30 Gulf Daily News Tuesday, 25th June 2013
WORLD SPORT
Email: gdnsport@batelco.com.bh
Gay runs year’s fastest 200m
DES MOINES, Iowa: Tyson Gay
n Gay on way to victory
flew to the year’s fastest 200m of
19.74 seconds at the US athletics
championships on Sunday to set
himself up for a World Championship
sprint double challenge.
Gay, who notched the season’s fastest
100m on Friday with a victory in 9.75,
again demonstrated he is fit and ready to
take on six-time Olympic champion Usain
Bolt and his fellow Jamaican sprinters at
the World Championships in Moscow on
August 10-18.
Gay refused, however, to be drawn into
n Guardiola visits
Bayern’s locker
room inside the
Allianz Arena in
Munich yesterday
MUNICH, Germany: New
coach Pep Guardiola yesterday vowed to maintain
the treble success Bayern
Munich enjoyed under predecessor
Jupp Heynckes, as the Spaniard was
officially unveiled as the Champions
League winners’ new coach.
Guardiola’s appointment, announced in
January, has created considerable hype in
Germany, amid hopes that the man who
took Barcelona to 14 titles in four seasons
will bring glamour to the Bundesliga.
“At the top clubs, you are always
under pressure but I believe in myself
and I accept this challenge without
a problem,” the 42-year-old said in
German, which he has been studying for
the last six months. “I will, of course,
make changes, but I want to keep the
level that Bayern has already achieved.”
Guardiola has his work cut out to
match last season’s achievements when
Bayern won the treble of European, cup
and league titles, plus the pre-season
German Super Cup, under Heynckes.
“I have had no contact with Jupp
Heynckes but I hope to speak with him
in the next few days,” said Guardiola.
“I have a lot of respect for his
achievements and it would be good to
have his opinion. It’s an honour to be
his successor, especially after the way
his team played last season.”
Having only flown into Munich with
his family on Sunday night after his
year-long sabbatical in New York,
Guardiola spoke mainly German during
the hour-long press conference, but also
broke into Spanish, English and Italian.
“I have lived for the last year in New
York and it’s not the optimal place to
learn German but it’s a gift, a joy to be
here,” he said.
“The decision to come to the club
was based on its history and its players.
“It’s a fresh challenge for me, my
time in Barcelona was wonderful, but I
needed a new challenge.”
any predictions as to how the US sprinters would stack up when the world’s best
gather.
“I am going to do the best I can,” Gay
said. “I can’t speak for the other guys but
I am going to go out there and give it my
best.”
As for his four days’ work in Des
Moines, Gay said he was satisfied.
“I wish my 100 was a little bit better.
I have enough time to work on that,”
he said. “My 200 was just an indication
of my fitness. I’m definitely glad I was
victorious.”
Gay’s 200m time eclipsed the 19.79
clocked by Bolt in Oslo on June 13 as the
fastest in the world this year.
Gay powered through the curve and
held on for the victory at Drake Stadium,
with Isiah Young second in 19.86 and
Curtis Mitchell third in 19.99.
Veteran Wallace Spearmon, a former
world championships bronze and silver
medallist, couldn’t book his Moscow
berth, finishing fourth in 20.10.
Gay, 30, has been hindered by a series
of injuries since winning three gold medals at the 2007 worlds.
FRESH
START
Barca and Real’s ‘boring’ dominance
L
OOKING at the success
of the top two Spanish
clubs (Real Madrid C.F.
and FC Barcelona), you would
think that their development
and success is matched with
Spain’s other clubs.
Yet, in the last twenty years
only in four occasions did
clubs other than Real and
Barcelona win the Spanish
league title. This can mean
that Spanish football may be
heavily reliant on the performance of two clubs.
The dominance of these
two clubs on Spain’s national
team selection is not something to ignore either.
When you look at international football powers, Spain
has emerged as one of the
contenders for the top prizes
for club and international
football.
For years, Spain were
known as Europe’s underachievers, and all that
changed when the current
crop of Spanish players was
groomed for glory in the
2008 Uefa European Football
Championships.
Since then, Spain has
gone on to win a World
Cup and another European
Championship, while also
maintaining a good record
with the younger squads.
