Senegal claim first WC win since 2006
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Spain, Sept 23, (AP): Mame Marie Sy-Diop scored with 12 seconds left to lift Senegal to a 70-69 win over Latvia on Sunday, giving the country its first World Cup victory in 12 years.
Senegal now has a good chance to advance out of pool play for the first time in the team’s history. The African nation is now 6-42 in the tournament all-time and most likely will have the best finish in team history surpassing the 1979 squad that finished 12th out of 12 teams. Yuki Miyazawa scored 21 points, including two 3-pointers in overtime, and had a big block on Belgium’s final possession to help Japan win 7775 on Sunday.
Miyazawa hit consecutive threepointers and Himawari Akaho added a free throw to give Japan (1-1) a 77-75 lead with 15.4 seconds left. Belgium had one final chance, but Miyazawa blocked a shot from the wing and Japan held on for the win, its first since the 2010 World Cup.
Marquez changed to a soft rear tyre just before the start of the race and took control in the last three laps, fending off the Ducati rider Dovizioso to win his home Grand Prix.
“Today, I took a risk, a gamble,” Marquez said. “I put the soft rear tyre because during the weekend every time I put the hard I felt okay, but I didn’t feel good.
“Sometimes I put the hard to be safe, but today I said, ‘okay, I’ll take a risk’. I was riding really good, really smooth in the beginning.
“I was able to follow Andrea in a good way, and we were fighting in the end, a great fight. Really top movement at the limit, I was one time in the green, was completely at the limit, but I enjoyed a lot.”
Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone briefly threatened to make it a three-way fight for first place but settled for third ahead of Alex Rins.
Lorenzo crashed for the second race in a row after drifting wide in the first corner, and was left with a dislocated toe.
Dovizioso, who started second on the grid, had a slender lead over Marquez after Lorenzo’s crash, with a bunch of riders close behind, but the
Repsol Honda Team’s Spanish rider Marc Marquez celebrates on the podium after winning the MotoGP race of the
Moto Grand Prix of Aragon at the Motorland circuit in Alcaniz on Sept 23. (AFP)
two leaders began to pull away after the halfway mark.
Marquez took the lead on the 14th lap, but Dovizioso regained the upper hand two laps later before Marquez made the decisive move with three laps remaining.
“Marc is very strong here,” Dovizioso said. “The real surprise is we’re fighting with Marc, so I’m so happy about the work we did during this season, to come here in this moment of this championship very strong.
“We were fighting for victory on a bad track for us. This is good for this championship and also for the future.”
Dovizioso now has 174 points to Spaniard Marquez’s 246 with five races remaining.