Sports

AMMAN — The 2016 Ayla Oasis West Asian Triathlon and Duathlon will be held in Aqaba on November 18, according to a statement from organisers on Saturday.

The Ayla Oasis Development Company will host the event in coordination with the Jordanian Olympic Committee and the support of the members of Arabian Triathlon Federation and Asian Triathlon Confederation.

According to the statement, all preparations to ensure the success of the first-of-its kind race in Aqaba, and the second ever triathlon championship hosted in Jordan have been completed.

More than 100 top ranking male and female triathletes from Jordan and across the region, are expected to participate in the event that combines a 750m swim, 20km road cycling leg and a 5km run.

Tareq Khayyat, president of the Jordan Triathlon Association, said: “We seek to strengthen Jordan’s international standing as a leading sports tourism destination and raise the profile of such events in the country.

The championship will help us discover local talents and refine their skills to international standards through providing them with opportunities to compete with professional players from across the region.” Winners will receive cash prizes worth JD10,000 to be distributed among the top finalists.

BEIJING — New Orleans centre Anthony Davis sprained his ankle Wednesday in a preseason game against the Houston Rockets in Beijing, part of the NBA Global Games.

The All-Star was unable to play when last season ended because of shoulder and knee problems, and this season is presumably going to begin with him facing yet another injury issue.

“It’s very frustrating,” Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said. “It’s very frustrating in that we can’t seem to get a rhythm or we can’t seem to put the team together because there’s always someone missing.”

Davis has never played in more than 68 games in a regular season for New Orleans, missing an average of 17 contests in each of his first four seasons. He needed surgery on his left knee to fix a problem in March.

Davis was scheduled for more evaluation on his ankle Thursday, when the team is back in New Orleans. The Pelicans lost 116-104 to the Rockets.

Houston’s James Harden scored 14 points and handed out eight assists for the Rockets, who remained unbeaten in four preseason games and swept two matchups with New Orleans on this trip to China.

Bobby Brown led the Rockets with 18 points. Quinn Cook had 20 points for New Orleans, on 7 for 9 shooting.

New Orleans used 42 different starting line-ups in 82 games last season — only one of those line-ups for more than six games. And this season is starting with an array of injury concerns for the Pelicans, even before Davis got hurt when he was going against Houston centre Nene during the first quarter.

Guard E’Twaun Moore (right heel contusion) got hurt Wednesday as well. Tyreke Evans and Quincy Pondexter did not even make the trip to China while dealing with the aftermath of knee surgeries, and starting point guard Jrue Holiday is out indefinitely to be with his wife, former US football star Lauren Holiday — who was diagnosed with a brain tumour while pregnant with the couple’s first child.

The Holiday’s daughter was born last month, and Lauren Holiday is expected to have surgery to remove the benign tumour later this fall.

Suns 111, Jazz 110

Archie Goodwin’s dunk with 3.3 seconds left gave Phoenix its only lead of the night, and capped the Suns’ rally from a 30-point first-half deficit.

Utah started the game on a 46-16 run, but lost when Shelvin Mack’s jumper bounced off the rim as time expired.

Devin Booker led Phoenix with 20 points. Dante Exum scored 18 points and Rudy Gobert added 17 for the Jazz.

Spurs 95, Magic 89

Pau Gasol scored 14 points for San Antonio, which won despite shooting 39 per cent.

LaMarcus Aldridge and Bryn Forbes each added 12 for the Spurs. Evan Fournier led all scorers with 20 for Orlando, while Jeff Green scored 11 for the Magic.

Pacers 101, Bucks 83

Indiana outscored Milwaukee 49-12 over the final 17 minutes of the first half, going into the break with a 62-31 lead and cruising from there.

Rodney Stuckey led the Pacers with 21 points. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 20 points, six assists and five rebounds in 24 minutes for Milwaukee.

Timberwolves 105, Nuggets 88

Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Shabazz Muhammad each scored 18 points for Minnesota, and the Timberwoves pulled away in the second half.

Wilson Chandler scored 16 points for Denver, which got 14 from Jamal Murray.

AMMAN — It’s down to the final four at the 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup being held in Jordan.

The matchup will see Spain versus Japan and Venezula against North Korea in the semifinals on Monday.

