Pakistan whitewash Australia 3-0 in T20 series

Red Sox stun Dodgers, reach brink of World series title

CRICKET CRICKET | Page 4 BASEBALL BASEBALL | Page 5

Monday, October 29, 2018Safar 20, 1440 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

FOOTBALL

Suarez hits hat-trick as Barcelona thrash Real Madrid 5-1Page 2

Qatar book semi-fi nal spot and ticket to FIFA U-20 WC

FOOTBALL/ ASIAN U-19 CHAMPIONSHIP

QATAR BEAT THAILAND 7-3, WITH FOUR GOALS COMING IN EXTRA TIME, AFTER THE TEAMS HAD FINISHED 3-3 AT THE END OF 90 MINUTES

AFCJakarta

Qatar progressed to the semi-fi nals of the AFC U-19 Championship Indonesia 2018 yesterday thanks to a

7-3 extra-time win over Thailand that also saw them book a spot at next year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Head coach Bruno Pinheiro’s charg-es, AFC U-19 champions in 2014, were made to dig deep by their Southeast Asian opponents as a quartet of late goals saw them advance to the last four where they will meet the winners of to-day’s quarter-fi nal tie between Korea Republic and Tajikistan.

The late drama rounded off a clas-sic evening of football, one which had swung one way and then the other be-fore Qatar struck to seal a sensational victory and leave Thailand to rue what could have been.

After a cautious opening to proceed-ings at Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, it was Qatar who struck fi rst, Hashim Ali making the most of Anuson Jaiphet’s wayward defensive pass to curl a sublime shot beyond Thailand goal-keeper Nopphon Lakhonphon in the 13th minute.

With Thailand already on the back-foot, the West Asians wasted little time in doubling their advantage, this time Nasser al-Yazidi – starting his fi rst game of the competition – scoring with aplomb following Abdulrasheed Umaru’s excellent run eight minutes later.

At the scene of their remarkable 6-5 group stage defeat of host nation Indo-nesia, Qatar continued to press as fi rst al-Yazidi fi red narrowly over the bar from an angle and then Khaled Saleh forced Nopphon into a fi ne sprawling save shortly after the half-hour mark.

In the fi nal minutes of what had been an excellent fi rst period for the Qataris, Saleh went close again with a driven eff ort from distance, before Thailand spurned their fi rst genuine chance of the game, Salah Zakaria diving at the

feet of Korawich Tasa when the striker was clean through on goal.

Thailand refused to buckle after the break, and they reduced the defi -cit within three minutes of the restart as Korawich Tasa raced onto Kittipong Sansanit’s astute pass and planted a fi rm shot past Zakaria.

For a moment, Qatar – possibly re-membering their second half struggles against Indonesia – were rocked, and Korawich almost restored parity on 56 minutes only to see his delicate lob over Zakaria land inches wide of the far post.

Sensing a way back into the game was there for the taking, Thailand dramatically drew level on 61 minutes as Ahmed al-Minhali’s clearance fell to Sakunchai Saengthopho who bril-liantly found the top corner from 20 yards. Thirapak Prueangna then lashed home Ekanit Panya’s delivery to put Thailand ahead with only 10 min-utes remaining, before Ahmed Suhail found the net with a sublime free-kick to throw Qatar a lifeline and send the game to extra-time.

With both sides understandably tired, Qatar duly regained the advan-tage on 99 minutes, Umaru sliding the ball past Nopphon after being found by Mohamed Waad Abdulwahhab to reg-ister his sixth goal of the campaign.

Khaled Mansour then struck within the opening seconds of the second period of extra-time, Umaru added a sixth and Youssef Ayman bagged an-other in the fi nal seconds to eventually seal Qatar’s victory and edge his side closer to continental glory and guar-antee themselves a fourth appearance at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Qatar coach Pinheiro said: “We are of course very proud to be going to the FIFA U-20 World Cup. All of Qatar will be proud of the players. We now have three days to recover both physical and mentally before our semi-fi nal.

“Our target now is, of course to reach the fi nal, because when you are in the last four, that is all you want to do – win the game and be in the fi nal.”

Thai coach Ithsara Sritharo said his team will be taking plenty of positives from the tournament.

Ahmed Suhail gets airborne as the Qatar team celebrate after their win over Thailand in Jakarta yesterday.

A piece of the action from the match.

FOOTBALL

Gulf Times Monday, October 29, 20182

Suarez hat-trick as Barcelona blow away Real Madrid

United ease pressure on Mourinho, Chelsea cruise but Arsenal stumble

Hoddle responding well aft er heart attack

Rescued Thaiboys honoured by Man United

Suarez terrorised Madrid from start to finish and made light of Messi’s absence

LA LIGA

EPL

RECOVERY

SPOTLIGHT

AFPBarcelona

Barcelona ran riot in the Clasico yesterday as Luis Suarez scored the hat-trick that will

surely spell the end of Julen Lo-petegui’s spell as Real Madrid coach.

Barcelona were 5-1 winners at the Camp Nou, dominant for all-but a 15-minute spell after half-time when the otherwise hapless Madrid briefly threat-ened a comeback.

All the failures that have un-derlined their recent problems under Lopetegui were on show here, poor finishing, dread-ful defending and key players performing well below par, let alone their best.

Philippe Coutinho scored the first and Arturo Vidal the last but in between the game belonged to Suarez, who ter-rorised Madrid from start to finish and made light of Lionel Messi’s injury-enforced ab-sence.

For Lopetegui, it is now one

win in six games, as Madrid fall seven points behind Barcelona, who return to the top of the ta-ble.

This defeat was reminiscent of the 4-0 thrashing that spelt the end of Rafael Benitez’s time in charge two years ago but while Benitez survived two more months, Lopetegui may not last the week.

Much was made of this being the first Clasico without either Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in 11 years but Suarez’s master-class will mean this contest lives long in the memory.

Madrid looked dazed in pos-session and dizzy out of it as Barca repeatedly opened them

up down the left early on.Sergio Busquets was allowed

time to wait for Jordi Alba’s zooming run past both Gareth Bale and Nacho, with the full-back’s touch on the run per-fectly pushed into the area.

Suarez rushed past but Coutinho held his ground by the penalty spot, where Alba found him with the cut-back. It was the move’s 30th pass, the most for a goal in a La Liga Clasico in 13 seasons.

On the touchline, Lopetegui stood motionless. Varane clapped but his team-mates looked shell-shocked. Sergio Ramos thrashed a pass across his own box to Nacho, who

hacked it to the feet of Arthur, his shot parried away by Cour-tois.

Still, Barca needed the help of VAR for the second. Suarez was too quick to the ball at the near post and Varane bundled him over. It was a clear pen-alty, which Suarez converted for his seventh goal in 11 games against these opponents. His eighth and ninth were still to come.

Gerard Pique should have headed in while a promis-ing Madrid free-kick some-how ended with another Barca sprawl on the counter-attack. The visitors were fortunate to be only two down at half-time but the game was a mirror im-age after the restart.

Varane had gone off, with a muscle problem the club said, for Lucas Vazquez, with Na-cho moving to centre-back. Vazquez was key to Madrid’s goal, his disguised pass allow-ing Isco to pick out Marcelo, who finished for his third in three games.

Suddenly, it was Barca mak-ing the mistakes. Sergio Ramos

headed over, Luka Modric hit the inside of the post and Isco’s finish was blocked after Rafin-ha ran into trouble.

Madrid were less trans-formed at the back, where Sua-rez acrobatically volleyed onto the post before Alba fired just wide. As Madrid’s momen-tum faded, Suarez landed the knock-out blow.

Sergi Roberto chipped a cross into the box but the ball had neither the pace nor the angle to be headed in eas-ily. Suarez, however, generated both himself to leave Courtois stranded.

If that was a masterclass in adaptation, his third was a demonstration of finesse. Ra-mos was pushed off the ball by Sergi Roberto, who freed Sua-rez. Suarez feathered the ball over Courtois for his hat-trick.

Madrid were fi nished but the humiliation was not over yet as Ousmane Dembele crossed for Vidal to head home a fi fth. Suarez could even have had a fourth in injury-time but Cour-tois saved. Five was more than enough.

ReutersLondon

Former England manager Glenn Hoddle is in seri-ous condition in hospital but responding well to

treatment after suff ering a heart attack, his spokesman said yes-terday.

Hoddle, who spent the bulk of his playing career with Tot-tenham Hotspur and played for Chelsea, French club AS Monaco and Swindon Town, was working for BT Sport as a pundit on his 61st birthday on Saturday when he collapsed.

“Glenn remains in a serious condition in hospital after suf-fering a heart attack yesterday. He continues to respond well to treatment,” the spokesman said.

“Doctors have advised the most important thing for Glenn

is time to rest. Therefore, his family have reiterated the re-quest for their privacy to be re-spected during this period.”

Hoddle was one of English football’s top players during the 1980s, winning 53 England caps before managing his country from 1996 to 1999.

He spent 12 years at Totten-ham, playing 490 games in all competitions and winning the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup.

Hoddle guided England to the 1998 World Cup fi nals in France but his tenure ended acrimo-niously when his contract was terminated after an interview in which he expressed controver-sial beliefs about disabled peo-ple.

He went on to manage South-ampton, Tottenham and Wol-verhampton Wanderers before working as a football television pundit.

ReutersManchester

The team of young Thai footballers who cap-tured the world’s atten-tion when trapped in an

underground cave for more than two weeks this summer enjoyed a day to remember at Manchester United’s Old Traff ord yesterday.

Having met United manager Jose Mourinho and fi rst team stars on Saturday, they were guests of honour as the Red Dev-ils faced Everton in the Premier League.

The 12 youngsters from the “Wild Boars” club, aged between 11 and 16, and their coach spent 17 days trapped underground before being rescued in a multi-national operation.

And they were invited to Unit-ed’s Carrington training ground to meet Mourinho and fi rst team stars on the eve of the Everton game.

Mourinho hugged every mem-ber of the squad and posed for photographs before signing sou-venirs.

Ander Herrera, Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Ashley Young, Andreas Pereira and Fred also met the young players, whose predicament attracted world-wide attention last summer.

