might be in his favour. “The weather is looking very cold and wet.”

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo has been picking up points recently in races when he felt he lacked speed on his fac-tory Yamaha.

“Finishing third at the Sach-senring was good,” he said. “Be-ing on the podium after ‘bad weekend’ makes us feel even more positive.”

“This weekend we’re riding at TT Circuit Assen, which is one of my favourite circuits, and it suits the Yamaha well. I wish it was Friday already!”

MOTORCYCLING

‘Best ever’, Hadlee hails New Zealand’s Test world championsNew Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and its greatest cricketer Richard Hadlee led the tributes yesterday after the Black Caps claimed the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) by beating India. Kane William-son’s team became test cricket’s first off icial world champions after prevailing by eight wickets in Southampton on Wednesday, the reserve day of a match plagued by bad weather. “The Black Caps have made New Zea-land proud. This was a masterful performance from a team at the top of their game and on top of the world,” Ardern said in a state-ment. “Kane Williamson and the team leadership have built a brilliant and humble squad who have become an inspiration to many New Zealanders. “Over a number of years now we have seen the development of a team and team culture that has taken New Zealand cricket to world beating heights.”New Zealand have been to the semi-final of the 50-over World Cup eight times and lost the last

two finals, in heartbreaking fash-ion to England on the boundary countback rule after the 2019 decider was tied. Throughout those setbacks, New Zealand have continued to play in a spirit sometimes derided as “nice guy” cricket. More importantly, they have won all but one match, a draw, in four Test series since a 3-0 drubbing in Australia around the turn of 2020. Hadlee, one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of the game, said the New Zealand test team “thor-oughly deserved” the title on the back of their recent form.“Over the past two years, the Black Caps performances in the test arena have been outstand-ing with Test match and series wins at home and abroad,” the 69-year-old said in a statement.“The whole team has shown a high degree of professionalism. Their skill sets have comple-mented each other to make them a complete playing unit.“It’s fair to say that this current group of players is the best in our history.”

Pakistan drop Ali from squad for PSL bubble breach

Pakistan have dropped Haider Ali from their tour of England and West Indies after the batsman and his Peshawar Zalmi team-mate Umaid Asif broke Covid-19 protocols in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in Abu Dhabi, the cricket board said yesterday. Both have been suspended from the PSL final against Multan Sultans later yesterday after ad-mitting to meeting people from outside their designated bio-secure bubble and flouting social distancing norms on Wednesday. “The two cricketers were found not to have interacted with any other squad members at any time after the incident and have been placed in room isolation,” the Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement. Sohaib Maqsood, who last played for Pakistan in a T20 match in New Zealand more than five years ago, will replace Haider in the squad. Pakistan will leave for England today to play three one-day and an equal number of T20 matches there.

Hamilton opens contract talks and keen for Bottas to staySeven times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton said yesterday he had opened contract renewal talks with Mercedes and gave a ringing endorsement of Valtteri Bottas as his teammate. The 36-year-old Briton and Bottas are out of contract at the end of the season, with Hamilton expected to continue but much speculation about the second seat at the reigning champions. “We have begun discussions,” Hamilton told reporters at the Styrian Grand Prix in Austria. “Not a lot to say too much on it but we have had a discus-sion and things are positive.” Hamilton’s current contract was

announced only last February after protracted talks through a Covid-19 pandemic-hit 2020 season, with the Briton also testing positive for the virus and missing a race. Team boss Toto Wolff has said he intends to get the next deal sorted much sooner. Mercedes are also weighing up Britain’s George Russell, who races for Williams but has a long-term contract with the champions, as a possible replacement for Bottas. Bottas has been with the team since 2017, joining as a replacement for 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg after the German’s sudden retire-ment, but has suff ered bad luck and setbacks this year. The Finn

is fifth overall and has scored half the points of Hamilton, who has won three of seven races and is second in the standings to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. “Valtteri is my teammate now and both of us had ups and downs in our careers,” said Hamilton. “I think he is a fantastic team-mate and I don’t necessarily see that it needs to change.” Bottas has fuelled speculation with a feistier attitude towards his team, complaining over the radio at last weekend’s French Grand Prix that he was not be-ing listened to on the strategy.In Monaco he told reporters he had voiced concern about pitstops before his race was

ended by mechanics failing to remove a stuck wheel.Some have read that as a sign Bottas knows he is moving on and has nothing to lose in speaking out but the driver poured cold water on that.“That perception is completely false,” he said. “We have a good relationship with the team and there are no issues. Those kinds of situations are normal.“What has brought us this far as a team is always being direct, and always being honest on your feelings and if you feel there is a place for improve-ment. So it’s nothing new and everything’s good.” (Reuters)

