CONTACT US AT: Russian athletes want to compete...
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Sports ❘ 07 CONTACT US AT: 8351-9441, [email protected] Wednesday December 13, 2017 HOLDER Real Madrid will have to overcome a sizable obstacle when the UEFA Champions League (UCL) resumes in Feb- ruary after Monday’s draw pitted the 12-time winner against Paris Saint-Germain. Bidding for a third successive title in Europe’s elite club com- petition, Real paid a heavy price for not winning its group as it was drawn with the big-spend- ing Parisians who were tipped as many people’s favorites ahead of the draw in Nyon. Five-time champion Barcelona will face English champion Chel- sea, one of five English Premier League clubs in the draw. Tottenham Hotspur, which topped its group ahead of Real thanks to a 3-1 victory at Wem- bley, will face Serie A champion and last season’s runner-up Juventus. Manchester City, which clocked up a record 14th succes- sive EPL victory Sunday, is now listed as the favorite after being handed a last-16 clash with Swiss club Basel. Five-time winner Bayern Munich, which finished below PSG in the group, will be happy with a two-legged clash with Turkish outsider Besiktas. Europa League champion Manchester United takes on Sevilla, Liverpool will meet Porto and AS Roma’s reward for win- ning its group ahead of Chelsea is a tricky tie against Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk. The UCL has proved beyond even the vast riches available to PSG and last season it was stunned in the last 16 by Bar- celona, losing the second leg 1-6 after beating the Spanish side 4-0 in the French capital. A clash with Real is hardly what it would have desired at such an early stage but with Neymar and Edinson Cavani having scored six goals apiece in the group, the Parisians will be hopeful — if they can keep Real’s nine-goal Cristiano Ron- aldo quiet. “This could have been the final, given the power of the two clubs. The last 16 is a bit early, we could say. Logically, we are both chal- lengers for the trophy,” Emilio Butragueno, Real’s director of institutional relations, said. “I don’t think it’s a good draw for them either. It will be a thrill- ing tie.” PSG and Real have played six times in Europe, most recently in the 2015-16 group stage when the sides drew 0-0 in Paris and the Spanish side edging the return match 1-0. Chelsea and Barcelona will renew a regular UCL rivalry that last surfaced in the 2012 semifinal when Chelsea won 3- 2 on aggregate before going on to claim the trophy for the only time in its history. Barcelona won the 2009 semi- final on away goals, with Andres Iniesta breaking Chelsea’s hearts with a 93rd-minute decider. “We’ve had some great times at Stamford Bridge, haven’t we?” Barcelona said on Twitter. Chelsea boss Antonio Conte said past events were of no con- sequence. (SD-Agencies) RUSSIAN athletes are overwhelmingly in favor of competing at the upcoming PyeongChang Games despite a ban on the national team, the country’s Olympic committee said Monday. Sofia Velikaya said the Russian Olympic Committee’s athletes’ commission, which she chairs, has heard from “all the athletes in all sports” on the Olympic pro- gram, with a majority in favor of competing. Velikaya said no athletes have told the ROC they would rather boycott. “At the current moment, everyone’s training and everyone’s hoping to take part in the Olympics,” Velikaya said. The International Olympic Committee last week barred the Russian team from PyeongChang because of doping offenses at the 2014 Sochi Games, but is allow- ing Russians to compete under a neutral flag as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.” Russian President Vladimir Putin said the government won’t stand in their way. (SD-Agencies) CLINT CAPELA had a career- high 28 points and James Harden scored 12 straight points for Houston in the fourth quarter as the Rockets rallied for a 130-123 victory to extend their winning streak to 10 games Monday night. The game was tied with about three minutes remaining after Harden made two free throws. Those were the first of seven straight points by Harden that put Houston up 124-119 with 1:30 left. Jrue Holiday made a basket after that, but Harden hit a 3- pointer seconds later to push the