The youngsters have already experienced a taste of Man-chester United folklore, having appeared alongside the club’s former forward Zlatan Ibrahi-movic on a US talk show hosted by Ellen Degeneres.

The 12 players were accom-panied by two coaches, family members and Thai government offi cial Werachon Sukondhap-atipak.

Sat in the Old Traff ord direc-tors’ box, all wearing United scarves and bobble hats, they received a rapturous welcome from the home support when introduced to the crowd before kick-off .

United, meanwhile, held a minute’s silence before kick-off , in joint memory of Remem-brance Sunday and the helicop-ter crash on Saturday evening involving the aircraft belonging to Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.

AFPLondon

Manchester United eased the pres-sure on manager Jose Mourinho by seeing off Everton 2-1 at Old Traf-ford yesterday, as Chelsea leap-

frogged Manchester City into second with a 4-0 thrashing of Burnley.

Arsenal’s 11-game winning run was fi nally ended, though, as two Luka Milivojevic penal-ties earned Crystal Palace a much-needed point in a 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park.

Yesterday’s action on the fi eld was overshad-owed by the ongoing investigation into the heli-copter crash on Saturday evening that is feared to have killed Leicester City owner Vichai Sri-vaddhanaprabha.

A minute’s refl ection both in honour of Re-membrance Sunday and the crash was held be-fore kick-off at all three matches.

There was an even more poignant scene at Old Traff ord as the 12 Thai boys rescued from an underground cave in July were in attendance and given a rousing reception by supporters.

United’s fi fth defeat of the season to Juventus

in the Champions League on Tuesday had put Mourinho’s position in peril once more.

But he got the slice of luck he needed when

Paul Pogba’s penalty was saved by England number one Jordan Pickford, but rolled kindly back into the Frenchman’s path to slot home

the opener. The United fans still weren’t happy with Pogba, though, as he received jeers for his laboured run-up to the spot-kick.

Pogba made some amends as it was from his pass Anthony Martial curled home a fi ne sec-ond four minutes into the second half.

However, another sloppy pass from Pogba helped get Everton back in the game as Gylfi Sigurdsson scored from the penalty spot after Chris Smalling chopped down Richarlison.

Chelsea enjoyed a far more comfortable af-ternoon to close to within two points of Liver-pool at the top of the table despite the absence of top scorer Eden Hazard with a back injury.

Alvaro Morata, Ross Barkley, Willian and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were all on target to ease concerns over who could carry the goalscoring burden without the Belgian for Maurizio Sarri’s side. The Italian remains unbeaten since taking charge at Stamford Bridge, and Sarri was also happy with a better defensive display than in recent weeks.

“We were in trouble for the fi rst 10 minutes because Burnley started very aggressively and we were in trouble,” said Sarri.

“Then we started to move the ball very well and we also defended better than in the last

three matches so we’re very happy with the result.” The Gunners’ winning run had raised hopes of an unexpected title challenge from Ar-senal.

However, their defensive defi ciencies were shown up in rash challenges by Shkodran Mus-tafi and Granit Xhaka to give Milivojevic the chance to earn Palace a share of the spoils.

In between the Serbian’s spot-kicks, a bril-liant Xhaka free-kick and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s controversial ninth goal of the season, after he pounced on a knockdown from Alexandre Lacazette’s hand, had put Arsenal in front. And Emery admitted his side still have plenty to learn if they are to compete with the Premier League elite. “We can make mistakes on the pitch,” said the Spaniard. “Every day I am making mistakes in my decisions. Mistakes are to learn from.”

RESULTSBurnley 0 Chelsea 4 (Morata 22, Barkley 57, Willian 62,

Loftus-Cheek 90+2)

Crystal Palace 2 (Milivojevic 45+1-pen, 83-pen) Arsenal 2

(Xhaka 51, Aubameyang 56)

Manchester United 2 (Pogba 27, Martial 49) Everton 1

(Sigurdsson 77-pen)

Barcelona’s Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez (L) scores against Real Madrid CF at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona yesterday.

RESULTS

Getafe 2 (Vidal 60, Foulquier 62) Real Betis 0 Barcelona 5 (Coutinho 11, Sua-rez 30-pen, 75, 83, Vidal 87) Real Madrid 1 (Marcelo 50) Played Saturday Girona 2 (Portu 34-pen, 45) Rayo Vallecano 1 (Galvez 61) Athletic Bilbao 0 Valencia 0

Levante 2 (Roger 14, Rochina 90) Leganes 0 Celta Vigo 4 (Aspas 5, 36, 82, Mendez 56) Eibar 0 Atletico Madrid 2 (Godin 45, Luis 60) Real Sociedad 0 Played Friday Valladolid 1 (Verde 90+1) Espan-yol 1 (Iglesias 20)

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho applauds the fans after the match against Everton.

Leicester’s Thai boss feared dead aft er helicopter crash

He made us champions, say Leicester fans

Guardiola urges City to stay focused for Spurs

Vichai bought Leicester City in 2010 and moved to chairman the following February, pouring millions into the team

TRAGEDY

BOTTOMLINE

PREVIEW

AFPLeicester

Leicester City’s charismatic Thai boss was feared dead yesterday after a helicopter belonging to the billionaire crashed and burst

into fl ames in the football stadium car park moments after taking off from the club’s pitch.

Neither the police nor the club would confi rm or deny whether Vichai Sri-vaddhanaprabha, a regular at matches who fl ies to and from home games by helicopter, was on board the aircraft when it appeared to develop a mechan-ical problem in its rear propeller.

The BBC, Sky News and several Brit-ish papers quoted sources saying the 60-year-old and a group of others boarded the blue helicopter from the middle of the pitch once the stadium emptied after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with West Ham.

Leicester City said only that it was assisting police with a “major incident” and Vichai’s King Power duty-free shopping empire was not commenting.

Local police thanked fans for their “patience” in a tweet issued nearly 18 hours after the crash.

“We are working with a number of other agencies to get an update out to the public and press,” the Leicestershire police force said in a tweet.

Images showed orange balls of fl ame engulfi ng the wreckage in the car park at King Power Stadium.

“Literally the engine stopped and I turned around, and it made a bit of a whirring noise. It turned silent, blades started spinning and then there was a big bang,” freelance photographer Ryan Brown told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Prayers and words of warm praise poured in from across Britain and be-yond for the Thai boss who many credit with spurring Leicester’s against-all-odds Premier League title victory in 2016.

A steady stream of grieving fans laid down football scarves and shirts out-side the home fans’ entrance as aviation experts picked through the helicopter’s charred remains.

Among the tributes was an image of Ganesh — a Hindu god also seen in Thai Buddhist temples.

A minute of silence was observed be-

fore the whistle of Sunday’s two early Premier League matches.

“He’s put Leicester on the map,” club supporter Cathy Dann, 55,told AFP.

“He’s made us big.”England legend Gary Lineker, a

former Leicester player and host of the BBC’s Match of the Day, tweeted: “That was the most diffi cult @BBCMOTD I’ve ever hosted... A terrible tragedy. Heart-breaking.”

Leicester stars Jamie Vardy and Harry Maguire both tweeted emojis of hands held up in prayer.

Sven-Goran Eriksson, who was man-ager of the team under Vichai, called his former boss a “very, very generous man” who “saw every game during my time”.

And ordinary fans in central Bangkok said Vichai helped develop Thailand’s football as well, bringing the Southeast Asian country greater recognition in the sports world.

“He is an important person who has raised the bar of Thai football further,” Apichart Jitratkavee, a Leicester fan in the Thai capital, told AFP.

Vichai bought Leicester City in 2010 and moved to chairman the follow-ing February, pouring millions into the team and becoming a beloved fi gure in the club and the city — a feat not always achieved by the Premier League’s for-eign owners.

It was under Vichai’s ownership that Leicester crafted one of the big-gest fairy-tales in English football his-tory by winning the 2015/16 Premier League, having started the season as 5,000-1 outsiders for the title.

Vichai’s major investments in the

club helped return them to England’s Premier League from the second-tier Championship in 2014.

They initially seemed outclassed by richer and more established clubs from London, Liverpool and Manchester, languishing at the very bottom of the table for most of the 2014/15 season.

The Foxes, as the team are nick-named, then engineered what fans now fondly refer to as the “Great Es-cape”, winning seven of their last nine matches.

They ended up fi nishing 14th, secur-ing another season in Europe’s richest league in 2015/16.

But not even their most devout fans

could have imagined what happened next.

Vardy, signed from non-league Fleetwood Town, scored in 11 consecu-tive matches, propelling the men in blue to a title without parallel in Pre-mier League history.

The success also qualifi ed them for the fi rst time for the lucrative Cham-pions League, the pinnacle of European football played by the continent’s most successful sides, including Barcelona and Real Madrid.

There, Leicester City defi ed the odds yet again, winning their group before eventually losing their quarter-fi nal 2-1 over two legs to Atletico Madrid.

AFPLeicester

Fans laid down hundreds of football scarves, shirts and fl owers outside Leicester City’s stadium yesterday, a day after a helicopter belonging to the

club’s Thai billionaire owner crashed outside the grounds.

Among the tributes to Vichai Srivaddhana-prabha — the funder behind the club’s epic 2016 Premier League victory — was also an image of Ganesh, a Hindu god often seen at Thai Bud-dhist temples.

As emergency vehicles passed back and forth from the scene of the crash, a steady stream of people came to express their gratitude: a man on crutches, a father consoling his teenage son, a woman carrying a bouquet of blue and white

fl owers — the colours of the football club.“He’s put Leicester on the map. He’s made us

big, we’re not just a little club anymore,” said one supporter, 55-year-old Cathy Dann.

John Welford, 68, said: “What a fantastic man! I’ve been a supporter 60 years and personally I think he’s the best ever owner we’ve ever had”.

There was no offi cial confi rmation that the 60-year-old businessman, who frequently fl ies to and from Leicester’s home games by helicop-ter, was aboard the aircraft.

But many in the city in central England and in Vichai’s homeland already feared the worst for the man they credit with the club’s against-all-odds League title.