Rossi’s VR46 ink Ducati deal from 2022

Seven-time MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi and his VR46 team have inked a three-year deal with Ducati for 2022-2024, his team announced yesterday. The team will race under the name “Aramco Racing Team VR46”, to include mention of the Saudi oil giant, who are involved as part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 frame-work to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil and diversify its economy in part through sport and entertainment.

VR46 already had shown their commitment to the category with a five-year accord running to 2026 with promotor Dorna Sports. Rossi, now 42, has not made a podium to date this season, with a best position of tenth 12 years on from the last of his top category crowns.With an eye to bringing on future stars he has founded the VR46 Riders Academy, set up in 2013 to bring on young Italian talent including, for MotoGP, 23-year-old hope Luca Marini.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton celebrates with the crowd after winning the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, Britain, on July 14, 2019. (Reuters)

England’s Jos Buttler plays a shot during the first T20I against Sri Lanka at Cardiff Wales Stadium in Cardiff , Wales. (AFP)

SPORT3Gulf Times

Friday, June 25, 2021

Giorgi knocks out top seed Sabalenka

Roglic says prepared for T-T aft er last year’s heartache

TENNIS

CYCLING

ReutersLondon

Italian qualifi er Camila Gior-gi continued her impres-sive form at the Eastbourne championships by remov-

ing top seed Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-fi nals yesterday.

Giorgi, a quarter-fi nalist at Wimbledon in 2018, used her aggressive game to claim a 7-6(5) 0-6 6-4 victory and set up a semi-fi nal against Estonian Anett Kontaveit.

Former French Open cham-pion Jelena Ostapenko is also showing impressive form ahead of Wimbledon, reaching the semi-fi nals with a 1-6 7-5 6-2 victory over Russia’s Daria Ka-satkina,

She will face either fellow Latvian Anastasija Sevastova or Elena Rybakina in her fi rst Tour-level semi-fi nal since 2019.

“I get very excited, but when it starts I get very sad because it’s very short, the grass sea-son,” former junior Wimbledon champion Ostapenko said.

“I wish it could be longer, I love to play on grass.”

Sabalenka had won her only previous meeting with Gior-gi and looked on course for a comeback victory when she reeled off the second set with a fl urry of winners to level the match.

The Belarusian then earned the fi rst break of serve in the de-ciding set but Giorgi’s game re-ignited to claim victory.

“It was a great match and very good level,” she said. “At the end I think it was more mental than physical.”

Giorgi knocked out fi fth seed Karolina Pliskova in the opening round, also in three sets, mean-ing it is the fi rst time in her ca-reer that she has had two wins over top-10 players at the same tournament.

Kontaveit battled back to beat qualifi er Viktorija Golubic 2-6 7-6(2) 7-5.

ReutersBrest, France

Slovenian rider Primoz Roglic said he has worked hard on the time trial bike in preparation for the

Tour de France after last year los-ing the race on the penultimate day’s TT stage.

The Jumbo-Visma rider looked poised to win the Tour last year as he went into the decisive stage with a 57-second lead, only to have compatriot Tadej Pogacar seize the yellow jersey.

The sight of Roglic cracking on the fi nal climb of the 36.2km time trial was the abiding mem-ory of a thrilling fi nale, and with two time trials in this year’s race he is determined that history will not repeat itself. Stage fi ve is the opening time trial, a 27.2km route, before another slightly

longer one on the penultimate day.

“We’ve checked out both time trials and how decisive they’ll be, we’ll see at the end of the Tour. We saw last year they could be really crucial and big diff erences can happen,” Roglic said at a news conference on Thursday.

