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FEBRUARY 1, 2015
Iranian Boxer Rouzbahani Earns Australia Win the
AFC Asian Cup
2016 Olympic Quota Place
SOFIA (Tasnim) – Ehsan Rouzbahani won a 2016 Rio Olympics quota
place on Friday. He is the first Iranian who books a place in the Olympic
Games.
Rouzbahani defeated Uzbekistan’s
Oybek Mamazulunov in a very exciting match during the first week
of APB action, but lost his second
contest against Russia’s Nikita Ivanov. With everything on the line in
the Matches for Champions series,
Rouzbahani produced perhaps the
best win of his career as he defeated French undefeated professional
boxer Mathieu Bauderlique, and
claimed his place in the title match.
On Friday, Rouzbahani defeated
Commonwealth Games silver medalist Kennedy St Pierre 3-0 in APB
Inaugural Title Match at the Universiada Hall in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Iranian icon who wept as he was awarded the Championship belt.
McLaren Unveil
Honda-Powered MP4-30
LONDON (Dispatches) - McLaren
unveiled their new car, the MP4-30,
which will be piloted by former world
champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in 2015, in an online presentation on Jan. 29.
The British marquee will be running Honda engines for the first
time since 1992 and they hope that
Alonso and Button will help them
end two years in the Formula One
wilderness.
But despite resuming their partnership with Japanese engine manufacturer Honda, the new car retains the
predominantly grey livery synonymous with the team’s 20-year partnership with Mercedes.
“Although our renewed alliance
began again many months ago,
the launch of the McLaren-Honda
MP4-30 marks the start of a lengthy
journey,” said chief executive Ron
Dennis in a statement.
“We’ve come a long way already
and, although there’s a lot of work
to do before we can expect to repeat
the level of success we enjoyed together 25 or so years ago, it’s already
are ready to challenge for honors
again.
“I’ve done a lot of training during the winter break, to reach my
peak physical fitness, and I’ve been
working hard in preparation for this
new era of McLaren-Honda,” said
the Spaniard, who will be the first
man to drive the new car in testing
at the Spanish circuit of Jerez on
Sunday.
“I’ve never felt better, or more
ready for a new season. Of course,
we’re prepared for a steep learning curve, but it’s clear to see that
inside McLaren-Honda there’s total
commitment, and a real change in
feeling, as we start this new partnership.”
Button’s place in McLaren’s lineup was not confirmed until late last
year, with the 35-year-old Briton
only retaining his seat after a battle
with rookie Kevin Magnussen.
But ahead of his sixth season with
the team, Button is eager to begin
his partnership with Alonso.
“The off-season has really brought
about a sense of renewal coming
Marouf Makes Immediate
Impact
Mir Saeid Marouf in action for Zenit Kazan
LAUSANNE,
Switzerland
(FIVB) - 2014 FIVB Volleyball
World League Best Setter Mir
Saeid Marouflakrani helps Zenit Kazan to victory on his debut in the 2015 CEV DenizBank
Volleyball Champions League.
Zenit Kazan defeated VfB Friedrichshafen and the Russian
Williams Beats Sharapova to
Win Australian Open Title
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Top seed
Serena Williams clinched her 19th
grand slam title with a 6-3 7-6(5) victory over Maria Sharapova in the final
of the Australian Open on Saturday.
A promotional handout picture released by McLaren on January 29,
2015 shows the new McLaren-Honda Formula One car MP4-30.
clear that there’s enormous synergy
and potential in our partnership.
“I’m positive that, together, we’ll
get to where we want to be: winning
Grands Prix and eventually World
Championships as McLaren-Honda.”
Flecks of red along the MP4-30’s
snout recall the red and white cars
of McLaren’s Honda-powered glory
days in the late 1980s, when Alain
Prost and Ayrton Senna dominated
the sport.
Those days have seemed a distant
memory over the past two seasons,
during which time McLaren failed
to register a single victory, but twotime champion Alonso said the team
into 2015,” said the 2009 champion.
“Continuing my relationship with
McLaren, getting married, and now
embarking on such an exciting
chapter: McLaren’s new partnership
with Honda. I’ve trained hard over
the winter, and I’m absolutely itching to get going in the new McLaren-Honda MP4-30.
“I’m also looking forward to
working with my new team-mate,
Fernando, and I’m confident that
our joint experience on track will
pay dividends in our development
race to get our team back to the
front of the grid. I’m hugely motivated to make more history in this
new McLaren-Honda era.”
club’s new Iranian recruit was
voted the leg’s best player. Marouflakrani is hailed as the driving
force behind Iran’s recent rise to
prominence. The Iranians finished
in the top four at the 2014 FIVB
Volleyball World League and
claimed sixth place at the FIVB
Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014
It was Williams’ sixth title at Melbourne Park and it moved her into
a tie with fellow American Helen
Wills Moody in third on the all-time
list after she joined Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert on 18 at last
year’s U.S. Open.
Only Australia’s Margaret Court
(24) and Germany’s Steffi Graf (22),
who holds the record for the Open
era, have more grand slam singles
titles than the 33-year-old American.
Williams had not lost to Sharapova
since the 2004 WTA Finals, a run
of 15 successive victories and was
not about to let the Russian end that
streak on Saturday.