lead to 127-121. Harden stole the ball from E’Twaun Moore after a timeout by New Orleans. He was fouled and made both free throws to make it 129-121 with 34 seconds left. After scoring 48 points in Houston’s last game, Harden finished with 26 Monday, but he tied a career-high with 17 assists, finding the 2.08-meter Capela under the basket again and again. Holiday had a season-high 37 points for the Pelicans. Moore had a career-high 36 points and made a career-most six 3-point- ers on a night New Orleans set a franchise record with 18 3- pointers. The Pelicans led by seven entering the fourth and were up by eight with about 10 minutes left after Moore scored all their points in a 6-2 run. Houston used an 11-3 spurt after that to tie it at 112-112 with about six minutes remaining. Paul made five points in that span and Capela capped it with two dunks. New Orleans was without Anthony Davis, who sat out with a groin injury. He missed three games after sustaining the injury on Dec. 1 but played in the last two games before the problem began to bother him again. The Pelicans were up by 2 early in the third quarter when Holiday scored five quick points to push the lead to 89- 82. They led by seven later in the quarter when Holiday got going again, scoring all of their points in a 5-2 run that made it 96-86. Another basket by Holiday extended the lead to 13 points with about two minutes left in the quarter. (SD-Agencies) INDIA’S Shubhankar Sharma completed his maiden European Tour triumph Monday in Johan- nesburg by winning the Joburg Open tournament he almost did not compete in. He carded a 3-under-par last- round 69 to finish three strokes clear of South African Eric van Rooyen in an event that stretched to five days because of bad weather. The final round was sus- pended Sunday due to torren- tial rain, lightning and hail and resumed Monday at 7:30 a.m. local time. The 21-year-old Sharma bird- ied three holes on the outward trek at the Randpark Golf Club, then parred all the inward- nine holes with immaculate approach shots and putting highlights. After three bogeys during his opening-round 69 last Thursday, Sharma played 55 holes without dropping a shot and his second- round 61 was the lowest score of the tournament. Visa delays and tiredness after a long Asian Tour campaign left Sharma contemplating missing the tri-sanctioned European Tour, Asian Tour and South African Sunshine Tour event. His late decision to visit South Africa for the first time paid rich dividends as he pocketed the 2.6-million rand (US$190,000) first prize. Victory also guaranteed Sharma, along with Van Rooyen and joint third Shaun Norris of South Africa, places at the 2018 British Open in Carnoustie next July. “I am thrilled that I came to the Joburg Open,” said Sharma after adding to his five victories on the Indian circuit. “It has been a very long Asian Tour season for me so I was con- sidering whether I wanted to visit South Africa. I am really happy that I did.” His previous best European Tour finish was sharing ninth place at the Maybank Cham- pionship in Kuala Lumpur last February. “Winning the Joburg Open on my first trip to South Africa is a wonderful feeling,” Sharma said soon after receiving the trophy from Johannesburg mayor and keen golfer Herman Mashaba. “I met my caddie for the first time last Monday and we worked so well together. Heeding his advice was a key factor in my success. “Saving par on a number of holes thanks to up and downs played a significant role in keeping me at the top of the leaderboard.” Van Rooyen quickly became the biggest final-round threat to Sharma and five outward-nine birdies narrowed the gap to four shots by the turn. But he could add only one further birdie, leaving steady Sharma to succeed one week after compatriot Arjun Atwal finished runner-up in the Mau- ritius Open. (SD-Agencies) Real faces formidable PSG test in UCL Russian athletes want to compete at PyeongChang Sharma clinches South African tournament he nearly skipped Shubhankar Sharma Capela, Harden lead Rockets over Pelicans Houston Rockets center Clint Capela (15) dunks on New Orleans Pelicans center DeMarcus Cousins (0) during the second quarter at Toyota Center. SD-Agencies
Transcript of CONTACT US AT: Russian athletes want to compete...
