SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 2012
sp orts Rally stages cancelled PORTUGAL: The three remaining stages of the Rally of Portugal were cancelled on Friday due to safety concerns after heavy rain caused a series of problems during the morning session. Ford drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg crashed on consecutive stages while leading the rally. “It’s actually quite hard to believe what’s happened: it’s still sinking in. To go from the position we were in last night, first and second, to this...it’s unbelievable, particularly with them going out one after another,” team manager Gerard Quinn told the Ford website. “I very much hope that we will see them both out tomorrow and from what we know now, I see no reason why that shouldn’t be the case.” Ford World Rally Team director Malcolm Wilson said the disappointment of the double retirement was felt throughout the team. “After Sebastien Loeb’s retirement, we had an opportunity to close on our championship rivals, but we squandered an incredible lifeline,” Wilson said. “Conditions were treacherous but both drivers have a lot of experience. We didn’t need the pace, we needed to be smart and clever but we were caught out.” —Reuters
Mathews back for Lanka
MLS player denied visa NEW YORK: English forward Luke Rodgers, who spent last season with the New York Red Bulls, has been forced to leave the Major League Soccer club after US immigration authorities denied him a visa. The 30-year-old lodged an appeal after his initial application was rejected but when the appeal failed, it was agreed to end his contract. “After going through the entire immigration and appeals process, Luke’s P-1 Visa application has unfortunately been denied by the US government for now,” the Red Bulls said in a statement. “We have spoken with Luke about potential options and have mutually decided that it would be in all parties’
best interests to terminate his current MLS contract so he could play elsewhere.” Rodgers, who played in England for lower league clubs Shrewsbury Town, Port Vale and Notts County, scored nine goals in 20 regular season starts for New York, where he played alongside former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry. New York said they remained open to a possible return should they find a solution to the visa problem. “We will also continue to track his progress this year while working with immigration officials with the goal that he could join the Red Bulls sometime in the future,” the club said. — Reuters
COLOMBO: All-rounder Angelo Mathews has returned from a calf injury to join the Sri Lanka squad for the second and final Test against England but he will not be available to bowl. Chamara Silva has been dropped to accommodate Mathews in Sri Lanka’s 14-man squad while injured pacer Chanaka Welegedara has been replaced by Shaminda Eranga, chief selector Ashantha de Mel said yesterday. “Mathews has been declared fit and we have brought him in but he will not bowl,” he said. “Welegedera bowled with some discomfort during the Galle test and a scan revealed that he had strained his groin,” de Mel added. The second Test begins on Tuesday and Mathews will fight for the number six batting spot with Dinesh Chandimal, who scored 27 and 31 in the Galle test which Sri Lanka won by 75 runs on Thursday. Even though 25-year-old right-arm fast bowler Eranga made the squad, de Mel said that Dhammika Prasad was most likely to share the new ball with Suranga Lakmal.—Reuters
Predators clip Red Wings
Winnipeg 4, Carolina 3 (OT ); Columbus 4, Florida 1; Pittsburgh 5, Buffalo 3; Nashville 4, Detroit 1; NY Rangers 4, Montreal 1; Colorado 4, Calgary 1; Los Angeles 4, Edmonton 1; Vancouver 5, Dallas 2. (OT = after overtime)
DETROIT: The Nashville Predators moved ahead of Detroit in the fight for home-ice advantage in the NHL playoffs by beating the Red Wings 4-1 on Friday, giving coach Barry Trotz his 500th win with the team in the process. Gabriel Bourque and Francis Bouillon scored in the second period and Pekka Rinne made 31 saves for Nashville, which moved up to fouth in the Western Conference standings, a point above Detroit. Alexander Radulov and Shea Weber also scored for the Predators. Jiri Hudler spoiled Rinne’s shutout bid with 3:03 left.
