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MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2015
S P ORTS
Golfer attacked,
robbed in Hawaii
Qataris lead third
round of Kuwait Rally
Ledecky flirts with 800m
freestyle world record
HONOLULU: Australian golfer Robert Allenby was recovering on Saturday
from facial injuries after he was kidnapped, beaten, robbed and dumped in
a park in Honolulu. Allenby, 43, was in Hawaii to compete in the Sony Open
at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, but missed the cut
and was planning to fly home on Saturday, the Golf Channel
reported on its website. But on Friday night, while at the
Amuse Wine Bar in Waikiki with his caddie and a friend,
Allenby said he was taken from the bar and robbed of his
wallet, cell phone, cash and credit cards before waking up
groggy in a park about six miles (10 km) away. “I’m just
glad to be alive,” Allenby told Reuters by telephone.
“I’m still in a bit of shock. I’ve been checked out by a
doctor, and I should be ok. “I was separated from my
friend in the bar after we had paid the tab,” Allenby
recounted. “Next thing you know, I’m being dumped
in a park miles away. A homeless woman found me
and told me she saw a few guys pull up and throw me
out of a car.” —Reuters
KUWAIT: Qatari racers Abdullah Al-Kuwari and Nasser Al-Kuwari finished
first at the third round of Kuwait Rally Championship, held late Saturday,
after a fierce competition with 24 other Kuwaiti and Arab racers. Kuwaiti
veteran racer Salah Bin Edan and his Slovenian co-driver, who dominated
the first and second rounds of the tournament, retreated to the second
place in the third round. Meanwhile, Kuwait racers Mishari Al-Dhaferi and
Mubarak Al-Dhaferi won the third place. In the four wheel drive (4WD) category, UAE racers Ali Al-Shawi and Ali Al-Obaidi finished first. The all-terrain
vehicle (ATV), also known as a quad bike, category race was won by racers
Mohammad Mubarak and Mohammad Al-Najdi. Chairman of the Rally’s
and Motocross Organizing Committee at Sheikh Basel Al-Salem Al-Sabah
Club Sheikh Athbi Al-Nayef Al-Jaber Al-Sabah expressed admiration of the
remarkable performance of all participants. The racers reflected through
their performance strong technical abilities, he told KUNA. The first round
of Kuwait Rally Championship 2014-2015 were held in November and the
final round would be held in April. Dozens of veteran racers from Kuwait,
Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Jordan are fighting to win
the championship. —KUNA
AUSTIN: Katie Ledecky posted the second-fastest 800 meters freestyle in history on Saturday, threatening her own world record in a victory at the Arena Pro
Swim Series stop at Austin. The Olympic gold medallist won in eight minutes,
11.21 seconds to complete a sweep of the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m
freestyle events at the meet. She was 28 seconds clear of runner-up Elizabeth
Beisel, who finished second in 8:39.76. “I swam it the right way, and
that’s always a good feeling,” Ledecky said. “I definitely wanted
to take advantage of that.” Throughout much of the first 600
meters, Ledecky was under the pace of her world record of
8:11.00, set on June 22, 2014 at Shenandoah, Texas. “I’m
feeling pretty good. I know that training is paying off,”
Ledecky said. “My last three weeks have been some
of my best training, and I’m just hoping to carry
that on for the next couple of months.” The
meet is the second of six stops on the
2014-15 Pro Swim Series. The next event
in the series is in Orlando, Florida,
February 12-14. — AFP
MINI celebrates fourth consecutive overall win at Dakar Rally
MUNICH: The MINI brand has achieved further
success at the Dakar Rally. After covering more
than 9,000 kilometres spanning Argentina,
Chile and Bolivia, MINI won the world’s toughest rally for the fourth time in a row. Nasser AlAttiyah/Mathieu Baumel (QT/FR) crossed the
finishing line in the Argentinian capital Buenos
Aires (AR) as the overall winners, having won
five of the 13 legs in their MINI ALL4 Racing.
“I promised last year when I was on the
podium that I’d be back to win, and now I’m
here,” said Al-Attiyah. “It was very hard to lead
the race from the very beginning and to continue keeping this position on the long distance. Also because the race was really hard.
I’m very happy about this great result and I
want to thank and congratulate all mechanics
and the team for the great job they have done
during the two weeks. The MINI ALL4 Racing is
an incredible car and it was again very nice to
drive.”
“Nasser Al-Attiyah winning the 2015 Dakar
Rally in the MINI ALL4 Racing is continuing the
success story of MINI at one of the toughest
races in motorsport,” said Senior Vice President
MINI, Jochen Goller. “I would like to congratulate him and his team to this fantastic achieve-
ment, which the worldwide MINI community is
obviously delighted about.”