After Williams snatched a break in
the first game, rain forced the players off court in the sixth for 12 minutes as officials closed the roof with
the American serving at 3-2 and the
score locked at 30-30.
Williams, who has been battling
a cold and cough the entire tournament, chose to head inside during the
break while Sharapova waited courtside.
She returned to Rod Laver Arena
hacking like a seal and appeared to
be gasping for breath, but then reeled
off the next six points to establish a
5-2 lead.
While Sharapova managed to break
in the next game she was unable to
consolidate and Williams broke to
love to seal the first set in 47 minutes.
Williams did not concede a point on
serve until her third game of the second set while Sharapova struggled
and was fighting to stay in the match.
Even when she had break opportunities in the fifth and seventh games
the American simply reached back
and smashed down a succession of
massive serves.
Williams held a match point in the
10th game only for the Russian, who
saved two match points in the second
round against qualifier Alexandra Panova, to blast a forehand down the line.
The American held two further
match points in the tiebreak and
thought she had sealed the title when
she belted an ace only for umpire
Alison Lang to call a let.
Williams stood there looking bemused but composed herself to repeat the shot, smacking her 18th ace
to win the match.
Australia win the AFC Asian Cup
SYDNEY (AFC) - James Troisi scored at the end of the first
period of extra-time to give Australia their first-ever senior Asian
men’s title with a dramatic 2-1
victory over South Korea in the
final of the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 at Stadium Australia
on Saturday.
Troisi’s goal in the 105th minute earned Australia the title after Massimo Luongo had put the
Socceroos in front in the 44th
minute only for Bayer Leverkusen winger Son Heung-min to
take the game into extra-time
with a stoppage-time equalizer.
Played in front of a sell-out
crowd of 76,385, the Australians
secured their first AFC Asian
Cup since joining the Asian
Football Confederation in 2006
and four years after losing in the
final to a late extra-time winner
against Japan.
Korea’s wait for a third AFC
Asian Cup goes on, meanwhile,
as Uli Stielike’s team were unable to break the 55-year hoodoo
in the country’s first appearance
in the final since 1988.
Stielike made one change to
the line-up that saw off Iraq in
the semi-finals, calling up Jang
Hyun-soo to partner Ki Sungyueng in the middle to allow
Park Joo-ho to sit in front of
Kim Jin-soo on the left, while
Ivan Franjic was passed fit for
an unchanged Socceroos.
The game opened at a frantic
pace and, by the end of the half,
the Socceroos had taken the lead
against the run of play after Korea had spurned several opportunities to put themselves on the
scoreboard.
It was Son Heung-min who
caused the greatest threat to
the home side’s goal, volleying
just wide in the 37th minute after impressive work down the
left from Park Joo-ho and Kim
Jin-su while, less than a minute later, the Bayer Leverkusen
man was denied what looked a
certain goal by Luongo’s outstretched foot.
Tim Cahill had earlier forced
Kim Jin-hyeon into action in the
Korean goal, the Cerezo Osaka
keeper diving to his left to push
the former Everton man’s effort
around the post after holding off
the challenge of Kwak Tae-hwi,
who had sent his own header
just wide mere seconds later at
the other end.
But with barely a minute left
in the half, Luongo struck to
put the Socceroos in front. Trent
Sainsbury’s ball into the Swindon Town man’s feet allowed
Luongo to turn and beat Ki
Sung-yueng before hitting a low,
unstoppable right-foot effort beyond Kim Jin-hyeon.
The South Koreans were forced
to push for the equalizer as the
second half wore on, and a disciplined Australian defense kept
them at bay until, a minute into
stoppage time, Son Heung-min
latched on to Ki Sung-yueng’s
pass to fire beyond Mat Ryan
and send the game into extratime.
But Troisi put the Australians
back in front in the 105th minute
when he was first to react after
Kim Jin-hyeon pushed Tomi Juric’s centre back into play, and
the Belgium-based midfielder
fired the ball high into the net
to seal the win and see Australia
crowned champions of Asia.
Iran Ranks First in
‘Yadegar-e-Imam Cup’
TEHRAN (MNA) –- Iranian junior wrestlers ranked first in Greco–
Roman and freestyle international
wrestling tournament.
Iranian junior wrestlers became
champion of international cadet tournament of Free-Style and
Greco–Roman wrestling dubbed
as ‘Yadegar-e-Imam Cup’ held in
the capital city of Razavi Khorasan
province, Mashhad.
Iranian youth Roman and freestyle
national team won 13 gold medals
during the competitions held in the
course of the two days in Mashhad
and attended by 300 local and foreign athletes from 13 countries.
Out of 20 gold medals awarded
in the competitions, Iranian Gre-
co-Roman and freestyle wrestlers
could win 8 and 5 gold medals, respectively, and ranked first in the
tournament.
In the Greco-Roman wrestling
team rankings, Iran scored 97
points, Georgia 46 points, Armenia 43 points, Azerbaijan 43 points,
Ukraine 36 points, Kyrgyzstan 25
points, India 15 points and Kazakhstan 3 points.
Also in the freestyle wrestling
team rankings, Iran scored 91
points, Kazakhstan 52 points, Azerbaijan 51 points, Ukraine 39 points,
North Korea 37 points, Georgia 35
points, Bulgaria 33 points, India 27
points, Kyrgyzstan 22 points and
Russia 8 points.