Many also remembered the owner’s generos-ity to fans — free breakfasts at away matches and free beers on his birthday — as well as to the city, including a donation to the local hospital.

“They’re sort of around like supporters,

they’re like us. They believe in what the club is and they’ve bought into that,” said Mahendra Mistri, 59.

Kanti Patel, one of the fi rst supporters to come to pay tribute, told AFP: “It means a lot to me, he did a lot for the club.

“I can’t get over it. Since him being with the club the club has done well, and I don’t know what’s going to happen now.”

Another fan, Tom Lievers, arrived with a “Champions” scarf to pay tribute to Vichai.

“Well you know where we were when he bought the club — we were absolutely nowhere. So I brought down my ‘Champions’ scarf be-cause he made us champions.”

Andrew Aldwinckle said: “He was more like he was a supporter, a proper supporter, rather than a money man. He was one of the crowd. As far as we’re concerned, that’s it.”

Steve Walton, who wore the club’s blue hat,

said: “I think there’s a lot of Leicester fans around the world — not just in Leicester, but around the world — who I think will be devas-tated and he meant a lot to the fans.”

Vichai also brought Thailand greater recog-nition in the international sporting world, de-veloping the Southeast Asian country’s football scene.

At a football game in central Bangkok, Leices-ter City fan Apichart Jitratkavee said: “He is an important person who has raised the bar of Thai football further.

“There were projects by Leicester City to se-lect Thai teenagers to train in the club’s acad-emy. They will have a chance to serve the nation in the future.”

Another fan, Nathavut Sirimontaporn, said Vichai has brought “benefi ts” to Thai football. “I think having him as an owner of the Leicester City made people know Thailand more,” he said.

AFPLondon

Pep Guardiola has chal-lenged Manchester City to prove they are still the Premier League’s pre-

eminent force as the champions face a key test against title rivals Tottenham today.

Since losing to Lyon in the Champions League in September, Guardiola’s side have gone on a seven-game unbeaten run in all competitions.

City have won six of those matches, with the only draw a goalless stalemate against Liver-pool that ranked as an impressive result given their struggles at An-fi eld last season.

An eye-catching 3-0 win at

Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champi-ons League on Tuesday prompted Guardiola to hail the performance as City’s best this season.

Given City had just thrashed Burnley 5-0, while also enjoying a

5-0 win at Cardiff and a 6-1 dem-olition of Huddersfi eld this term, that ranks as high praise from the Spaniard.

But Guardiola knows much sterner tests lie in wait for City,

starting against a Tottenham side who have made their best start to a Premier League season.

“Always it’s tough. It was in my fi rst season here. I didn’t expect any more,” Guardiola said.

“Nothing is going to change my opinion of my team. I want to focus to win the game and give a good performance, knowing the quality of the Spurs side.

“But it’s not going to fi nish anything. After this it’s Fulham, Southampton, Manchester United and Shakhtar.”

While City are in good form, there is less attention on the champions this season as free-scoring Liverpool and revitalised Chelsea and Arsenal have taken the spotlight.

Liverpool knocked City off the top with a 4-1 win over Cardiff on

Saturday, but Guardiola’s men can regain pole position on goal dif-ference if they beat Tottenham at Wembley.

Having already won at Arsenal and held Liverpool at bay, seeing off Tottenham would show City remain the cream of the crop.

Crucially, Guardiola feels the competition for places in his star-studded squad is keeping everyone on top of their game.

“All the players want to play good, be ready, be part of the team. We are lucky to have a squad with huge quality,” he said.

“They try to play good because if it doesn’t happen, others are ready.”

City’s trip to Wembley comes 24 hours after the Jacksonville Jag-uars take on the Philadelphia Ea-gles at the national stadium.

There has been concern about what condition the pitch will be in after a pounding from the NFL teams.

Guardiola admits it is not an ideal situation, but insists he will not hold back any players, includ-ing Kevin De Bruyne, who only made his fi rst start in midweek af-ter two months out injured with a knee problem.

Tottenham can move above City with a win as Mauricio Pochet-tino’s team try to get back on track following a damaging midweek draw at PSV Eindhoven.

Conceding a late goal in Eind-hoven has left Tottenham’s hopes of making the Champions League knockout stages hanging by a slender thread.

While they have struggled in Europe, the north Londoners have

won their last four league games to keep in touch with the leaders, albeit without playing at their best in that run.

Pochettino is well aware City are the standard by which all as-piring title contenders should be judged.

“I think for me they are the best team today in England, fantastic players, an amazing manager,” he said.

“The quality of the club, the players, the coaching staff and Pep of course, make them a very diffi -cult opponent. It’s a massive chal-lenge for us to play against them.

“I don’t believe that in football you can fi nd something that is im-possible to do, but it will be diffi -cult of course because we need to play well and have a bit of luck to win the game.”

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Monday, October 29, 2018

A man kneels with a statue of the Buddha and devotional scripture outside Leicester City Football Club’s King Power Stadium in Leicester, eastern England, yesterday.

In this file photo taken on May 18, 2016 Leicester City FC’s owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha applauds as they take part in a presentation of the English Premier League football trophy at the King Power duty-free headquarters in Bangkok.

Supporters pause at the pile of floral tributes outside Leicester City Football Club’s King Power Stadium in Leicester, eastern England yesterday.

SPORT

Gulf Times Monday, October 29, 20184

Vinales wins Aussie MotoGP as Marquez jinx strikes again

India looking for answers against confi dent Windies

Hurt Warner ‘sledged by Hughes’ brother’

Babar and Shadab help Pakistanwhitewash Australia

Spaniard scores his first win of the year to break Yamaha’s 25-race win drought

MOTORCYCLING

CRICKET / IND VS WI, 4TH ODI

FOCUS

CRICKET / PAK VS AUS, 3RD T20I

AFPSydney

David Warner’s decision to walk off mid-innings in a Sydney grade game was sparked by com-

ments from the brother of his former Test teammate Phillip Hughes, who died in 2014 after being hit by a ball, reports said yesterday.

The former Australia vice-cap-tain, who is serving a 12-month ban from international and state cricket for his role in a ball-tam-pering scandal, was batting for his club Randwick-Petersham at the time on Saturday.

He left the fi eld but returned shortly afterwards following the intervention of teammates, and went on to score a majestic 157.

Cricket Australia’s website said the fi elder involved was Jason Hughes — the brother of Warner’s former Test team-mate Phillip, whose tragic death rocked the sporting world.

It claimed that what started as goading from Hughes soon turned personal and Warner — who has a fi erce on-fi eld reputation — de-cided to leave before it escalated.

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph al-leged that Hughes called Warner “a disgrace” and “weak”.

It claimed one witness heard a direct reference to Phillip Hughes’s death and Warner was “considerably hurt” by the in-cident.

Neither Hughes nor Warner has made any comment.

Warner, along with Steve Smith, was sent home in disgrace and banned over the tampering scandal during the third Test in South Africa in March.

He was blamed as the insti-gator of the incident in which Cameron Bancroft attempted to alter the ball with a piece of yel-low sandpaper.

Two reviews prompted by the scandal — one focusing on the culture within Cricket Australia and the other into the team — are due to be released today.

AFPDubai

Opener Babar Azam struck a half-century and leg-spinner Shad-ab Khan claimed three

wickets as Pakistan secured a 3-0 T20 series whitewash over Australia with a 33-run victory in Dubai yesterday.

Azam’s 40-ball 50 lifted Paki-stan to another challenging total of 150-5 before Shadab’s 3-19 helped bowl Australia out for 117 in 19.1 overs.

It is Pakistan’s fi rst-ever whitewash against Australia in a limited-over series and their 10th series win under Sarfraz Ahmed since he took over as cap-tain in September 2016.

Pakistan justifi ed their world-number-one ranking in the short-est format of the game, following a 66-run thrashing in Abu Dhabi by an 11-run win in Dubai.

Australia’s batting attack nev-er recovered from being bowled out for 89 in the fi rst game.

Only Mitchell Marsh (21), Ben McDermott (21) and Alex Carey (20) looked like getting big scores on Sunday against a varied Paki-stan attack.

Carey, promoted to open the innings, smashed two fours and two sixes in Imad Wasim’s fi rst over of the innings but they lost wickets at regular intervals.

Skipper Aaron Finch failed yet again, scoring only one while Chris Lynn (15) and Glenn Max-well (four) also infl icted little damage as seamer Hasan Ali fi n-ished with 2-14.

Earlier, Azam scored his second fi fty of the series after the hosts had won the toss and batted.

Azam and Sahibzada Farhan gave Pakistan an excellent start -- their opening stand of 99 their highest against Australia in T20 internationals - in 12.5 overs, but Pakistan could not capitalise on that start.

Farhan, dismissed for a fi rst-ball duck in his only previous match against Australia in Harare in July, hit a 38-ball 39.

But after the openers, only Mohamed Hafeez managed to score freely during his 20-ball 32 not out.

Shoaib Malik scored 18 and became the second highest run scorer in T20 international his-tory, passing New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum.

Another New Zealander Mar-tin Guptill is the highest run scorer in Twenty20 international cricket with 2,271 in 75 matches - 118 more than Malik.

Pakistan next play New Zea-land in three Twenty20 in-ternationals, three ODIs and three Tests, starting with the fi rst Twenty20 in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

BRIEF SCORES: Pakistan 150 for 5 (Babar 50, Farhan 39, M Marsh 2-6) beat Australia 117 all out (Shadab 3-19, Hasan 2-14) by 33 runs

IANSMumbai

India will aim to pull up the socks in both batting and bowling departments when they face a resurgent West

Indies in the fourth One Day International (ODI) at the Bra-bourne Stadium here today.

West Indies got a much-need-ed boost when they defeated In-dia by 43 runs in the third ODI to register their fi rst win of the tour.

Chasing a healthy 284, India looked on course with skipper Virat Kohli belting an excellent 107 off 119 balls, his third con-secutive century of the series, and opener Shikhar Dhawan scoring 35 before a middle-order collapse, coupled with some dis-ciplined bowling, bundled the hosts out for 240 in 47.4 overs.

