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12 Established 1961 Sports Thursday, March 15, 2018 Goggia beats Vonn to women’s downhill skiing WCup title Feuz clinches men’s World Cup title ARE: Italy’s Sofia Goggia lost the race but won the 20 points in the standings and the Italian would take the World Cup women’s downhill title yesterday as she fin- title by just three points. Vonn’s compatriot Alice ished second to Lindsey Vonn in the finals in Are, McKennis, the 23rd skier to race, came closest to over- Sweden. Switzerland’s Beat Feuz took the men’s down- taking Goggia, but the American, whose only previous hill title when he finished third in his race. World Cup podium came in 2013, finished 0.22 behind Goggia, who won the the Italian to take third. downhill gold at the Weirather finished Pyeongchang Olympics seventh, 0.49 behind in February, needed to Vonn. Feuz lifted the finish second to ensure Weirather men’s downhill globe she added a first World when he finished third Cup globe. The Italian finished and the only man who started the final race with could have caught him in a 23-point edge over seventh, the standings, the Vonn, who took bronze Pyeongchang Olympic in South Korea, and a 71- behind Vonn champion Aksel Lund point cushion over the Svindal of Norway, was only other potential fourth. champion, Tina Weirather The 31-year-old of Liechtenstein. Swiss skier had to settle Goggia skied ninth and posted the fastest time to for the bronze medal in Pyeongchang but the World that point, finishing in 55.71sec and eliminating Cup globe was a fitting reward for the most consistent Weirather who had already completed her run. Vonn downhill performer of the World Cup season. He has started 13th of the 26 entrants and eclipsed Goggia by won in Lake Louise, Wengen and Garmish- 0.06sec. That gave the American an 82nd World Cup Partenkirchen. victory, only four fewer than the all-time record of His time of 1min 20.21sec was just 0.04sec behind ARE: (L-R) Downhill World Cup 2nd place US’ Lindsey Vonn, winner Sofia Goggia of Italy and 3rd Ingemar Stenmark, but she needed help to claim her the Austrian pair Vincent Kriechmayr and Matthias place Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather pose on the podium after the FIS Downhill World Cup, in Aare, 17th small globe for winning a World Cup discipline. Mayer who tied for first. Lund Svindal had to settle for Sweden, yesterday. — AFP If Goggia remained in second, Vonn would gain only second in the downhill rankings. — AFP LOTS OF LAPS Ferrari look to Ferrari completed 929 laps of the Barcelona circuit over the eight days of testing, equal to 4,324km-or more Woods and Els than 14 Australian Grand Prix distances. Mercedes man- Vettel to end aged 1,040 laps or 4,841km. named as Presidents Late Sheikh Faisal But Ferrari’s fastest laps were set on the new hyper- decade-long wait soft tyres, the quickest type available, which Mercedes did not even take to Barcelona. Ferrari also went quick- Cup captains Al-Duaij Al-Sabah er than Mercedes on the ultrasoft tyres but slower on LONDON: Sebastian Vettel’s task with Ferrari this sea- mediums, the best for long stints. Add in times set on ORLANDO: Tiger Woods and Ernie Els shifted shooting tourney son is as easy to say as it is hard to achieve; bring the different days, with a range of track temperatures, and their decades-long friendly rivalry onto the inter- Formula One world championship back to Maranello the jury remains out. national stage as they were officially named cap- By Abdellatif Sharaa and deny Mercedes a fifth in a row. The amount of smoke coming from the Ferrari in the tains for the 2019 Presidents Cup on Tuesday. The oldest, most glamorous and successful team on pitlane in Spain will also be something to watch, with Woods, who holds the matchplay competition’s KUWAIT: Tournament of the starting grid came close last year, with their some suggesting their engine was using more oil than record with 24 match wins for the United States, Late Sheikh Faisal Al- German driver leading through the opening 12 rounds others. and Els, who has won an International side best 20 Duaij Al-Sabah will kick from Melbourne until Monza before the challenge Vettel, a four times champion who won his titles matches, will lead their teams to Australia for the off today and will contin- unravelled. between 2010-13 with Red Bull, played down the testing 2019 edition on Dec. 12-15 at Royal Melbourne. ue for three days in the But 2018 marks a decade since the Italians last won times. “We are still working on some things for the first