“With this in mind, we tried to train with the TT bike and we put a lot of work in. We’ll see how we’ll manage it. “When you’re training alone, you don’t see how strong the others are, but we’ll see.”

Roglic will be among the fa-vourites to win the Tour but has not raced since Liege-Bastogne-Liege back in April. He admits it has been a diff erent approach to last year.

“Normally I come from alti-tude and I’m ready. Looking back to last year, there was also quite a big break with all the coronavirus

things going on,” he said. “I’m confi dent and we just have to see how it will go.”

The Jumbo-Visma team were dominant last year in the Tour build-up but less so this time, with Ineos Grenadiers looking back to their best after winning the Criterium du Dauphine and Tour de Suisse.

But Roglic remains convinced his team will give him every chance to win the general clas-sifi cation.

“We’re also here with a super strong team so we’re also ready,” he said.

“We have strong guys and I am also confi dent in them. I want to show my best way, with my whole team. We’ll try and do our best and see how it goes.”

Vinokourov steps down as Astana team manager

Alexandre Vinokourov is step-

ping down as general manager of the Astana Premier Tech cycling team he helped to create in 2006, the Kazakh outfi t said yesterday.

“We can confi rm that Alex-andre Vinokourov will not be present at the Tour de France this year as he will step down as Sports Team Principal,” Premier Tech managing director Yana Seel said in a statement two days before the start of the Tour de France.

“Alexandre still remains part of the team but he will not be in charge of the team’s sporting op-erations at the moment and will move into another role.”

Giuseppe Martinelli and Steve Bauer will lead the team on the Tour, Seel added.

Vinokourov, the 2012 Olym-pic road race champion who was kicked out of the 2007 Tour de France for blood doping, became Astana’s manager in 2013.

‘I WISH IT COULD BE LONGER, I LOVE TO PLAY ON GRASS’

Game, set and... token? Murray cashes in on 2013 Wimbledon winReutersLondon

Andy Murray is cashing in on the craze for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by selling the “mo-

ment” he won the Wimbledon tennis tournament in 2013 in the latest such high-profi le auction.

NFTs are crypto assets which record ownership of a digital item, such as an image, video or text, on blockchain. While any-one can view or download the asset in question, only the buyer can claim the status of being its offi cial owner.

So the buyer of Murray’s Wimbledon NFT will not own the copyright of the video foot-age, but a crypto asset which re-fers to a video of the moment the Scottish ace fi rst won the cov-eted lawn tennis title.

Artists, musicians, sports clubs and social media infl uenc-ers are among those to have em-braced NFTs as a way of making money from their achievements.

NFTs exploded in popular-ity in early 2021, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in investments and prompting concerns of a bubble as prices soared.

The buying frenzy continued even after cryptocurrency prices plunged last month.

Murray’s auction plan was an-nounced on Thursday by NFT marketplace WENEW, which was set up by American digital artist Mike Winkelmann, who is also known as Beeple.

“The Wimbledon Final in 2013 was such a big moment in my life. I decided to work with WENEW and Wimbledon to turn this moment into an NFT so that fans can share in that memorable day,” Murray said in a statement.

In March, an NFT of a Beeple artwork sold for $69.3 million at Christie’s, putting him in the top three most valuable living art-ists.

Beeple’s new platform, which runs on the ethereum block-chain, will sell short video clips in the form of tradable NFTs. Buyers get a small physical screen for displaying the video and in some cases perks such as celebrity access.

“Giving people the chance to collect these things is a diff er-ent experience than just view-ing them on YouTube,” Beeple added.

In the case of Murray’s NFT they also get two tickets to Cen-tre Court for the 2022 men’s Wimbledon fi nals, a chance to play tennis with the 34-year-old and signed souvenirs.

Also on the block are 20 NFTs of the moment Murray lifted his trophy at $4,999 each, 50 of his post-win interview for $499 each, 100 of his interview after his 2012 Wimbledon loss for $99 each, and 500 of a video of 2013 Murray highlights at $49 each.

WENEW will receive a portion of the proceeds, but the majority will go to the people involved in making the moment.