NY Rangers Pittsburgh Philadelphia New Jersey NY Islanders
Canucks 5, Stars 2 In Vancouver, the hosts dropped Dallas from third seed in the West to seventh. Max Lapierre had a goal and two assists and Henrik Sedin added three assists as the Canucks won their fifth straight to move within a point of St. Louis for the Western Conference lead. Vancouver is two points behind the New York Rangers for the overall lead. Chris Higgins, Sami Salo, Andrew Alberts and Alex Burrows also scored for the Canucks. Steve Ott and Jake Dowell scored for Dallas. Penguins 5, Sabres 3 In Buffalo, Sidney Crosby scored a goal and assisted on three others in Pittsburgh’s win over Buffalo which moved the Penguins four points above fifth-placed Philadelphia in the East. It was Crosby’s third four-point game in a season in which concussion troubles have limited him to 18 games, and came a day after after his nose was bloodied by a puck against the New York Islanders. Steve Sullivan had a goal and two assists, while Evgeni Malkin had a goal and assist for Pittsburgh. Thomas Vanek, Tyler Ennis and Jordan Leopold scored for the Sabres, who had a fivegame winning streak snapped, and dropped into ninth place, behind Washington. Both teams have four games left and 86 points, but the Capitals hold the tiebreaker edge. The result also handed idle Boston a playoff berth. Rangers 4, Canadiens 1 In New York, the hosts won their fourth straight by beating Montreal, closing in on clinching the top seed in the East playoffs. Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards scored early before defenseman Michael Del Zotto had two goals in the third period for the Rangers, who moved a point ahead of St. Louis in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy. Rene Bourque scored the sole goal for the Canadiens with 2:29 left. Montreal was playing its first game since general manager Pierre Gauthier was fired, and team adviser Bob Gainey left on Thursday. Avalanche 4, Flames 1 In Calgary, Semyon Varlamov made 38 saves to help
NHL results/standings
Boston Ottawa Buffalo Toronto Montreal
DETROIT; Nashville Predators center Paul Gaustad (28), defended by Detroit Red Wings right wing Johan Franzen (93), of Sweden, breaks his stick on a deflection during the third period of an NHL hockey game. — AP
Colorado beat Calgary and keep its slim playoff hopes alive. Colorado matched San Jose with 88 points, one behind Dallas and Phoenix for the last two playoff spots in the Western Conference. The Avalanche have home games left against Columbus and Nashville. Phoenix, Dallas and San Jose each have four games left. Mark Olver, David Jones, Milan Hejduk and Peter Mueller scored to help Colorado snap a four-game winless streak. Jarome Iginla scored a consolation in the final minute for Calgary, which has three games left and is three points behind Colorado. The Flames could be eliminated Saturday when they play in Vancouver.
Jets 4, Hurricanes 3 In Raleigh, North Carolina, Andrew Ladd scored 16 seconds into overtime to give Winnipeg a victory that eliminated Carolina from playoff contention. Kyle Wellwood scored the tying goal with 4:47 left in regulation and added an assist, while Jim Slater scored and Nik Antropov added a goal in his return to the lineup for the Jets. They trailed 3-1 midway through the second period before rallying to keep their slim postseason hopes alive. Eric Staal scored his 250th career goal and Derek Joslin and Brandon Sutter added goals for the Hurricanes.
Kings 4, Oilers 1 In Edmonton, Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist as Los Angeles beat Edmonton to take over the Pacific Division lead. Mike Richards, Drew Doughty and Alec Martinez also scored to help the Kings jump from eighth place to the third seed in the Western Conference. LA has 90 points, one more than Dallas and Phoenix, who are in the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference. All three teams have four games left. Jordan Eberle scored early for the Oilers.
Blue Jackets 4, Panthers 1 In Columbus, defenseman Nikita Nikitin scored twice and had an assist to lead Columbus past Florida. Nikitin followed a two-assist game in a victory over Detroit on Wednesday night with goals in the second and third periods. R.J. Umberger scored in the first and added an empty-netter with 47 seconds to play. Tomas Kopecky scored for the Panthers in the third. Florida remained four points ahead of Washington in the race for the Southeast Division title. — AP
Florida Washington Winnipeg Carolina Tampa Bay
St. Louis Nashville Detroit Chicago Columbus Vancouver Colorado Calgary Minnesota Edmonton Los Angeles Dallas Phoenix San Jose Anaheim
Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL 50 21 7 48 24 6 45 24 8 44 28 6 33 33 11 Northeast Division 45 28 4 39 28 10 38 30 10 33 36 9 29 35 14 Southeast Division 37 25 16 39 31 8 36 34 8 31 31 16 35 35 7
GF 217 264 248 214 190
GA 173 208 214 205 230
PTS 107 102 98 94 77
251 236 205 218 200
189 227 215 249 218
94 88 86 75 72
192 209 211 208 220
215 221 230 232 266
90 86 80 78 77
151 203 195 225 253
106 98 97 95 59
189 209 219 212 230
105 88 85 74 71
166 209 202 201 213
90 89 89 88 77
Western Conference Central Division 48 20 10 202 45 25 8 223 46 27 5 240 43 26 9 235 26 45 7 185 Northwest Division 48 21 9 236 41 33 6 205 35 29 15 192 32 35 10 164 31 38 9 208 Pacific Division 39 27 12 182 42 31 5 207 38 27 13 202 39 29 10 211 33 33 11 194
Germans eclipse Russians for fourth world pairs title
Sahar Al Therban of ABK
Fly to Barcelona with ABK’s Football Competition KUWAIT: Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait is holding an exciting and offbeat event, “ABK’s Football Penalties Competition”, in support of its commitment to Sport, and within the framework of its ongoing campaign “Our Society, Our Responsibility”. The competition will be held on April 3-4, 2012, at the GOAL playground in Discovery Mall, in collaboration with the travel company My Barcode. At the announcement of this tournament, Ms. Sahar Al Therban, Public Relations Manager at ABK said that the Bank has always supported sporting activity, encouraging sports persons to excel, as it believes that is part of their social responsibility. “We are proud to be the first to organize this unique “ABK’s Football Penalties” competition, where 64 teams will be competing over 2 days. The teams will be distributed into 4 groups, each team consisting of a player and a goalkeeper.” Ms. Al Therban added “We invite you all to take this opportunity and contact our call center Ahlan Ahli at 1899899 to participate in ABK’s Football Penalties Competition, and be the winner of one of the 8 great prizes, a fabulous free trip to Barcelona to attend one of the most challenging football games in the Spanish League, FC Barcelona vs. Malaga! The trip includes free travel tickets, 4 days accommodation in a luxurious hotel in addition to the tickets to the match and transportation. It can’t get more exciting than this. We wish good luck to all the participants.”
