sports - ahead of the game
‘It’s level playing field for all teams’
SHAKESPEARE once said “heavy is the head that wears the crown”. For Yanmar Racing team’s pitman Yasuhiro Yaji this expression fits – at least for his team’s Monsoon Cup challenge beginning today at the Ri-Yaz Heritage Marina in Pulau Duyong. Yaji-san, as he is more affectionately known in the sailing fraternity, said “YANMAR Racing is not under siege and that all 12 teams are on a level playing field. There’s no one team that stands head and shoulder above the others. The course here is very tricky – because it is situated at the river mouth where the wind shifts are very frequent, strong currents and there’s a great need for technical skills. Therefore both muscle and brains come into play,” he said. Well built physically, the strongman, also known to others as “Mr. Muscles” has of bulging biceps and triceps. “As a pitman, physical strength is a must,” he stressed. For the Monsoon Cup, Yaji emphasised that his team, skippered by four-time world champion Peter Gilmour, need to avoid making mistakes. “Even the smallest of mistakes cut can hurt our chances. This is a key factor in match racing,” said Yaji, adding that winning regattas are always etched on his mind. The only thing that he despises most is losing a race when in a neck and neck position. “Yes, it’s like “so close and yet so far”. It wouldn’t hurt if we lose by a distance, but it hurts a lot if we lose in a photo-finish situation,” said Yaji. The Ri-Yaz Marina holds a special place in Yaji’s heart. “In my first year here in 2005, there were only makeshift canopies and marquees and no concrete structures. I’ve watched this place develop yearafter-year and now this marina has some of the best facilities in the world,” he said. Asked how he rates Malaysia’s Taring Peangi team led by Hazwan Hazin Dermawan, Yaji said he does not know details of the team but added that if there are light winds, it may favour the Malaysians.
It will be car-crash TV if Tiger has to face press
Perhaps Tiger sh ould have used a driver. That’s the first time Tiger Woo ds has failed to drive 300 yards.
Web humour
By James Corrigan
TIGER WOODS has less than 24 hours to decide if he wants to face the world. If he is to play in this week’s Chevron World Challenge in California, he will have little option but to give his traditional press conference, which is scheduled for tomorrow . The world No 1 will already be well aware that the American traffic police are not the only ones looking for answers. However, whether Woods will oblige and allow the cameras to scrutinise the extent – and yes, nature – of his “facial lacerations” is just one item of conjecture in the ever-more confusing mystery of the Woods car crash. On Saturday, in Orlando, the 33-yearold was waiting for the Florida Highway Patrol to arrive to continue their investigations into the smash outside his home, which saw him plough into a fire hydrant and from there into a tree at 2.28am on Friday. The internet rumour mill was in overdrive as it picked over the reports of Elin Nordegren – the mother of his two children, aged two and nine months – breaking through the rear window of his Cadillac with two of her husband’s golf clubs before defying her petite frame to pull the hulking athlete out to safety. Woods’s concussion, of course, may be the perfect excuse for him to withdraw from this week’s year-ender. If it was any regular-season event his absence would be likely, if not inevitable. But it is not nearly as simple as that. Woods is the host of the 16-man invitational in
Thousand Oaks; it is a mainstay Tiger Woods dr ives into a water of his charitable foundations. It hazard. would be embarrassing if he I find it’s a night mare driving at did pull out, if only because he 2.05am: sometimes you can’t see the Woods managed to play – and win – last for the trees. year’s US Open when plainly in Tiger Woods ha s been droppe agony with a knee injury and d after admitting that his crash w by Gillette fractured fibia. as the closest shave he had ev er had. And even if Woods is unfit to tee it up, he would, in any Apparently, th e on normal circumstances, still turn Tiger Woods with ly person who can beat a golf club is Eli up to shower his stardust on the n. tournament. Last year he gave Tiger’s wife wen t for him over a a pre-event press conference birdie. at Sherwood Country Club, despite being sidelined from action as he recovered from his Tiger not a lion knee reconstruction. If Woods cheetah does opt to stay away, it will Crouching Tiger, doubtless be taken as if he has hidden hydrant something to hide. What is certain is that if Woods does enter that media room, the awaiting throng will be Rachel Uchitel bigger than for most majors. The galleries lining the fairways would likely swell just as much. In that sense, Woods would have done one hell of a job as the tournament promoter. Even for this spotlight-hogger, the focus would be unprecedented. – The Independent
Headlines
Were you hurt BEFORE your crash, Tiger?