The Murray auction will be on July 2-5. Buyers will be able to pay in the cryptocurrency ether, as well as dollars.

SPOTLIGHT

US Open champion Thiem out of Wimbledon with wrist injuryWorld number five Dominic Thiem yester-day withdrew from Wimbledon after pick-ing up a wrist injury suff ered in Mallorca this week.“I’m really sorry for pulling out of the upcoming three tournaments I had in my calendar – Wimbledon, Hamburg and Gstaad,” the 27-year-old Austrian wrote on Twitter.“I am determined to come back stronger.”Thiem is the second top 10 player to pull out of Wimbledon after two-time champi-on Rafael Nadal said he was sitting out the

tournament to rest after his French Open semi-final exit.Wimbledon, which was cancelled last year due to the pandemic, starts at the All England Club on Monday.Thiem has endured a tough season and has already said he will skip the Tokyo Olympics to concentrate on defending his US Open title.He was knocked out of the French Open in the first round despite being a two-time runner-up in Paris and then had to retire from his opening match in the Mallorca

grass court event on Tuesday against France’s Adrian Mannarino.After consulting doctors in Barcelona, Thiem said he will have to wear a splint on his right wrist for the next five weeks.“I will do everything the doctors say in order to recover as quickly as possible.”Thiem has never got past the last 16 at Wimbledon and made first round exits on his last two visits.The US Open, where Thiem won his only Slam in 2020, gets underway on August 30.

Italy’s Camila Giorgi in action during her quarter-fi nal against Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka at the Eastbourne International yesterday. (Reuters)

Ineos’s Thomas expects ‘chaotic’ start to TourReutersBrest, France

Geraint Thomas says he expects a chaotic opening week of the Tour de France through

the Brittany countryside and believes Ineos Grenadiers could benefi t from having so many riders capable of challenging for general classifi cation.

The race gets under way in Brest tomorrow with the fi rst four stages taking place on the lumpy terrain of Brittany. With an individual time trial on day fi ve, 2018 Tour champion Tho-mas says the opening days will not be dull. “The Bretagne

stages are up and down and left and right and there could be a bit of rain and wind, so it will be a chaotic fi rst week,” Tho-mas told reporters at the British team’s pre-race news confer-ence yesterday.

“Even if gaps won’t neces-sarily be there there will be guys who have used up a lot of energy and that will have an eff ect go-ing into the fi nal week.”

There will be no gentle start for the riders this year with the opening stage a 197km route packed with climbs that may not be brutal, but will still pro-vide an early test of the legs.

It might give an early indica-tion of who will be Ineos’s main man, but with Thomas, Richard

Carapaz, Richie Porte and last year’s Giro d’Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart they have mul-tiple options in the hunt for the yellow jersey. Thomas said that could give them the edge over rivals teams who, as in the case of reigning champion Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates will be putting all their eggs in

one basket for the GC battle. “I think there are pros and cons,” Thomas said. “Four (potential leaders) gives us cards to play later in the race, but then again we can’t ride to protect four rid-ers, it would take too much out of the guys in the fi rst week.”

Ineos Grenadiers boss Dave Brailsford has promised an at-tacking strategy, allowing his team to race for stage wins rather than to control the pace.

But Thomas, who is yet to sign a new contract, says it will be a matter of “being aggressive at the right moments”. Having Porte’s vast experience on the road will add to Ineos’s strength after he returned to the team having been part of its former

domination when known as Team Sky. Porte, who fi nished third last year for Trek-Sega-fredo, picked out Primoz Roglic as the man Ineos will have to watch. “How do you combat a guy who can do everything? He’s got guys like (Steven) Kru-ijswijk, (Sepp) Kuss, and (Wout) van Aert. “He’s a very complete bike rider but I don’t know how it does it when you look at what’s happened on the last day of the Tour last year, Paris-Nice this year. “He’s got some char-acter to get back up and keep going.” Roglic was set to win the Tour last year but capitulated on the penultimate day’s time trial and was beaten by fellow Slovenian Pogacar.