“We always knew there would be many
unforeseeable challenges on this 9,000+ kilometer adventure across South America and
that the final result remains unpredictable till
the very last days of the rally,” said Goller. “On
the other hand we also knew that the x-raid
team, the MINI ALL4 Racing and of course all
MINI drivers entered the competition extremely well-prepared and for this I want topersonally thank the x-raid team head Sven Quandt.”
The “Dakar” entrants faced numerous
unforeseeable challenges on the demanding
route from Buenos Aires in Argentina via
Iquique in Chile and Uyuni in Bolivia. From classic gravel rallying in Argentina and winding
mountain roads through the Andes at altitudes
of up to 4,500 metres in Bolivia to the extremely dry and hot Atacama Desert in Chile with its
towering dunes and fine sand, the “Dakar” tested both man and machine to their limits. The
drivers and co-drivers had to remain absolutely
focused throughout the event.
The MINI ALL4 Racing provided further
impressive evidence of its speed and reliability
at the 2015 Dakar Rally. Once again, it proved
to be a great all-rounder. “With now four Dakar
victories in a row to its name from 2012 to
2015, the MINI ALL4 Racing proved once more
to be the car to beat confirming its reliability,
strength and agility in a convincing manner,”
Goller said. “Our goal this year wasto achieve
another great overall team result and, with five
MINI ALL4Racing finishing the 2015 Dakar
Rally in the top ten, nine MINI ALL4 Racing
reaching the finish line, eleven stage victories
with four different drivers and Nasser winning
the world’s toughest marathon rally, we have
successfully met all our targets. During the
2015 Dakar Rally, we have certainly seen the
best MINI ALL4 Racing ever, and I am already
looking forward to seeing it compete in the
2015 long- distance World Cup in preparation
for the 2016 Dakar Rally.”
All in all, the MINI ALL4 Racing won eleven
of the 13 legs at this year’s “Dakar”. Five of
these were double victories for MINI. No fewer
than four MINI ALL4 Racing cars ranked
among the top five cars in the overall standings.
Al-Attiyah/Baumel were joined at the top of
the table by Krzysztof Holowczyc/Xavier
Panseri (PL/FR) in third place overall, while Erik
van Loon/Wouter Rosegaar (NL/NL) came in a
strong fourth after entering the “Dakar” in the
MINI ALL4 Racing for the first time. Vladimir
Vasilyev/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RU/RU) - overall
winners of the 2014 FIA World Cup for CrossCountry-Rallies in the MINI ALL4 Racing - finished fifth. Aidyn Rakhimbayev/Anton
Nikolaev (KZ/RU) also ranked among the top
ten, securing ninth place overall. Nine of the
ten MINI ALL4 Racing cars that started the race
made it across the finishing line in Buenos
Aires.
Results 2015 Dakar Rally
01 Al-Attiyah/Baumel - MINI ALL4 Racing 40:32:25h
02 De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz - 41:07:59h
03 Holowczyc/Panseri - MINI ALL4 Racing 42:04:26h
04 Van Loon/Rosegaar - MINI ALL4 Racing 43:34:17h
05 Vasilyev/Zhiltsov - MINI ALL4 Racing 43:45:06h
09 Rakhimbayev/Nikolaev - MINI ALL4 Racing 44:41:09h
12 Garafulic/Palmeiro - MINI ALL4 Racing 46:00:34h
13 Zhou/Schulz - MINI ALL4 Racing - 46:07:49h
17 Terranova/Graue - MINI ALL4 Racing 47:39:19h
21 Schott/Schmidt - MINI ALL4 Racing 49:51:23h
MINI ALL4 Racing 2015 Dakar Rally Lineup
Monster Energy Rally Raid Team
#300 Nani Roma/Michel PÈrin (ES/FR)
#305 Orlando Terranova/Bernardo “Ronnie”
Graue (AR/AR)
#306 Krzysztof Holowczyc/Xavier Panseri
(PL/FR)
X-raid Team
#310 Vladimir Vasilyev/Konstantin Zhiltsov
(RU/RU)
#314 Erik van Loon/Wouter Rosegaar (NL/NL)
#319 Boris Garafulic/Filipe Palmeiro (CL/PT)
#329 Aidyn Rakhimbayev/Anton Nikolaev
(KZ/RU)
#332 Zhou Yong/Andreas Schulz (CN/DE)
#334 Stephan Schott/Holm Schmidt (DE/DE)
Qatar Rally Team
#301 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel
(QT/FR).
Armitage stars as
Toulon first into
quarter-finals
PARIS: Steffon Armitage scored a hat-trick as Toulon turned
on the power and style in becoming the first side to reach the
European Champions Cup quarter-finals following Saturday’s
60-22 win over Ulster.