Sports x 07CONTACT US AT: 8351-9441, [email protected]
Wednesday December 13, 2017
HOLDER Real Madrid will have to overcome a sizable obstacle when the UEFA Champions League (UCL) resumes in Feb-ruary after Monday’s draw pitted the 12-time winner against Paris Saint-Germain.
Bidding for a third successive title in Europe’s elite club com-petition, Real paid a heavy price for not winning its group as it was drawn with the big-spend-ing Parisians who were tipped as many people’s favorites ahead of the draw in Nyon.
Five-time champion Barcelona will face English champion Chel-sea, one of fi ve English Premier League clubs in the draw.
Tottenham Hotspur, which topped its group ahead of Real thanks to a 3-1 victory at Wem-bley, will face Serie A champion and last season’s runner-up Juventus.
Manchester City, which clocked up a record 14th succes-sive EPL victory Sunday, is now listed as the favorite after being handed a last-16 clash with Swiss club Basel.
Five-time winner Bayern
Munich, which finished below PSG in the group, will be happy with a two-legged clash with Turkish outsider Besiktas.
Europa League champion Manchester United takes on Sevilla, Liverpool will meet Porto and AS Roma’s reward for win-ning its group ahead of Chelsea is a tricky tie against Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk.
The UCL has proved beyond even the vast riches available to PSG and last season it was stunned in the last 16 by Bar-celona, losing the second leg 1-6 after beating the Spanish side 4-0 in the French capital.
A clash with Real is hardly what it would have desired at such an early stage but with Neymar and Edinson Cavani having scored six goals apiece in the group, the Parisians will be hopeful — if they can keep Real’s nine-goal Cristiano Ron-aldo quiet.
“This could have been the fi nal, given the power of the two clubs. The last 16 is a bit early, we could say. Logically, we are both chal-
lengers for the trophy,” Emilio Butragueno, Real’s director of institutional relations, said.
“I don’t think it’s a good draw for them either. It will be a thrill-ing tie.”
PSG and Real have played six times in Europe, most recently in the 2015-16 group stage when the sides drew 0-0 in Paris and the Spanish side edging the return match 1-0.
Chelsea and Barcelona will renew a regular UCL rivalry that last surfaced in the 2012
semifi nal when Chelsea won 3-2 on aggregate before going on to claim the trophy for the only time in its history.
Barcelona won the 2009 semi-fi nal on away goals, with Andres Iniesta breaking Chelsea’s hearts with a 93rd-minute decider.
“We’ve had some great times at Stamford Bridge, haven’t we?” Barcelona said on Twitter.
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte said past events were of no con-sequence.
(SD-Agencies)
RUSSIAN athletes are overwhelmingly in favor of competing at the upcoming PyeongChang Games despite a ban on the national team, the country’s Olympic committee said Monday.
Sofi a Velikaya said the Russian Olympic Committee’s athletes’ commission, which she chairs, has heard from “all the athletes in all sports” on the Olympic pro-gram, with a majority in favor of competing.
Velikaya said no athletes have told the ROC they would rather boycott. “At the current moment, everyone’s training and everyone’s hoping to take part in the Olympics,” Velikaya said.
The International Olympic Committee last week barred the Russian team from PyeongChang because of doping offenses at the 2014 Sochi Games, but is allow-ing Russians to compete under a neutral fl ag as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the government won’t stand in their way. (SD-Agencies)
CLINT CAPELA had a career-high 28 points and James Harden scored 12 straight points for Houston in the fourth quarter as the Rockets rallied for a 130-123 victory to extend their winning streak to 10 games Monday night.
The game was tied with about three minutes remaining after Harden made two free throws. Those were the fi rst of seven straight points by Harden that put Houston up 124-119 with 1:30 left.