TIGER WOODS was last night set to be asked by cops: “Were you injured BEFORE your mystery car smash?” According to Britain’s Sunday People, Florida police will pose the question following reports on US websites suggesting golf star Tiger, 33, had had a blazing row with his wife Elin. An early police account said Elin, 29, ran from their house and used a club to smash the back window of his Cadillac Escalade and free him. But website TMZ claimed she later changed her story. And it was claimed no blood was found on the steering wheel of Tiger’s SUV, casting doubt on assumptions he sustained his injuries in the crash. The National Enquirer magazine claimed last week that Tiger had exchanged racy texts with New York nightclub hostess Rachel Uchitel (left). Rachel, 34, who lost a fiance in the 9/11 terror attacks, said: “God forbid Tiger got into a car wreck because of this false report. It must have caused problems at home. If I was his wife, I’d probably have killed him. This is nothing to do with me. We’ve never had an affair, talked on the phone or sent any type of text, sexy or not. I’m really upset. I’m being portrayed as a homewrecker, when it isn’t true.” Police said Woods was unconscious for six minutes and was found with cuts on his face. Police Chief Daniel Saylor said Tiger’s wife was “frantic, upset”. He added: “She supposedly got him out and laid him on the ground.” A police insider said: “The fact he was travelling slow yet hit a fire hydrant leads cops to suspect there was more to it than an accident.” – Agencies
Elin Nordegren
Super Molinari brothers win World Cup for Italy
BROTHERS Francesco and Edoardo Molinari won a dramatic three-way final round tussle with Sweden and Ireland to claim a first World Cup of Golf for Italy by one stroke yesterday. The duo found their putting touch on the back nine as their rivals faltered to finish with a four-under-68 for a total of 29-under for the US$5.5m (RM20.9m) tournament at Mission Hills, Shenzhen, China. Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, who had led all week after an opening 58, carded an error-strewn 70 to share second with defending champion Swedes Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson, who shot a 69. Edoardo leapt around the 18th green after securing victory with a two-foot par putt before embracing his younger brother – the first siblings to lift the John Jay Hopkins trophy in the 55 versions of the event. “It’s amazing, we don’t really have any words,”; 27-year-old Francesco, who will share a cheque for US$1.7m (RM5.6m) with his brother, said in a greenside TV interview. “It’s been really tough all day, we were playing against some of the best golfers in the world. It was really tough until the last green. But it’s even better when it’s like this.” Ireland had started the final day foursomes with a one-shot cushion but were drawn into the chasing pack when world No. 10 McIlroy went into the trees with his drive at the third. The Ulstermen looked to have recovered their nerves, however, with a string of four birdies from the fourth to surge three shots clear. Sweden, who shot a finalround 63 to win last year, had picked up two shots before dropping their first and only shot of the tournament at the eighth. Calamity struck for the Irish around the turn, however, when they chalked up two more bogeys at the eighth and 10th holes, the latter when McIlroy missed a two-foot par putt. The Molinaris, meanwhile, had gone through 10 holes at a steady one-under before three successive birdie putts from Francesco, the second a curling beauty from 30 feet, broke the three-way tie then put the Italians ahead by two. The Swedes and Irish cut the lead to one shot with birdies at the 15th and there was more drama at the 18th. First Stenson’s birdie putt tracked around the lip of the hole and out and then Edoardo’s second shot went into a greenside bunker, while the Irish carved out a birdie chance. World No. 37 Francesco, however, came up with a beautiful sand wedge to two feet and, when McDowell’s putt came up short, Edoardo had a simple shot for championship. Francesco had seven top 10s finishes on the European Tour this year, while his brother Edoardo, the 2005 US Amateur champion, was the Challenge Tour champion. After his victory in a playoff over Karlsson at the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan last week, 28-year-old Edoardo has now won four of his last six tournaments. England’s Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher finally lived up to their billing as one of the pre-tournament favourites with a 64 for fourth place on 26-under. World No. 8 Sergio Garcia missed a two-foot putt as Spain finished a miserable week with a double bogey that left them 22 shots behind the winners with only the hapless Scottish duo (78) behind in 28th and last place. – Reuters
REUTERSPIX
Edoardo Molinari (right) of Italy celebrates with his brother Francesco after putting into the 18th hole to win the World Cup.