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Stage 7 of Vuelta to Van Genechten
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UEBLA DE SANABRIA, Spain—Jonas Van Genechten of Belgium sprinted to win the Spanish Vuelta’s seventh stage on Friday, after Alberto Contador crashed near the finish line. Contador’s front wheel caught on another bike in a tight pack making a turn, sending him and other riders into the temporary barrier marking the course’s final kilometer. Contador was quickly back on his bike but had several visible scratches and tears to his jersey as he slowly pedaled across the line. The seven-time grand tour winner, including three Vuelta titles, said his Tinkoff team would assess his health on Saturday morning. “I was hit by someone that likes braking a lot and crashed on my left side,” Contador said. “I took a big hit on my calf and my quad and, in general, I have extensive superficial wounds on the entire left side of my body. It hurts a lot but it seems that there’s nothing broken.” Colombian Darwin Atapuma held onto the overall lead of the grand tour, although Alejandro Valverde did chip into his advantage after picking up four bonus seconds for finishing third. Van Genechten, 29, beat a group of sprinters to claim the 158.5-km (98-mile) stage over three category-three climbs from Maceda to Puebla de Sanabria in three hours, 55 minutes and 44 seconds. Van Genechten, who rides for IAM, called his first grand tour win the biggest victory of his career. “At the Vuelta the chance for a win is very small, so we have to fight for every single
chance,” he said. “This was one of my goals.” Daniele Bennati crossed second. The day’s racing appeared relatively calm compared to the frantic sixth stage. That was until two-thirds of the way through when Astana charged to the front and set a punishing pace for over 20 km that fractured the peloton. Astana then launched Luis Leon Sanchez on a breakaway, and the Spaniard put on an impressive run with Simon Clarke tagging along in his wake to almost beat the peloton to the finish—only to be caught a few hundred meters (yards) from the end. “It was a dramatic moment because we weren’t expecting Astana’s push, nobody was,” Atapuma said about the attack that momentarily dropped BMC team leader Samuel Sanchez. “We recovered from the scare and were able to arrive without problems.” Samuel Sanchez, however, went down in the small pileup after Contador crashed. He too quickly resumed racing to complete the stage, and his BMC team said he was “relatively unscathed.” Atapuma leads Valverde by 24 seconds overall. Tour de France winner Chris Froome remained 32 seconds behind, while Nairo Quintana and Esteban Chaves are 38 seconds back. Contador stayed almost two minutes adrift. Saturday’s eighth stage is the first of three consecutive mountain stages, a 181.5km (112.7-mile) route from Villalpando finishing at the category-one La Camperona summit. The three-week race ends in Madrid on September 11.
unday, August 28, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao
Novak Djokovic (left) and Serena Williams are the top seeds in the US Open. AP
TOP SEEDS WILLIAMS, DJOKOVIC COMING OFF INJURIES
GETTING THERE N EW YORK—Serena Williams is “starting to feel a little better.” Novak Djokovic is “getting there.” The US Open’s top seeds in both singles brackets are coming off injuries, and neither has played since an early loss at the Olympics. Friday was the first time either had discussed the health problems that stymied them in Rio de Janeiro and forced them to withdraw from the hard-court warm-up at Cincinnati. For Williams, it’s a sore right shoulder that she revealed started bothering her almost immediately after her Wimbledon victory. She said she practiced for just two days before the Olympics and has spent little time on court since, as she undergoes physical therapy. For Djokovic, it’s a sore left wrist that he revealed he hurt in Rio a few days before his first-round Olympic loss to Juan Martin del Potro, a player who knows plenty about how that injury hinders a righty’s two-handed backhand. “I’m just hoping that on Monday, when the tournament starts, I’ll be able to get as close to the maximum of executing my backhand shot as
possible,” said Djokovic, who sounded a bit more optimistic than Williams on Friday. Williams acknowledged she’d prefer to have played more coming into the Open—she’s had just three singles matches since Wimbledon—and needs to practice more. “I’m just now starting to feel a little better,” she said. “Hopefully, just every day I will keep going higher.” It wasn’t a physical problem that burdened Djokovic during his third-round Wimbledon loss to 41st-ranked Sam Querrey, he acknowledged. Asked that day if he was 100-percent healthy, the 12-time major champ replied: “Not really. But it’s not the place and time to talk about it.” On Friday Djokovic conceded “it was some other things that I was going through privately.” He wouldn’t elaborate other than to say that now “everything is fine.” Speaking of left-wrist injuries, Rafael Nadal said his keeps getting better, but still isn’t 100 percent. Because the 14-time Grand Slam champ is a lefty, his issue is the forehand. When he first came back, he recalled, “you try to
