Qatar ready to face Panama in their Gold Cup debut

Tuesday, July 13, 2021Dhul-Hijjah 3, 1442 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

The greatest? Djoko has time, momentum on his side

UK agonises over racial abuse of England stars

TENNIS TENNIS | Page 2 FOOTBALL FOOTBALL | Page 3

FOOTBALL

With only 16 months to go until Qatar hosts the FIFA World Cup, the country’s national team is fully fo-

cused on the tournament. This month, Qatar will take part in the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the fi rst time – the latest step on its learning curve ahead of next year’s showpiece event.

Led by Spanish coach Felix Sanchez, the Maroons have come a long way in recent years. They will head into the World Cup as continental champions after lifting the AFC Asian Cup for the fi rst time in 2019.

Since then, Qatar have soaked up a stack of international experience. The team competed in the 2019 Copa America and have recently faced a number of European teams after be-ing invited to take part in UEFA’s FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign as a guest nation. Qatar’s next challenge will be facing the best teams from North, Central America and the Car-ibbean in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which began in the United States on July 10 and will conclude on August 1. Qatar were invited to take part in the tournament after the Qatar Football Association signed a strategic partner-ship with CONCACAF.

Qatar have been drawn in a group containing Grenada, Honduras and Panama. Their fi rst match – against FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 qualifi ers Panama – will take place in Houston, Texas tonight (kick-off 2am Doha time). After their match against Panama, the Asian champions face Grenada on July

17th before concluding the group stage against Honduras on July 20th. Qatar squad had a three-week training camp in Croatia where they beat Croatia’s reserve team and El Salvador. Qatar is the seventh non-CONCACAF country to compete in the Gold Cup, the fi rst from the Arab world, and the second to

represent the Asian Football Confed-eration in the competition after South Korea.

Speaking during a training camp at Aspire Zone, coach Sanchez and de-fender Abdelkarim Hassan discussed the signifi cance of the tournament while looking ahead to Qatar 2022.

“During the build-up to the World Cup, we are going to be playing a lot of matches to prepare us for the big tour-nament,” said Hassan. “The Gold Cup will see us play against teams with dif-ferent playing styles to our own – it will be a very valuable experience.”

Sanchez said competing in the Gold

Cup would test the squad. “It’s a very important tournament for us,” said Sanchez. “Playing offi cial competi-tions in a diff erent environment to Asia presents us with a much-needed test to see how well we can compete against diff erent teams in the World Cup.”

During the last World Cup, hosts Russia made it all the way to the quar-ter-fi nals before bowing out on penal-ties against eventual fi nalists Croatia. Hassan is hoping Qatar can emulate the Russians’ success in 2022.

“It’s diffi cult to predict how far we will go in the World Cup,” said Hassan. “In the past, big teams have exited at the group stage, while some smaller na-

tions have made it to the latter stages. We are hoping to surprise everyone at the World Cup. Nothing is impossible.”

Sanchez hopes the Gold Cup will continue Qatar’s development as a se-rious contender on the world stage. He also discussed his aspirations for 2022. “When the World Cup is over, I want people to say that Qatar are a good team, with quality players that play proper football. I want them to see that Qatar can compete against anyone,” said Sanchez.

There are now under 500 days to go until the World Cup, with Qatar set to kick off the tournament at the stunning Al Bayt Stadium on November 21, 2022.

OLYMPICS

Refugee Olympic Team athletes gear up for Tokyo GamesPage 4

‘Gold Cup will see us play against teams with diff erent playing styles to our own – it will be a very valuable experience’

Qatar will participate in the 32nd Summer Olympic Games 2020 to be held in the Japanese capital of Tokyo

from July 23 to August 8. A total of 15 athletes will represent Qatar in seven sports at Tokyo 2020 Olympics as Team Qatar will compete in a total of seven sports and 6 track and fi eld disciplines.

Here are profi les of some Qatar’s top stars who will be aiming to return with medals.

MOHAMED AL-RUMAIHI Trap shooter Mohamed al-Rumaihi has represented Qatar in a number of world and Asian events. Al-Rumaihi booked a quota spot at the Olympics during the 14th Asian Shooting Championships at the Lusail Shooting Complex.

FARES IBRAHIM HASSOUNA Qatar’s Fares Ibrahim Hassouna earned his ticket to Tokyo 2020 Olympics when he bagged two gold medals at 2019 Qatar International Cup Weight-lifting Championships. Fares also participated in Rio 2016 Olympics but his fi rst international appearance with Team Qatar was in 2014 edition of Qa-tar International Cup Weightlifting Championships.

ABDULAZIZ HASSAN AL-OBAIDLY Team Qatar swimmer Abdulaziz Has-san al-Obaidly will participate in 200m breaststroke event in Tokyo Olympics. Al-Obaidly sparkled at 2018 Asian Games and 2018 World Championships and claimed a huge number of gold medals on GCC level. It is worth mentioning that team Qa-tar swimmer Nada Mohamed Wafa was the fi rst Qatari women to participate in

Olympic Games when she competed in 50m Freestyle event at 2012 London Olympics.

