Belarus’ Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya wins country’s first Olympic medal in Paris with trampoline silver

Gold medallist Bryony Page of Britain celebrates on the podium with silver medallist Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya of AIN and bronze medallist Sophiane Methot of Canada at Paris 2024 Olympics — Trampoline — Women’s Victory Ceremony — Bercy Arena, on Aug. 02, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 02 August 2024
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Belarus’ Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya wins country’s first Olympic medal in Paris with trampoline silver

  • Bardzilouskaya’s score of 56.060 was just behind Page’s tally of 56.480 in the eight-woman final
  • Bardzilouskaya is one of 17 Belarusians competing at the games as a neutral athlete

PARIS: Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya of Belarus won her country’s first medal at the Paris Olympics, taking silver in women’s trampoline on Saturday behind Britain’s Bryony Page.
Bardzilouskaya’s score of 56.060 was just behind Page’s tally of 56.480 in the eight-woman final. Sophiane Methot of Canada earned bronze at 55.650.
Bardzilouskaya is one of 17 Belarusians competing at the games as a neutral athlete. Russia and Belarus are barred from team sports at the Paris Games because of the war in Ukraine.
Individual athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports were allowed to compete as neutrals if they qualified and then were approved for entry to the Olympics.
The 19-year-old Bardzilouskaya did not compete internationally for two years following sanctions by the International Gymnastics Federation after the war with Ukraine began.
She was cleared earlier this year compete in World Cup events in hopes of obtaining enough points to qualify for the Games and was approved as a member of the AIN team in June.


Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women’s Champions League, Lyon win

Updated 09 October 2024
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Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women’s Champions League, Lyon win

  • Eight-time winners Lyon eased to a comfortable victory against debutants Galatasaray

PARIS: Chelsea began their hunt for Women’s Champions League glory with a 3-2 win over Real Madrid on Tuesday, while eight-time winners Lyon eased to a comfortable victory against debutants Galatasaray.
Sjoeke Nuesken and Guro Reiten gave Chelsea the lead before Alba Redondo pulled one back for the visitors before half-time.
Mayra Ramirez struck in the second half to restore Chelsea’s two-goal advantage. A late Linda Caicedo tap-in set up a nervy finale at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea went into the lead in the second minute when Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s cross struck the unfortunate Sheila Garcia, via the head of Nuesken, and trickled into the Madrid net.
The English champions doubled their lead shortly before the half-hour as the referee pointed to the spot after Maria Mendez caught Nuesken as the pair fought over a loose ball in the box.
Reiten slotted the spot-kick beyond the reach of Misa Rodriguez, who had correctly guessed which way to dive.
Madrid halved the deficit on 39 minutes. Fine wing play by Olga Carmona created the chance and after some pinball in the Chelsea box, Redondo showed composure to take a touch and finish from 10 yards.
Ramirez restored the hosts’ two-goal lead eight minutes into the second half with a header that looped over goalkeeper Misa.
Caicedo converted from close range in the 84th minute after Lucy Bronze had blocked a goal-bound effort on the line, however the Spaniards were unable to complete the comeback as Chelsea ground out the win.
Also in Group B, Dutch club Twente beat Celtic 2-0 in Glasgow thanks to a Kayleigh van Dooren brace either side of the interval.
Earlier, a trio of headers from Kadidiatou Diani, who scored twice, and Vanessa Gilles gave last year’s beaten finalists Lyon a 3-0 home victory over Galatasaray.
France attacker Diani opened the scoring when she stole in to nod home a Tabitha Chawinga cross with 34 minutes on the clock.
Chawinga then got her second assist of the match — and Lyon scored their second goal — right on the stroke of half-time as Gilles turned in her chipped cross from close range.
Gilles went close with another header early in the second period, but her towering effort from a corner rattled against the crossbar.
Diani did make it three in the 77th minute, her guided header crept inside the far post after Amel Majri had burst down the left flank and drilled in a cross.
“They had a lot of fight and it’s never easy to combat that, but that’s football and that’s the Champions League. We’re so happy to come away with the win,” said Lyon defender Gilles.
In the Italian capital, a 14th-minute penalty converted by new captain Manuela Giugliano was enough for Roma to upset two-time champions Wolfsburg 1-0.
The visitors struck the woodwork twice after the break but were left frustrated as Roma held on to take all three points and go second in Group A — behind Lyon on goal difference.
On Wednesday, Arsenal visit Bayern Munich and Champions League holders Barcelona start their title defense at Manchester City.


