Malaysian Riders Set To Dominate Tour Of Malaysia

Johor Bahru - The 47th Tour of Malaysia which starts tomorrow will be the platform for Malaysian riders to show their capability.

Tour of Malaysia 2011 chief operating officer Datuk Naim Mohamed said unlike Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), the Tour of Malaysia has a class of its own.

"Don't compare Tour of Malaysia with the prestigious LTdL which has a high UCI status. Tour of Malaysia has a 2.2 status to give more opportunity to local riders."

Malaysia's oldest cycling tour has attracted participation of 30 teams, ten more than the previous year.

Naim said it is the highest number of entries since the race was introduced in 1963.

Twelve local teams - the Malaysian national team, two continental teams and ten club teams are vying for honours.

The two continental teams from Malaysia are Le Tua Cycling Team (L2A) and Terengganu Pro Asia Cycling Team (TSG).

TSG team is banking on Anuar Manan and Harrif Salleh. The challenge will come from Suhardi Hassan, Wan Mohamed Wan Mohd Najmee, Sayuti Zahit and Mohd Zamri Salleh.

A lot is also expected from young riders Muhammad Adiq Husainie Othman, Ahmad Fakhrullah Alias, Mohd Shahrul Mat Amin, Amir Mustafa Rosli and Mohd Fakharuddin Daud.

First stage of the 1,011km Tour of Malaysia is from Kota Iskandar to Bandar Penawar, a distance of 162.5km.

In KUALA TERENGGANU, TSG coach Syed Mohd Hussaini Syed Mazlan said national rider Anuar Manan will lead the team of six riders to Tour of Malaysia.

The other members are Mohd Harrif Salleh, Mohd Shahrul Mat Amin, Yusrizal Usoff, Mohammad Saufi Senan and Motoi Nara.

"These riders represented TSG at Tour De Mumbai in India last month," he told Bernama here Monday.

He is confident that the riders especially Anuar will be able to defend his spring jersey won last year.

-- BERNAMA

Source: http://www.bernama.com
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Misbun's Silence Complicates Matters - NSC

Kuala Lumpur - The National Sports Council (NSC) is disappointed that men's singles badminton coach Datuk Misbun Sidek has not made any decision whether he still wants to continue training the national squad.

NSC director-general Datuk Zolkples Embong said Misbun's silence complicated the matter.

Misbun resigned abruptly from the post in January believed to be due to dissatisfaction over the new training structure lined up by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM).

Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek, BAM president Datuk Seri Mohd Nadzmi Salleh and Zolkples had met Misbun to discuss the impasse soon after the coach announced the resignation.

Zolkples told reporters here that Misbun should cooperate with the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to resolve the problem and give priority to the nation.

He said however that the NSC would not make any follow up on the matter as long as it did not affect Misbun's protege Datuk Lee Chong Wei's performance.

He nevertheless hoped that the conflict would see a solution soon.

On the request for allocations by the Sabah Sports Board to improve the facilities at the Ranau Sports Complex, Zolkples said the NSC had to say no to it because the council had no fund for the purpose.

"It's not that we don't want to help but even here, the facilities are far from sufficient," he said, adding that the Ranau Sports Complex was under the jurisdiction of the board and not the NSC.

He also said that the NSC had approved the training programmes for 15 athletes at the sports complex but so far only two of them -- walkers Teoh Boon Lim and Yuan Yufang -- had begun the training there.

-- BERNAMA

Source: http://www.bernama.com
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Gattuso hits winner as AC Milan beats Juventus 1-0

Gennaro Gattuso ended a run of more than three years without a goal to give Serie A leader AC Milan a 1-0 win over Juventus on Saturday.

The defensive midfielder struck midway through the second half to decide a dour game in which both sides struggled to break down one another's defense and create chances.

Juventus talked of derailing Milan's progress to the title, but lacked ideas and a cutting edge. Coach Luigi Delneri eventually turned to the team's talisman Alessandro Del Piero, but even he failed to spark any life.

Milan leads the Serie A by eight points from Inter Milan, which could close the gap to five by beating Genoa on Sunday.

The loss was Juventus' seventh in its last 11 games.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com
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Arsenal misses chance to pressure United

Arsenal was held to 0-0 by Sunderland to halt its charge for the Premier League title while West Bromwich Albion and West Ham picked up crucial victories at the other end of the table on Saturday.

Sunderland was thankful to Simon Mignolet at the Emirates Stadium, with the goalkeeper producing an inspired display to keep second-place Arsenal at bay in a one-sided match.

League leader Manchester United, which has played the same number of games as the Gunners, can move six points clear at the top if it beats Liverpool away on Sunday.

Third-place Manchester City moved four points behind Arsenal by beating bottom side Wigan 1-0. Midfielder David Silva grabbed the winner when his low shot in the 38th was bundled into his own net by Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi.