CHERIF YOUNOUSSE AND AHMED TIJAN

The Qatar beach volleyball team con-sisting of Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan qualifi ed for the 2020 Tokyo Ol-ympic Games following the newly-announced rankings by the Interna-tional Volleyball Federation (FIVB). In a statement, the FIVB said that 13 teams have guaranteed direct qualifi cation for the 2020 Olympic Games after the end of the last three Olympic qualifying rounds in Mexico.

Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan claimed their fi rst gold medal in FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-star

events in Cancun. They also partici-pated in Rio 2016 Olympics.

TALA ABUJBARA Team Qatar rower Tala Abujbara quali-fi ed for Tokyo Games after clocking a time of 8.20 minutes in the 2,000m race during the Asia and Oceania Row-ing Qualifi cation Championships held in Kuwait. Tala had previously won the gold medal at the second Arab Cham-pionships in Indoor Rowing, which was hosted by Kuwait in 2018. She also claimed the bronze medal of 2017 Arab Championships held in Tunisia.

AYOUB EL IDRISSI Judo star Ayoub El Idrissi qualifi ed for the Olympics after collecting 699 points thanks to the good results he obtained during his participation in international tournaments in 2020 and 2021, especially in the recent Grand Slam tournaments in Georgia, Turkey and Russia, and the World Champion-ships, which was held in Hungary in last June.

El Idrissi claimed the gold medal of 2019 Arab Championships in Morocco and the 5th place of 2019 Asian Cham-pionships in Uzbekistan.

Team Qatar stars eye glory at Tokyo Olympic GamesSPOTLIGHT

Qatar head coach Felix Sanchez (right) with a support staff .

Qatar players during a training session in Houston yesterday.

Qatar’s Fares Ibrahim Hassouna is a strong contender for gold medal in 96kg class weightlifting at Tokyo Olympics.

Qatar’s formidable beach volleyball pair Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan.

Tala Abujbara is the first Qatari rower to qualify for the Olympics.

Qatar’s Trap shooter Mohamed al-Rumaihi.

SPORTGulf Times Tuesday, July 13, 20212

Heat risks add to challenges for Tokyo’s pandemic-hit Olympics

Stokes impressed by Mahmood’s England impact

SPOTLIGHT

CRICKET

AFPLondon

With a record-equal-ling 20th Grand Slam title secured, Novak Djokovic

has time and winning momen-tum on his side in the race to be crowned the greatest player of all time.

The world number one went level with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on 20 majors with a sixth Wimbledon title thanks to his four-set win over Italy’s Matteo Berrettini on Sunday.

The 34-year-old has won eight majors and appeared in nine Grand Slam fi nals since turning 30. Incredibly, when Federer secured his 20th at the 2018 Australian Open, Djokovic was still way back on 12.

“He’s amazing. He’s like in the movies. You have to kill the guy 27 times and still he gets up and you have to kill him again and he gets up,” said Goran Ivanisevic, one of the Serb’s coaching team.

“The guy is unbeatable at the moment. For me Novak is the best ever. He’s writing history.”

Ivanisevic believes that Djok-ovic’s coronation as the greatest male player of all time will come at the US Open in September.

A fourth career title there will make him only the third man in history to complete a calendar Grand Slam of all four majors after Don Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969.

“He’s going to do it at the US Open. I strongly believe he’s go-ing to win all four in one year. Then I think the debate is over,” said Ivanisevic.

At 34, Djokovic is a year younger than Nadal and has the best part of six years on Fed-erer who turns 40 in four weeks’ time. Nadal skipped Wimble-don after losing to Djokovic in a bruising French Open semi-fi nal last month. A sub-par Federer made a quarter-fi nal exit at the All England Club. Former Slam winners John McEnroe and Mats Wilander believe Djokovic can easily win at least four or fi ve more Slams.

“I’m going to say Roger Fed-

erer’s never going to win another one,” McEnroe told the BBC.

“I think Rafael Nadal wins one more and Novak Djokovic is go-ing to win four or fi ve more.”

Wilander added: “I think he will win another three next year and two or three the following year, so I think he ends up on 25 or 26.

‘DOESN’T LOOK 34’ “Novak just doesn’t look 34,

he looks mid-20s, he’s fl ying around the court.”

When Djokovic won last month’s French Open, he be-came the fi rst man in 52 years to claim all four majors twice and third overall after Laver and Roy Emerson. It is not just at the Slams where Djokovic has tight-

ened his grip on the race to be crowned the sport’s greatest. He has 36 Masters titles, the same as Nadal.

However, he is the only man to have won each one of the series and the only one to have won all of them twice.

He has already surpassed Fed-erer for total weeks in the world number one slot - his 329th starts today.

Djokovic was also the fi rst of the ‘Big Three’ to break the $100 million prize money barrier. Sunday’s win took him comfort-ably past $150 million.

In head-to-heads, he also has the advantage. Against Nadal he is 30-28 and 27-23 in match-ups with Federer.

However, Djokovic insists

that he will never anoint himself as “the greatest”.

“I believe that I am the best, otherwise I wouldn’t be talk-ing confi dently about winning Slams and making history,” said Djokovic. “But whether I’m the greatest of all time or not, I leave that debate to other people.

“It’s very diffi cult to compare the eras of tennis. We have dif-ferent racquets, technology, balls, courts.”