Riyadh Season to sponsor Spain’s La Liga

Updated 08 October 2024
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Riyadh Season to sponsor Spain’s La Liga

  • Three-season deal positions Riyadh Season as the official sponsor of one of the world’s strongest leagues
  • La Liga President Tebas highlights strategic importance of the Kingdom to La Liga

RIYADH: Riyadh Season is to sponsor Spain’s La Liga for the next three seasons.

Riyadh Season, which was represented by Faisal Bafarat, the CEO of the General Entertainment Authority, signed the partnership agreement with Spanish football’s La Liga President Javier Tebas.

It marks a three-season deal that positions Riyadh Season as the official sponsor of one of the world’s strongest football leagues.

Tebas highlighted the strategic importance of the Kingdom to La Liga, noting the immense passion that Saudi football fans have for the Spanish league.

He added that La Liga is committed to fostering the growth of the sports and entertainment industry in the Kingdom by supporting initiatives like Riyadh Season.

David Villa, La Liga’s ambassador, expressed confidence that the partnership with Saudi Arabia would open new avenues for collaboration.

He stressed that football in the Kingdom had experienced tremendous growth in recent years, making it an ideal partner.

The partnership, which reflects Riyadh Season’s global presence, aims to initiate promotional activities for both brands and implement joint initiatives targeting football fans and visitors to Riyadh Season.


Shooter Suaar Al-Dosari wins gold in 10-meter air pistol competition at Saudi Games

Updated 08 October 2024
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Shooter Suaar Al-Dosari wins gold in 10-meter air pistol competition at Saudi Games

  • Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Musaed, Saudi Shooting Federation’s vice president, awards winners at event

RIYADH: Shooter Suaar Al-Dosari has won the gold medal in the men’s 10-meter air pistol competition at the 2024 Saudi Games.
Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Musaed, the Saudi Shooting Federation’s vice president, awarded the winners at the third edition of the event at Public Security Training City in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Attallah Al-Enazi claimed silver while Fahd Al-Mutairi took bronze.
Sarah Al-Huqbani claimed the gold medal in the women’s competition while Noura Al-Suqairan and Noha Al-Husseini won silver and bronze, respectively.
At the Paralympic weightlifting competition, Mohammed Al-Harbi, president of the Saudi Weightlifting Federation, awarded the medals to the winners.
Adnan Noor Saeed, of Jeddah Disability Club, took the gold medal In the 65 kg weight category, ahead of clubmate Mayasar Al-Alimi (silver) and Talal Al-Balawi, of Madinah Disability Club, who claimed bronze.
Jeddah Disability Club’s Aseel Hawsawi claimed gold in the 97 kg category, with Saeed Hawsawi, of Makkah Disability Club, taking silver and Tariq Balghith, of Jeddah Disability Club, the bronze.


Hall of fame manager Eddie Diaz selected to lead UAE’s national baseball team

Updated 08 October 2024
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Hall of fame manager Eddie Diaz selected to lead UAE’s national baseball team

  • Hall of famer in both Mexico and the Dominican Republic, Diaz will lead the newly announced team at Baseball United’s Arab Classic next month

DUBAI: Baseball United, the first professional baseball league focused on the Middle East and South Asia, has announced that Eddie Diaz, the former Mexican League hall of fame manager and current vice president of baseball operations at Baseball United, has been named as manager of the UAE’s national baseball team.

The new team will compete for the first time at Baseball United’s Arab Classic tournament next month in Dubai.

Diaz’s career has covered more than four decades in professional baseball, with experience as a player, scout, manager, and executive. He played Minor League Baseball with the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians, and was also a Major League Baseball scout for more than a decade.

Diaz later managed in Mexico’s top summer baseball league, the LMB, for 12 years and its top winter league, the Mexican Pacific League, for 11.

Diaz won three successive championships as the manager of Yaquis de Obregon in the Mexican Pacific League. He was inducted into their hall of fame in 2022.

Diaz also won two Caribbean Series championships — a top professional tournament that brings together the champions of the best Latin American professional baseball leagues.

Born in the Dominican Republic, Diaz was inducted into its Northern Region Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

Kash Shaikh, the chairman, CEO and co-founder of Baseball United, said: “We are honored and excited to appoint a leader with Eddie’s character and pedigree as the first-ever manager of the UAE’s national baseball team.