Apart from Kohli, the rest of the Indian batting has not been in top form in the series. The usually bankable wicketkeeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni has also been a fl op, scoring just 27 runs in two matches.

The bowling has also leaked runs. The hosts have conceded above 300 runs in two of the three games.

With the ODI World Cup com-ing up early next year, the poor performance at home against an inexperienced team like West Indies must be giving sleepless nights to the Indian team man-agement and selectors.

The visitors on the other hand will be high on confi dence. Hav-ing missed what would have been a well-deserved victory in the tied second match, the boys from the Caribbean were clearly the better side in the third match.

The visitors will once again bank on the likes of the in-form duo of Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer who have been in excellent form.

Hope has scored 250 runs in three matches which includes one half century and one century along with a clinical 32.

The other batsmen Kieron Powell, Chanderpaul Hemraj and Rovman Powell have done well in the supporting role.

The West Indians will also be hoping for veteran Marlon Samuels to pull up his socks and strengthen the fragile middle order.

Skipper Jason Holder has had a decent series so far, contribut-ing with both the bat and ball, but the tourists will mainly be concerned with the performance of their frontline pacers in Kemar Roach and Oshane Thomas, who have been milked at will by the Indian top order.

The West Indian spin pair of De-vendra Bishoo and Ashley Nurse have a lot to work on in the middle overs if they fancy any chances of taking the lead in the series.

SQUADSIndia: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Rishabh Pant, M.S. Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Umesh Yadav, Lokesh Rahul, Manish Pandey.West Indies: Jason Holder (cap-tain), Fabian Allen, Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Chanderpaul Hemraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope (wicketkeeper), Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse, Keemo Paul, Rovman Powell, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Oshane Thomas. Apart from captain Virat Kohli, the rest of the Indian batting has not been in top form in the series. (AFP)

AFPPhillip Island, Australia

Maverick Vinales powered to a domi-nant victory at the Australian MotoGP

yesterday as newly-crowned world champion Marc Marquez was dramatically forced out af-ter a frightening high-speed collision.

The Spanish rider, who start-ed second and took the lead after Marquez retired, scored his fi rst win of the year to break Yama-ha’s 25-race win drought, taking the chequered fl ag ahead of An-drea Iannone on a Suzuki.

Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso was third, strengthening his bid to fi nish runner-up in the world championship as his nearest ri-val, Valentino Rossi, could only manage sixth.

“It feels amazing,” said Vinales. “I didn’t think I could win, but the bike was perfect. It means a lot to me, particularly in Australia because it’s a place I love to be.”

“This track suits me really well and maybe that’s why I could give a little bit more.

“The season has been diffi -cult, I needed that win, Yamaha need that win to give us the mo-tivation to start again next year,” he added.

While he celebrated, there was disappointment for Honda hot-shot Marquez, who sealed his fi fth world title in motorcycling’s premier class in Japan a week ago.

While he won at Phillip Island in 2015 and 2017, he also has the bizarre record now of failing to fi nish on three occasions after clinching the world title in Japan (2014, 2016 and 2018).

He was lucky to escape injury after Yamaha’s Johann Zarco shunted him on lap six as they were screaming down the track at 250 kph.

The Frenchman skidded off through the gravel, but gave a thumbs up to show he was un-hurt.

Marquez managed to stay on his bike but his back seat was mangled and his suspension ap-peared damaged, forcing him to call it a day.

It was his fi rst non-fi nish of the season, having won the last three races, but he refused to blame Zarco.

“I feel very lucky. I will not complain because it was a racing incident,” he said in the pits.

“The most important thing is that we are both okay. Luck-ily I won the championship last week, but unfortunately another non-fi nish for me at Phillip Is-land.”

BURST AWAYMarquez started from pole, and in dry conditions on the de-manding and picturesque circuit he was super-aggressive from the word go.

Dovizioso, who was fourth on the grid, quickly stormed into second behind the Spaniard, with

hometown hero Jack Miller third.But then it all went pear-

shaped for Marquez, leaving the race wide open.

Vinales took full advantage and began clocking fastest laps, bursting away from the pack, which was left in a dog fi ght for the minor podium places.

Iannone had set the pace dur-ing the practice sessions and Marquez had tipped him to win, but the Italian was content to just get on the podium in his best result of the year.

“I thought we had the poten-

tial to win the race, but when I made a mistake on corner four, I lost four or fi ve positions,” he said. “I started to recover but I felt the tyres were beginning to go a bit.”

In other racing, Spain’s Albert Arenas won an exciting and fi erce Moto3 battle on a KTM bike that saw a spate of ugly crashes and several riders taken to the medical centre for check-ups.

Another KTM rider, South Africa’s Brad Binder, took out the Moto2 crown for his third win of the year.

Masterstroke sees veteran Loeb win Catalan rallyAFPSalou, Spain

Sebastien Loeb won the Rally of Catalunya yester-day when a last minute

tactical change to hard tyres on rain soaked roads gave him a shock lead as conditions sud-denly dried.The 44-year-old nine time world champion eventually won in his Citroen by two seconds from Ford’s Sebastien Ogier with Britain’s Elfyn Evans in third af-ter holding on to a slender lead in a reverse final special.The result puts Sebastien Ogier

on 204 points just three ahead of Thierry Neuville on 201 with a single rally remaining in Australia (15-18 Nov), where Ott Tanak on 181 has an outside shot at the title too“I would have prefered to win the rally, but I’m really happy with the points,” Ogier said. “Now he (Neuville) has to beat me in Australia.”Belgian Neuville could have snatched victory himself but hit a rock on the final special breaking his back wheel and flying over the finish line with a flat tyre.This was Loeb’s 79th career win, he in fact retired from full-time rallying in 2012, compet-

ing in a handful of rallies since as he juggles interest in other forms of motorsport.This was only Loeb’s third event of the year and his first win since Argentina five years ago.“It’s incredible, I can hardly believe it myself, when you win a rally and only find out as you cross the finish line,” said Loeb, who scrambled atop his Citroen to celebrate before fans on the finish line.Five-time world champion and winner of the Wales rally two weeks ago Sebastien Ogier meanwhile kept his hopes on winning the world rally champi-onships very much alive.

Movistar Yamaha’s Spanish rider Maverick Vinales celebrates on the podium after winning the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island Circuit yesterday. (AFP)

SPORT5Gulf Times

Monday, October 29, 2018

DeRozan powers Spurs past Lakers Backstrom leads Capitals to shootout win over Flames

NBA NHL

AFPLos Angeles

DeMar DeRozan fi nished with 30 points and 12 rebounds as the San Antonio Spurs overcame a 35-point performance from Le-

Bron James to defeat the Los Angeles Lak-ers 110-106 on Saturday. DeRozan nailed a clutch fadeaway jumper with 16 seconds remaining to help secure the Spurs’ second victory over the Lakers in a week.

DeRozan also had eight assists while Rudy Gay scored 16 points and LaMarcus Aldridge had 15 for the Spurs, who improved to 3-2 on the season. Kyle Kuzma fi nished with 15 points and Lance Stephenson added 14 points in the loss. The Lakers shot 53% in the fi rst half and led by as many as 14 points.

James extended his career points total to 31,202 to pass Dirk Nowitzki for sixth place on the NBA all-time scoring list. The Spurs seized their fi rst lead of the contest at 93-91 early in the fourth quarter, then extended it to eight points before James answered with a couple of baskets and an assist to cut it to just one, 106-105.

Rudy Gobert and Ricky Rubio paced the attack as the Utah Jazz handed the short-handed New Orleans Pelicans their fi rst loss of the season with a 132-111 win. Pelicans star Anthony Davis was missing from the off ence because of a strained right elbow.

Gobert, of France, fi nished with 25 points and 14 rebounds and Spain’s Rubio had 28 points and 12 assists for the Jazz, who beat the Pelicans three out of four times last sea-son. American Donovan Mitchell scored 22 for Utah, which led by as many as 28 points in the third quarter and were ahead 102-82 at the start of the fourth in front of a crowd of 16,300 at the Smoothie King Center arena.

Davis played through the elbow injury on Friday against Brooklyn but couldn’t go against the Jazz and his status for today’s contest in Denver will be determined after he visits the team doctor. “

The Pelicans cut the Jazz lead to 110-102 on Wesley Johnson’s three pointer with 6:34 left. But Rubio responded with six free throws during a 10-2 Jazz run. Nikola Mi-rotic scored 15 of his 25 points in the fi rst quarter and Jrue Holiday had 18 for the Peli-cans, who had not trailed by more than 13 points in the previous four games.

In Milwaukee, Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 21 points and Khris Middleton had 18 as the Bucks won their sixth straight game with a 113-91 win over the Orlando Magic. Milwaukee needs one more win to equal their franchise record of seven straight to start the season in 1971-72.

Antetokounmpo also had seven rebounds in 19 minutes of playing time. Nikola Vucevic had 16 points and nine rebounds for Orlando. DJ Augustin added 11, all in the

fi rst half. The Magic shot 32% from the fi eld overall and 23 % from three-point range.

RESULTS

Miami 120, Portland 111; Milwaukee 113,

Orlando 91; San Antonio 110, LA Lakers 106;

Atlanta 85, Chicago 97; Cleveland 107, Indiana

119; Philadelphia 105, Charlotte 103; Memphis

117, Phoenix 96; Detroit 89, Boston 109; New

Orleans 111, Utah 132

ReutersWashington

Nicklas Backstrom scored the shootout winner, and goalie Pheonix Copley re-

corded his fi rst career NHL vic-tory as the visiting Washington Capitals claimed a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon.

Backstrom converted in the fourth round of the shootout for the diff erence-maker, while Co-pley made 27 saves through over-time and stopped three of four players he faced in the showdown. Calgary’s Sean Monahan and Washington’s Evgeny Kuznetsov traded goals in the second round of the shootout. Flames goalie Mike Smith stopped 24 shots through overtime.

WILD 3, AVALANCHE 2Eric Staal scored a tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, and streaking Minnesota beat visiting Colorado for its fi fth win in a row. Staal also had an as-sist, Mikael Granlund had a goal and an assist and Devan Dubnyk stopped 30 shots for the Wild.