The reigning champions earned a bonus point after running in eight tries through Nicolas Sanchez, Bryan Habana,
Mathieu Bastareaud, Martin Castrogiovanni, Armitage’s treble
and Mamuka Gorgodze. Leigh Halfpenny kicked 20 points for
the hosts while Ulster curiously managed an attacking bonus
point with four tries of their own from Paddy Jackson, Mike
McComish, Jared Payne and Lewis Stevenson.
Meanwhile, Leinster kept the Irish knock-out hopes alive as
they wracked up a bonus point from seven tries in their 50-8
win over sorry Castres.
But they face a tough finale next week at Wasps, who
stunned Harlequins 23-3 at the Twickenham Stoop.
The try-fest in Toulon — 12 in total-gave the hosts a fivepoint lead over Leicester, who got a bonus point in a 40-23
thrashing of Scarlets on Friday night, at the top of Pool 3.
As Toulon took five competition points compared to
Leicester’s four in the two games between the sides, the
French champions cannot now be overtaken by the Tigers.
“The mission for today was to qualify and take the bonus
point. Now we’ll savour it and prepare for the next match,” said
Toulon manager Bernard Laporte.
Leicester will need to win away to Ulster in their final group
match next weekend, and probably with a bonus point too, if
they are to join Toulon in the last eight.
Ulster came into the match knowing that only an unlikely
upset would keep their faint hopes alive and for the first half
hour, they remained in contention. Sanchez’s converted try
and a Halfpenny penalty were countered by a pair of tries
from Jackson and McComish, leaving the score at 13-10 on the
half hour mark. But South Africa wing Habana finished off a
sweeping backs move and burly centre Bastareaud did a double roll to cross the tryline as Toulon turned the screw to lead
27-10 at the break.— AFP
TOULON: Ulster’s player Robbie Diack (L) vies for the
ball with Toulon’s player Romain Mikautadze (R) during the European Rugby Union Champions Cup match
between Toulon and Ulster on Saturday at Mayol stadium, Toulon, southern France. —AFP
Winners of the recently concluded tournament of late Sheikh Fahad Al-Salem AlSabah.
Sheikha Latifa receiving a plague from Duaij Al-Otaibi.
Tournament of late Sheikh Fahad
Al-Salem Al-Sabah concludes
Fourth Annual Grand Prix begins on Jan 29
By Abdellatif Sharaa
KUWAIT: Tournament of late Sheikh Fahad
Al-Salem Al-Sabah was concluded
Saturday, and a ceremony was held under
the patronage of Sheikha Latifa Al-Fahad
Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Information Minister for
Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah AlSalem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, President of
Kuwait and Arab Shooting Federations
Engr Duaij Al-Otaibi, KSSC Deputy
Chairman Mohammad Karam, Secretary
General of Kuwait and Arab Shooting
Federations Obaid Al-Osaimi, sheikhs and
board members were also in attendance.
Obaid Al-Osaimi welcomed those present and thanked Sheikha Latifa for her
annual patronage of the tournament, as
well as Sheikh Salman and the late Sheikh
Fahad family for participating in distributing cups and prizes of the tournament
which coincides with preparations for HH
the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber
Al-Sabah Fourth Annual Grand Prix, to be
opened January 29, 2015 with the participation of 52 countries.
Eng Duaij Al-Otaibi presented Sheikha
Latifa and Sheikh Mubarak Al-Fahad AlSalem two mementos on the occasion.
Results of the tournament are as follows:
Air pistol-men: Ali Saad Al-Mutairi, Suhail
Al-Shimmari, Saad Al-Ajmi.
Air rifle-men: Khalid Al-Shubaie,
Mohammad Abdulrahman, Abdallah AlHarby.
Air pistol-women: Mariam Iyad, Athari
Qurban, Asrar Al-Enezi.
Air rifle-women: Mariam Irzouqi,
Fatima Abdelmalek, Munira Al-Anjari.
Air rifle-women juniors: Zahra Al-Safar,
Duaa Al-Duwaikhi, Dalal Al-Furaih.
Air rifle-men-junior: Abdelmalek AlEnezi, Abdelaziz Al-Thukair, Suleiman AlAsousi.
Air pistol-men-junior: Khalifa Al-Thafiri,
Mohammad Al-Thafiri, Abdelrahman AlBalood.
Archery-men-compound: Ahmad AlShatti, Salem Al-Saeed, Abdallah Al-Ajmi.
Archery-men-Olympic: Mohammad
Musallam, Abdallah Taha, Ahmad Al-Shatti.
From left Sheikh Salman, Engr Duaij Al-Otaibi and Obaid Al-Osaimi