THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2013 SPORTS World No. 3 Stenson opens season with high hopes

ABU DHABI: World number three Henrik Stenson going to take a little bit of time and focus away from ber one Tiger Woods, mainly because he does not Asked what he needs to do to overtake Woods, starts his 2014 season at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf playing and practicing.” Stenson said he is aware he have too many points to lose in the first half of the Stenson said: “Well, the simple answer would just to Championship from today, hoping to continue his has a good chance of closing the gap on world num- year. be keep on playing the way I have been playing and I blistering form from last year and make a major push should hopefully challenge for it. “But I can’t put my towards displacing Tiger Woods from the top of the focus on that. My focus has to be on my game and world rankings. doing the right things, and hopefully the result will The 37-year-old Swede, twice runner-up in the continue to keep coming our way. And if they do, I UAE capital and holder of the course record at the hope I’ll be in with a chance to firstly get to world Abu Dhabi Golf Club - a 10-under par 62 - is the top- number two and then to world number one. “I think ranked player in the quality field assembled for the it would be a lovely achievement and something to $2.7 million European Tour event. look back at the end of one’s career. Stenson was the talk of the golfing world last year “Whether it happens or not, that’s written in the for his double-double when he won the FedEx Cup future and I can only focus on what I can control, and and the Race to Dubai on either side of the Atlantic, then we don’t know. “I mean, even if I win three tour- and also triumphed in the Tour Championships on naments in the next four weeks, Tiger or Adam might both Tours. Speaking to the media on the eve of the do the same or even better. I can only do my bit and tournament, Stenson said: “I don’t know how I can then we’ll see.” Despite his recent run of form, better the last season. Maybe, I don’t need to. I am Stenson feels he has a lot to improve in his game. not greedy. I will be happy if I have a similar year. “There are areas that I can improve on, quite a lot in “No, I think for me, there are two big challenges. One some and a little bit less in others perhaps,” he added. is to try and keep the expectations in check. That “As we all know, golf is a game where you never kind of run that I had for the last six months there, get finished. You can always keep on getting better that’s not going to continue forever and ever. We and keep on working. “I think that’s key. The moment know that much. you sit down and you’re happy where you’re at, nor- “But the most important thing for me is to keep mally you start going backwards.” Welshman Jamie on focusing on my game which is having its chal- Donaldson is the defending champion in the tourna- lenges at this time. “The demand on my time is five ment that also features world number five Phil times higher now than it was six months ago, so it’s a Mickelson, number seven Rory McIlroy and number lot of things to look after outside the course, which is Henrik Stenson 10 Sergio Garcia. — AFP

Laureus’s World Sports Awards cancelled in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO: Laureus says its World sports, were given to Rio for 2013 and Sports Awards will not be held in Rio de 2014. Last March, Usain Bolt and Jessica Janeiro this year, another setback for Ennis received the biggest individual Brazil as it attempts to organize the prizes. Laureus’ decision comes three and the Rio de Janeiro months after the Soccerex conference, a Olympics in 2016. Laureus announced trade show for football, was called off in a the decision in a brief statement yester- dispute with the Rio state government. day without elaborating, and said new The state government said that cancella- plans would be revealed “shortly.” tion involved a law that would give tax Brazilian media have reported the can- breaks to the event organizers. cellation centers around a money dispute The organizers said it was called off between organizers and the state of Rio because of security concerns, a charge de Janeiro. denied by the state government. Brazil is Reports say Laureus is owed money facing countless problems organizing the under the terms of the contract. “Laureus World Cup, which starts in five months. and the state of Rio de Janeiro have As many as three stadiums may not be agreed that the 2014 Laureus World ready until April, and travel and soaring Sports Awards will not be staged in Rio,” hotel prices promise headaches. Protests the brief statement said. are also expected. The International A spokesperson for the state govern- Olympic Committee has openly told Rio ment’s Secretariat of Sports and Leisure organizers to speed up, and IOC did not offer an immediate response to President Thomas Bach is to meet next an inquiry from The . The week in Brasilia with President Dilma Laureus Awards, dubbed the Oscars of Rousseff. — AP world champion O’Sullivan Milkins : Mikaela Shiffrin, of the , competes during the alpine ski, womenís World Cup slalom. — AP

