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Gulf Daily News Saturday, 6th December 2014
29
Bahrain lifters
bag 30 medals
in Dammam
BAHRAIN team claimed 30
medals in the GCC Weightlifting Championship in Dammam.
It included four gold, 14 silver and 12
bronze in different weight categories.
Abdulla Yahya lifted 163kg in the
snatch competition to win the gold.
He also won a silver in clean and jerk.
Salman Al Kindi won three golds
in snatch, clean and jerk competitions junior category.
Al Kindi also won three silvers in
the youth section and another three
bronzes in men’s category.
Hamad Khalid Ayyash won two silvers and a bronze in the junior section
and three bronzes in the youth category.
Khalid Al Sherawi won three silvers in the youth section and three
bronzes in the men’s category.
Woods struggles
to regain form
n Bahraini weightlifters celebrate on the podium
WINDERMERE, Florida: Tiger
Woods fizzled out in his return
to competitive golf as a slew
of miscues left him in last place after the opening round of the Hero
World Challenge on Thursday, well
back of leader Jordan Spieth.
Woods, who had not played competitive golf since the PGA Championship in August due to back troubles,
struggled with all facets of his game en
route to a five-over-par 77 that left him
11 shots back of rising American talent
Spieth.
The 21-year-old American, fresh
off his victory on Sunday at the Australian Open, and a host of others
showed that low scores were available in the 18-man event that Woods
is hosting.
“I’m excited about the start to this
week,” said Spieth. “I’m excited about
how last week went and kind of riding
the momentum.”
Woods, meanwhile, was at a loss to
explain his struggles.
The former world number one hit
wayward drives and irons to the wrong
side of the greens, flubbed chips and
botched putts on his former home
course, Isleworth Golf and Country
Club, which he said he has played about
500 times before.
n Woods looks over his scorecard as he waits to tee off on the seventh hole
during the first round
“It was just one of those days where
there was nothing went my way,” he
said.
Spieth birdied the last four holes of
the front nine to post a blazing five-under 31, and had two birdies and a bogey
on the homeward half for six-under-par
66.
He was chased by high-powered posse just one stroke behind.
Tied on 67 were Sweden’s Henrik
Stenson, 2007 Masters winner Zach
Johnson and American’s Rickie Fowler
and Steve Stricker.
Another stroke back on a warm, sunny day at the exclusive enclave near Orlando, were Northern Irishman Graeme
McDowell, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama
and American Jimmy Walker.
By contrast, Woods made his lone
birdie at the par-four 12th where he
nearly holed out from the fairway.
Woods was flummoxed by his performance but said he took some positives
out of his first round back.
“My shot patterns were fantastic. And
I got my power back, my speed back.
That’s a very good sign,” said Woods,
who hit all seven fairways on the back
nine. “I have zero pain. I haven’t said
that in a long time.”
Playing partner Jason Day, who shot
71, said he was surprised by Woods’s
performance.
“There’s a lot of pressure on him to
play well,” said the Australian, who
noted Woods played very well in their
Monday practice. “It was surprising today to see him stumble.”
Donald moves two clear at Sun City
CAPE TOWN: Former
world number one Luke
Donald had to dodge
a charging baboon before
grabbing the lead at the
Nedbank Challenge in South
Africa yesterday.
The Englishman missed the
course record by one shot after
sinking nine birdies to open up
a two-shot advantage at Sun
City’s Gary Player Country
Club, but is likely to remember
his round for an unwanted visitor on the 13th.
As he prepared to hit an iron,
a baboon stormed the fairway
and headed directly for him.
Donald moved away from
the ball and allowed the animal
to pass safely before composing himself to hit a good shot
onto the green and sinking his
putt for birdie.
Donald had birdied six of the
first nine holes as he went out
in 30.
He added three more on the
back nine before missing a
chance at the last to equal com-
patriot Lee Westwood’s course
record of 62, set in 2011.
Donald, seeking his first
European Tour win since the
BMW PGA Championship in
2012, is 10 under par and leads
by two from overnight leader
Ross Fisher, who hit 70 in his
second round.
“It was a fun day, every time
you have one of those rounds
where you feel at ease and calm
and are hitting the shots you are
trying to hit, it’s great,” Donald
told reporters.
Frenchman Alexander Levy
followed up his opening round
68 with a steady two-underpar 70 to lie in third at six under and still in the hunt for the
$1.25 million first prize.
Former world number one
Westwood carded a two-underpar 70 on Friday and is on the
same score for the championship.
Defending champion Thomas Bjorn of Denmark followed
his woeful eight-over 80 in the
first round with a steady par 72,
while world number 13 Martin
Kaymer, the highest-ranked
player in the 30-strong field,
could only manage a 75 in his
second round and is at five over
par.
Welsh Ryder Cup player Jamie Donaldson, who finished
second at Sun City last year,
withdrew from the tournament
before the second round after
suffering a severe migraine
and dizziness yesterday morning. He had shot 74 in his first
round.
Ireland to
host 2023
World Cup
ARMAGH, Northern Ireland: Ireland will bid
to host the 2023 rugby World Cup, the Irish and
Northern Irish governments
said
yesterday,
formally
launching a politically symbolic proposal to win the right
to hold the event on their own
for the first time.
Seeking to replicate the successful hosting by similarly populated New Zealand in 2011, the
bid would see games played on
both sides of an Irish border
once beset by sectarian violence.
Unlike soccer, the national team
is an all-Ireland selection.
“Ireland will put together a
winning bid that is impossible
to resist,” Prime Minister Enda
Kenny told a news conference.
“Irish people love our
sport. We want to share the
Irish sporting experience
with the world.”
The hosting of games north
of the border would mark the
latest in a series of high profile
sporting events to visit Northern Ireland to help it move on
from the violence that cost the
lives of 3,600 people prior to a
1998 peace deal.
Return
This year’s Giro d’Italia
race successfully began in
Belfast, while it was also announced that golf’s British
Open was set to return to the
province for the first time in
over 60 years as early as 2019.
“Northern Ireland has
demonstrated that whatever
the event, whatever the occasion, we deliver,” said Northern Ireland First Minister
Peter Robinson, who was accompanied Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, once
a leading figure in the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) armed
fight against British rule.
Ireland laid out plans for the
bid a year ago after winning the
backing of Ireland’s Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), meaning it can use stadiums like the
82,300-capacity Croke Park.
Alongside Croke Park, there
are another 10 Gaelic grounds
as big or bigger than the second-largest rugby stadium in
the country, Munster’s Thomond Park, although many require major renovation to stage
an international tournament.