FOCUS

Murray named in Britain’s tennis squad for Tokyo Games

Twice Olympic champion Andy Murray has been named in Britain’s tennis team for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the British Olympic Association said yesterday.Murray, 34, will compete in the men’s singles alongside Dan Evans and team up with Joe Salisbury in the doubles.“The Olympics means a huge amount to me, it’s a massive honour to be able to compete at a fourth Games,” Murray said in a statement.“Leading Team GB out at the Opening Ceremony five years ago in Rio was one of the highlights of my career. Going to a second Olympics as defending champion is exciting and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”Murray was beaten in straight sets by Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun at the Beijing Games in 2008. He claimed his first Olympic gold medal in 2012 in London by beating Roger Federer, weeks after losing to the Swiss in the Wimbledon final.Murray followed that up by beating Argentina’s Juan Martin

del Potro to win gold at the Olympics in Rio in 2016, but his career has been plagued by in-juries over the last three years.The Scot is ranked 119 in the world and has received a wildcard for Wimbledon, which starts on Monday.Despite Murray’s low ranking, Olympic rules allow him a route to the Games via a quota place reserved for Olympic gold med-allists/Grand Slam champions from each participating nation.Neal Skupski, who will make his Olympic debut alongside Evans and Salisbury, completes the men’s squad, with doubles specialist and Andy’s brother, Jamie Murray, missing out.Heather Watson, playing in her third Games, and Johanna Kon-ta will compete in the women’s singles and doubles events.The men’s draw in Tokyo has already been weakened by the withdrawals of Spain’s third-ranked Rafa Nadal, Austria’s world No. 5 Dominic Thiem and Canada’s 12th-ranked Denis Shapovalov.The Tokyo Games begin on July 23 and end on August 8.

Andy Murray of Britain holds up the trophy after defeating Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the final at the 2013 Wimbledon Champion-ships in London on July 7, 2013. (Reuters)

Team Jumbo Visma’s Primoz Roglic of Slovenia prepares for a training session two days ahead of the first stage of the 108th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, near Brest, yesterday. (AFP)

European champ Arican in fi nal with ease

Did what we had to: Portugal coach

Mohamed bin Abdulla al-Attiyah’s South Audley wins at Nottingham

beIN Sports launches package for Euro and Copa

UEFA scraps away goals rule in all club competitions

Friday, June 25, 2021

GULF TIMES SPORT13TH ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS WORLD CUP

UEFA EURO

HORSE RACING

FOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

By Sports ReporterDoha

Turkey’s reigning Euro-pean champion Ferhat Arican warmed up for the parallel bars fi nal

after his eff ortless attempt saw him top the qualifi cation chart at the 13th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup at the Aspire Dome yesterday.

Ferhat, who on Wednesday made it to the Pommel Horse fi nal, collected an impressive 15.200 points, while his com-patriot Ahmet Onder fi nished second with 14.766 points. Ahmet, who had earlier quali-fi ed for Rings and Floor on Wednesday, made it to his fourth apparatus fi nals by qualifying for Horizontal Bar.

Doha is the eighth and fi -nal stop on the 2018-2021 FIG Apparatus World Cup series, where some of the top-ranked gymnasts will have one last chance to book their places at the Games.

Two Brazilians and as many Spaniards also made the cut in parallel bars. Caio Souza,

who will also contest in the Rings fi nal, and Francisco Bar-retto Junior made the grade. Spanish duo Nestor Abad and Nicolau Mir also ensured their presence in the fi nal with some excellent eff orts.

In the women’s fl oor exer-cise, three-time Olympian Va-nessa Ferrari stayed on track to book a Tokyo Olympics ticket after she topped the qualifi ca-tion chart with 13.600 points.

For the fi rst time since Doha hosted the high-profi le FIG event in 2008, this year’s edition is being held behind closed doors due to the strict Covid-19 protocols.

The fi nals start at 4pm with three apparatus in MAG (Floor, Pommel Horse, Still Rings) and two in WAG (Vault, Uneven Bars).

QUALIFICATION RESULTSMEN: Vault: Hidenobu Yoneku-ra (JPN) 14.633; Radivilov Igor (UKR) 14.616; Mahdi Olfati (IRI) 14.433; Adem Asil (TUR) 14.116; Milad Karimi (KAZ) 14.037; Jeahwan Shin (KOR) 14.024; Zapata Rayderley (ESP) 14.016; Andrey Medvedev 13.933.