On Thursday, North Korea beat Ghana 1-0 on a penalty shot by K. Pom Ui, while Japan brushed off England 3-0 at Al Hassan International Stadium in Irbid.

“Overall, I feel my players could have done better and that our physical condition was not as good as I hoped it would be. We will now have to carefully consider their recovery and training programme for the next few days before going into the semi-finals,” North Korea’s coach Sin Jong-Bok told Fifa.com

For the second edition running, Venezuela and Spain are through to semifinals. The duo’s berths in the last four were secured with identical 2-1 victories that left the winners of Group A and B, Mexico and Germany respectively, heading home.

The final and the 3rd and 4th place match will be played on October 21.

Jordan was eliminated from the first round losing 5-0 to New Zealand, 4-1 to Mexico and 6-0 to Spain. Sarah Abu Sabbah made history by scoring Jordan’s only goal in the Kingdom’s inaugural appearance in the U-17 World Cup.

Jordan joined New Zealand, Brazil, the United States, Paraguay, Nigeria, Cameroon, Canada exiting the first round.

The biggest sporting event to be hosted in the Kingdom also marked the first time that a women’s tournament of this scale has been hosted in the Middle East region. It was Jordan’s first appearance at the U-17 Women’s World Cup and also its first appearance at any level at a FIFA World Cup.

AMMAN — Mohammed Khukhen has officially captured the 2016 title of the Jordan Drift Championship after topping the standings with 100 points from five challenging rounds, Jordan Motorsport announced on Wednesday.

Othman Takriti, Mohammed’s main rival, followed in second place with 89 points and Omar Kukhen came in third place with 75 points.

Meanwhile, Ra’fat Haroun and Munir Hattar settled in the fourth and fifth places respectively with 70 points each, and Mohammed Foqaha came in sixth spot with 66 points.

Othman Naseef, Jordan Motorsport CEO said that the conclusion of the championship came after a very challenging tournament.

“It was really an exciting season for drifting as we saw an increase in the number of participants and the skills of drivers have been improved,” he told The Jordan Times.

“I can easily say that we have developed this sports to become better, more efficient and safer,” he added.

According to Naseef, drifting used to be held in open areas.

“It created a very dangerous environment to spectators when it was done in an open area, but we have thought of how to make it safer when we first introduced it in 2014 and SOFEX racetrack played a big role. We are satisfied that all drifting competitions are held in a controlled environment at SOFEX racetrack where everyone can sit and enjoy,” he said.

“Drifting is not an easy sports as drivers are judged according to speed, angle and perfect track line [90 points], showmanship [5 points] and smoking tyres [5 points] and this is not an easy skill no matter what people think,” he added.

Drifting is a kind of driving technique used by drivers through oversteering and causing a loss of traction whether in the rear wheels or all tires while controlling a certain entry to exit of a corner.

“We have more plans for drifting next season and we hope more drivers will be part of them,” he stated.

AMMAN — Deyna Castellanos struck twice on Wednesday as Venezuela came from behind to beat Mexico 2-1 in the quarter-finals of the 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup in Amman.

Jazmin Enrigue started off the scoring for Mexico, but it was Castellanos two goals at the Amman International Stadium which took her to joint top of the Jordan 2016 scoring charts and ensured that her team reached the last four of the World Cup for the second successive edition.

Venezuela set up a semifinal meeting with either North Korea or Ghana.

In Wednesday’s other match, Germany fell to Spain as the Spaniards poured on the pressure and won with an easy 2-1, setting up a semifinal meeting with either Japan or England.

On Thursday, North Korea take on Ghana at 4pm at Al Hassan International Stadium in Irbid, while it will be Japan versus England in the night match at 7pm.

The final and the 3rd and 4th place match will be played on October 21.

Jordan was eliminated from the first round losing 5-0 to New Zealand, 4-1 to Mexico and 6-0 to Spain. Sarah Abu Sabbah made history by scoring Jordan’s only goal in the Kingdom’s inaugural appearance in the U-17 World Cup.

Jordan joined New Zealand, Brazil, the United States, Paraguay, Nigeria, Cameroon, Canada exiting the first round.