Recently, the Spanish U-21
team won its second succes-
From the
Sidelines
By Mohammed Hamzah
(Follow me on Twitter: @FootballMH)
sive European title, which I
consider is a warning to the
world that Spain wants to
continue to rule global football.
When you look at the
starting lineup of the 2012
European Championship final,
Fernando Torres and Juan
Mata are the only two players
currently play for clubs other
than Real and Barcelona.
This fact highlights a potential threat for the remaining
clubs in the Spanish league,
for they are under risk of losing out their star players to
the likes of Barcelona and
Madrid. The effect would
hamper the club’s potential
growth. Since the inception of
the Uefa Champions League,
not once did a Spanish club
other than Real or Barcelona
win it.
On a recent trip of mine to
Spain, I visited Malaga CF’s
La Rosaleda Stadium and I
must admit that the facilities
of the stadium were remarkable. It made me think of
Spanish clubs that have been
in the shadow of Real Madrid
and Barcelona.
Imagine if a club like Malaga
was able to produce players
through the youth systems
and keep a hold of them.
Additionally, this can reduce
the burden of relying on the
top two clubs to contribute
heavily to the national team.
By no means am I criticizing
the success of the Spanish
system or Real Madrid and
Barcelona.
On the contrary, what I am
highlighting is that in order to
move forward it can benefit
Spain if other clubs emerged
as title contenders. That way
Spain can diversify its pool of
players from different clubs.
Hypothetically speaking,
assume that a new directive
is introduced in one of the
top two clubs to rely heavily on buying foreign talent,
then such a decision can be
detrimental to the Spanish
National Team.
Spain’s overall dominance
of football has been terrifying to their competition, and
it is apparent that the plan is
to continue dominating in the
coming years.
Personally, I wish to see
clubs other than Barcelona
and Real Madrid grow, thereby providing the world with
a truly competitive league
where anything might happen.
n Italy’s
Balotelli,
left, is
tackled
by Brazil’s
David Luiz
n Injured Balotelli
to miss Cup semis
FORTALEZA, Brazil: Italy striker
Mario Balotelli has been ruled out of
his side’s Confederations Cup semifinal against Spain on Thursday with
a thigh injury, the Italian Football
Federation said yesterday.
“The examinations carried out this
afternoon in Fortaleza on Mario
Balotelli showed a grade-one tear
in the quadriceps muscle of the
left leg,” it said in a statement.
“The player will not be available
for the semi-final against Spain on
Thursday, June 27 and in the coming
days his condition will be evaluated
for the match on the 30th (either the
final or third-place play-off).”
Italy coach Cesare Prandelli
hopes to have playmaker Andrea
Pirlo available after he missed
Saturday’s 4-2 defeat to hosts
Brazil in the final Group A game
with a sore calf.
n New South Korea coach
SEOUL: South Korea yesterday
named former skipper Hong
Myung-Bo the new coach of
the national side, tasked with
preparing the out-of-form team
for next year’s
World Cup in
Brazil.
The Korea
Football
Association
said Hong,
44, had been
given a twon Hong
year contract
to replace Choi Kang-Hee who
quit as manager last week after
South Korea scraped through
to qualify for its eighth straight
World Cup.
n Australia sack Arthur
LONDON: Australia have sacked
their coach Mickey Arthur
and replaced him with Darren
Lehmann just over two weeks
before the start of the Ashes series
against England.
The team have endured a series of
poor results, losing a Test series in
India 4-0 this year, and there have
been a number of disciplinary
issues in the squad.
“We’ve made a tough decision,”
Cricket Australia chief executive
James Sutherland.
BASEBALL
Major League Baseball on
Sunday (home team in CAPS):
Minnesota 5 CLEVELAND
TORONTO 13 Baltimore
DETROIT
7 Boston
NY Mets
8 PHILADELPHIA
Colorado
7 WASHINGTON
Tampa Bay 3 NY YANKEES
KANSAS
7 Chi White Sox
Atlanta
7 MILWAUKEE
CHI CUBS 14 Houston
Pittsburgh 10 LA ANGELS
(10 innings)
Miami
7 SAN FRANCISCO
SEATTLE
6 Oakland
(10 innings)
LA Dodgers 3 SAN DIEGO
Cincinnati
4 ARIZONA
Texas
2 ST LOUIS
3
5
5
0
6
1
6
4
6
9
2
3
1
2
1