Gresini & San Carlo Continue

Team Gresini has renewed its agreement to continue with San Carlo as its main sponsors in MotoGP for 2011, when Marco Simoncelli will be joined by Hiroshi Aoyama.

The continuation of a partnership that already stretches back five years is born through a mutual passion and love for MotoGP racing, good faith, team spirit and shared objectives.

The positive experience of this season, which saw Marco Simoncelli gradually emerge as a front runner in MotoGP, has provided a huge incentive for the campaign to come. "Super Sic" is the team's great hope for 2011, when he will be joined by the Japanese rider Aoyama.

Lining up the last two 250cc World Champions in history is a key part of an ambitious project that has been outlined together with San Carlo and both riders have the talent and determination to become the future of the MotoGP class.

Hiroshi Aoyama was born in Chiba (Japan) on the Oct. 25, 1981. He was crowned the 250cc World Champion in 2009 thanks to four victories, seven podiums and two pole positions. He made his MotoGP debut this year, scoring a best result of seventh place in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Fausto Gresini (Gresini MotoGP Team Owner) says: "I am proud to announce that San Carlo will be together with us again in 2011 as we continue to chase our shared objectives. Next season we aim to build on the progress shown by Marco Simoncelli throughout the course of 2010 as he has gradully forced his way to the front of the MotoGP pack.

'Super Sic' is ready to be a consistent contender at the highest possible level of motorcycle road racing and primed to give the team and San Carlo plenty to celebrate. In 2011 our other objective is to bring along another 250cc World Champion in the shape of Hiroshi Aoyama."

"We are determined to show him how to make the same progress as Marco Simoncelli. Aoyama has shown in the past that he is a reliable and fast rider and he has all the necessary characteristics to be a serious contender in MotoGP."

"At Team San Carlo Honda Gresini he will be given the chance to establish himself amongst the best in the class. So we have a twin objective for next year and it is a project that is being enthusiastically supported by Honda and also by San Carlo."

Alberto Vitaloni (President of San Carlo Gruppo Alimentare) says: "Continual improvement is an objective that the Gruppo Unichips targets everyday in everything we do. The concept is that it is never enough to be happy with the level you have reached, but to believe that there is always room for improvement with a constructive attitude. That is something we have seen this year with Marco Simoncelli, who has shown a very pleasing level of development on the track."

"The involvement of the entire structure, the adoption of a results based strategy, professionalism and passion are the qualities that unite San Carlo and Team Gresini. That is why we decided to support Fausto's project for another year, because we want to see the team and the riders grow again."

"Hiroshi Aoyama will be a part of that and I would like to welcome him with a word in Japanese: 'Kaizen', which is made up of two important words, Kai, which means change, and Zen, which means good. I hope he can follow in the footsteps that Marco has trod this season."

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Vemeulen Injury Update

Chris Vermeulen is on schedule to take part in his first test of the 2011 Kawasaki Racing Team Ninja ZX-10R at Sepang in January, but he still faces the prospect of a few more weeks on crutches before the World Superbike test.

Having suffered extensive knee damage in a Superbike crash at Phillip Island, and then having an operation to repair cartilage and ligament damage mid-season. Vermeulen has not ridden since Brno in July, and he remains on crutches at present.

He had hoped to be off them last week, but his specialist has advised him to wait a while longer, as it will help with his ultimate recovery. Vermeulen headed to the sun in Australia last weekend to continue his path back to full fitness.

Chris Vermeulen says: "Everything is good, but I am still on crutches, which is driving me nuts! The real safe time for this kind of recovery is five months, so I have about a month left to run. The Doctors know what they are doing with it and I asked them if I would still be OK to ride the superbike in January."

"He is confident with that. It will not be easy, but I will not do any damage by riding the bike in January. After my last bit of physio in Barcelona this week we will be going to the UK to visit the team's workshop, then we will go and see Toni's parents and then we head off to Australia."