The biggest sporting event to be hosted in the Kingdom also marked the first time that a women’s tournament of this scale has been hosted in the Middle East region. It was Jordan’s first appearance at the U-17 Women’s World Cup and also its first appearance at any level at a FIFA World Cup.

INDORE, India — Cheteshwar Pujara struck his eighth Test century and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin engineered another spectacular batting collapse to help India crush New Zealand by 321 runs in the third Test and complete a 3-0 series sweep on Tuesday.

Ashwin, who claimed 6-81 in the first innings, resumed his role as New Zealand’s wrecker-in-chief, claiming 7-59 as the tourists, chasing 475 for an improbable win, were dismissed for 153 to lose inside four days.

After Umesh Yadav dismissed Tom Latham to earn an early breakthrough, Ashwin spun a web around the batsmen as New Zealand lost nine wickets in the final session.

Ashwin dismissed captain Kane Williamson (27) for the second time in the match, ended Ross Taylor’s breezy 32 and sent back Luke Ronchi to rip out the Kiwi top order before returning to blow away the tail.

Fittingly, Ashwin caught Trent Boult off his own bowling to end New Zealand’s innings with career-best bowling figures.

The spinner finished the series with 27 wickets and was the obvious choice for the man-of-the-match and man-of-the-series awards.

“Could not have asked for anything better,” India captain Virat Kohli said at the presentation ceremony.

“The bowlers have responded beautifully in the series every time we’ve been under a bit of pressure. Every time the Kiwis had a partnership, someone put his hands up and brought those breakthroughs for us.”

Earlier, Gautam Gambhir struck 50 on his Test return and Pujara scored 101 not out as India declared their second innings on 216 for three around an hour before tea.

Resuming on 18-0, the hosts lost opener Murali Vijay cheaply but Gambhir, who had retired hurt with an injured shoulder on Monday, returned to score fluently.

Gambhir hit six boundaries before completing his 22nd Test 50 off 54 balls but was dismissed when he drove off-spinner Jeetan Patel to Guptill at cover.

Patel removed Kohli (17) lbw for the second time in the match but Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane (23 not out) added 58 quick runs before India declared.

“It was important that we get a big total in the first innings but it was not to be,” Williamson said.

“Credit to India, obviously they’re the number one in the world now. A fantastic effort and well-deserved.”

AMMAN — The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup gets into high gear on Wednesday when the quarter-finals kick off in Amman and Irbid, with eight teams left in the competition.

The highlight will European champ Germany playing runner-up Spain at 7:00pm on Wednesday preceded by the Mexico versus Venezuela match at the Amman International Stadium at 4:00pm.

On Thursday, 2008 U-17 World Cup champ North Korea face Ghana at 4:00pm followed by the England versus titleholder Japan match at the Prince Hassan Stadium in Irbid at 7:00pm.

Playing in a World Cup is a dream come true for any athlete. Players from remote areas with interesting backgrounds are representing their countries. Ghana’s 15-year old keeper Kayza Massey, grew up as an orphan before being adopted and growing up in Canada. She joined her national team for this tournament and was on the lineup when lead goalie was injured.

In an interview with FIFA.com the young player said: “Playing in a World Cup, has just been an exceptional experience and I’m really enjoying myself. I just hope we can stay until the final now. It won’t be easy, especially against North Korea in the next round. We saw how good Japan are and fully expect the Koreans to be just as tough. But we’ve learned during this tournament how to adjust our game to these different styles of play and I’m sure we’ll come up with a plan that will allow us to compete better this time.”

England forward Georgia Stanway told FIFA.com: “We played Japan back in February so we already know the kind of thing we can expect and how to best go about playing them. They’re a very technical team, they never stop moving, so we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for that. We definitely won’t underestimate them — we know they’re a quality team — but the main focus for us will be on our game plan.”

Jordan was eliminated from the first round losing 5-0 to New Zealand, 4-1 to Mexico and 6-0 to Spain. Sarah Abu Sabbah made history by scoring Jordan’s only goal in the Kingdom’s inaugural appearance in the U-17 World Cup. Regardless of match results, most observers concur hosting the event is a major milestone. The tournament has undoubtedly provided much needed competitive experience for Jordan’s squad and provided a big boost to women’s sports in general. 

