SPORTS Sunday, March 18, 2018 21 ‘Shark’ Nibali wins Milan- San Remo San Remo, Poland finished in eleventh. taly’s of the Bahrain Merida Nibali’s victory ended Italy’s 11-year wait for a made a late solo break and held off a desperate home winner since Filippo Pozzato in 2006. chaseI from the pack to win the first big classic of The 33-year-old Sicilian is one of the few riders the season the Milan-San Remo on Saturday. to have won the three big Tours -- Giro, Tour de The 2014 winner, nicknamed France and Vuelta. ‘The Shark’, eliminated the sprint favourites with But he has already won ‘Monument’ classic around 5km to go in the 294km race through races notably the Tour of Lombardy. north-western Italy and cruised to victory with The 109th edition of the race, which is the his arms in the air as Australian Caleb Ewan and longest in the cycling calendar, started under the France’s Arnaud Demare led ther chasing pack rain before the sun came out with 60km to go. over the line. Britian’s , the 2009 winner, had “I’m speechless,” said Nibali, who launched a spectacular crash as he hit a bollard and flew his attack on the Poggia hill some 7km from the through the air before landing hard on his back, finish line. 10km from the finish line. “When I knew I was 20 seconds ahead I gave Meanwhile, the race marked the debut of it the gas.” a video review system following the row over Third-placed Demare seemed genuinely pleased Sagan’s exclusion from last year’s Tour de France. for Nibali. The 28-year-old was controversially kicked off “I can’t say I’m disappointed, my form is there, the Tour for elbowing Cavendish and causing a he won it on the hill, and you should have heard crash. the tifosi (Italian fans) cheer him when we were on As a result of the fall-out, governing body the the podium,” said the sprinter. UCI is introducing video technology for all major Three-time world champion Peter Sagan, the races. race favourite, had to settle for sixth place as the An official monitored television footage from Slovak, who came second last year, once again different strategically-placed cameras -- fixed, failed to seal victory on his eighth attempt. on motorcycle and helicopter -- to view any Defending champion Michal Kwiatkowski of infractions. (AFP) Vincenzo Nibali cel- ebrates as he nears the finish line Eriksen double sends Spurs into FA Cup semis Swansea, United Kingdom the Wembley semi-finals after losing to Premier League status. hristian Eriksen proved Tottenham Chelsea at that stage of the competition Swansea’s only chance to upset the can thrive without Harry Kane as last season. form book came when they had an early theC Dane’s double sent them into the Pochettino was pleased with the appeal for a penalty turned down when FA Cup semi-finals with a 3-0 win at way Tottenham took control without Tottenham goalkeeper Michel Vorm Swansea yesterday. Kane and Dele Alli, who was only a late upended Nathan Dyer. With striker Kane sidelined for several substitute. But Tottenham were unruffled and weeks due to ankle ligament damage, “If you watch the last three games, we quickly settled into a tempo that had Mauricio Pochettino’s side received an won with a different starting eleven and the home side outnumbered and second inspirational performance from Eriksen now today too,” he said. best in midfield. at the Liberty Stadium. “What is important is that everyone The visitors went ahead in the 11th The midfielder rose to the challenge is available to play and the team is not minute through a wonderful strike by with a majestic strike to open the scoring affected by the names. We keep the same Eriksen, although Swansea manager early in the first half of the quarter-final. way, the same dynamic and that is so Carlos Carvalhal appealed to the fourth After Erik Lamela increased important. official for VAR to overturn it. Christian Tottenham’s lead before half-time, “It was a very good performance. Carvalhal felt Martin Olsson had been Eriksen Eriksen struck again after the interval We fully deserved the victory. Now, fouled in the build-up, but there was no curls home to make it seven goals in 10 matches Wembley for the semi-final.” debate about the quality of Erikson’s the open- against Swansea. Swansea never got going on a freezing finish as the Dane curled the ball past ing goal for Tottenham, chasing their first afternoon in south Wales and can now Kristoffer Nordfeldt from the edge of the Tottenham silverware under Pochettino, are back in concentrate on trying to preserve their box after being set up by Lamela. (AFP)