Vermeulen was a more than interested visitor at the recent Aragon World Superbike tests, watching Tom Sykes and Katsuaki Fujiwara put the new Kawasaki ZX-10R through its paces around the Spanish circuit.

Chris Vermeulen says: "The new bike looks good on track. Tom and Katsuaki have completely different riding styles but they were both going well on the bike, so that is good news all round."

Vermeulen will be part of a three rider official Kawasaki Superbike push in 2011, with Joan Lascorz joining Sykes and Vermeulen.

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Leader Alonso not worried about title race outcome

Abu Dhabi: Front-runner and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari said even if he loses the title race on Sunday he will long remember the 2010 championship while another former champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren said he has nothing to lose.

When the title contenders were asked on how they would react to lose out on the final day, Alonso said, "Obviously, you feel sad if you lose in the last moment. In my case, I will not really have anything to be disappointed about in 2010. The last two years I was fighting to be third most of the times."

Alonso, who takes an eight-point lead into the final race at the Yas Marina Circuit said: "Ferrari had a tough year in 2009 as well, so this first year of the relationship we are fighting for the world championship in the last race of the championship against two Red Bulls who are dominating by far the season in terms of speed."

Great memory
"So overall I think it doesn't matter on Sunday. It will be a great memory of 2010 to have challenged," the Spaniard said.

Commenting on the strengths of his car, Alonso said, "Well, I think we don't have the cornering speed of Red Bull and maybe we don't have the straight line speed of McLaren. We are not the best in the straight line, we are not the best in the corners, but in general overall we are always quite competitive. We can adapt to any circuit in a good way, so I feel relatively confident for the performance of the car but let's see how it is going."

The Ferrari driver said he would decide what approach to adopt only on Sunday depending on his grid position.

"I think we will still see how Friday goes, how Saturday goes as to how we approach the race on Sunday. I think it will depend on how the weekend is going. We will change the tactics depending on how competitive we are or which positions we are," Alonso said.

Competition
McLaren's Hamilton, who is 24 points off the leader with Red Bull dup Mark Webber and Sebastien Vettel also ahead, said, "For me, I have nothing to lose. The guys in front of me have everything to lose, so for me I am going to be flat out as always."

"They have got generally faster cars than me but that doesn't mean that we cannot fight for a win. Obviously I have to win this race. That's what we plan to do," said the Briton, whose McLaren teammate and defending champion's Jenson Button saw his hopes end in Brazil.

"We are in quite a strong position with engines. Mercedes have done a great job. We have worked very hard over the last few years with the engines, so we have been very, very fortunate this year.

"The reliability has been fantastic. We have got quite a fresh engine that hasn't done many miles, so hopefully in a slightly better position than the guys in front," warned Hamilton.

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Proteas star Prince ready for Pakistan Test

Dubai - South Africa's star batsman Ashwell Prince, who has cracked 11 Test centuries and ten half centuries from his 57 Test matches has joined the squad for the Test series against Pakistan.

After a long training session at the ICC Global Cricket Academy, Prince said: "I feel I am in good nick. I had four four-day games so far and have hit three hundreds. So I feel I am in good form. Test match cricket is a different level but I am hoping to do well."

Left-handed Prince, who had captained South Africa in the absence of an injured Graeme Smith in July 2006, is a good reader of the game.

"We are expecting the wicket to be slower than South African pitches; probably it may spin a bit. We are not expecting bouncy and fast pitches here and it could be similar to sub-continent conditions," said Prince, who has high regard for the Pakistan team.

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Top clubs gear up for third round of Etisalat Cup

Abu Dhabi - The professional clubs in the UAE are competing today and tomorrow without top players in the third round of Etisalat Cup.

The competition is held without the players of the national teams who are either busy with the Olympic team in the Asian Games or preparing with the senior team for the Gulf Cup.

The top match of the week will be between Bani Yas, the leaders of the first group and the only team, from 12, which won full six points from their past two matches, against Al Ain, second in the group with four points.