Jordan joined New Zealand, Brazil, the United States, Paraguay, Nigeria, Cameroon, Canada exiting the first round.

The biggest sporting event to be hosted in the Kingdom marked was also the first time that a women’s tournament of this scale has been hosted in the Middle East region. It was Jordan’s first appearance at the U-17 Women’s World Cup, and also Jordan’s first appearance at any level at a FIFA World Cup. 

In the first round, the 16 teams played in four groups with the top two teams from each group moving on to Round 2. The semis are on October 17 and the final on October 21. The 32 matches over the course of 22 days were hosted at four stadia: Amman International Stadium, King Abdullah II Stadium in Quweismeh, Al Hassan Stadium in Irbid and Prince Mohammad Stadium in Zarqa.

Jordan is the only Arab team at the U-17 World Cup after Egypt and Morocco were eliminated from the qualifiers. Cameroon is the other country to never have previously participated in the U-17 World Cup. 

Coinciding with the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Jordan 2016. FIFA organised a regional workshop for women’s football coaches in Amman in an effort to develop the game in the region.

The 10-day workshop was attended by 16 women’s football coaches from Syria, Iran, Bahrain, the UAE, Palestine, Oman and Jordan. 

“The fact that we’re organising a workshop with a large majority of female coaches shows that times are changing,” said Mayi Cruz Blanco, FIFA’s head of women’s football development. “We’re going to do all we can to support these women, and we hope they’ll be role models in their countries.”

“The importance of Jordan 2016 goes way beyond football. It’s proof of the progress women are making in sport and society. FIFA is proud of this event and hopes it will have an impact on the life of girls and women in the years to come,” she was quoted by FIFA.com.

MILAN — Italy may finally have stumbled across the right strike force and now all that new coach Giampiero Ventura has to do is sort out the rest of the team.

The four times world champions gave an erratic performance littered with uncharacteristic mistakes as they came from 2-1 down to beat rank outsiders Macedonia 3-2 in a World Cup qualifier on Sunday.

But there were also plenty of encouraging signs for coach Giampiero Ventura, not least the performances of forwards Andrea Belotti, who scored his first Italy goal, and Ciro Immobile, whose late brace snatched the three points.

Both played under Ventura during his five-year stint at Torino and their displays on Sunday, combined with recent performances at club level, suggested that Italy’s long search for a high-quality attack might have come to an end.

Belotti, 22, is a physically imposing striker who found his feet at Torino last season following his move from Palermo, and has begun this campaign with a flourish, scoring five goals in as many Serie A games.

Nicknamed the Rooster, he is physically imposing, with pace, a good positional sense and an ability to harass and unnerve his markers.

Like Belotti, Immobile is a hard worker, who can finish with both feet and is strong in the air.

Serie A top-scorer for Torino with 22 goals in 2013-14, his club career went off the rails after that with unsuccessful moves to Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla and back to Torino, but a switch to Lazio has brought him back to life.

With the forward conundrum possibly solved, Ventura can concentrate on other problem positions, in particular the midfield.

The 68-year-old, who replaced Conte after the Euros, has never won a major title at club level, but is widely respected in Italy and was hired largely for his reputation in nurturing young talent.

He has shown that he is not afraid to experiment, having given 21-year-old Alessio Romagnoli his debut against Spain on Thursday.

On Sunday, he also threw 22-year-old Federico Bernardeschi into the mix and handed the key midfield role to Verratti, who is 23, while leaving stalwart Daniele De Rossi on the bench.

Results were mixed. Although Italy created chances, they were left exposed to Macedonia’s counterattacks and fell to pieces alarmingly in the second half when the hosts scored twice in three minutes and had two good chances to add a third.

Verratti, in particular, is a gifted player with good vision, but is also somewhat lightweight and may need more defensive cover than Italy had on Sunday.

Ventura said it was also part of the process and promised that he would stick by his plan of rejuvenating the team — something fans of England, for example, might like to hear their coach say.

“Around 90 per cent of our mistakes were down to a lack of experience,” said Ventura. “That can happen when there are so many young players on the field.

“I think at the end of the day, we can achieve something very good.”