Jonas Brodin scored short-handed on an empty net with 2:43 remaining for what stood as the game-winner after Gabriel Landeskog tallied for the Ava-lanche with 42 seconds left. Mark Barberio also scored for Colorado, and Semyon Varlamov had 25 saves.

Landeskog’s goal was his 10th of the season, which leads the team. Mikko Rantanen added his league-leading 16th assist.

PENGUINS 5, CANUCKS 0Evgeni Malkin had two goals and an assist, and Sidney Crosby also scored two goals to lead Pitts-burgh over host Vancouver. Phil Kessel fi nished with a goal and an assist, and Jake Guentzel added two assists for the Penguins, who won their fourth straight game dating back to a 3-2 overtime loss to the Canucks on Oct. 16 in Pittsburgh.

Casey DeSmith, playing in his 18th career game and making his 15th start, had 29 saves to gar-ner his second career shutout as Pittsburgh swept its four-game Canadian road trip that also in-cluded stops at Toronto, Edmon-ton and Calgary, outscoring its

opponents, 23-6.

OILERS 5, PREDATORS 3Backup goalie Mikko Koskinen recorded the win in his fi rst NHL game in more than seven years, and Leon Draisaitl and Drake Caggiula both scored twice to lead visiting Edmonton over Nashville. Koskinen, who last played in the NHL with the New York Islanders in 2010-11 and spent the last fi ve seasons in the KHL before signing with the Oil-ers in the summer, stopped 24 shots in the victory.

The win also snapped Nash-ville’s 13-game winning streak against Edmonton.

MAPLE LEAFS 3, JETS 2Jake Gardiner and Kasperi Kap-anen scored late in regulation as Toronto rallied for three third-period goals to defeat visiting Winnipeg. Nazem Kadri also scored for the Maple Leafs, who had defeated the Jets 4-2 in Win-nipeg on Wednesday.

Mitch Marner added two as-sists. Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews suff ered a shoulder injury early in the second period and did not return. Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele gave the Jets a 2-0 lead. Connor Hellebuyck had 28 saves in defeat.

CANADIENS 3, BRUINS 0Carey Price made 33 saves as Montreal blanked host Boston. Price earned his second career shutout of the Bruins. Brendan Gallagher, Max Domi and Jordie

Benn scored for the Canadiens, with Benn capping the victory with an empty-netter with 29 seconds remaining.

Price improved to 25-11-5 against Boston as the Bruins suf-fered their fi rst loss in fi ve home games and lost to the Canadiens for the fi rst time since the 2016-17 season.

ISLANDERS 6, FLYERS 1Brock Nelson scored two goals as New York routed host Phila-delphia. Leo Komarov, Anthony Beauvillier, Adam Pelech and Anders Lee also scored for the Islanders, who snapped a two-game losing streak.

Robin Lehner made 22 saves to earn the win, improving his record to 3-2-1. Jori Lehtera picked up a loose puck and scored unassisted for the Flyers, who have lost three straight games, including two of those at home.

BLUE JACKETS 5, SABRESArtemi Panarin scored 31 sec-onds into overtime, his second goal of the night, to lead host Columbus past Buff alo. The Blue Jackets won the faceoff to start overtime, and Panarin fi red his second overtime game-winner from the left circle.

He also tallied in the extra ses-sion in the club’s season-opening 3-2 win in Detroit. Panarin and Cam Atkinson each scored twice and had an assist, while Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and two assists for Columbus, which won its second straight.

Red Sox stun Dodgers, reach brink of World Series title

MLB

AFPLos Angeles

The Boston Red Sox, fuelled by homers from Steve Pearce and Mitch Moreland, erased a four-run defi cit to beat the Los

Angeles Dodgers 9-6 and move to the brink of a ninth World Series crown.

Moreland smashed a three-run pinch-hit homer in the seventh in-ning and fi rst baseman Pearce belted a game-tying solo shot in the eighth and a three-run double in the ninth as Bos-ton seized a 3-1 lead in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven champion-ship fi nal.

The Red Sox, who boast an impos-ing 6-1 road record this post-season, can wrap up a ninth World Series title, and a fi rst since 2013, with a victory in game fi ve at Dodger Stadium last night. After outlasting Boston 3-2 in an 18-in-ning game three marathon on Friday, the Dodgers looked poised to build on that victory when Yasiel Puig clubbed a three-run home run off Red Sox start-ing pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez to cap a four-run sixth inning for Los Angeles.

Rodriguez, who made a brief appear-ance out of the bullpen in game three and became the fi rst pitcher since 1924 to start a World Series game on zero days’ rest, was up to the task through fi ve innings. But he hit David Freese to lead off the sixth before Justin Turner smacked a one-out double just inside the third base line. Pinch runner En-rique Hernandez reached third and the Red Sox intentionally walked Manny Machado to load the bases with one out. Cody Bellinger hit a ground ball to Pearce and the throw home caught

Machado at the plate.But catcher Christian Vazquez’s

throw back to fi rst for an attempted

double play was off target, allowing Turner to score the game’s fi rst run. That brought up Puig, who raised his

arms as he rounded the bases while Rodriguez, who had scattered just two hits over fi ve scoreless innings, threw

his glove on the ground in disgust as the ball sailed into the left fi eld bleachers.

It was Puig’s second home run of the

post-season — after his three-run blast in the Dodgers’ game-seven victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in the Na-tional League Championship Series. It ignited the Dodger Stadium crowd, but their euphoria was short-lived.

The cushion was all but gone an in-ning later thanks to Moreland’s 437-foot pinch-hit blast off Dodgers relief pitcher Ryan Madson. Madson was the third pitcher of the inning, brought in after Dodgers starter Rich Hill walked Xander Bogaerts and struck out Eduar-do Nunez and reliever Scott Alexander walked Brock Holt. Moreland drilled the fi rst pitch he saw from Madson over the wall in right fi eld. Until then, Red Sox manager Alex Cora admitted, Boston had been fl at, partly, perhaps, a hangover from the 7-hour, 20-minute game three but mostly because Hill had given them no opening, allowing just one hit over 6 1/3 innings.

With the lead down to one, Roberts turned to Kenley Jansen to pitch the eighth and the Dodgers closer gave up a game-tying solo homer to Pearce, the second batter he faced. The Dodgers threatened in the bottom of the eighth but pinch hitter Yasmani Grandal struck out to end the inning stranding runners on fi rst and third.

Boston took the lead for the fi rst time in the ninth inning, when Rafael Devers’ singled in the go-ahead run off reliever Dylan Floro. Pearce added a three-run double and scored on Bogaerts’ single to stretch the lead to 9-4 as the Red Sox battered the Dodgers bullpen.

Dodgers pinch hitter Enrique Her-nandez raised hopes of an improbable comeback with a two-run homer in the ninth, but Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel held on for the fi nal three outs.

Boston seized a 3-1 lead in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven championship final

Boston Red Sox’s Brock Holt (centre) celebrates with Sandy Leon (left) and Eduardo Nunez after scoring a run against Los Angeles Dodgers . (USA TODAY Sports)

Washington Capitals centre Nicklas Backstrom controls the puck against the Calgary Flames. (USA TODAY Sports)

DeMar DeRozan of San Antonio Spurs dunks in front of Kyle Kuzma of the Los Angeles Lakers in San Antonio, Texas, on Saturday. (AFP)

Jacobs grabs middleweight title with spit decision winNew York: Daniel Jacobs claimed the vacant IBF middleweight title as he traded in his sparring gloves for the real thing on Saturday to take a split-decision victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko.

The two former training partners have sparred over 300 rounds together early in their careers but Saturday’s clash at Madi-son Square Garden was the real thing.

Jacobs earned a hard fought split deci-

sion victory with two judges scoring it 115-112 and the other having Derevyanchenko the winner at 114-113. Jacobs is hoping this win lands him a shot at middleweight kingpin Canelo Alvarez.

Jacobs said he has been having trouble getting good fights but now that he has the IBF belt he has more clout. Jacobs knocked down Derevyanchenko in the first round with a stinging overhand right. He landed

181 punches compared to 160 for his oppo-nent. Derevyanchenko tagged Jacobs with a hook in the second round. Jacobs said he is ready to raise his level another notch and fight the best in the middleweight division. Elsewhere, hard-hitting Ivan Baranchyk stopped Sweden’s Anthony Yigit after seven rounds to claim the vacant IBF junior welterweight crown and advance to the semi-finals of the WBS Series.

SPORT6 Gulf Times

Monday, October 29, 2018

Birthday boy Schauff ele gift s himself Shanghai win

India’s Joshi clinches maiden Asian Tour title

Federer beats Copil to win 99th career title in Basel

Svitolina subdues Stephens to claim WTA Finals crown

GOLF

FOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

TENNIS

AFPShanghai

Xander Schauff ele bagged the biggest victory of his young ca-reer yesterday, chasing down Tony Finau to win a nail-biting

WGC-HSBC Champions in a play-off . Schauff ele, the 2017 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year who celebrated his 25th birthday on opening-round on Thursday, started the fi nal round three strokes behind fel-low American Finau at a windy Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai.

Schauff ele had some early wobbles but closed strong, including crucial birdies on the fi nal two holes to record the low-est score of the day — a four-under 68 — catching Finau to force the play-off . Replaying the par-fi ve 18th in sudden-death, Finau handed Schauff ele the ad-vantage when his tee shot leaked into a fairway bunker.

Schauff ele reached the green in two, and Finau faced a do-or-die birdie putt from the fringe of the green, which just missed. Schauff ele’s win comes with a $1.8mn victor’s purse and moves him atop the standings in the young FedEx Cup 2018-2019 season.

It also helps put to rest notions that his 2017 rookie season, in which Schauff ele won twice — the Greenbrier Classic and Tour Championship — was a fl uke. “Last season, I really wanted to win to jus-tify my rookie year and wasn’t able to do that,” he said. “People can say whatever

they want but my team and I, we know we are doing the right things.”