In-form West Ham eased past Stoke 3-0 to climb out of the bottom three, replaced by Birmingham which lost 3-1 at home to relegation rival West Brom.

In the other games, Bolton and Fulham both scored late goals to clinch 3-2 wins over Aston Villa and Blackburn respectively, and Everton rallied to defeat Newcastle 2-1 away.

Substitute Marouane Chamakh's close-range header against the crossbar was the closest Arsenal came to breaking the deadlock on a day of frustration for the London team, which will now travel to Spain ahead of the second leg of its Champions League last-16 match with Barcelona.

With Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie among the players already out for Arsenal, manager Arsene Wenger will be unhappy to see midfielder Jack Wilshere come away nursing a minor ankle injury. The England international should be fit for the Barcelona game, though.

Wenger was more concerned his side wasted the chance to apply heavy pressure on United and was unhappy at what he believed was a wrong decision to disallow Andrey Arshavin's second-half goal for offside.

"I am too disgusted to speak about these things," Wenger said. "These kind of things have too big an impact on the Premier League and we are really disappointed but we have to take it on the chin for the next game."

Mignolet defied Nicklas Bendtner with a superb tip over the bar at the end of the first half, while Samir Nasri saw the Belgian deny him three times to somehow keep the score level.

City was lucky to come away from Eastlands with three points, given the circumstances surrounding Silva's goal and with Wigan wasting a host of clear-cut chances in the second half.

City, in the middle of a busy run of fixtures and playing three days after an FA Cup win over Aston Villa, was lethargic all match.

"In the first half, we played well, but in the second half we were so tired and Wigan played well," City manager Roberto Mancini said.

There was more movement at the foot of the standings as West Ham continued its upward progress with a comfortable victory over Stoke.

Demba Ba, with his fourth goal in three games, Manuel da Costa and Thomas Hitzlsperger were the scorers for the Hammers as they moved a point above Birmingham, which came back down to earth after its 2-1 win over Arsenal in the League Cup final last weekend.

Alex McLeish's side was deservedly beaten by West Brom, which produced an inspired second-half performance to claim a first win since mid-January.

Youssouf Mulumbu, James Morrison and Paul Scharner found the net for the visitors after the break, with Chile midfielder Jean Beausejour scoring Birmingham's consolation.

Those two victories brought Blackburn back into the relegation picture after its defeat at Fulham.

Bobby Zamora scored the winner from the penalty spot, his first goal in more than a year, to see Fulham home and leave Blackburn just two points off the bottom three.

Blackburn twice came from behind to equalize, through goals by Grant Hanley and David Hoilett, after strikes from Fulham winger Damien Duff at Craven Cottage.

Bolton provisionally moved above Liverpool into sixth place thanks to the victory over Villa, whose winger Ashley Young will rue missing a penalty when his team was 2-1 up.

Darren Bent and Marc Albrighton twice put Villa ahead only to be hauled back by a brace from Gary Cahill, before substitute Ivan Klasnic scored the winning goal for Bolton.

Leon Best opened the scoring for Newcastle at St. James' Park but goals by Leon Osman and Phil Jagielka earned Everton the win. (Steve Douglas)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com
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Stewart slams Tilke-designed tracks

Sir Jackie Stewart has come out and slammed the German architect, saying 'he has not done much for the spectators'.
Tilke's association with Formula One started way back in 1999 when he designed the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia and since then he has been involved in the design of Bahrain International Circuit, China's Shanghai International Circuit, Istanbul Park Racing Circuit in Turkey, Valencia Street Circuit in Spain and Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit, to name just a few.
Overtaking is notoriously difficult in Bahrain and Valencia and, instead of looking at the design of the circuits, F1's powers that be have opted to alter the cars. In recent years they've introduced KERS and adjustable rear wings in an attempt to boost passing.
However, overtaking remains very difficult at most tracks and Stewart is convinced Tilke's designs are the big problem.
'My belief is that the major reason for the lack of overtaking in modern grand prix racing is down to the modern tracks, nearly all of which have been designed by the same man, the German architect Hermann Tilke,' he wrote in his The Telegraph.
'Yes, braking zones are now much shorter due to highly efficient brakes and aerodynamic downforce, meaning there is a much smaller overtaking zone (in my day it may have been as much as 200m; now it is more like 50m).
'But the new circuits themselves must take their share of the blame. Put simply, they are largely carbon copies of each other and they tend not to penalise mistakes.
'Take the last race of 2010 for example. There were four drivers who could have clinched the championship in Abu Dhabi but Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was the overwhelming favourite.
'He had only to finish fourth to secure his third world crown. It didn't happen because he could not find a way past Vitaly Petrov, a rookie in his first season in F1 and with little or no experience of being under such pressure.'
He added: 'Tilke has been behind almost every new circuit in F1 since the early 1990s. In some respects, he has done a great job, bringing fantastic amenities and luxuries to the sport. But I fear he has not done much for the spectators.
'Unless circuits are modified, spectators and television viewers might have to live with a lack of overtaking for some time.'
Although thankful that racetracks are no longer as dangerous as they used to be, Stewart believes maybe it's 'we have now gone too far the other way'.
'Racetracks have changed since my day and thank God for that. Back then a driver who raced for five years had a two in three chance of being killed.
'Four to six drivers a year lost their lives. It was totally unacceptable and I campaigned hard for improved safety in the sport, which happily came to pass.
'It is nearly 17 years since a life was lost in an F1 car. I can't think of an industry, a sport or a business where that standard of risk management has been achieved.
'But we have now gone too far the other way. Circuits should not permit liberties to be abused without a penalty that can be instantly recognised by spectators or TV viewers. Safety is one thing; abuse of privilege is another.'