There are still some areas where Djokovic at the moment lags behind. His career total of 85 titles is three fewer than Nadal while Federer has 103. He still has some way to go to beat Jimmy Connors’ all-time record of 109. In total earnings, Federer commanded $106.3 million in

2020, according to Forbes, while Djokovic made $44.6 million.

Sidelined for most of 2020 to recover from two knee surgeries, Federer’s bank balance remains healthy due to the $300 million 10-year contract he penned with Uniqlo in 2018.

Many regard Australia’s Laver as tennis’s supreme power, ar-guing he would have collected many more than his 11 Slams had he not been banished be-tween 1963 and 1967 for turning professional.

Djokovic also has some dis-tance to make up on the best women players of all time.

Margaret Court tops the all-time list with 24 Slam titles, Serena Williams has 23 while Steffi Graf retired on 22.

AFPTokyo

Searing heat, dripping humid-ity, and face masks: it’s going to be a sweaty Tokyo Olympics and while coronavirus meas-

ures are top priority, heatstroke re-mains a serious risk, experts warn.

Long before the pandemic forced Tokyo 2020’s postponement, the Japanese capital’s brutal summer heat was the main health concern for or-ganisers. While the Games have been held in places that are hotter or more humid than Tokyo, including Ath-ens and Beijing, Japan’s sweaty sum-mers off er both, in an unpleasant and sometimes deadly combination.

Organisers have moved the Olym-pic marathon and racewalks to the northern island of Hokkaido, hoping

to outrun temperatures that can hit 37 degrees Celsius and humidity over 80 percent. And with fans now banned from nearly all Games events over vi-rus fears, the risk of large crowds siz-zling in the sun is no longer a concern.

But athletes, who will have little time to acclimatise because they are only allowed to arrive just before com-petition, could still suff er. “Holding the games during July and August... was a serious issue even before the coronavirus pandemic,” Haruo Ozaki, chairman of the Tokyo Medical Asso-ciation, told reporters recently.

“There are still high risks of heat-stroke at events such as competitive walking, triathlon, and beach volley-ball,” even after moving the marathon and racewalking, he warned.

At test events in summer 2019, or-ganisers rolled out a variety of anti-heat measures: 1,360 tonnes of ice

to cool athletes, tents for shade, ice cream for volunteers and mist fans and artifi cial snow for spectators.

Even so, several people were treated for suspected heatstroke at a beach vol-leyball event and 10 people including athletes fell ill at a rowing test event. Ironically, Tokyo won its bid to host the

Olympics, beating out rivals including Doha, in part by boasting of its “mild” weather. But the city has been notori-ous for its stifl ing summer for years. The last time it hosted the Games, in 1964, the event was shifted to Octo-ber to beat the heat. And it has only got hotter in recent years, with climate change and urbanisation exacerbating the trend, according to experts.

A report published in late May by the British Association for Sustain-able Sport (BASIS) warned “intense heat and high levels of humidity are a threat to athletes at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics”.

British rower Melissa Wilson told the report she felt her sport was “ap-proaching a danger zone” given ris-ing temperatures at events around the world. “It’s a horrible moment when you see athletes cross the line, their bodies fl ing back in total exhaus-

tion and then not rise up,” she said. In pre-pandemic 2019, more than 71,000 people sought emergency care for heatstroke across Japan, with 118 deaths during the June-September period. And even in 2020, with fewer people out and about, emergency care cases stood at just below 65,000 with 112 dying.

Doctors in Tokyo have warned or-ganisers that medical emergencies during the competition - including heatstroke - could divert resources away from the domestic coronavirus response. The pandemic could com-plicate things, with rules requiring athletes to “wear a face mask at all times, except when training, compet-ing, eating, drinking, sleeping or dur-ing interviews”.

A Tokyo 2020 offi cial told AFP that the rules would be “fl exible depend-ing on the situation” given the risks

of heatstroke - allowing people to go mask-free when “outside and able to keep two metres apart from others”.

Masks in hot weather could cause people to feel ill and have diffi culty breathing, “even if this is not heat-stroke in a strict sense”, said Shoko Kawanami, a professor at the Uni-versity of Occupational and Environ-mental Health in western Japan.

“It’s important that spectators and volunteers take off their masks if they feel uncomfortable... making sure they keep a distance from crowds.”

Japan’s weather agency forecasts this July-August period in Tokyo will be hotter than average, and even a small rise in temperature “will have a major impact on whether the event is safe to run,” Ben Bright, head coach at the British Triathlon Federation, told the BASIS report. “It is not possible to eliminate risk.”

AFPLondon

Ben Stokes says Saqib Mahmood’s dynamic impact with the ball for England against Paki-

stan will make the team’s estab-lished stars fear for their places when they return from coronavi-rus isolation.

Eoin Morgan’s fi rst-choice one-day squad were forced to quarantine after a Covid-19 out-break ahead of the series. That left pace bowler Mahmood as one of the more experienced options available to England head coach Chris Silverwood despite owning just four caps. The 24-year-old took four for 42 and two for 21 in the fi rst two matches against Pakistan, dismissing the world’s number one 50-over batsman Babar Azam on both occasions.

One more strong performance at Edgbaston today, when Eng-land will look to sweep the series 3-0, will only increase his rapidly rising stock and could see him rocket up the pecking order.

