Home favourite Quartararo takes MotoGP pole

LE MANS: Home favourite Fabio Quartararo edged out Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller to claim his third MotoGP pole position of the season at the French Grand Prix in Le Mans on Saturday.

Championship leader Quartararo powered through the final sector at the Bugatti Circuit to produce a near-faultless lap of one minute 31.315 seconds, finishing 0.222 clear of Miller.

Petronas Yamaha’s Quartararo will be starting at the front of the grid for the first time since the second round in Jerez in July.

Despite having to come through the Q1 session for the pole shootout, Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci delivered the third fastest time to secure his first front-row start since the 2019 Italian Grand Prix.

Italian great Valentino Rossi put in a late charge for a pole on his Yamaha factory bike but could only manage 10th place on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Championship contender Joan Mir endured a difficult qualifying phase on his Suzuki as he finished 14th after a crash in the final practice session.

Quartararo leads the championship with 108 points — eight ahead of Mir and 18 clear of Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales.—Reuters

Teams for Korangi Festival opener named

KARACHI: The names of the players for the inaugural match of the Korangi Sports Festival, which will be played on Oct 17 at the Rashid Latif Academy No.5 ground at 3:00pm, were named here on Saturday by Adminirtator and DC Korangi Shehryar Gul in consultation with former international player and coach Saeed Azad.

Mohammad Hanif and Ghulam Abbas Jamal (advocate) will be the managers of the two teams respectively.

Meanwhile, cricket and hockey greats including Shoaib Mohammad, Iqbal Qasim, Wasim Bari, Sadiq Mohammad, Saeed Anwar, Fawad Alam, hockey Olympian Islahuddin, former cghiefselector Salahuddin Sallu, Tauseef Ahmed, Saleem Jaffer, Wasim Feroze will also grace the occasion to witness the opening match of the sports festival.

The two teams will be selected from the following players:

Sajid Ali, Aleem Khan Moosa, Naeem Khan, Naumanullah, Adnan Arif, Amir Junaid, Hanif Azad, Imran Shah, Junaid Vakeel, Atiqur Rehman, Adil Khan, Ghulam Ali, Usama Khan, Tauheed Khan, Faseehur Rehman, Athar Laeeq, Sameer Saleem, Farhan Rafique, Sahzeb Kiyani, Ameeur Rehman, Usama Sajid, Haneefur Rahman, Moosa Azad, Irfanuddin, Owais Khan, Mahmood Hamid, Haris Ali, Mohammad Javed, Zafar Ali, Asfandyar and Usama Khan.—Agencies

Special award for Iftikhar Shallwani today

KARACHI: Administrator Karachi Iftikhar Shallwani will be presented a special award by sports organisations and federations here on Sunday (today) for his tremendous services for promotion of sports in the city.

This was announced by President PSWA Shahida Parveen Kiani who said that the grand reception in the honour of the ex-Commissioner and current Administrator Karachi Ifitkhar Shallwani will be jointly hosted by PSWA, Shamsi Tennis Academy, Sindh Olympics Association (SOA), and KMC Sports Deptt.

Rotary International’s District Governor Dr Farhan Essa, ex-Olympian Islahuddin Siddiqui, KBBA president Ghulam Mohammad, PTF vice president Khalid Shamsi and SOA secretary Ahmed Ali Rajput will speak on the occasion to pay tribute to Shallwani for his contribution to sports in the metropolis.—Agencies

Three Czech players positive for virus

PRAGUE: Three Czech Republic national team players tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of their Nations League game against Israel.

The players were not identified and were in isolation, while 16 others 11 players and five staff members were to be re-tested after the results of their tests were inconclusive, the team said on Saturday.

The Czechs are scheduled to face Israel in Haifa on Sunday, and Scotland in Glasgow on Wednesday.

The team was scheduled to fly to Israel on Saturday from Cyprus, which hosted the Czech team in a friendly match Wednesday. The visitors won 2-1 in Larnaca.—AP

Golden Star Club advance

LAHORE: Golden Star Club beat Gulberg Eaglets Club by 47 runs to reach the league stage of the first OTC Lahore Challenge Cup One-day Club Cricket Tournament here at the Cricket Centre ground on Saturday.

Summarised scores:

GOLDEN STAR CLUB 251-8 in 35 overs (Azzam-ul-Haq 61, Mohammad Umair 45, Ahmed Safi Abdullah 38; Samar Mazhar 3-54, Mohammad Ramzan 2-45); GULBERG EAGLETS CLUB 204-9 in 35 overs (Usman Ali 51, Ghulam Hafeez 39, Raza Usman 35; Sadaqat Ali 2-31, Faisal Yasin 2-34, Amir Waqs 2-38).

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2020