SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 2015 SPORTS

FRANCE : Harlequins team players end a scrum during the European Champions Cup match, Castres vs Harlequins, at the Pierre Antoine Stadium. — AFP Wasps find sting in tail to hold Leinster

PARIS: Three-time champions Leinster made Ireland avoid suffering the ignominy of being difference. It was, however, enough to see converted by centre Ian Madigan, to give the again, to make it 13-20 before Hughes popped hard work of qualifying for the last eight of the without a team in the knockout stages for the Racing Metro qualify from Pool 5 even before visitors a 7-0 cushion. up, leaping over the maul to touch down and European Champions Cup yesterday, allowing a first time in 17 years, after Ulster and two-time their match with Northampton, as they already Goode kicked the first of his 10 points with a make it 18-20. 14-point half-time lead to slip from their grasp champions Munster had fallen by the wayside. have 19 points, one more than Wasps, and even sixth-minute penalty, only to see Madigan reply Goode’s conversion attempt hit the post but as they held Wasps to a 20-20 draw. But it was not enough to see Wasps through defeat would see them through as one of the and fly-half Jimmy Gopperth kick another on 29 he was given a second bite of the cherry after An opportunistic try by Wasps’ number eight and they will now have to sweat it out and best runners-up. A vocal 24,000 inside minutes to open up a 10-point lead. an early charge out by Leinster and made no Nathan Hughes 10 minutes from the end and a hope they make it to the knock-out stages as Coventry’s Ricoh Arena cheered the in-form Leinster substitute Isaac Boss stretched the mistake second time round, planting the ball second conversion of the afternoon from Andy one of the best three runners-up. English side on, even when they appeared to lead with a 37th minute try, again converted by firmly between the posts. And Goode should Goode drew Wasps level and set up a nail-bit- Harlequins’ 47-19 away win over Castres was be chasing a lost cause, going in 6-20 at half- Madigan. But Wasps took the game by the have grabbed a deserved victory for Wasps ing final period. not enough to see them overhaul Wasps, finish- time. Leinster wing Fergus McFadden opened scruff of the neck in the second half, with Matt with the final kick of the game, but his drop kick Leinster qualify as Pool 2 winners, meaning ing level on points but with an inferior points the scoring with a try after just two minutes, Mullan crossing on the hour, Goode converting attempt flew well wide of the posts. — AFP Jansrud grabs downhill race

KITZBUEHEL: geared up for the with Jansrud, at 58.16 seconds, narrowly beating Louise and on the world championship course of world championships in Beaver Creek next Friday’s Super-G winner Dominik of Italy by Beaver Creek, Jansrud is a solid leader in the dis- month by winning his third downhill of the sea- 0.02 seconds. Consistent Frenchman Guillermo cipline’s World Cup and the clear favorite for the son yesterday. Fayed was third. worlds. The Hahnenkamm downhill is the most presti- “I think you can call it my highlight of the sea- The Norwegian is also still in contention for gious speed event of the men’s cal- son. To win in Kitzbuehel is an objective I had in the big globe, trailing Austria’s by endar yet the Norwegian had to be content with mind for several years,” said Jansrud, who suc- 82 points in the overall World Cup standings. winning on only half of the Streif course after ceeded where compatriot has “I scored vital points today as I was sure in snow and fog forced organisers to lower the always failed so far. “If you look at my reaction on Wengen the fight was over and then Marcel start. Fastest in practice, Jansrud was still a very the video after Paris’s run, it tells more than zeroed,” he said. “I was mad at myself yesterday for legitimate winner and only the second 10,000 words. “I was not too happy for the start not making the podium in the Super-G, thinking Norwegian after in 1991 and 2004 to to be lowered as the top section is where I could I’d made a great gift to Marcel.” However, Hirscher win in Kitzbuehel. make a difference but safety was the priority as has two slaloms on home snow before the While the race was truncated, the podium still well as making sure the race could go ahead,” he worlds, in Kitzbuehel today and in Schladming on reflected the current strengths in the discipline added. Already a winner this season in Lake Tuesday, to stretch the gap. — Reuters

SWITZERLAND: Lara Gut speeds down the course on her way to win an alpine ski, women’s World Cup downhill. — AP Home win for Gut, Vonn falters