“With the squad getting wiped

out, the one positive was that we could see guys come who have been on the fringe and, for Saqi, coming in and being the senior bowler has done him the world of good,” Stokes, England’s stand-in captain, said yesterday.

“He hasn’t been fazed by any-thing, he’s been taking the new ball and I’ve asked him to come back on at crucial times in games where he’s performed really well.

“So from an individual point of view it’s done him the world of good and from an England point of view, it’s another player that lads will have to look over their shoulder for.

“Saqi seems to always want the ball in his hands. He loves every minute of it. He loves to be in those situations where he’s ex-pected to be the man to change a game and he’s done it every time he’s bowled for me this series.

“Competition for places is al-ways a great thing to have at any level so when you get a complete new squad and they have put in such performances, that really adds to the expectation that gets put on to the main guys’ shoul-ders when they come back.”

The greatest? Djoko has time, momentum on his side

TENNIS

‘The guy is unbeatable at the moment. For me Novak is the best ever’

Serena Williams crashes out of WTA top 10Serena Williams dropped out of the WTA top 10 for the first time in more than two years when the new rankings were released yesterday.The 39-year-old, who has spent 319 weeks at number one over the course of her glittering career, dropped rankings points at Wimbledon, where she was a finalist at the last edition, after she with-drew through injury from her first round match with Aliaksandra Sasnovich.Her withdrawal sees Williams plummet eight places to 16th in the world, her low-est ranking since early January 2019.Simona Halep also tumbled to ninth after injury ruled her out of defending the

Wimbledon title she won in 2019, and the points that went with that victory. Ashleigh Barty, who won the title for the first time, increased her lead at the top of the rankings and is now nearly 2,300 points ahead of the Japanese Naomi Os-aki who skipped the London tournament. Karolina Pliskova, the losing finalist, moved from 13th to 7th place.WTA ranking as of July 12

Osaka gets own line of Barbie dollsFour-time Grand Slam singles champion Naomi Osaka now has her own line of Barbie dolls. The 23-year-old world No. 2 tennis player, who has used her position

to call attention to issues of police vio-lence and racial inequality, became a part of Mattel Inc’s push to make its iconic toy line more diverse with dolls based on dif-ferent role models and professions. “It’s such an honor to be a part of the Barbie Role Model series, and to remind young girls that they can make a diff erence in the world. I want young girls everywhere to feel empowered to dream big,” Osaka, who grew up idolising 23-times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, said in a statement.Mattel’s tie-up with Japan’s Osaka is the latest example of brands becoming more comfortable with taking a stand on social

issues and banking on partnerships with female athletes to pull in new customers.In April, Gap Inc’s Athleta brand signed four-time Olympic gymnastics champion Simone Biles for a new apparel partner-ship, with a focus on diversity and inclu-sion. Mattel also has Barbie dolls mod-elled on US soccer player Alex Morgan and Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Mohamed.“Barbie is committed to celebrating real-life role models... remarkable women who are breaking boundaries and inspir-ing the next generation,” Mattel said in a statement, announcing the Osaka doll that is sporting a Nike tennis outfit and a racket. (Agencies)

Chinese athletes complain about lax virus measures at Olympics hotel

China’s first athletes to arrive in Japan for the Tokyo Olympics have complained that poor pre-vention measures at their hotel will increase the risk of catching Covid-19. The pandemic has cast a shadow over the Games with organisers banning all fans from venues in Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures, in a huge blow for the event. A few outlying areas are al-lowed to have a limited number of domestic fans - with overseas spectators banned months ago - and organisers have promised that the event will be safe.However, after they arrived in Enoshima, a small island where the sailing events will take place, China’s sailing team complained of insuff icient precautions at their hotel. “The Chinese team lives on one floor, but mixing with tourists in the hotel is certainly a hidden danger,” Zhang Xiaodong, head of the Chinese Sailing Associa-tion, told state-run Xinhua news

agency on Sunday. “We are consulting with the Organising Committee on this issue.”The Olympic Village in Tokyo is sealed off , with only authorised staff allowed to enter. But the sailing and windsurfing compe-titions will be held far from the Village, with those competitors staying at a designated Olym-pic hotel near the venue. The In-ternational Olympic Committee (IOC) has released a playbook off ering safety guidelines for athletes but absolves itself of any responsibility if they catch the virus. Coronavirus concerns had led to calls in Japan for the Olympics to be postponed or even cancelled.Organisers have said athletes will be tested every day once they arrive in Tokyo.And though it is not compul-sory to be vaccinated, the IOC has said up to 80 percent of athletes would have received their doses before the Games begin on July 23. (AFP)

A man sits in front of a fan to cool off during the beach volleyball Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games test event in Tokyo on July 25, 2019. (AFP)

England’s Saqib Mahmood. (Reuters)

SPORT3Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Glover ends title drought with John Deere Classic triumph

UK agonises over racial abuse of England football stars

Bubble life can aid title defence: Lowry

GOLF

FOCUS

BRITISH OPEN

AFPLos Angeles

Former US Open champi-on Lucas Glover notched his fi rst PGA Tour victory in more than a decade on

Sunday, fi ring a fi nal-round 64 to win the John Deere Classic by two strokes.