The announcement was made in the Latrobe skeet, trap and double a championship, their 16th constructors’ crown in 2008, race and it’s not really possible to make any predictions Room at Bay Hill, site of this week’s Arnold Palmer trap events for men, and the pressure-always intense even at the best of based on the performance of the other teams, because Invitational on the PGA Tour. Els and Woods have women and juniors. times-has been ratcheting up. So too have expectations everyone is running a different programme,” he said. frequently shared golf’s main stage. Four-times Assistant Secretary at after Vettel and Finnish team mate Kimi Raikkonen, “However, I’m happy for the guys in the team,” added major winner Els of South Africa has been runner- Kuwait Shooting Sport whose 2007 title remains the 15th and last won by a the German, whose pre-season media engagements up to Woods seven times in his professional play- Club Eng Mohammad Ferrari driver, prepared for the March 25 opener in have been kept to an absolute minimum. That has ing career, including twice in majors-the US and Australia by lapping fastest in testing. allowed the team to focus on the job in hand behind Al-Ghurba said the tour- Mohammad Al-Ghurba British Open in 2000. Woods and Els served as nament has special sig- Such winter times can be misleading, and teams closed doors, even if some detect something of a siege captain’s assistants in the 2017 Presidents Cup, nificance for the shooting packed up for Melbourne-a race won by Vettel last mentality, and spare Vettel too much focus on his tem- when the 12-man US team won 19-11 at Liberty community, and lauded the role the Late Sheikh’s year-with a suspicion that Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes perament after flare-ups in 2017. National in New Jersey for their 10th Cup victory family is playing towards KSSC and shooters. are still in front and that Ferrari might even have fallen Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne, who has also against one loss and one draw in the biennial event. He said the double trap event will be the first behind Red Bull. made headlines by suggesting Ferrari could leave the Els and Woods also shared an iconic moment at and will have the winner announced later in the But there are also strong signs that the battle will be sport if they feel it is going in the wrong direction, is the 2003 Presidents Cup when they faced off in a day. He said official training on skeet and trap for even closer this year than last, when Vettel won five clear about what he wants to see. “The best thing I think sudden-death playoff to decide the competition. all groups will also be conducted today as compe- races to four-times champion Hamilton’s nine. “Overall, that could happen in 2018 is for Ferrari to perform up to They battled evenly through three tension-packed tition will resume tomorrow and finals will be on I feel we have a good package,” said Raikkonen, now its true potential and to take on the competition,” he playoff holes before failing light forced officials to Saturday. 38 and likely to be leaving at the end of the campaign, said last month after the company’s fourth quarter declare the event in South Africa a draw. “Tiger The closing ceremony will be held Saturday after his last day of testing the SF71H car. “The car results. “And especially Mercedes with whom it has a and I have had some great duels in the past, and I 17/3/2018 at Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic gives me a good feeling and, even if there are still a lot love-hate relationship, which has now gone back about look forward to the challenge of going against my Shooting Complex at 6 pm. of things to improve, it’s reasonably easy to drive and it four or five years. It would be great if we could see a longtime friend yet again in 2019,” said Els. — AFP reacts to the various set-up changes,” added the Finn. proper fight between Mercedes and Ferrari.” — Reuters ities. Reports have described disabled people being In from the cold? taken away from the showcase capital Pyongyang, and being placed in camps where they live in poor conditions. Paralympics shines A 2006 UN report said that people suffering from dwarfism were rounded up and interned at special light on N Korea’s sites, while there have also been claims that medical experiments are performed on the disabled. While it has difficult to independently verify such disabled allegations, disabled people who have fled North Korea give harrowing accounts of their treatment.

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