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McLaren duo admit car is not up to scratch

The two McLaren drivers had a lot of reliability issues with their new car during the first three winter tests and as a result didn't get enough mileage under the belts. With only one more pre-season test to come in Barcelona, McLaren will have their work cut out for them.
Button admits he had concerns about the MP4-26 pretty much from the word go.
"When I first jumped in the car my first reaction was not 'wow, we're going to blow everyone away'," Button told Press Association Sport.
"But then I don't think anyone would have felt that because the car has a lot less downforce and the tyres (Pirelli) are working very differently to the previous tyre (Bridgestone).
"There's nothing that really scares me about the car in a negative way, so there's a lot we can improve through general set-up work.
"This year, at the moment, we've had some issues in testing in terms of getting parts to the circuit and a couple of reliability issues.
"So we've not done as much running as we would have liked, which has hurt our set-up work.
"But we do have four more days and hopefully things are going to run more sweetly at the next test, we get a lot of laps in, and then we can improve the base we have."
Team-mate Hamilton concedes that they probably left their car launch a little too light.
"The team are aware of it, and of course we'd love to have had more mileage, but there is a real balance," he said.
"We left it (unveiling the car) a bit later, not because the car was late, but because we wanted a week or two more to develop it, and perhaps it's not played right into our hands.
"We've good things in the pipeline, and we definitely improved in the last couple of days' testing, doing 107 laps on the final day at the last test.
"We've not done the mileage at the beginning, but hopefully we can pick up on reliability, and that the downforce is on its way."
The 2008 World Champion added that there were some similarities between the 2009 car and the 2011 model when it comes to downforce.
"The '09 car was terrible as it was hopping, three-wheeling through corners, locking up, and it had no downforce," he said.
"This car doesn't lock up, it doesn't three-wheel, and it handles really nice, better than last year's car, but it just doesn't have as much downforce.
"Because the regulations have changed, it's a similar downforce level to '09.
"We have a little more, but it's not far off, so it feels weak in that area. Hopefully we've more downforce coming onto the car."

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Renault Driver Kubica in Hospital After Rally Crash

By Alan Baldwin

London. Polish Formula One driver Robert Kubica was flown to a hospital on Sunday after a high-speed crash while competing in a rally in Italy, his Renault team said in a statement.

A team spokeswoman said Kubica, Renault’s leading driver and a race winner in Canada in 2008 with his former BMW-Sauber team, was conscious but gave no further details.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported, however, that the 26-year-old had suffered serious injuries with little more than a month to go before the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

“Lotus Renault GP driver Robert Kubica suffered an accident at high speed this morning while competing in the Ronde di Andora Rally,” the Renault statement said. “The driver was airlifted to Pietra Ligure Hospital, where he is currently undergoing medical checks. His co-driver is fine.”

Renault has Brazilian Bruno Senna and France’s Romain Grosjean as their official third drivers. Senna competed last season for the HRT team while Grosjean started seven races for Renault in 2009.

Neither has ever scored a point in Formula One. Kubica’s race teammate is Russian Vitaly Petrov, who made his debut last season.

ANSA said Kubica was heading to the start of the Ronde di Andora event near Genoa in a Skoda Fabia when the car went off the road and hit a church wall.

The co-driver, Jacub Gerber, got out unhurt while Kubica had to be extracted by firemen.

Kubica, a rally fan who has entered several events in the past, tested the new Lotus-backed Renault last week ahead of the Formula One season, which starts in Bahrain on March 13.

He closed Formula One’s first test session of the season with the fastest time over three days in Valencia, Spain.

The Pole walked away virtually unscathed from a massive crash in Canada in 2007 but still bears the scars of a serious road accident as a passenger in 2003 that left him with titanium bolts in his arm.

Reuters

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com
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