Glover had eight birdies in his seven-under par eff ort at Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, lifting a trophy for the fi rst time since the 2011 Wells Fargo Championship.

“Pretty ecstatic,” said Glover, who won the US Open in 2009. “Still hasn’t really sunk in yet, but long day.

“Turned into kind of a long week with the weather. I seem to do all right in the mud, so pretty pleased,” he said after capping a weekend on the rain-softened course with a victory. Fellow Americans Ryan Moore and Kevin Na shared second, both fi ring six birdies in three-under 68s to land on 17-under 267.

Overnight leader Sebastian Munoz of Colombia settled for an even-par 71 that left him sharing fourth on 268 with Adam Schenk (67), Luke List (68) and Scott Brown (69).

Glover, who started the day four off the lead, came out fi ring.

“The focus starting out was aggressive, make as many birdies as possible, and then see where we are come middle of the back nine if it’s going well,” said Glov-er, who rolled in a 13-foot birdie at the fi rst and a 14-footer at the

second. He was three-under at the turn, and responded to his lone bogey of the day at the 11th with birdies at the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th.

“Once I got to 14 after making a few birdies, it was, ‘All right, let’s get this to 20-under and see if that’s good enough.’”

He didn’t quite make it, rolling in a 13-footer at the par-fi ve 17th for his fi nal birdie of the day, but 19-under proved to be enough.

Focusing on 20-under, Glover said, let him “stay aggressive and not get too nervy, because I had a personal goal. “I thought that’s what I needed.”

Glover, 41, said changes he’d made a few years ago in his ap-proach to training and practice had helped him extend his career and become a contender again.

“I’ve always worked hard and believed in it, but made some changes two or three years ago that (I) needed to do for more longevity,” he said. “I want to play a few more years and try to keep going. It was just getting back refocused. I always thought I could do this again, and I just needed to fi gure out the best way to go about it again.”

Glover, ranked 115th in the world, joined 40-somethings Stewart Cink and Brian Gay - and 50-year-old Phil Mickelson - as winners this season.

“Pretty cool,” Glover said. “I remember that was my biggest takeaway when Tiger (Woods) won his last Masters is that his kids got to see him as a champ. That was a goal of mine, too.”

AFPLondon

Political leaders and foot-balling chiefs in Britain expressed disgust yes-terday at racial abuse tar-

geting England stars, including three black players who missed penalties in the Euro 2020 fi nal against Italy.

But as Twitter moved to re-move abusive accounts and Fa-cebook vowed anew to look into abuse on its Instagram platform, Prime Minister Boris John-son himself came under sting-ing criticism for earlier refus-ing to condemn fans who had booed English players’ campaign against racism.

England manager Gareth Southgate said the online invec-tive was “unforgivable”.

“Some of it has come from abroad, we have been told this, but some of it is from this coun-try,” he told reporters. “We have been a beacon of light to bring people together and the national team stands for everybody.”

England players Marcus Rash-ford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were victims of a stream of abuse on Instagram and Twitter - many apparently from foreign trolls and bots.

While some people identify-ing as England fans used racial slurs in blaming the trio for the defeat, other off ensive messages were accompanied with “forza italia” hashtags. Johnson said the team had “made history” and “brought joy to this country”.

“To those who have been di-

recting racist abuse at some of the players, I say shame on you and I hope you will crawl back under the rock from which you emerged,” he told a news confer-ence.

England’s players have made a strong stand against racism at the tournament, taking a knee before their games including the fi nal.

But Johnson and others in the Conservatives’ “anti-woke” gov-ernment had initially dismissed that as “gesture politics” and defended the freedom of speech of England fans who booed the players, before backing the team later in the tournament.

Asked if he would now take the knee himself, Johnson said: “People should feel free to show their respect and show how much they condemn racism in this country in any way that they choose.”

Former Manchester United player Gary Neville accused the prime minister of having “pro-moted” racism, noting one noto-rious past comment by Johnson likening Muslim women who wear the veil to “letter-boxes”.

Former Conservative party chairwoman Sayeeda Warsi urged the government: “It’s time to stop the culture wars that are feeding division.

“Dog whistles win votes but destroy nations.”

Downing Street noted that new UK legislation coming up will mandate tougher action by social media companies. Facebook said it had “quickly removed com-ments and accounts directing abuse” at the footballers.

“No one thing will fi x this chal-

lenge overnight, but we’re com-mitted to keeping our community safe from abuse,” it added.

Twitter also claimed it had

“removed over 1000 Tweets and permanently suspended” a number of accounts that violated its rules.

“The abhorrent racist abuse directed at England players last night has absolutely no place on Twitter,” said a spokesman for

the company.London’s police force said it

was aware of “a number of of-fensive and racist social media

comments”, promising an inves-tigation.

The Metropolitan Police also said it was probing scenes of mayhem after some ticketless fans forced their way into Wem-bley Stadium.

Greater Manchester Police in northwest England said they were treating as a racist incident the defacement of a mural in the city in honour of Rashford.

Obscenities and Saka’s name were daubed over the artwork.

England player Raheem Ster-ling also received a stream of racial abuse after social media users accused him of cheating to win a penalty in England’s semi-fi nal win over Denmark.