Parallel Bars: Ferhat Arican (TUR) 15.200; Ahmet Onder (TUR) 14.766; Petro Pakhniuk (UKR) 14.733; Nestor Abad (ESP) 14.600; Milad Karimi (KAZ) 14.500; Caio Souza (BRA) 14.466; Nicolau Mir (ESP) 14.133; Francisco Barretto Junior (BRA) 13.966Horizontal Bar: Marios Geor-giou (CYP) 14.266; Milad Karimi (KAZ) 14.066; Joel Plata (ESP) 14.033; Francisco Barretto Jun-ior (BRA) 13.966; Ahmet Onder (TUR) 13.933; Arthur Mariano (BRA) 13.666; Nicolau Mir (ESP) (11.666); Omar Mohamed (EGY) 10.666

WOMEN: Balance Beam: Zsofia Kovacs (HUN) 13.233; Rebeca Andrade (BRA) 13.166; Saraiva Flavia (BRA) 13.091; Diana Var-inska (UKR) 13.066; Anastasiia Bachynska (UKR) 12.800; Zeina Ibrahim (EGY) 12.766; Coline Devillard (FRA) 12.466Floor: Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) 13.600; Zsofia Kovacs (HUN) 12.800; Lorrane Oliveira 12.700; Diana Varinska (UKR) 12.633; Jana Mahmoud (EGY) 11.966; Anastasiia Bachynska (UKR) 11.900.

Colombia want referee axed aft er ball hits him before goal

The Colombian Football Federa-tion (FCF) has asked Copa America organisers to suspend the referee from their 2-1 defeat by Brazil, saying he prejudiced the result by not halting play when the ball hit him in the lead up to a goal. Nestor Pitana, the Argen-tine who refereed the 2018 World Cup final, waved play on when the ball bounced off him outside Colombia’s box and Brazil continued passing for Roberto Firmino to head in an equal-iser. “Even the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) indicated to the referee that the pass from the Brazilian player that rebounded off the referee was going to a Colombian player,” the Colom-bian federation complained.

US women’s internationals Press, Heath leave Man Utd

United States forwards Christen Press and Tobin Heath have left Manchester United after one season with the club, the Women’s Super League (WSL) side announced yesterday. The US internationals, who were part of the team that won the 2019 World Cup in France, signed one-year deals with United in September and helped them finish fourth last season. Press, 32, and Heath, 33, scored four goals each for United, making 17 and 11 appear-ances respectively in all competi-tions. They have been named in the US team for the Tokyo Olympics. The US play Sweden at the Olympic Stadium in their Group G opener on July 21, two days before the Opening Ceremony.

Spain lift s crowd restrictions in La Liga from next season

Spain will lift capacity restrictions in professional soccer and basket-ball games from the next season, Health Minister Carolina Darias said yesterday, paving the way for a return to full stadiums in La Liga. Grounds in the top two divisions have mostly lain empty since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in March 2020. The government’s decision means local authorities will decide whether fans can attend matches and in what numbers. La Liga president Javier Te-bas said earlier this month stadiums would be at 70% capacity from the start of the campaign, although the central government’s announcement means clubs in regions with low virus incidence could have full stadiums.

Derby fi ned 100,000 pounds for accounting irregularities

An independent disciplinary commit-tee has fined championship club Der-by County 100,000 pounds ($139,670) for accounting irregularities but the club has escaped a points deduction, the league said late on Wednesday. Both Derby and the English Football League (EFL) have the right to ap-peal the panel’s decision, meaning the Rams are still at risk of being relegated to League One (third-tier) if the EFL uses the option and calls for a points deduction. Derby were cleared of financial misconduct last year but the EFL appealed against the decision to a tribunal and in May won the element of the case regarding the amortisation of players’ registrations during their time at the club.