NICE: Robin Szolkowy proved his 32-year-old legs were still capable of out-performing his younger rivals as he and Aliona Savchenko captured their fourth world championship pairs title by the narrowest of margins on Friday. Szolkowy, the oldest skater to compete in Nice, and Savchenko seemed rather pleased when then ended their free skate but were shocked to find they had beaten Russian rivals Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov by a slender 0.11 of a point. Trankov would no doubt be ruing his “stupid fall” while performing the death spiral in Wednesday’s short programme because had it not been for that blip, he and Volosozhar would have been celebrating their first world title. They earned a total of 201.38. The Russians entered Friday’s programme trailing in eighth place but obliterated the opposition with a stirring free skate to eclipse the Germans by a huge margin of 8.04 points. While the top-two results were a repeat from 12 months ago, Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran showed that Japan’s success was not confined to only their single skaters. They claimed Japan’s first world pairs medal, the bronze, with a total of 189.69. Two days ago, an utterly distraught Trankov
thought his world had ended. “We’ve lost everything. I’m very upset because now we don’t have a chance for the podium,” he told reporters. It took just 280 spell-binding seconds on Friday for Trankov to return to the top of the world-well almost. From the moment he started their Black Swan interpretation by swivelling around a prostrate Volosozhar on his boot to the duo’s final combination spin, they did not put a single foot wrong. In between, they performed gravity-defying lifts, soaring jumps and synchronised spins and it is little wonder that as the final strains of the music faded out, Trankov let out a huge roar before he lifted his partner to his chest for a prolonged embrace. At that stage, the duo still had no idea if they would get a medal as the four leaders at the halfway point still had to go out and deliver their routines. As they held their breath backstage, they first saw China’s golden couple Pang Qing and Tong Jian crumble under pressure, with Tong almost ramming into the hoardings after falling on his opening jump. Fellow Russians Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov also let the occasion get to them and fell by the wayside. With two down, Volosozhar and Trankov jumped for joy as they knew the impossible had
just become possible - they had a medal from these championships. When the Germans’ marks came up, however, the wide-eyed Russians gasped. Their expressions were mirrored by Savchenko in the kiss-and-cry area as she covered her mouth realising their narrow escape. Szolkowy earned Savchenko’s wrath after they were penalised for going out of sync in their opening spins and he also singled a planned double Axel. The judges awarded them 132.86 for the free skate but they were saved by the cushion they took in from short programme. “I was really angry with Robin for messing up the spin,” said Savchenko. “I found it difficult to skate after that.... mistakes like that mustn’t happen.” Szolkowy added:”I don’t know why but I forgot the spin and started it on the wrong foot. It has never happened before.” Volosozhar and Trankov’s surge from eighth to second showed how competitors can perform amazing comebacks thanks to the accumulative scoring system that replaced the 6.0 system in 2002. “It was very hard to swim out of this swamp we were in after the short programme,” a beaming Trankov told reporters. “But we felt some-
11 Kuwaitis in finals of Drag Race first round ABU DHABI: Poor weather conditions delayed the finals of the first round of the 2012 UAE Drag Race tournament which kicked off on Thursday at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi featuring more than forty five competitors. Until the competitions were put on hold late Friday, eleven contestants from the Kuwait Quarter Mile Club made it to the finals in four out of seven classes they competed in, including the Index 4.8 and Super Street 8V classes. The organizing committee announced that the first round’s finals will take place at a date to be scheduled ahead of the start of the second round on April 20, 2012.
thing special today and we made such a huge step with our free skate. I don’t think it has ever happened before when someone can fight back from eighth to the podium.” Patrick Chan also proved to be a master of the new scoring format as the champion’s ability to improvise mid-programme helped him to overcome a two-footed quad landing and two comical wobbles on his footwork to lead the men’s competition. The Canadian, who has been unbeatable for almost two seasons, impressed the judges with the superior quality of his acrobatic jumps and footwork and earned 89.41 despite the obvious mistakes. Czech Michael Brezina made sure he would celebrate an unforgettable 22nd birthday as he earned a career best 87.67. Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi, the 2010 winner, said his legs felt like jelly moments before he stepped out for his performance. That did not stop him from flying around the ice like a caped crusader in his black outfit and he finished third with 85.72 despite falling on his opening combination jump. “Right before the six minute warm-up, all of a sudden my legs started shaking and I felt very nervous. However, the audience got into my music and pushed me through,” said Takahashi. — Reuters