European football’s govern-ing body UEFA said it “strongly condemns the disgusting racist abuse” and that “we stand by the players and the English FA’s call for the strongest possible pun-ishments”.

The Football Association said: “We’re disgusted that some of our squad - who have given eve-rything for the shirt this sum-mer - have been subjected to discriminatory abuse online after tonight’s game.

“We stand with our players.”Prince William, the FA’s

president who attended the fi-nal with his wife Kate and son George, said he was “sickened” by the abuse.

But the overwhelming major-ity of messages were in support of the players, who have been praised throughout the tourna-ment for helping bring together a nation hard hit by the coronavi-rus pandemic.

AFPLondon

Shane Lowry believes life in the coronavirus bub-ble at the British Open could aid his defence of

the title this week.Ireland’s Lowry won the Brit-

ish Open at Royal Portrush in 2019 and hopes to retain the Claret Jug after last year’s tour-nament was cancelled due to the pandemic.

With Covid cases on the rise again in Britain, tournament organisers recently informed players that the British Open will “operate under strict gov-ernment oversight”.

Guidelines will prohibit play-ers from going to bars, restau-rants and supermarkets during the week.

They have to stay in approved hotels or private accommoda-tion, which can be shared be-tween up to four members of their team, although not with other players.

“It’s a bubble, but I don’t think I’ll be doing anything dif-ferent than I normally do,” Low-ry said.

“I come to the golf course, I play and I go home and we have dinner in the house, and that’s it. You don’t do anything else the week of big tournaments.

“You’re kind of resting up as much as you can, and you’re ob-viously here playing and prac-tising all day, every day when you’re here.

“I reckon if it was a normal Open and I was defending I

might have a couple more things to do, so it probably is working in my favour a little bit as re-gards my performance.”

Lowry missed the cut in three of his fi rst fi ve events when the PGA Tour resumed following the coronavirus shutdown last year.

Twelve months on, the 34-year-old comes into the event on the back of a tie for

fourth in the US PGA Champi-onship, another top-10 fi nish in the Memorial Tournament and a tie for 23rd in the Irish Open af-ter a closing 66.

“I feel like 2020 is a bit of a write-off for me. Obviously my form is pretty decent coming in this year and I’m really looking forward to the week ahead,” he said.

“I hope that I can be competi-tive. I’d like to put up a good de-fence of my trophy and I’d give anything to have a chance to win come the weekend. I’m out there planning for that over the next few days, and we’ll see how it goes.

“I’ve defended tournaments before, but I’ve never come and defended a tournament of this

magnitude. But at the end of the day it’s another golf tourna-ment, it’s another major.

“I’ve got a lot more on my mind, a lot more to play for than just defending the trophy. I’ll be happy to get that fi rst tee shot away, and if you’ve seen the rough down the fi rst hole, I’ll be even happier if it’s on the fair-way.”

‘SOME OF IT HAS COME FROM ABROAD, WE HAVE BEEN TOLD THIS, BUT SOME OF IT IS FROM THIS COUNTRY’

beIN SPORTS to exclusively broadcast 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup

beIN MEDIA GROUP, the global sports and entertainment broad-caster and its fl agship sports channel beIN SPORTS, has se-

cured the exclusive broadcast rights to this year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup 2021, in 24 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), France, Turkey and APAC*.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup is the main association football competition of the national football teams which determines the continental champion of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Held every two years,

Mexico holds the record with 11 wins in total, followed by USA with 6.

Taking place across 9 cities in the United States of America (USA), the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup kicked off this Sunday 11 July and will go on un-til Sunday 1 August with back-to-back games on beIN SPORTS’ Premium 1 channel for Arabic coverage and beIN SPORTS 1 for English coverage.

This year’s edition will see the Qatar national team take part in the tourna-ment for the very fi rst time as a guest nation– playing against the likes of Honduras, Panama and Grenada in

group D. The defending Asian Cup champions

will use this as a great opportunity to prepare for next year’s FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Qatar’s fi rst game in the 2021 CON-CACAF Gold Cup will be against Pan-ama on 14 July at 2:00am Mecca Time (GMT +3).

Qatar will then face Grenada on 18 July at 2:30am Mecca Time and Hondu-ras on 21 July at 4:00am Mecca Time – where beIN SPORTS will have live stu-dio coverage of all the games that Qatar will play as well as a reporter on ground

for exclusive reactions and breaking stories.

Commenting on the 2021 CON-CACAF Gold Cup exclusively on beIN SPORTS, Duncan Walkinshaw, Acting Director of Programs for beIN Mena, said: “We are delighted to be at the heart of all the global football action by add-ing the CONCACAF Gold Cup to our portfolio of world class football tour-naments. With strong national teams competing including Qatar, the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup promises to be a thrilling experience for our subscribers this month.”

England coach Gareth Southgate with Bukayo Saka aft er the player’s missed penalty in the Euro 2020 fi nal. (Reuters)

Ireland’s Shane Lowry looks on during a practice round for the 149th British Open Golf Championship at Royal St George’s in Sandwich, Kent, England, yesterday. (AFP)

Lucas Glover poses with John Deere Classic trophy. (USA TODAY Sports)

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

GULF TIMES SPORT

Victorious Italy return to heroes’ welcome aft er England victory

EURO 2020

AFPBuenos Aires

Lionel Messi has dedicated Argentina’s Copa America tri-umph over Brazil to his family, his country and also late idol

Diego Maradona. “I want to dedicate this success to my family, who have al-ways given me the strength to contin-ue, to my friends whom I love so much, to all the people who support us and above all to 45 millions Argentinians who have suff ered so with this dreadful virus,” Barcelona megastar Messi wrote on Instagram.