SUZUKA, Japan — Nico Rosberg is refusing to get carried away by thoughts of celebrating a maiden Formula One title triumph at the end of the season, despite getting one hand on the championship crown with victory in the Japanese Grand Prix.

The German eased to a maiden win from pole position at the Suzuka circuit on Sunday, chalking up his ninth win of the year, to lift himself 33 points clear of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in the overall standings.

Such is Rosberg’s margin that, with just four races to go, the 31-year-old can take the title without needing to win another race.

“I don’t feel relief,” said Rosberg, only the fifth driver to win nine races in a season. “I’m just happy to win the Suzuka race.”

“Rosberg’s comments are in keeping with the approach the German has adopted this year, focussing on each race as it comes rather than the campaign as a whole.

Runner-up to Hamilton in the overall standings in the last two years, he is not planning to change it now that the title is within reach.

“The best reasoning is that it’s actually working quite well,” said Rosberg. “So why change something if it’s going quite well?

“The approach that I have at the moment is just coming here, focussing on the weekend and trying to get that win.”

Never has a driver who has won eight or more races in a season gone on to lose the title.

Rosberg also currently appears to have the psychological edge over Hamilton, who cut a distracted and withdrawn figure in Suzuka.

But Rosberg, who can equal Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s record of 13 wins in a season if he triumphs at the remaining races, knows how quickly fortunes can turn.

Hamilton has not won since the German Grand Prix at the end of July while Rosberg has won four of the five races since.

Nevertheless, the Briton had been on course to take back the overall lead until his engine blew in Malaysia.

Rosberg also knows that in Hamilton he faces a formidable competitor, who earlier this season converted a 43-point deficit to the German into a 19-point advantage with a streak of six wins from seven races.

“You can see how quick it goes in Malaysia, you’re in the lead and if the other guy wins its 25 points lost and then the gap is down to eight,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.

“Remember when Nico won eight races in a row and then Lewis had that winning streak?

“I think its going to go down to the end.”

SUZUKA, Japan — Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg capitalised on a slow start by teammate Lewis Hamilton to win the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday and widen his lead in the Formula One drivers’ championship.

Rosberg, who started from pole position, controlled the race throughout and finished 4.9 seconds ahead of Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, who held off Hamilton in close racing over the final few laps.

“The start went really well,” Rosberg said. “Everything went well, and then it was just controlling the pits and the gaps to Max in the race. It was a perfect weekend to win on this legendary track.”

With four races remaining Rosberg holds a 33-point lead over Hamilton.

“It’s better that way than the other way round but it’s still Lewis that’s my teammate, so I always need to reckon with him,” Rosberg said.

“He’s going to be going for it in the last four races. There’s still a long way to go.”

The result clinched the constructors’ championship for Mercedes for the third year running.

Hamilton, who started second, made another of the poor starts which has been among Mercedes few weak points this season, and dropped back to eighth on the opening lap.

The defending world champion worked his way through the field well. Desperately needing as many points as possible in the championship race, Hamilton attempted a bold passing move on Verstappen on the penultimate lap.

Exiting the Spoon curve just 0.5 seconds back, the Briton tried a move into the chicane but Verstappen blocked his path, and Hamilton was forced up an escape road. Hamilton complained over his team radio that the 19-year-old Dutchman had made his move too late under braking.

“Lewis was pushing really hard,” Verstappen said. “He is fighting for the world championship so you are not going to do anything crazy things of course.”

Hamilton said his poor start was down to wheel spin, rather than any preoccupation with the damp patch in front of his grid slot due to overnight rain.

I was just working my way up from there — it was tricky but I did the best I could,” Hamilton said. “I’m happy with clawing it back and getting some points, it’s good.”

It was Rosberg’s ninth victory of the season and 23rd in F1, moving the German driver into a tie for 12th place on the all-time list with Nelson Piquet. Rosberg started the previous two races at Suzuka from pole position only to be overtaken by Hamilton.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel had an opportunity to pass Hamilton immediately after the second round of pitstops but could not do it and finished fourth ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull, who won the previous race in Malaysia, was sixth.

The Force India pair Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh and eighth, with the team eking out a 10-point gap over Williams whose drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished ninth and tenth on a one-stop strategy.

Every driver finished the race, only the seventh time in 952 world championship races that has happened.