Jrue Holiday made a basket after that, but Harden hit a 3-pointer seconds later to push the lead to 127-121. Harden stole the ball from E’Twaun Moore after a timeout by New Orleans. He was fouled and made both free throws to make
it 129-121 with 34 seconds left.After scoring 48 points in
Houston’s last game, Harden fi nished with 26 Monday, but he tied a career-high with 17 assists, fi nding the 2.08-meter Capela under the basket again and again.
Holiday had a season-high 37 points for the Pelicans. Moore had a career-high 36 points and made a career-most six 3-point-ers on a night New Orleans set a franchise record with 18 3-pointers.
The Pelicans led by seven entering the fourth and were up by eight with about 10 minutes left after Moore scored all their points in a 6-2 run. Houston used an 11-3 spurt after that to tie it at 112-112 with about six minutes remaining. Paul made fi ve points
in that span and Capela capped it with two dunks.
New Orleans was without Anthony Davis, who sat out with a groin injury. He missed three games after sustaining the injury on Dec. 1 but played in the last two games before the problem began to bother him again.
The Pelicans were up by 2 early in the third quarter when Holiday scored fi ve quick points to push the lead to 89-82. They led by seven later in the quarter when Holiday got going again, scoring all of their points in a 5-2 run that made it 96-86.
Another basket by Holiday extended the lead to 13 points with about two minutes left in the quarter.
(SD-Agencies)
INDIA’S Shubhankar Sharma completed his maiden European Tour triumph Monday in Johan-nesburg by winning the Joburg Open tournament he almost did not compete in.
He carded a 3-under-par last-round 69 to fi nish three strokes clear of South African Eric van Rooyen in an event that stretched to fi ve days because of bad weather.
The fi nal round was sus-pended Sunday due to torren-tial rain, lightning and hail and resumed Monday at 7:30 a.m. local time.
The 21-year-old Sharma bird-ied three holes on the outward trek at the Randpark Golf Club, then parred all the inward-nine holes with immaculate approach shots and putting highlights.
After three bogeys during his opening-round 69 last Thursday, Sharma played 55 holes without dropping a shot and his second-round 61 was the lowest score of the tournament.
Visa delays and tiredness after a long Asian Tour campaign left Sharma contemplating missing the tri-sanctioned European Tour, Asian Tour and South African Sunshine Tour event.
His late decision to visit South Africa for the fi rst time paid rich dividends as he pocketed the 2.6-million rand (US$190,000) fi rst prize.
Victory also guaranteed Sharma, along with Van Rooyen and joint third Shaun Norris of South Africa, places at the 2018 British Open in Carnoustie next July.
“I am thrilled that I came to the Joburg Open,” said Sharma after adding to his fi ve
victories on the Indian circuit.“It has been a very long Asian
Tour season for me so I was con-sidering whether I wanted to visit South Africa. I am really happy that I did.”
His previous best European Tour fi nish was sharing ninth place at the Maybank Cham-pionship in Kuala Lumpur last February.
“Winning the Joburg Open on my fi rst trip to South Africa is a wonderful feeling,” Sharma said soon after receiving the trophy from Johannesburg mayor and keen golfer Herman Mashaba.
“I met my caddie for the fi rst time last Monday and we worked so well together. Heeding his advice was a key factor in my success.
“Saving par on a number of holes thanks to up and downs played a signifi cant role in keeping me at the top of the leaderboard.”
Van Rooyen quickly became the biggest fi nal-round threat to Sharma and fi ve outward-nine birdies narrowed the gap to four shots by the turn.
But he could add only one further birdie, leaving steady Sharma to succeed one week after compatriot Arjun Atwal fi nished runner-up in the Mau-ritius Open.
(SD-Agencies)
Real faces formidable PSG test in UCLRussian athletes want to compete at PyeongChang
Sharma clinches South African tournament he nearly skipped
Shubhankar Sharma
Capela, Harden lead Rockets over PelicansHouston Rockets center Clint Capela (15) dunks on New Orleans Pelicans center DeMarcus Cousins (0) during the second quarter at Toyota Center. SD-Agencies