Argentina is approaching a 100,000 Covid-19 death toll and weeks before the start of the Copa tournament Bue-nos Aires refused to co-stage the event with Colombia owing to the surge in pandemic cases. South American con-federation CONMEBOL ultimately transferred hosting rights to Brazil at the last minute despite that country having seen more than half a million virus deaths, the second highest global tally after the United States.

Messi, 34, also paid tribute to the memory of Maradona, who died aged 60 last November, saying that “Diego was surely urging us on wherever he is”. Argentina’s success over the Bra-

zilians in Rio was not just Messi’s fi rst major trophy for the Albiceleste but his country’s fi rst continental honour in 28 years. Messi had been desperate to lead the side to glory after a series of disap-pointments both at World Cups and the Copa. Given its battle against the further spread of the virus, Argentina has not organised celebrations to mark their title win.

After arriving back in the country on Sunday, the squad were briefl y received at the country’s football federation headquarters and then dispersed for a pre-season break. Despite the low-key welcome, thousands of fans took to the streets despite tight virus restrictions.

The Al Shaqab Racing-owned and bred Al Hawra (FR) (Wooton Bassett x Salwa) got back

to winning ways when landing the Prix Alliance at Dax race-course on Sunday. Having won her only two starts of 2020, the bay fi lly was having her third start of the season, in the 2300-metre Class 2 race for three-year-olds, for her trainer Simone Brogi and won well under the saddle of Jean Bernard Eyquem.

Out quickly from the stalls, Al Hawra was taken to the head of the fi eld and she set a strong pace. Turning for home, she was briefl y pushed along, but then once clear, she ran on strongly to win by one and a quarter lengths at the line. His Highness Sheikh

Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani’s Fayona (FR) (Power x Sierra Slew) tried hard to close the gap, but could only manage second for trainer Henri Alex Pantall and jockey Soufi ane Saadi and one and three quarter lengths ahead of Pidoyne (IRE) (Fast Company x Saytara) who fi nished third for trainer X. Thomas-Demeaulte and jockey Guillaume Guedj-Gay.

Bred by her owners, Al Hawra is a daughter of the Al Shaqab Racing top stallion Wotton Bas-sett (Iff raaj) and is out of Salwa (Galileo) who was unraced. The second dam Photophore (Clodovil) was a dual winner and produced City Image (Elusive City) who won a listed race at Newmarket.

By Sports ReporterDoha

Saudi Arabia’s shooter Saeed al-Mutairi has arrived in Doha to train ahead of the Tokyo 2020

Olympics. The skeet shooter will train at Qatar Shooting and Archery Association’s (QSAA) range at Lusail till July 16.

An Asian Games gold medal-list at Hiroshima in 1994, al-Mu-tairi has also won gold and silver at the Arab championships in Baku and Cairo. Al-Mutairi was pleased with the warm reception and facilitation of all procedures for the transfer of his equipment.

“I am focussed to reach the best results. I know that the Ol-ympics are not easy, but I am here to achieve the goal, which will be a turning point in the fi eld of shooting at the Saudi level, especially since the Qatar Ol-ympic Committee and the Qatar Archery and Archery Associa-tion has welcomed me to prepare myself for the Olympics,” he said.

“I have previously participat-ed in the Qatar Open Shooting Championships. It was a special tournament that has made me return to the Lusail range before heading to Tokyo,” he added.

Majid al-Nuaimi, Secretary-General, QSAA, said: We are proud of the presence of Saeed al-Mutairi at the Lusail Shoot-

ing Range and it comes within the framework of general sports co-operation and shooting in particular, in addition to consoli-dating sports relations between the two countries. The brother-hood and the distinguished rela-tions between the two countries especially as it is a period of good preparation and the exchange of experiences between the Qatari and Saudi sport.”

“Al-Mutairi choosing the Lu-sail range as the last stop before heading to Tokyo is evidence of the great reputation enjoyed by the shooting range in Qatar as also the high standards of shoot-ing of Qatari athletes. We always welcome all athletes and con-tribute in achieving their goals by providing all opportunities. We hope al-Mutairi’s ambitions will come true and we wish him all success.”

The athletes of Refugee Olym-pic Team began their training camp at Aspire Dome in Doha yesterday. The training camp

is held under the auspices of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) ahead of their participation in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The 29 members of the Refugee Ol-ympic Team will be competing across 12 sports at Tokyo Olympics includ-ing; Athletics, Swimming, Badminton, Boxing, Cycling, Judo, Karate, Shoot-ing, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wrestling.

The training camp refl ects the strong partnership between the QOC, the In-ternational Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United Nations High Com-missioner for Refugees through the Olympic Refuge Foundation. The QOC is a supportive and founding partner of the Olympic Refuge Foundation which aims to continue the eff orts adopted by the IOC over the past years to support refugees all over the world.

