SPORTS Tuesday, June 13, 2017 23 Matthews at the double Lausanne ustralian sprinter Michael Matthews of Sunweb Bolt the ‘Ali pulled on the leader’s yellow jersey after winning Athe third stage of the Tour of Switzerland yesterday. The 26-year-old sprinted ahead of the field at the end of the 159.3km stage, with Slovak world champion of Bora second and Germany’s John Degenkolb of Trek third. Matthews took the overall race lead from Switzerland’s Stefan Kung (BMC) and now leads of Athletics’ Dutch teammate , the Giro d’Italia Kingston victory in 10.03 seconds for a haven’t seen in my sport in my National treasure winner, by 10 seconds with Sagan third another second orld athletics chief sea of 30,000 fans bedecked in lifetime other than with Ali “He is going to come to the further back. Sebastian Coe says Usain yellow and green. and I put them in the same World Championships and yes It was Matthews’s second win of the season having BoltW will retire as the Muhammad Coe said Bolt will retire from category. that is a fitting place for him to taken a stage at the Tour of the Basque Country. Ali of track and field, hanging up the sport as the greatest sprinter “When Ali went we had the end his career considering what Following two successive stages favouring the his spikes as the greatest sprinter of all-time, a rare athlete who same conversations. But along he has done globally,” said Coe. sprinters, Tuesday’s 150km fourth stage will see the of all time. transcended his sport and came Sugar Ray Leonard and “But you only have to spend specialist climbers and overall contenders come to the Coe was at Kingston’s appealed across the sporting Floyd Maywether, Roberto a few moments with Usain fore in the uphill finish to Villars-sur-Ollon. National Stadium on Saturday spectrum after dominating Duran and Manny Pacquiao . to know that this is where he The Tour of Switzerland is one of two main pre- to watch Bolt run his last race on at three consecutive Olympic We had great great fighters. But will forever be emotionally warm-up events, although it has lost Jamaican soil before he retires games. have they soared to the level of anchored.” prestige compared to the Criterium du Dauphine in at the World Championships in “He has not just reached the the great Ali, no. But they kept Coe said as a former Olympic recent years. London. level he has in terms of global the sport exciting and fresh. gold medal winner in the 1,500m While the winner of the Dauphine went on to In an interview, International presence because of three back- “You can’t take away the he can understand why Bolt win the Tour in four out of five years from 2012 Association of Athletics to-back Olympic Games or massive social contribution would want to bow out now. to 2016, the last time a Swiss Tour champion also Federations chief Coe said he because of the world records,” Jesse Owens made in 1936 “He probably has instinctively claimed Grand Boucle glory was Belgian great Eddy had been determined to pay said Coe, who set eight world and you can’t argue with the realized this is the right moment. Merckx in 1974 -- although disgraced American Lance homage to Bolt as his glittering records in middle-distance track extraordinary contributions There comes a point at Armstrong did that particular double in 2001 before career begins its victory lap. events, including three in the other sprinters have made. But which the candle being stripped of both results for doping “Just instinctively you knew it span of 41 days in 1979. there is only one guy flickers a bit,” he said. was going to be a big moment,” “He has a sitting at the “No athlete wants to be Coe said. charisma that I top of asked the question why Results from the “This is where his home is. didn’t you retire sooner?” I sense people here recognized the Coe said Bolt, who has the 159.3km third stage that there was going to be an heap and world record in both the 100m outpouring of emotion and you wouldn’t and 200m, can retire in peace from Menziken to Bern: warmth last night which I just have a split jury on that.” knowing that he gave it his all wanted to witness. This may be Bolt’s last race for 15 years. 1. Michael Matthews (AUS/SUN) 3hr 49min 48sec, “And what was in Jamaica but he has a couple “Sit back think about it. 2. Peter Sagan (SVK/BOR) same time, fascinating is more events before he caps his You are just into your 30s and 3. John Degenkolb (GER/TRE) s.t., those people brilliant career by running you have won three Olympics 4. (BEL/LOT) s.t., who came up the 100m in Worlds which Games back to back, you 5. Michael Albasini (SWI/ORI) s.t., to me who goes from August broke the world records and so 6. Patrick Bevin (NZL/CAN) s.t., had flown i n 4-13. maybe there is not a lot left to 7. Arthur Vichot (FRA/FDJ) s.t., from other continents to be accomplish. 8. (ITA/QST) s.t., here. People instinctively knew “He is also comfortable in his 9. Jan Bakelants (BEL/ALM) s.t., that they were going to witness own skin. He will always be a 10. Damiano Caruso (ITA/BMC) s.t. something that was going to be national treasure and that is just special and unique, and it was.” enough, just enough.” Overall standings Bolt duly delivered a 100m 1. Michael Matthews (AUS/Giant) 8hr 18min 47sec, 2. Tom Dumoulin (NED/SUN) at 10sec, 3. Peter Sagan (SVK/BOR) 11, 4. Damiano Caruso (ITA/BMC) 19, 5. Michael Albasini (SWI/ORI) 20, 6. Patrick Bevin (NZL/CAN) 22, 7. Matteo Trentin (ITA/QST) 23, 8. John Degenkolb (GER/TRE) 24, 9. Jon Izagirre (ESP/BAH) 25, 10. Marc Soler (ESP/MOV) s.t.

The second session of the Bahrain Olympic Committee’s (BOC) weekly open Ramadan Majlis focused on the remarkable efforts of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports gen- eral secretary and BOC vice-president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa to develop football, continentally and internationally. Shaikh Salman, who is also president of the Asian Football Confederation and vice-presi- dent of World football’s governing body FIFA, was the chief guest for this week’s sport maj- lis in Ramadan. Supreme Council for Youth and Sports assistant general secretary and BOC general secretary Abdulrahman Askar welcomed Shaikh Salman along with repre- sentatives of sports associations, athletes, media, parliament and municipality councils, who engaged in a number of highly-debated sports-related discussions.