UEFA must protect players against racism: Wijnaldum

Netherlands captain Georginio Wijnaldum called on UEFA yesterday to protect players against discrimi-nation, saying European football’s governing body had the power to halt matches if they were marred by racist incidents. “I’m not excluding walking off the field if something like this happens Sunday, but I would first discuss it with my fellow players and with the referee. Hopefully it won’t be necessary,” said Wijnaldum, who will sport a ‘One Love’ armband that features the rainbow flag and a black stripe. Wijnaldum added: “I believe UEFA should protect us. They can stop a match. It shouldn’t be the play-ers’ responsibility.”

Dutch striker Luuk de Jong ruled out of Euro knockouts

Netherlands striker Luuk de Jong has been ruled out for the rest of Euro 2020 with a knee injury, the national team announced yesterday. The 30-year-old, who made just two brief substitute appearances during the group stage, suff ered the injury during training. Frank de Boer’s Dutch side face the Czech Republic in the last 16 in Budapest on Sunday. During the Netherlands’ successful group-stage campaign, which featured three wins from three games, De Boer either played Wout Weghorst or Donyell Malen alongside Memphis Depay up front. Sevilla striker De Jong has scored eight goals in 38 interna-tional appearances.

Turkey’s Ferhat Arican in action on horizontal bar during the 13th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup at the Aspire Dome yesterday.

Hidenobu Yonekura of Japan topped men’s vault qualification at the Aspire Dome yesterday. PICTURES: Jayan Orma

ReutersBudapest, Hungary

Portugal coach Fernando Santos has described the dilemma he faced during his side’s 2-2

draw Euro 2020 Group F with France on Wednesday but in-sisted his players went out look-ing for the win even though they risked being knocked out.

The holders were facing a shock exit when Karim Benzema put France 2-1 up as outsiders Hungary were beating Germany.

Even when Cristiano Ron-aldo equalised with his second penalty, Portugal were one goal away from going out until Leon Goretzka’s leveller in Munich, which meant the other game also ended 2-2.

The 36-year-old Ronaldo scored his 109th goal for Portu-gal to equal former Iran striker Ali Daei’s all-time international record.

The leading scorer in Euro-pean Championship history matched the record in his 178th

international appearance.Portugal came third in the

group to set up a tough last-16 tie with Belgium, who won all their group games, in Seville on Sunday.

“I couldn’t be sure of any-thing,” Santos told reporters af-ter a rollercoaster fi nal evening in Group F.

“I could have tried to make us go for a third goal but if we’d lost, Germany would gone through ahead of us. What mattered was trying to win while maintaining our quality and shape.”

Santos said he tried to not fo-cus on events in Munich and had warned his players not to either.

“We did what we had to do. I even warned the players to not think about the other results as it wouldn’t bring us anything positive. But the players lived so intensely that when I screamed to go forward my voice no longer reached them,” he said.

“The team always wanted to win, but we also knew we couldn’t lose. Portugal did eve-rything to win.”

Portugal have only three days to rest ahead of the game with Belgium, who last played on Monday, but Santos tried to play down the signifi cance of the fact his side will have less time to prepare.

“We improved a lot compared to the other game. Now we have to improve some more before we play Belgium. Any opponent will have diffi culties against us because we are always able to score,” he added.

“We have 48 hours less than them to get ready, but it doesn’t matter. We won’t be at a disad-vantage. Rest is very important and we’ll have to make sure our players recover well so they are fresh.

“But we cannot view this as a handicap. We’ll analyse the Bel-gium team and prepare the game with the same goal as always, to progress.”

Ronaldo scores his 109th goal to equal all-time international record in a 2-2 stalemate against France

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring a goal during the UEFA Euro Group F match against France at Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday. (Reuters)

By Sports ReporterDoha

beIN Sports announced yesterday the launch of its new Knockout Package that will give sub-scribers across the Middle East and North Af-rica access to watch all the knockout matches

including the fi nals of the UEFA Euro 2020 and Copa America 2021 for a special price.

beIN is the exclusive home in the Mena region for the two tournaments. The UEFA Euro 2020 is available on beIN Sports Max 1 and beIN Sports Max 2 for Arabic coverage, beIN Sports Max 3 for English coverage, beIN Sports Max 4 for French coverage, and beIN 4K. Copa America 2021 coverage is available in Arabic and Eng-lish on beIN Sports Max 5 and beIN Sports Max 6.