Bani Yas, who are missing the services of nine players, have defeated Al Wahda 2-1 in the second week and will consolidate their leadership if they win the three points in the encounter tomorrow at Tahnoon Bin Mohammad Stadium.

Bani Yas have defeated Al Ain in the UAE Pro-League some weeks ago 3-0.

Al Jazira, leaders of the UFL, are not doing good in this competition and have already lost five points in two matches and they will host the leaders of the second group, Al Ahli, today.

Al Jazira have a single point while Al Ahli have 4, the same tally of second placed Al Shabab who will host Al Wasl in the late night show today. Al Wasl have two points.

Dubai will host Al Nasr and is crucial for both teams to advance in the standings.

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Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh drops down in grade

New Delhi: Yuvraj Singh has been dropped from Grade A in the central contracts of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Suresh Raina promoted to the top grade.

Yuvraj, who has run into poor form and injuries, has been out of the national team for a while now. The dashing left-hander had a disappointing 2010, starting with the World Twenty20 in the West Indies. He was dropped for the Asia Cup but returned to the Tests in Sri Lanka in July-August.

The annual retainer has been increased from Rs6 million to Rs10 million (Dh500,000 to Dh833,000) for Grade A and from Rs4 million to Rs5 million (Dh333,000 to Dh417,000) for Grade B. For Grade C, the amount remains Rs2.5 million (Dh208,000).

The match fee for a player in the Test eleven is Rs700,000, for ODI Rs400,000 and Rs200,000 in Twenty20.

Graded players:
Grade A: Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, V. V. S. Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan
Grade B: Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay, Pragyan Ojha
Grade C: S Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, R. Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar.

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Indonesia Hoping to Reach Seven Gold

Jakarta - Indonesian contingent hopes to achieve gold medals in seven sports ie badminton, wushu, bowling, karate, dragon boat rowing, weightlifting and beach volleyball at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
12 to 27 November next.

Chairman of KONI / KOI Center, Rita Subowo, argued that the Indonesian contingent at a press conference Monday.

Press conference was also attended board sports badminton, bowling, wushu. Rita explained that the prediction was based on the results achieved by Indonesia in the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, 2006, and evaluation of parent-the parent organization of the sport. "Our target is to improve Indonesia's ranking of the 22 nd position in the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar 2006," said Rita.

Rita asked for community support for the sports ambassador of Indonesia to meet these expectations. "In order to achieve these expectations of course depend on the appearance of our athletes in Guangzhou later and prayers of the entire community.

About the criticism expressed by some parties associated with the projections of the gold medal, Rita asks all parties to get rid of their own interests. "I ask all parties to support the Indonesian contingent of athletes so that we can fight the maximum for the Red and White.

Rita also expressed his gratitude to the Government which has facilitated efforts to prepare a contingent of Indonesia through the Indonesian Program Gold (Prima). The new prime training program about three months was carried out for elite athletes and junior athletes under 18 years old.

According to Rita, for the first time approved a long-term coaching for young athletes through the program as Prima for athletes under 18 years of age. The program for the junior athletes was held jointly with Ministry of Education, Training and Development Program Student (PPLP), and KONI Province.

"To-KONI KONI Region we have asked them to change their vision adopted so far in coaching athletes. If all this KONI target area on the PON, it is now switched its target to the Olympics," said Rita.

Described by Rita that with the same cost incurred by the Regional Sports Committee, held families together is not impossible for an athlete to achieve Olympic medals. "We hope Indonesia can get athletes to the Olympics through a qualifying round. Our target in the 2012 London Olympics can we loloskan 50 athletes and subsequently at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil passed the 100 athletes we can," Rita added.

Indonesia will send 212 athletes who will take part in 25 of the 42 sports contested at the 16th Asian Games later.

Indonesian large contingent will leave for Guangzhou from Jakarta on Wednesday morning, using a Garuda Indonesia aircraft. At the Asian Games to-15 in Doha, Qatar, 2006, Indonesia won two gold medals, 4 silver, 14 bronze, and was ranked the 22nd. (T.A016/R009)

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