Down a stroke going to the tee of the par-3 17th in regulation, Schauff ele bird-ied to move level with Finau and walk to the fi nal hole tied at 13 under par. Both hit outstanding approaches to reach the

green on the par-5 hole in two, and each sank birdie putts to fi nish the 72 holes in 14 under and set up the playoff .

Schauff ele, Finau and playing partner Justin Rose, the defending champion, had pulled away from the fi eld over the back nine, making it essentially a three-man

tournament. But Rose, the world number three who could have returned to number one with a win, faltered late and fi nished four strokes back at 10 under.

It was a harsh disappointment for the long-hitting, 29-year-old Finau, who was impressive all week and lead after the second and third rounds. Of Samoan and Tongan descent, Finau is the fi rst player of that ancestry on the PGA Tour and the fi rst Polynesian to play in the Ryder Cup, where he provided a rare bright spot as a USA captain’s pick in last month’s crush-ing loss to Europe.

His only PGA win so far was the 2016 Puerto Rico Open. But Finau, along with Schauff ele, has become a player to watch, recording 11 top-10 fi nishes in 2018, in-cluding at three majors, and his Ryder Cup performance. Finau was world number 17 before the WGC-HSBC Champions, to Schauff ele’s 19th. “(I) defi nitely feel like I let one get away. Xander played incredi-ble golf,” said Finau. “He posted a number and made birdie on a playoff hole when it counted. Hats off him to. He played nicely today and deserved to win.” The tourna-ment, dubbed “Asia’s major”, annually gathers a premier fi eld with its winner’s purse of $1.8mn. But aside from Rose, several of the world’s top golfers struggled in the unpredictable winds that buff eted the lengthy par-72 Sheshan course. World No 1 Brooks Koepka shot a 69 yesterdayto fi nish at two under, second-ranked Dust-in Johnson fi nished at three over, and Rory McIlroy managed even par only once in Shanghai to fi nish at 10 over par.

AFPNew Delhi

India’s Khalin Joshi fi red a decisive birdie on the 18th hole to clinch his maiden Asian Tour title at the Pana-sonic Open India tournament in New

Delhi yesterday. The 26-year-old Joshi hit four-under 68 in the fourth round to edge out Siddikur Rahman of Bangladesh by one shot in a dramatic fi nish at the Delhi Golf Course.

Joshi, who was the overnight leader along with Rahman, started with two bogeys in the fi rst three holes but soon gained momentum to hit six birdies. Rah-man, who won the Indian Open at the Delhi course in 2013, carded an even-par at the fi nal hole and Joshi hit the winning putt to a loud roar.

“It’s been a great feeling. I have been knocking on the door for quite a while, since the day I turned pro (in 2013),” Joshi said after the win. “I knew I had to make a birdie over here...It didn’t mat-ter what Siddikur was doing. I wanted to my best and hopefully that would be good enough,” he told reporters.

Joshi underlined India’s domination at the $400,000 Asian Tour event, becom-ing the seventh Indian winner in eight editions. Australia’s Wade Ormsby re-mains the only foreign winner, in 2013.

Joshi now has his eyes set on getting a European Tour card just like his Indian counterpart Shubhankar Sharma, who

won the 2017 Joburg Open to earn full membership on the European Tour.

India’s Ajeetesh Sandhu managed a two-under in the fi nal round to end tied third alongside Suradit Yongcharoenchai of Thailand.

NELLY BECOMES LPGA WINNER, EXTENDING SPORTING DYNASTY

America’s Nelly Korda claimed her maid-en LPGA Tour victory in Taiwan yester-day, joining her elder sister Jessica as a winner on the circuit and extending a family sporting resume which also boasts a Grand Slam tennis title.

Korda, 20, shot four-under-par 68 for an aggregate score of 13-under 288 at the LPGA Taiwan Championship in Taoyuan, fi nishing two shots clear of Australia’s Minjee Lee. Two birdies, no bogeys and an eagle on the par-fi ve sixth made for a straightforward win after Korda’s over-night co-leader, Taiwan’s Hsu Wei-ling, fell away with a 74 to fi nish tied sixth.

Australia’s Lee shot 66, her lowest round of the tournament, to rise to sec-ond, one stroke ahead of American player Ryann O’Toole who carded 67 to fi nish third. Korda was in tears on the 18th green

when she spoke to 25-year-old Jessica, a fi ve-time LPGA Tour winner, and other family members at home in the United States via video chat.

“That defi nitely brought me to tears, seeing everyone lined up there. When I was walking up to 18 I was like ‘Oh my gosh Nelly, hold back the tears!’” she said. The Korda sisters are the daughters of former tennis world number two Petr Korda, who won the Australian Open 20 years ago in 1998.

US ROOKIE CHAMP FIRES 64 TO GRAB FOUR-SHOT US PGA LEAD

American rookie Cameron Champ, seek-ing his fi rst US PGA title, fi red an eight-under par 64 to seize a four-stroke lead after Saturday’s third round of the Sand-erson Farms Championship.

The 23-year-old Californian stood on 17-under 199 after 54 holes at the Coun-try Club of Jackson in Mississippi with Canada’s Corey Conners second after his own 64. Champ led after 18 holes and shared a second-round advantage with Chinese-American Norman Xiong, who stumbled to a 76 Saturday to fall off the leaderboard.

ReutersBasel

World number three Roger Federer beat Romanian qualifi er Marius Copil 7-6(5),

6-4 to win the Swiss Indoors yes-terday and claim his 99th career title in front of his home crowd in Basel. Federer began the year by winning the Australian Open and his ninth Basel title was his fourth of the season but the fi rst since his victory in Stuttgart in June. The Swiss top seed was made to work hard by the fearless Copil, whose path to the fi nal in-cluded wins over world number six Marin Cilic and number fi ve Alexander Zverev.

The 28-year-old broke Feder-er’s serve early in the match but the Swiss recovered to force a tie-break that he needed every bit of his vast experience to win. Copil stormed out of the blocks in the second set, racing into a 3-0 lead before Federer got on the score-board, but the Swiss kept a level head to reel his opponent back in before breaking serve to take a 5-4 lead in the second set.

He closed out the victory in one hour, 34 minutes for his fourth consecutive title in Basel to draw within one of his cen-tury. American Jimmy Connors (109) is the only player to have won more than 100 career titles in the professional era.

Despite being broken twice by world number 93 Copil, Fe-derer was never truly in danger,

striking 22 winners and winning 32 out of 34 fi rst-serve points. Copil made 31 unforced errors and crumbled when the pressure was highest, allowing Federer to recover from a break down in the second set and win the last fi ve games as the Romanian’s chal-lenge ran out of steam.

ANDERSON INTO ATP FINALS AFTER VIENNA OPEN

WIN OVER NISHIKORIBig-serving South African Kevin Anderson secured his spot at next month’s season-ending ATP Finals by beating Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-6(3) to win the Vienna Open yesterday. The world number eight sent down 13 aces and 36 winners as he wrapped up victory in just under two hours. The 32-year-old is the fi rst South African to reach the ATP Finals in 23 years and follows in the footsteps of compatriot Wayne Ferreira who achieved the feat in 1995. Anderson joins Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro, Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev in seal-ing his spot at the season fi nale, which will run from Nov 11-18 at the O2 Arena in London.

His qualifi cation means there are two places still up for grabs ahead of next week’s Paris Mas-ters, with Croatian Marin Cil-ic, Austrian Dominic Thiem, Nishikori and American John Is-ner still in the race.

Anderson was runner-up to Djokovic at Wimbledon this year but the win in Vienna represent-ed the biggest title of his career.

ReutersSingapore

Elina Svitolina stretched every sinew in a brilliant display of defensive tennis to register the biggest win of her career when

she rallied for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Sloane Stephens in an enthralling WTA Finals title decider yesterday.

Ukrainian Svitolina had arrived in Singapore woefully out of form, but the baseliner gathered momentum as the tournament progressed, winning all three pool matches and semi-fi nal be-fore subduing a fast-starting Stephens.

“This is a very special moment for me in my career and it will give me plenty of confi dence for the season coming ahead, I am really pleased with my performance,” Svitolina said as she received the Billie Jean King trophy.

Stephens, who looks deceptively casual but possesses supreme speed and athleticism, settled the quicker against a nervous-looking Svitolina, breaking at the fi rst opportunity to lay down an early marker. After a lacklustre start, however, Svitolina began warm-ing to her task and found some range and depth to fashion two break-back points but Stephens’ forehand was di-alled in and she moved 3-0 ahead when the Ukrainian’s backhand faltered.

Svitolina fi nally got on the score-board in the fourth game, able to pla-cate the Stephens forehand with some brilliant defence, but the American continued to pound away at the corners to maintain her break advantage.

Counter-puncher Svitolina contin-ued to plug away, holding another tight service game to stay alive in the opener, but Stephens sealed the set when her opponent could only fi nd the net with a backhand from deep behind the base-line. There was very little to choose be-tween the players as the match proceed-ed and it was Svitolina’s turn to make the initial breakthrough in the second set when she capitalised on untidy play from Stephens to edge a break ahead.

The Ukrainian was pumping her fi st enthusiastically after every winning point as her opponent suddenly ap-peared lethargic, her energetic play re-warded with a third break of the set to send the contest into a decider.

The world number seven was dictat-ing terms as a leaden-footed Stephens struggled to match Svitolina’s relent-less pace and once the Ukrainian moved 3-0 ahead after edging two epic games, the American could sense her chances were slipping away. Stephens made one fi nal eff ort to fi ght her way back into the match, but Svitolina kept the points long to force her opponent into un-forced errors as she sought winners and wrapped up a memorable victory when Stephens skewed a backhand wide.

“I am super happy that I was able to fi nish off the season the way I did. Ob-viously, it was not the result I wanted but I worked really hard to get here, am proud of my play and really pleased with what I did this week,” Stephens said. Svitolina’s triumph was her 13th victory in 15 fi nals and should fi ll her full of confi dence as she looks to make a Grand Slam breakthrough in 2019.