beIN Sports’ incredible UEFA Euro 2020 and Copa America 2021 off ering includes 15-hour live daily stu-dio coverage during the tournaments featuring talents such as Mohamed Aboutrika, Mohamed Saadon al-Kuwari, Hatem Trabelsi, Ruud Gullit, Arsene Wenger and Marcel Desailly as well as Gianfranco Zola, Peter Schmeichel, Bacary Sagna, Julio Cesar, current Aston Villa full back Ahmed al-Mohammadi, Nader Elsayed and Badr Eldin Aledresi amongst others. Subscribers can also enjoy a stadium like immersive audio experi-ence with live broadcast of UEFA Euro 2020 knockout phase matches in 4K and Dolby Atmos.

ReutersBengaluru, India

European soccer’s governing body UEFA said yesterday it had approved a proposal to remove the away goals rule from all its club compe-titions involving men’s, women’s and youth

teams, beginning with the qualifying phase of the 2021-22 campaign.

The away goals rule, introduced by UEFA in 1965-66, has been applied when the score of a two-legged tie is lev-el on aggregate after 180 minutes, with the team scoring more goals away from their home venue declared winners.

But it came under scrutiny last season with some matches being held at neutral venues without specta-tors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Instead, two 15-minute periods of extra time will be played at the end of the second leg, followed by a pen-alty shoot-out if the teams are still tied.

Explaining the decision, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said: “The impact of the rule now runs counter to its original purpose as, in fact, it now dissuades home teams — especially in fi rst legs — from attacking, be-cause they fear conceding a goal that would give their opponents a crucial advantage.”

“There is also criticism of the unfairness, especially in extra time, of obliging the home team to score twice when the away team has scored.

“It is fair to say that home advantage is nowadays no longer as signifi cant as it once was,” Ceferin said.

The decision to scrap the away goals rule was taken by UEFA’s Executive Committee following the recom-mendation of its Club Competitions Committee and the Women’s Football Committee.

UEFA said since away goals will no longer be given additional weight to decide a tie, they would also be removed from the criteria used to determine the rank-ings when two or more teams are equal on points in the group stage.

AgenciesNottingham, England

The Mohamed bin Abdulla Nasser al-Atti-yah-bred and owned South Audley won the racingtv.com Restricted Maiden Stakes at Nottingham racecourse yesterday. The Ri-

chard Hannon-trained colt was on his third career start and he won cosily under a hands and heels ride from jockey Pat Dobbs.

Drawn in stall 7 in the six-furlong Class 6 race for two-year-olds, South Audley was smartly away as the fi eld split into two groups. He led the larger group up the centre of the racecourse. Two furlongs out, Dobbs asked the bay colt for an eff ort and the latter quickly drew clear of his rivals before being eased up close home to win by a comfortable two-and-a-quarter-lengths. It was an impressive performance by South Audley, who has progressed with each run. Last Hoorah could manage second for trainer Archie Watson and jockey Hollie Doyle. The K R Burke-trained and Cliff ord Lee-ridden Liamarty Dreams fi nished two further lengths behind in third.

South Audley is the second foal out of the unraced

Seefat, who is a half-sister to listed winner Tazahum. She comes from the family of Group Two winner Maraahel. His sire Aclaim stands at The National Stud and 2021 sees his fi rst crop of two-year-olds.

Pat Dobbs rides South Audley to victory in the racingtv.com Restricted Maiden Stakes in Nottingham, England, yesterday. (Mick Atkins)

Damjanovic closes in on Asian

Champions League goal

record

Dejan Damjanovic is one goal shy of becoming the all-time top scorer in the Asian Champions League after his late strike helped Hong Kong’s Kitchee ease to a 2-0 win over Thailand’s Port FC yesterday.The 39-year-old for-ward struck in the 79th minute in their Group J match at the Buriram Stadium in Thailand. The former Mon-tenegrin international drew level on 37 goals with South Korea’s Lee Gong-gook.Roberto scored the first goal in the 37th minute.