SYDNEY: Australia pressed on with matches in its three main football leagues on Saturday, playing in empty stadiums in an effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
The National Rugby League, soccer’s A-League and Australian Rules Football’s AFL played on in the midst of the coronavirus crisis that has seen more than 1,000 Australians infected.
Around the world sports have suspended leagues or canceled tournaments until restrictions can be lifted on public gatherings and social contact.
The AFL, which signed a A$2.5 billion broadcasting deal from 2017 to 2022, opened its 22-round season this weekend with the first of nine matches. In normal times the league attracts enormous audiences, especially in Victoria State where crowds of more than 80,000 are common.
Australian Rules has always been something of an oddity, a sport confined mainly to Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia with small footholds in New South Wales and Queensland. The decision to play on while other sports have halted may be an opportunity for the sport to expand its audience beyond those regions, even globally.
Defending champion Richmond opened the season Thursday with a 16.9 (105) to 12.9 (81) win over Carlton.
Rugby league played the second round of its NRL season, also in closed stadiums. The financial imperatives to continue are greater on rugby league than Australian Rules or soccer because its finances have been precarious in recent years and some clubs might not survive a lengthy disruption.
The Auckland-based New Zealand Warriors have based themselves in Australia since last weekend’s opening round to allow the league to continue with a full complement of 16 teams. If they were to return to New Zealand, travel restrictions would make it impossible for the Warriors to play further matches against Australian opponents.
The Warriors, short on players and equipment, produced a brave performance before losing 20-6 on Saturday to the Canberra Raiders.
The A-League continued in the 24th round of a 29-round season. When second-placed Melbourne City beat Central Coast 4-2 in the first match of the round Friday, three Melbourne supporters watched from a bridge next to the Gosford stadium and another peered through the stadium gate.
The season’s schedule has been substantially disrupted. The Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix are both in self-isolation for 14 days after recently traveling from New Zealand to Australia.
Australian football leagues play on amid outbreak
https://arab.news/b2aek
Australian football leagues play on amid outbreak
- Around the world sports have suspended leagues or canceled tournaments until restrictions can be lifted on public gatherings and social contact
Sixth Dakar Rally win for Al-Attiyah as Benavides triumphs on two wheels
Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah won the Dakar Rally for the sixth time in the car category on Saturday as Argentina’s Luciano Benavides won by two seconds on two wheels, the narrowest margin ever.
Al-Attiyah, with Belgian co-driver Fabian Lurquin, had led overnight after taking his 50th career stage win and made no mistakes as he handed Dacia a first victory at their second attempt in the two-week event held entirely in Saudi Arabia.
The 55-year-old Qatari also won in 2011, 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Ford’s Nani Roma finished second, nine minutes and 42 seconds behind, and teammate Mattias Ekstrom was third after winning the final stage.
Last year’s winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi of Saudi Arabia withdrew in the opening week after mechanical problems.
Benavides had earlier taken the motorcycle title after American Ricky Brabec lost his way and saw victory slip through his fingers.
The KTM rider, whose older brother Kevin won the Dakar in 2021 and 2023, came home second in the 105-km stage in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu, with Honda’s overnight leader Brabec 10th.
In a grueling endurance event spanning two weeks and 8,000km over rocky roads, through canyons and vast expanses of desert dunes, twice winner Brabec blew his chances with only a few kilometers remaining.
Spaniard Tosha Schareina finished third overall for Honda.
“From the start to the finish I never stopped dreaming, I never stopped believing,” said Benavides, who had trailed Brabec by three minutes and 20 seconds after Friday’s penultimate stage.
“I said to all my people around ‘I don’t know why but I still feel it’s possible, I still believe I can win and it’s going to go my way’.
“In the last three kilometers, Ricky took a wrong piste and I took a good one... I just saw the opportunity and I took it.”
American Skyler Howes was fourth overall for Honda, ahead of Australia’s 2025 champion Daniel Sanders on a KTM.
Sanders crashed on stage 10 but refused to retire and raced on despite a suspected broken collarbone.