“Eddie has a track record of success across the highest levels of professional and international baseball. And, even more importantly, he’s a great person and a strong motivator who cares about people. He will help this team develop quickly. We expect the UAE to make a strong showing at the Arab Classic.”

The UAE team will compete as one of nine nations at Baseball United’s Arab Classic from Nov. 7-10 at the league’s new ballpark at The Sevens sports and entertainment complex in Dubai.

The inaugural tournament is the largest national baseball team event to take place in the Middle East and South Asia. Others competing include India, Pakistan, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia, and the complete schedule will be announced shortly.

Diaz said: “I’m very thankful to Kash and (co-owner) John (Miedreich) for giving me this historic opportunity.

“I take the challenge with honor, gratitude, and responsibility. And, most importantly, I take it with a deep passion to continue Baseball United’s mission as we work to grow our sport on the other side of the world. I am so proud to be a part of this team.”


Six things we learned as Saudi Pro League pauses for international break

Updated 08 October 2024
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Six things we learned as Saudi Pro League pauses for international break

  • Al-Hilal and Mitrovic dominant; Ronaldo and Mane in rich goalscoring form and Al-Ittihad are back

RIYADH: While this may be the second FIFA international break of the 2024-25 Roshn Saudi League season, the first happened so soon into the new campaign that this feels like the first true pause for reflection on the opening action.

Here is what we have learned from the opening six matches.

Al-Hilal machine rolls on

It is often said the more things change the more they stay the same.

After a remarkable undefeated season in 2023-24 in which they swept all before them, champions Al-Hilal came into this campaign with a massive target on their back; the hope being that somehow this merciless machine would have slowed down after last season’s exertions.

Any notion of that, though, has been comprehensively dismissed after only six matches, with Jorge Jesus’ men the only club with a perfect 100 percent record through to this point. Quite conceivably, there is an incredible resilience and belief in Al-Hilal that the RSL has arguably never seen before.

It is not that they are completely impenetrable: the Riyadh side have conceded six goals thus far — more than Al-Nassr, Al-Shabab, Al-Qadsiah and Al-Taawoun — and kept only two clean sheets. But whether they score first, or fall behind, patently they have an unshakable trust in that they will always come back — see the 3-2, come-from-behind win against Damac in Matchweek 2.

While there is still so long to go this season, minds are already turning to whether Al-Hilal, unbeaten in an extraordinary 42 RSL matches, could do the seemingly impossible of going undefeated in back-to-back campaigns.

Former champions return to form

One of the biggest stories of the opening six matches has been the renaissance at 2022-23 RSL champions Al-Ittihad.

It was a title defence to forget for the Jeddah giants last time out, who finished fifth and well out of contention in the race for the league crown. After an off-season of soul searching and significant investment, World Cup winner Laurent Blanc was brought in as manager to replace Marcelo Gallardo.

To mark the new era, Al-Ittihad turned over the squad — heavily. The club introduced younger, more dynamic signings in the form of Moussa Diaby, Houssem Aouar, Steven Bergwijn and Mario Mitaj.

Most important, though, has been the return to form of captain and talisman Karim Benzema. After a mixed debut season in the RSL — nine goals in 21 appearances — the enduring Frenchman has found the net seven times in six top-flight matches this campaign. It means Benzema sits behind only Aleksandar Mitrovic (nine goals) in the scoring charts and has almost equalled his 2023-24 haul already.

Elsewhere, Al-Ittihad’s reemergence is also true for Al-Shabab as well, after they had a season to forget last time, at one point mired in the relegation battle before finishing strongly to come home eighth. That resurgence came after the arrival in February of Vitor Pereira; clearly, retaining the Portuguese manager is looking a hugely important piece of business.

With a sizeable turnover from last season, the new arrivals — among others, RSL legend Abderrazak Hamdallah, Serie A stalwart Giacomo Bonaventura, Dutch defender Wesley Hoedt and enterprising Portuguese winger Daniel Podence — are playing their part, too.

Heading into the two-week hiatus, Al-Shabab have four wins from six league outings, which sees the 2011-12 RSL champions occupy fourth. As such, they are only three points off second place.

Mixed bag for league new boys

Much was made in pre-season — and rightly so — of this being Al-Kholood’s first campaign in the RSL, but it has been a hardy welcome to the big time so far for the side from Ar Rass.

Despite a strong recruitment drive to prepare them for the challenge, Paulo Duarte’s team have struggled to make a mark, with a solitary win and four points to show from their opening six matches – even despite that gutsy, opening-round defeat to Al-Ittihad, a match in which they were desperately unlucky to lose.