find movements to avoid the pain.” Now he can start to hit his normal forehand again, but it “still needs time to feel that I am more confident in my wrist.” Both Djokovic and Williams face a former Grand Slam semifinalist in the first round. Williams opens her bid for a record-breaking 23rd major title against Ekaterina Makarova, who’s coming off an Olympic doubles gold medal. The Russian made two straight major semis—at the 2014 US Open, losing to Williams 6-1, 6-3, and the 2015 Australian Open. With her ranking slipping to 36th, she just missed a seed at Flushing Meadows. Doing an interview shortly after the draw was set, Djokovic joked he wasn’t “mentally ready” to see his bracket quite yet and wanted to wait until “I’m alone.” What he’ll see is a meeting with Jerzy Janowicz, a 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist who’s been ranked as high as 14th. After struggling in recent years and missing much of this season because of injuries, Janowicz is No. 228 in the world and used a protected ranking to get into the US Open. Nadal is a potential semifinal opponent for Djokovic, the defending champ, while Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka are in the other half of the
bracket. Williams could face fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in the semis, which is also when she could potentially meet sister Venus. Australian Open champ Angelique Kerber and French Open winner Garbine Muguruza are on the other side of the draw. Earlier in the tournament, Williams could run into opponents who have eliminated her at past majors. In the third round, she could meet Ana Ivanovic, who beat her at the 2014 Australian Open. And in the fourth round, she could face Sam Stosur, who stunned her in the 2011 US Open final. Del Potro, the 2009 US Open champ, is ranked just 142nd after three left wrist surgeries. Last week, Steve Johnson, the highest-ranked US men’s player, questioned whether the US Tennis Association should award del Potro the wild card he’d need to get in because the Argentine could possibly defeat an American in the first round. That scenario won’t occur—del Petro meets countryman Diego Schwartzman in his opener. But the 19th-seeded Johnson could face the Olympic silver medalist in the second round. Between Wimbledon and the Rio Games, del Potro defeated three of the US Open’s top four seeds. AP
Russia’s luxury gifts for Olympic medalists spark dispute
Russian President Vladimir Putin poses with Russia’s Olympic synchronized swimming champions Svetlana Romashina (left) and Natalia Ishchenko at a reception, after presenting Russian awards to Olympic medalists in the Kremlin in Moscow. AP
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OSCOW—Luxury cars, apartments, even a racehorse—being an Olympic medalist in Russia can come with great material rewards, but also controversy. Under President Vladimir Putin, it’s become a tradition for Russia’s Olympic heroes to be showered with large cash sums and, sometimes, unwanted gifts. On Friday, less than 24 hours after dozens of medalists were presented with BMW cars at the Kremlin by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, an advertisement appeared online offering one of them for sale, with photographs showing the car still covered in stickers celebrating Russia’s medal haul in Rio. The advertisement offering the BMW X6 for 4.67 million rubles ($72,000) was anonymous and quickly withdrawn. It couldn’t be independently verified by The Associated Press, though Russian agency R-Sport claimed the seller was a Russian medalist who thought the car was too big and unwieldy. Figure skater Maxim Trankov, who received
a Mercedes-Benz sport-utilily vehicle for his gold medal in 2014, said few Olympians could afford to own such cars. “Has no one thought that these gift cars are not only liable for the tax on luxury items, but also aren’t cheap to run and earnings can’t cover it?” he wrote on Twitter. “I’d sell mine, too, if it came to it...or does everyone think all sports pay, as well as soccer, hockey or tennis?” Gymnast Seda Tutkhalyan said she wouldn’t be able to drive her new BMW because, at 17 years of age, she was too young to have a license. While online commenters mostly supported an athlete’s right to sell expensive Olympic gifts, many were critical of the government for a display of conspicuous consumption at the Kremlin at a time when Russia’s pension and health-care systems are under financial strain. It’s not fully clear how much the prizes have cost the Russian government. State TV channel Rossiya 24 reported that the fleet of BMWs was provided by the
Olympians’ Support Fund, which is backed by a group of Russia’s richest men, but that the accompanying cash prizes of tens of thousands of dollars per medalist came in part from the federal budget. More awards are on offer from regional governments, many of which made public displays of generosity despite financial troubles of their own. The Caucasus region of North Ossetia last month promised a free apartment for any medalists from the area, though it isn’t clear if this has happened yet. In another grand gesture, the head of the restive Dagestan region gave Olympic wrestling champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev 6 million rubles ($93,000) in cash and a racehorse at a lavish welcoming ceremony featured on local TV. Still, all may not be well for Sadulaev, who’s nicknamed the “Russian Tank” for his habit of crushing opponents on the wrestling mat. He’s already facing an allegation from a Moscow radio presenter of reckless driving in his eye-catching BMW. AP