This will be the second appearance for Refugee Olympic Team athletes in Olympic Games as they competed for

the fi rst time in the Rio 2016 Olym-pic Games with 5 athletes from South Sudan, two athletes from Syria, two athletes from Democratic Republic of

Congo and one athlete from Ethiopia. During the Opening Ceremony, the

team will march with the Olympic fl ag in second position, immediately after

Greece and for all offi cial representa-tions of the team (including possible medal ceremonies), the Olympic fl ag will be raised, and the Olympic an-

them will be played. The Syrian athlete Aram Mahmoud who will participate in Badminton competitions stressed that he is happy to visit Qatar for the fi rst time and lauded the eff orts made by the Qatari offi cials to hold this successful

training camp in Doha. “The Olympic Games will provide us

with the opportunity show the world what we can do and that we can com-pete at this high level” said Aram Mah-moud.

AFPRome

Italy’s players were feted as heroes yesterday after beating England in a dramatic penalty shootout to win Euro 2020 at Wembley and prolong

the host nation’s 55-year wait for a sec-ond major title. Giorgio Chiellini, the team’s 36-year-old captain, and coach Roberto Mancini lifted the gleaming tro-phy aloft after the team’s plane touched down in Rome just hours after the victory in London on Sunday night.

Around 200 fans who got up early — or never went to bed — greeted the Azzurri as they arrived back in the Italian capi-tal, chanting “We’re the champions of Europe!” fronted by Chiellini wearing a crown. No victory parade was expected given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Instead, after a few hours at their hotel, the besuited squad attended a ceremony at the palace of President Sergio Matta-rella, who himself had been at Wembley for Sunday’s match.

“We are happy to have given joy and hope to the Italians after such a diffi cult period,” Mancini told reporters as they arrived, Chiellini still clutching the tro-phy. In a night of high drama at Wembley, Italy recovered from the shock of conced-ing the quickest goal ever in a European Championship fi nal to equalise and then claim a 3-2 shootout victory.

It is the second time the Italians have been crowned European champions and their win marks a remarkable turnaround under Mancini after the team failed to even qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. By contrast England’s failure from the penalty spot extended their dis-mal record in shoot-outs and left them still desperately waiting for another ma-jor trophy after the 1966 World Cup they won on home soil.

The mood was soured further after three England players who missed pen-alties — Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka — were subjected to a stream of racial abuse online from their own and other supporters. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson led condemna-tion of the “appalling abuse”, while Eng-land manager Gareth Southgate said it was “unforgivable”.

In Italy, fans spilled on to the streets

from Milan to Palermo to celebrate their side’s triumph on Sunday night, pushing aside thoughts of the pandemic. Some fans were bleary-eyed yesterday after late night carousing, ordering double espres-sos to revive themselves. In Rome, green-grocer Matteo Falovo spoke for many when he said that after 17 months of the virus, which hit Italy hard, it had been “a pleasure to be able to think about some-thing else”.

At Wembley, a crowd of more than 67,000 saw Southgate’s go ahead in just the second minute when defender Luke Shaw fi nished coolly at the back post from Kieran Trippier’s inviting cross. Italy grew stronger as the match went on and equalised with 23 minutes remaining when Leonardo Bonucci scrambled the ball into the net from close range.

Extra-time fi nished goalless despite a fl urry of substitutions and the game ended in the shootout drama. South-gate gambled by sending on late substi-tutes Rashford and Sancho specifi cally for their prowess in taking penalties, but both missed. The decisive moment came when Saka, just 19, had his penalty saved by goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to hand the title to Italy. “That is my responsibility. I chose the guys to take the kicks,” said Southgate, who himself missed a penalty in the Euro 96 semi-fi nal against Germany.

The atmosphere around Wembley was frenzied in the build-up to the match and footage posted on social media showed hundreds of supporters battling to get past lines of stewards and police, with some able to force their way through se-

curity cordons. Another video appeared to show violent clashes between fans in-side Wembley itself. London police said they made 49 arrests, and that 19 of-fi cers were injured while managing the fi nal. Back in Rome, Chiellini yesterday dedicated the win to the Italian fans and former Italy and Fiorentina defender Da-vide Astori, who died aged 31 after suf-fering a cardiac arrest before an Italian league match in 2018.

Addressing the audience in the grounds of Mattarella’s Quirinale palace, he paid tribute to his teammates. “We are not here because we scored an extra pen-alty, but because we believed in the values of friendship,” he said. “This success is a group victory. This bond made us feel like brothers of Italy to answer the call together.”

‘We are happy to have given joy and hope to the Italians after such a diff icult period’

Messi dedicates Copa title to family, country and Maradona

Al Shaqab Racing’s Al Hawra wins at Dax

Saudi shooter Saeed al-Mutairi trains at QSAA’s Lusail range

Refugee Olympic Team athletes gear up for Tokyo Games

FOOTBALL

HORSE RACING

FOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

Refugee Olympic Team athletes during a training camp at the Aspire Dome yesterday.

The Italy team drive through on a open top bus tour as fans celebrate the Euro 2020 triumph in Rome yesterday. (Reuters)

Jockey Jean Bernard Eyquem rides Al Hawra to victory at the Prix Alliance at Dax racecourse on Sunday. (Robert Polin)