‘This is a very special moment for me and it will give me plenty of confidence for the season coming ahead’

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina celebrates with the trophy after winning the WTA Finals tennis tournament in Singapore. (AFP)

Switzerland’s Roger Federer poses with ball boys after winning the Swiss Indoors tournament in Basel yesterday. (AFP) Xander Schauff ele of the US smiles after winning the WGC-HSBC Champions golf

tournament in Shanghai yesterday. (AFP)

SPORT7Gulf Times

Monday, October 29, 2018

ElShorbagy stays on course despite sluggish start

Qatar Motorsport Academy launched at Losail circuitduring WSBK round

Qatar to host men’s Worlds for fi ft h time next season

SQUASH / QATAR CLASSIC SPOTLIGHT

SQUASH

By Sports ReporterDoha

World No 1 Mohamed ElShorbagy started his title defence defeating Tsz Fung

Yip of Hong Kong 3-1 (11-3, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9) in the second round of Qatar Classic yesterday.

At the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, three-time champion ElShor-bagy lost just one game against the 25-year-old Yip, but was sluggish.

ElShorbagy lauded Yip’s. “He played really well, it’s the fi rst time we have played (each oth-er), so I was not sure what to ex-pect but I know how good he is. He’s shown great potential and I think he will go up the rankings in future for sure,” he said.

It started very quickly as the world No 27 took a game to ad-just to the style and power of the champion as he lost it in just six minutes.

The second game was a dif-ferent. Yip took the advantage of a slow court by attacking in the front corners. He surprised the world No 1 with several win-ners at the front to maintain it at 5-all. ElShorbagy found some rhythm back as he took a four-point lead (9-5), but Yip earned the next four points to make it 9-9 and later used his experi-ence to fi nish the game 11-9 in nine minutes.

Yip took a fl ying start in the third with an 8-3 lead as ElShor-bagy was suddenly found want-ing. He tried to make a come-back in the game but it was late for him as Yip won the game 11-6 in seven minutes.

The impartial spectators saw some fi ne attacking shots, re-trievals and counter drops from both the players. It looked like it is over as ElShorbagy took a commanding 7-4 lead, but the Hong Kong boy came back strongly to make it 8-8. At that point, the Egyptian gave the fi -nal push to his game and crossed the fi nish line with 11-9 in nine minutes.

ElShorbagy, who is eyeing his fourth title in Doha, will take on Adrian Waller of England in the third round tomorrow.

“I have to make sure I stay positive for the rest of the sea-son. There are a lot of players out there that are playing really well at the moment, so I have to stay hungry and motivated. When

you have a hard day, you just need to stop and remember why you started in the fi rst place,” ElShorbagy said.

Waller defeated Egypt’s Omar Mossad 3-0 (11-0, 11-2, 11-5) in 22 minutes.

Talking about his next match, he said: “It would be nice if Yip could win…. Mohamed has a reputation and it’s evident how good he is and especially here. It will be a good test for me to see how I fare against the best in the world and I’ll just give it my best and see what happens.”

Tom Richards of Britain gave another fi ne performance yes-terday as he defeated Ryan Cuskelly of Australia 3-1 (5-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-7) in 58 minutes, while fourth seed Simon Ros-ner of Germany defeated George Parker of England 3-0 (11-3, 11-3, 11-5).

“Ryan is a great player and I feel like I played some re-ally good squash in the last few

games. I used the conditions well and I’m just delighted to be fi t and healthy and playing. I knew I had the game to beat and I knew I can beat him but equally I knew he was more than capable of blowing me away so I’m just happy to come through,” said Richards.

“It was a question of confi -dence today I think. After the second mid game, I started to relax and let the arm go. I was moving well, hitting well and I took a bit of confi dence away from him as he saw I was getting some good shots at the front.

“I’m happy I came back from the fi rst game, where he beat me rather comfortably, and I changed my game. I tried to be more posi-tive really. I also stop boasting that much, on that court, you think playing short but in fact, it pays off to play straight. So I played as straight as I could and once in a while went for a couple of nicks,” he said.

Fourth seed Simon Rosner, Tom Richards, Adrian Waller also win on the day

By Yash MudgalDoha

Qatar will host the 2019-20 edition of the men’s world championships as the prestigious tour-

nament returns to the country for the fi fth time, Professional Squash Association (PSA) an-nounced yesterday.

The 40th edition of the iconic championships, the most prestig-ious and lucrative tournament of the PSA Tour Calendar, will take place from October 31-November 8, 2019, at the Khalifa Internation-al Tennis and Squash Complex.

In all, 64 players including 56 highest ranked players and eight wild card entrants will compete for a share of the $325,000 total cash prize at the tournament.

Qatar had previously hosted the sport’s pinnacle tourna-ment in 1998, 2004, 2012 and 2014, with the 2014 fi nal between Egyptian duo Ramy Ashour and Mohamed ElShorbagy go-ing down in history as one of the sport’s greatest ever matches.

Ashour won the fi nal in fi ve

tense sets (13-11, 7-11, 5-11, 11-5, 14-12) in 90 minutes of edge-of-the-seat action.

“We are delighted to announce that the 2019-20 PSA Men’s World Championships will take place in Qatar next season and are looking forward to seeing the world’s greatest players return to the country for what promises to be an exciting week of action,” PSA chief executive Alex Gough told Gulf Times.

“Qatar is a major destination on the international squash scene and has hosted some incredible tournaments and matches down the years. There is also a promis-ing crop of young Qatari players starting to make their mark on the PSA Tour, including Abdulla al-Tamimi, who is on the verge of making the world’s top 20.”

“The Qatar Squash Federa-tion (QSF) has taken the tourna-ment to another level in terms of the presentation and produc-tion values of the event in recent years and we are looking forward to working with them over the coming months,” he said.

Talking about expectation from the championships, Gough

said: “In 2014, we saw one of the greatest fi nals between Moham-ed ElShorbagy and Ramy Ashour. If anything like that is repeated we will be very proud. Here in

Qatar, players are so well looked after as QSF’s hospitality is sec-ond to none.

“Everything from venue to physio facilities and press is so

fantastic. Qatar has always pro-duced best quality tournaments. I am sure (tournament director) Tariq (Zainal) and his team will make it an exciting world cham-

pionships. We are looking for-ward to an exciting event.”

Tournament Director Tariq Za-inal said: “Hosting the PSA Men’s World Championships for the fi fth time is another proof of Qatar’s commitment to the development of our sport. Over the years, Qa-tar has grown to be a global des-tination for top sporting events of which squash occupies a major place in the top hierarchy. We are happy and prepared to host once again a memorable event that promises to be the best ever.

“I’m sure all the players and participants are looking forward to the wonderful hospitality and superb organisation. We believe the championships will be an-other opportunity for squash fans, especially in the region, to enjoy watching their beloved players compete at the topmost level of the game. It will also pro-vide an opportunity for upcom-ing stars to gain valuable experi-ence which a tournament of such nature provides. We are delighted to host this tournament and we look forward to welcoming the world in 2019,” Zainal added.

World No 1 ElShorbagy

thanked Qatar for supporting squash by organising big events.

“I just heard that we will play the World Championships here next year, and I want to thank the Qatari federation for the hard work they are doing to get us here every year, and for supporting squash for so long.”

India squash star Sourav Gho-sal is also excited with the devel-opment. “It’s great news. Qatar Classic is a classic example for other hosts as to how PSA World Tour Platinum events should be held. I have played here (Qatar) in a World Championships in the past and have enjoyed the hos-pitality and the organisation has been of the top order. Qatar has done a fantastic job in the past and I think they have the capacity to organise big events like world championships and I am sure they will deliver a perfect cham-pionships next year.”

The 2019-20 PSA Men’s World Championships will replace the Qatar Classic, PSA World Tour Platinum event on the PSA Tour calendar next season. The Qatar Classic will return to the calen-dar for the 2020-21 season.

Egypt’s Mohamed ElShorbagy (left) in action during the Qatar Classic second round match against Tsz Fung Yip at Khalifa International Ten-nis and Squash Complex yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

Qatar Squash Federation secretary-general Tareq Zainal (left) and Professional Squash Association CEO Alex Gough address a press conference in Doha yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

Players Mohamed ElShorbagy, Ali Farag, Tareq Momen and Simon Rosner, pose with Qatar Classic tournament director Tareq Zainal and PSA CEO Alex Gough during the Gala Dinner on Saturday.

By Sports ReporterDoha

Qatar Motorsports Academy (QMA), an international facility for training young tal-

ented motorcycle riders, was of-fi cially launched this past Friday at the Losail International Cir-cuit during the WorldSBK Pirelli Qatar Round and is due to kick off on November 23.

Losail Circuit Sports Club (LCSC) vice-president and gen-eral manager Khalid al-Remaihi was joined by Aspire Academy’s Sport and Strategy director Markus Egger and QMA’s Motor-cycling head and former MotoGP and WorldSBK rider Jose Luis Cardoso for the announcement.

The project was fi rst an-nounced during the Grand Prix of Qatar earlier in March 2018 in the presence of the three main partners — Dorna Sports SL, Aspire Academy and LCSC. The main objective of this academy is to give young riders the tools to learn the basics of motorcycle racing and improve their skills in a safe environment.

Al-Remaihi said: “We have made this announcement be-cause we know this country has huge racing talent. We want to train young kids from Qatar and abroad the right way with expert help coming from Dorna Sports SL, Aspire Academy and José

Luis Cardoso. With all of them, we will have a great experience in developing young riders.”

Egger said, “We have been talking ‘what is the best way to get involved?’. In Qatar Motor-sports Academy, our role is not technical. What we can do is look after the physical and mental condition of the elite athletes. We have loads of expertise in this fi eld.”

Cardoso has vast experience in motorsport and is very excited about this opportunity to build a new generation of riders in Qatar.

“This project is very impor-tant for Qatar and Losail Circuit Sports Club,” Cardoso said.

“We are working on a very exclusive and high quality pro-gramme, and I am sure it will bring us many successes. It will give an opportunity to boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 16 years old to learn and evolve in a sport as elite as motorcycling.”

QMA will have both theo-retical and practical lessons for all types of tracks with experi-enced instructors leading them. These lessons will take place on Tuesdays and Saturdays. For all-round development, the acade-my will also be working on phys-ical preparation and nutrition.