ST MORITZ: Lindsey Vonn had ‘I’m the best’ writ- “Everybody was talking about me but I ten on her bib but a big mistake wrecked her hadn’t been on the podium here for five years. hopes of adding a 64th World Cup victory to her Now it’s a great boost to go to the world cham- record tally in a downhill won by Switzerland’s pionships in such shape,” she said. Lara Gut yesterday. The American, who became The world championships start in Beaver the most successful woman skier of all time last Creek, Colorado, next month. Winner of a Super- weekend, lost her line at the start of the lower G in Lake Louise earlier this season, Gut collect- section and narrowly avoided crashing to finish ed her 12th World Cup success ahead of overall 2.08 seconds off the pace. “It’s unusual for me to World Cup defending champion Anna finish 23rd but things like this happen from time Fenninger of Austria, who missed her second to time and I knew it would be hard for me to victory of the winter by 0.32 seconds. In third stay in contention after such a mistake,” she said. place, Edit Miklos became the first Hungarian Gut continued her love affair with St Moritz skier on a World Cup podium, 0.58 behind Gut. by winning her first downhill of the season on Born in Romania 26 years ago, Miklos already home snow in a time of one minute and 43.82 made an impression at the 2014 Sochi Olympics seconds. when she finished seventh in the downhill The 23-year-old made her Swiss team debut ahead of the Austrian skiers with whom she in a European Cup race in St Moritz at the age of trains. “It might be a surprise but I’ve been close 15, earned her first World Cup podium in the in the past, finishing fifth in Crans-Montana and smart Swiss resort two years later and clinched also in Sochi. I skied well and I’m not sure my bib her first World Cup win, a Super-G, on the same number made a difference,” said Miklos, who course in 2008. started early in better wind conditions. Overall “It’s always special in St Moritz. I came here World Cup leader Tina Maze of Slovenia made since I was a kid and it’s always very emotional too many mistakes to be in contention and fin- to win here,” she said. ished 18th, 1.74 adrift. — Reuters AUSTRIA: (From left) second placed , of Italy, first placed Kjetil Jansrud, of , and third placed Guillermo ayed,F of , celebrate on podium at the end of an alpine ski, men’s World Cup downhill race. — AP Chinese skipper fears Vietnamese hazards Sale to ink new Cipriani deal : Danny Cipriani is in line to sign a new Diamond told Saturday’s edition of Britain’s Daily be ambitious as the rest and that’s what Danny ALICANTE: Chinese boat Dongfeng Race granted with the team heading towards the deal with Sale, the English Premiership side said Telegraph. “We are very close to agreeing terms wanted to hear.” Team closed to within 500 miles of third leg Vietnam coast before sailing into Chinese victory in the Volvo Ocean Race yesterday and waters. “Above all, the big risk along the coast yesterday. fly-half Cipriani has been as we speak. We are just crossing the T’s and Cipriani joined Sale from the Melbourne an important first for their country in the will be a collision with debris in the water - lots linked with a potentially lucrative move to dotting the I’s over Danny’s career at Sale,” he Rebels and earned an England recall last for last round-the-world challenge. of dead trees and debris coming from the French and European champions Toulon. added. Sale, presently eighth in the 12-strong year’s tour of New Zealand, in which he made No Chinese team has won a stage in the forests covering this area and rivers that flow But the decision of England coach Stuart Premiership table, have been seen as an ‘unfash- two appearances to take his caps haul to nine-a 41-year history of the race but Dongfeng were in to the sea,” the 40-year-old wrote in a blog Lancaster to revive the 27-year-old’s stop-start ionable’ club but Diamond was optimistic meagre return given he made his Test debut in on course to do so with 477 nautical miles from his boat. Test career by including him in his initial Six Cipriani would not leave for one of their domes- 2008. Speculation about a move to France inten- (nm) remaining (0640 GMT). “And then there are fishermen, many of Nations training squad earlier this week, and so tic rivals. sified after he didn’t play in any of England’s The team, skippered by Frenchman Charles them in their badly lit boats. Sometimes it can boost Cipriani’s chances of featuring at the “I have confirmed to him that we are ambi- November internationals. Caudrelier, have led the 4,670 mile stage be a real slalom between the boats and their World Cup later this year, has made a move to tious and want to be more than a top-six side Diamond said now was not the time for almost from the start in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 3. nets. “So onboard Dongfeng, we must stay France’s Top 14 less attractive. over the next few years and he believes in that, Cipriani to join Toulon, explaining he was better Barring a major problem sailing through the concentrated  the finish line is still a long way Cipriani is currently in the third and final sea- believes in what we are doing and the crowds off being the fulcrum of Sale’s attack rather than South China Sea to the final destination in the away.” Victory would give them the overall race son of his Sale contract but Steve Diamond, the are building as we want them to,” he said. just another cog in the French side’s star-stud- leg, Sanya on the southernmost tip of China, lead on five points although there is still a long north-west side’s director of rugby, is confident “There’s a lot of conjecture about what other ded wheel. “To a certain extent it is good to be a they should arrive late on Monday or early on way to go to become the 12th winner of an he will stay put. clubs spend, but what we spend is linked to big fish in a small pond rather than joining Tuesday next week (Jan 26-27). event that began life as the Whitbread Round “It is not signed on the dotted line yet, but it what comes through the gate. If we can contin- Toulon where you are a Harlem Globetrotter,” However, Caudrelier was taking nothing for the World Race in 1973. —Reuters will be over the next three to four days,” ue to get 8,500 and 10,000 crowds then we can Diamond explained. — AFP