LONDON: World champion Ronnie competition since losing to Stuart O’Sullivan brushed aside tournament Bingham at the UK Championship in Shiffrin lands blow debutant 6-1 to launch December.”I played too much snooker at his campaign for a fifth Masters title at the end of last year and got a bit sick of London’s Alexandra Palace on Tuesday. looking at a table,” O’Sullivan said. O’Sullivan, who thrashed Milkins 6-0 in “It’s better for me to play a couple of ahead of Olympics the UK Championship last month, will tournaments then have a month off now play either or Ricky because as you get older you struggle to Walden in the quarter-finals of the get up for every match. FLACHAU: US teenage ski star Mikaela Shiffrin won believe her win. “Nine tenths of a second is a lot of unbeatable today... but my skiing’s starting to be Masters. Afterwards, O’Sullivan said he “It’s all right when you’re younger the women’s night slalom in Flachau, Austria, on time, it seems like, but it goes away really fast. “It’s a where I want.” Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch, two- hoped the manner of his convincing win because everything is new and fresh and Tuesday in dominant fashion, beating her rivals by tough hill because it’s not steep and it’s not flat, time slalom World Cup trophy winner and current had provided his watching friends, exciting but when you’ve been around close to a second. sometimes you don’t know how to take it. But she overall leader, was second after the first run but including leading British artist Damien for 20 years, you tend to go through the The 18-year-old, who was winning in Flachau for was satisfied with her performance: “I felt like I did ended up just off the podium in fourth place. The Hirst, rather than watching ‘reality’ tele- motions a bit, and you can’t afford to do a second successive year, clocked a time of 1min my best skiing in the first run today. “It was really race, which took place in front of a boisterous vision. that at this level.” 45.83sec over two runs. Two Swedes completed the fun... every gate was coming fast I really liked it.” crowd of 14,300, had been widely expected to be a “Damien has been in my corner for a Earlier on Tuesday, 2005 world cham- podium with second at 0.83sec, The youngster thus confirmed her dominance in duel between Austrian veteran and long time. He gets me and understands pion came from 4-2 down and Maria Pietilae-Holmner third at 1.14sec. the slalom, with less than a month to go before the Shiffrin, 14 years her junior. Shiffrin, the reigning slalom world champion Olympics in the Russian Black Sea resort of . Going into Flachau, each had two slalom wins how challenging this game can be, and to beat China’s 6-4. Murphy, and winner of last year’s World Cup crystal globe in She leads the World Cup rankings now with 402 this season. But with the joint third fastest time gives me a lot of support,” O’Sullivan told the Masters runner-up two years ago, will the discipline, already led after the first run, having points ahead of Hansdotter with 258 points. For the after the first run, Schild, who has won a record 35 worldsnooker.com. “We all had a good play 2011 runner-up in the put in a thundering performance to finish 0.90 sec 28-year-old Swede, last year’s world slalom bronze World Cup slaloms, made a costly mistake, eventu- night out-it gets a bit boring sitting in quarter-finals after the man ahead of Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch. In the sec- medallist, this was the second slalom podium in a ally finishing 26th at 5.84sec. and watching Big Brother.” O’Sullivan said beat 6-5 in the first round on ond run, she made a few mistakes but nevertheless month after Courchevel. All her eight career slalom The popular night slalom in Flachau was one of he felt refreshed following his break from Monday. — AFP proved unbeatable, even as the skiers faced poor podiums have seen her fill the runners-up spot. But the last opportunities for the skiers to measure visibility and rain on the course. with Shiffrin in superior form, this was the best themselves against their competitors ahead of “There were a couple of moments where I result she could hope for on Tuesday. Sochi. Only one other women’s slalom is scheduled thought I was going out... I had to fight,” she said “I’m skiing really good and I’m really satisfied before the Olympics - in , , on after the race, still looking like she could hardly with my skiing,” Hansdotter said. “Mikaela was February 2. — AFP Sotnikova, Lipnitskaia battle for European title

BUDAPEST: Russian teenagers Adelina Sotnikova and Julia Lipnitskaia battled for the women’s title by going 1-2 after the short programme on the opening day of the European figure skating cham- pionships in Budapest yesterday. Just three weeks before their home Winter Games in Sochi, four-time national champion Sotnikova, 17, gave a dazzling performance to Bizet’s Carmen to grab the lead with 70.73 points. But Lipnitskaia, second to Sotnikova at the Russian championships, is just 0.76 points behind going into Friday’s free skating final after scoring 69.97 for her short programme to “You Don’t Give Up On Love” by Mark Minkov. Former world champion Carolina Kostner of Italy, a five-time European champion, also gave a strong performance and is just 1.84 behind the leader in third with 68.97, with another Russian Alena Leonova, the 2012 world silver medallist, fourth on 64.09. The pressure is mounting as the elite European skaters fine-tune their routines to challenge defending champion Kim Yu-Na of and 2010 Olympic silver medallist Mao Asada of Japan, for the gold medal which has eluded the BUDAPEST: Italy’s Carolina Kostner performs during the women’s short program at the continent’s women since Oksana Baiul of Ukraine European Figure Skating Championships yesterday. — AP triumphed in 1994 at Lillehammer. Wearing red, Sotnikova, who won her first The ice dancing competition gets underway with the challenge of Russia’s Maxim Kovtun. national senior level title at age 12, punched the later Wednesday with challengers including In pairs, Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and air in delight after her performance which includ- Russia’s defending champions Ekaterina Bobrova Robin Szolkowy, four-time world champions and ed an opening triple-triple toe-loop combination, and Dmitri Soloviev, their compatriots Elena Olympic bronze medallists, will continue their duel followed by a triple flip and a double axel. Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov, as well as Italian pair with reigning world and European champions But two-time defending champion Kostner Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, who were one- Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia proved solid as the 26-year-old gave a flawless two-three respectively at last year. starting on Friday. The Germans won the Grand presentation of her new short programme to In the men’s competition Spaniard Javier Prix final ahead of the Russians who are bidding Ronnie O’Sullivan Shubert’s Ave Maria. Fernandez opens his title defence today faced for a third straight European title. — AFP