A family open day will take place on November 23 for all the participants, who have previ-ously registered on the website. Online registration is still avail-able at lcsc.qa/qma.

(From left) Aspire Academy’s Sport and Strategy director Markus Egger, Losail Circuit Sports Club vice-president and general manager Khalid al-Remaihi and Qatar Motorsports Academy’s Motorcycling head and former MotoGP and WorldSBK rider Jose Luis Cardoso.

Monday, October 29, 2018

GULF TIMES GYMNASTICS

Mustafi na leads Russia to fi nal on comeback

Love for gymnastics drives Jamaica’sFrancis toward Tokyo

Competing alongside idol Mustafi na ‘so cool’: Alekseeva

48TH FIG ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS DOHA 2018

FOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

24-year-old returns to competition 16 months after giving birth, as Russian women’s team finish second in the qualifying round

Russia’s Aliya Mustafina. PICTURE: Thajudheen

By Sahan BidappaDoha

Just like Simone Biles, Aliya Mustafi na is mak-ing her own comeback. The Russian is back to

competing just 16 months af-ter giving birth to daughter Alisa. While there were doubts over how she would perform at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, the seven-time Olympic medallist and 2010 world All-around cham-pion showed little eff ects of motherhood as she led Russia to team fi nals at the Aspire Dome yesterday.

“I was missing the emotions, the equipment, the girls, eve-rything. When you become a mother, your life doesn’t end,” Mustafi na said, after guid-ing a young Russian team to second place in qualifying. The 24-year-old had to shep-herd three rookies — 18-year-old Angelina Melnikova, and 16-year-olds Irina Alekseeva and Angelina Simakova — who were nervous to perform on the big stage. The nervousness was laid bare when Angelina Sima-kova scored zero points on Vault as she did not land her feet fi rst and then fell on Uneven Bars.

But Mustafi na steadied the ship with clinical routine in Uneven Bars, Floor Exercise and Balance Beam as Rus-sia fi nished with a team score of 165.497 points, just ahead

of China (165.196). However, Russia’s total was nearly nine points behind the Americans, who dominated the qualifi ca-tions on Saturday thanks to Biles’ brilliance. The women’s fi nals are scheduled for to-morrow, and Biles will lead an American squad that is heavily favoured to continue a winning streak that dates back to the 2011 World Championships

Alekseeva, who earned a spot in the All-around fi nal after being 12th in qualifying, was confi dent the Russian team will perform better in the fi nal. “It’s just qualifi cations and it’s the fi rst day, so of course we had a

little bit of nerves,” she said. “So we’ll hope to get rid of those for the team fi nal.”

China was below par yester-day, committing mistakes in its traditionally two strongest ap-paratus – Uneven Bars and Bal-ance Beam. But it was still good enough to fi nish third.

One Chinese gymnast fell on Uneven Bars, and two of them struggled on Beam, but all-arounder Chen Yile predicted a better result in team fi nal. “I think the whole team will do much better in the fi nal,” Chen said. “We all have trust in each other. We will try our best to get a medal.”

Meanwhile, Canada quali-fi ed fourth with veteran Ellie Black leading the team’s charge as they totalled 163.897 points. Black, the 2017 Worlds silver medallist, qualifi ed sixth in All-around.

“I’m very proud of how eve-ryone in the team did,” said Black. “They all held them-selves up high — chins up and had a positive attitude — and really put it all out there.”

Brazil, Japan, France and Germany made the top eight to qualify for the fi nal. There was disappointment for Britain as they missed out on fi nal place by just 0.107 points and fi n-ished ninth. Kelly Simm, Geor-gia-Mae Fenton, Alice Kinsella, Ellie Downie and Becky Downie combined to score a team total of 160.964 points. Britain had fi nishing fi fth at the 2016 Ol-

ympics. The result means Brit-ain will not have representa-tion in a world championships women’s team fi nal for the fi rst time since 2006.

There were standout per-formances from Becky Downie, who produced a stunning Bars routine to qualify for the in-dividual fi nal, while her sister Ellie showed her credentials in All-around to seal her place in the fi nal alongside Simm.

“It was a tough competition. It’s not been the easiest of years for us with injuries to some of our key players. We’ve given it all we’ve got and we can’t really ask for more than that,” Becky said. “It’s the fi rst time they’ve come into a team world cham-pionships and that kind of pres-sure.”

“We’ll go back and look at where we can improve and take it from there. Don’t write us off . There’s still a whole year until qualifi cation for the 2020 To-kyo Olympics and, if anything, it’s just going to make us work harder,” she added.

Today, the men’s team fi nal will be held in the evening.

More than 500 gymnasts from 76 nations are taking part in the World Championship, which is being staged in the Middle East for the fi rst time. Along with 42 world championship medals, the three medal-winning nations in the team fi nals for both men and women will earn team berths directly to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

FIGDoha

Danusia Francis is al-ready living up to the ‘Aspire Today, Inspire Tomorrow’ motto

emblazoned over the athlete entrance at the Aspire Dome in Doha, where she competed Sat-urday night at her second World Championships for Jamaica.

Francis, 24, is eager to pass on her wisdom to the young gym-nasts she coaches, but love of the sport – and unfulfi lled Ol-ympic ambition – led Francis, 24, to make her comeback last September after more than a year of retirement.

“It’s really exciting,” Francis says. “I always dreamed to be in the Olympics. I was toing and froing at the idea [of coming back] and I thought I would re-gret if I didn’t try. It’s amazing to be back at the world champi-onships.”

The Londoner was a member of the British squad that took fi fth at the 2011 World Champi-onships in Tokyo and served as alternate to the team at the 2012 Olympics in her hometown. She joined the University of Cali-fornia in Los Angeles (UCLA), competing in the US collegiate ranks while still hoping to com-pete at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Francis was the top perform-er for Jamaica at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow (GBR). However, Jamaica’s Na-tional Gymnastics Federation decided to send another gym-nast, Toni-Ann Williams, to the Rio Test event, as she had been representing Jamaica longer than Francis, and she became Jamaica’s fi rst gymnastics Ol-ympian.

Francis’ disappointment was lessened by the fact that the Rio Test event was held the same weekend as the college national championships, her fi nal com-petition for UCLA.

“I don’t look back and regret it, but being the reserve in 2012 and then missing out in 2016

was hard,” says Francis, whose paternal grandparents emi-grated from Jamaica. “Toni has been doing Jamaica the long-est, so it’s cool that she got to do Rio and hopefully I’ll be there in Tokyo with the Jamaican fl ag on!”

Francis, who has been train-ing at London’s Heathrow Gymnastics Club since age 9, credits the coaches who have guided her throughout her ca-reer with instilling for her love of the sport. At UCLA, she trained under Valorie Kondos-Field, known simply as Miss Val, a former ballet dancer who is noted for her inspirational approach to coaching.

“Miss Val was a massive in-fl uence in giving me that confi -dence boost,” Francis says. “Not that I didn’t have confi dence, but she brought me to that next level to have confi dence as a leader as a well. Right now there are three of us here at worlds and they are much younger than me. I learned how to be a leader and bring people up and give them hope and confi dence.”

When not training herself, Francis visits clubs in Britain to give her unique Dance and

Beam Confi dence Workshop to inspire young gymnasts just beginning their sporting ca-reers.

“I just thought, ‘what’s the main thing I learned that I kind of wish I knew when I was young-er?’” she says. “It’s evolved a bit since I’ve begun but I’ve just had amazing feedback. It feels so good to be able to help and it’s re-ally fun for me.”

Francis also had fun as a stunt double for Rita Ora in a promo for last year’s MTV European Music Awards, in which she did a somersault into a sports car. She also did stuntwork this past summer in a fi lm coming out next year – the fi lm is big enough that she cannot reveal its title – shot at Warner Bros. London studio.

Francis, whose sporting idol is Usain Bolt, has embraced her role as a leader for Jamaica, which for the fi rst time has full teams for men and women at the world championships. She is as serious about being a lead-er as she is about her Gymnas-tics training.

“It makes you feel better when everyone around you is doing well,” she says.

FIGDoha

One year ago, Irina Alekseeva could not have imagined mak-ing the Russian team

for the 2018 World Champion-ships in Doha, much less quali-fying to the All-around fi nal. But after living and training half her life in the United States, the 16-year-old Alekseeva suited up yesterday alongside child-hood hero Aliya Mustafi na to help Russia qualify second to tomorrow’s team fi nal at the Aspire Dome, and even clinched a spot for herself in Thursday’s All-around fi nal.

“It feels really, really good to be here, especially with the Russian team,” says Alekseeva, also known as Ira Alexeeva.

Then aged 7, the Moscow na-tive followed coach Dina Kam-alova when she moved to Texas in 2010, the same year Mustafi -

na captured the All-around title at the world championships in Rotterdam. Alekseeva rapidly rose through the junior ranks and hoped to compete for the American team. In recent years, she has won international invi-tationals representing her club, World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, but without citizen-ship, her Olympic aspirations were stalled.

“[Returning to Russia] has always been an option,” she says in fl awless American Eng-lish, “but we started contacting them last year and they invited me to the training camp.”

Alekseeva joined the Rus-sian national team in May and has been mainly training at the national training centre outside Moscow. In August, she helped Russia win team gold at the Eu-ropean championships in Glas-gow.

“It’s a diff erent atmosphere [in Russia],” says Alekseeva, whose two older brothers at-

tend university in the United States. “There are so many good gymnasts, but I get to train with them, and they’re amazing, so they teach me a lot!”

Mustafi na, who was also coached as a junior by Kamalo-va at CSKA Moscow, was one of Alekseeva’s earliest idols in the gym.

“I was one of the little girls and I always saw her practis-ing and looked up to her,” re-calls Alekseeva with a big smile, “and now that I’m back and practising and competing with her, I think that’s so cool!”

Alekseeva relies on her more experienced teammates, in-cluding two-time Olympic champion Mustafi na, to relax in competition.

“The older girls have a lot of experience because they’ve done this so many times,” she explains. “I get nervous and I start going really fast, and they tell me, ‘Calm down! You’ll be fi ne!’”