However, back-to-back reverses in the past two matchweeks, to Al-Hilal and Al-Khaleej respectively, has caused Al-Kholood to drop into the relegation zone. Of course, they will hope to break free of the bottom three spots upon the league’s return.

In contrast, fellow new boys Al-Qadsiah and Al-Orobah have fared better, with the former perhaps always expected to given their considerable investment in the summer transfer window. In came the likes of recent Real Madrid captain Nacho; former Arsenal, Barcelona and Marseille striker, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang; Belgium international goalkeeper Koen Casteels; highly sought-after Uruguayan midfielder Nahitan Nandez, and Mexican international forward champion Julian Quinones.

There was, also, much-coveted Argentine midfielder Ezequiel Fernandez and versatile Uruguayan defender Gaston Alvarez, alongside a host of talented Saudi Arabians, led by national-team defender Qassem Lajami.

That ambition propelled Al-Qadsiah to successive wins in the opening two matchweeks and, although they have been a little inconsistent since, they still sit sixth, with three victories, two defeats and a draw. Importantly, Aubameyang is off the mark in the RSL with the promise of more to come from the decorated striker.

For newly promoted Al-Orobah, meanwhile, they have seven points from six matches to lie mid-table — a decent return for Alvaro Pacheco’s side.

Mighty Mitrovic eyes Ronaldo’s record

When Cristiano Ronaldo broke the all-time, single-season goalscoring record last term (35 goals), few would have thought the tally would be under any threat anytime soon.

Yet Al-Hilal’s Serbian superstar, Aleksandar Mitrovic, has other ideas. The frontman, who finished second to Ronaldo in the race for the 2023-24 golden boot (28 goals), has begun the current campaign on fire, with nine goals from six matches. It could have even been 10, only for one of his goals against Al-Riyadh to be officially awarded by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation’s Referees Department as an own goal.

Still, you would imagine running at 1.5 goals per game is almost impossible to sustain across an entire season. However, with Al-Hilal showing no signs of slowing and scoring at a clip of three goals a match, Mitrovic will get more than his fair share of chances to chase down Ronaldo’s record.

Remember, his overall RSL haul stands at a mighty 37 goals in 34 appearances. Phenomenal.

Title-chasing Al-Ahli have work to do

The three-time Saudi champions were quiet achievers last season, largely out of the title race that unspooled between Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr, but far enough ahead of the rest of the pack that their third place was never under serious threat.

Now boasting England international Ivan Toney, Matthias Jaissle’s side would have had ambitions of at least matching their 2023-24 flourish, achieved upon their first season back in the top flight, if not going better and joining in the title fight. But after the opening six rounds, the Jeddah club look some way off the side that performed so well last season. With three defeats thus far, they are already 11 points off the pace.

A home win against Al-Hilal would have been just the tonic before the international break, but despite taking the lead against the defending champions through Spanish talent Gabri Veiga, another second-half double from Mitrovic saw the away side depart with all three points.

It leaves Jaissle with plenty of questions to ponder over the international break, especially with Al-Ahli 10th in the standings. Although, with the likes of Veiga, Franck Kessie, Riyad Mahrez, Roberto Firmino, Feras Al Buraikan and Toney in the team, there is no shortage of star power to get the club back up and running.

Ronaldo, Mane and Pioli lead Al-Nassr resurgence

By their own, incredibly lofty, standards, Al-Nassr deemed their start to the season — one win and three draws from four matches across all competitions — as insufficient and, thus, that a change of manager was required. So, with three RSL matchweeks in the books, Luis Castro was out, and Stefano Pioli was in.

The Italian, who guided AC Milan in 2021-22 to a first Serie A title in more than a decade, has proved an inspired appointment, with Al-Nassr reeling off five wins on the bounce. Three of those have come in the Saudi top flight, to the tune of eight goals scored and none conceded.

As usual, Ronaldo has been key, the Portuguese superstar taking his season’s tally to five goals in six RSL appearances. The club captain has been ably supported by Sadio Mane who, after a modest debut campaign in the Kingdom, has been a player reborn this term. Although the Senegal international opened his goal account only in Matchweek 6 with a brace against Al-Orobah, he has contributed five assists — second only to Al-Ittihad’s Diaby.

With Pioli in place, and Ronaldo and Mane firing, Al-Nassr have moved up to third in the table. It bodes well for when the RSL returns on Oct. 18. Could this finally be the capital club’s year?