Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/527016
56 Sport maltatoday, SUNDAY, 14 JUNE 2015 MOTOGP UNIVERSIADES Gearing up for the Universiades in South Korea SECOND only to the Olympic Games, the Universiades are an international sporting and cul- tural festival, staged every two years during summer in a dif- ferent city. Taking place over a period of 12 days, Universiades consist of 10 compulsory sports with 13 compulsory disciplines and up to 3 optional sports cho- sen by the host country. The launch of this year's team was held on Friday 12 June, 2015 at the University of Malta. The Malta University Sports Club an- nounced that its delegation to the Games consists of 15 persons, 11 athletes and 4 officials. The Team will be made up of Nicola Muscat, Edward Caruana Dingli, Matthew Zammit, Mat- thew Galea, Daniel Galea, Shan- ice Cassar (Swimming), Andrew Gambina (Table-Tennis), Isaac Bezzina (Judo) and Luke Bezzina, Daniel Saliba, Ian Grech (Athlet- ics). The contingent will be led by Elena Bajada as the Head of Del- egation, while Madeleine Fenech and Clara Castillo, will act as Deputy Heads of Delegation and Rhea Cutajar as Headquarters and Flights Manager. Athlete Daniel Saliba has been selected as Malta's f lag-bearer for the opening ceremony. KMS Vice Chairman Mark Cutajar, University Pro Rector, Prof. Richard Muscat, and the Opposition's Speaker for Local Government, Youth and Sports, David Agius, all augured the participants every success in the forthcoming Universiades edi- tion. Embracing the International University Sports Federation's (FISU) motto of 'Excellence in Mind and Body', the Universia- des allow over 9,000 university student-athletes from over 170 countries to celebrate with the host city in a true spirit of friend- ship and sportsmanship. The events are broadcast on over 100 TV channels. MUSC calls any interested as- sociations and parties who would like to participate or invest in such a fruitful project to get in touch with the MUSC regarding the event on universiades@musc. org.mt. Aleix Espargaro claims pole in Catalunya Aleix Espargaro broke the lap record as Suzuki Ecstar claimed a one-two in qualifying for the Catalunya Grand Prix A blistering time of one minute 40.546 seconds gave Spaniard Espargaro only his second ever pole position in MotoGP and Suzuki 's first since 2007. His compatriot Vinales was 0.083 seconds behind and Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, who has won the last three races, took third place. "With the first tyre I pushed but not to the limit. On the sec- ond I nearly crashed at the last corner, I was pushing so hard," Espargaro, who lies 11th in the world championship standings, told reporters. "This is a present for Suzuki, they have worked so hard for this and now hopefully tomor- row I can be on the podium. World champion Marc Mar- quez, who has struggled with his Honda this year, was down in fourth and Yamaha's Val- entino Rossi, who leads the standings with 118 points from six races, continued his poor qualif ying form and was down in seventh place. In a frenetic qualif ying ses- sion during which the Barce- lona MotoGP record fell several times, Espargaro set the fastest time with just three minutes of the session remaining when he beat the record previously set by Jorge Lorenzo. Vinales slotted in behind his team-mate in the dying mo- ments as Suzuki wrapped up the first two places on a top- class grid for the first time since Kevin Schwantz and Alex Bar- ros did it at Jerez in May 1993 and took its first MotoGP pole since Chris Vermeulen's effort at Assen in June 2007. Lorenzo wound up in third ahead of Honda's Marc Mar- quez, who had earlier been the first man to break the Barcelona lap record midway through the session before he was bumped down the order. Both Lorenzo and Marquez tried to topple the Suzuki pair but could not improve on their final laps. Andrea Dovizioso moved qui- etly to fifth and will start ahead of Dani Pedrosa, who was ear- lier forced to come through Q1 having failed to make the cut for the top 10 fastest times after third practice. Championship leader Valen- tino Rossi will start from the third row of the grid once again after finishing seventh, along- side British pair Bradley Smith and Cal Crutchlow. Crutchlow had run as high as third early on in the session, but was unable to improve his position as he lost control of his LCR Honda and crashed moments before the chequered f lag came out. Another rider to fall towards the end of qualif ying was Pol Espargaro. The Tech 3 rider crashed at Turn 1 and will line up 11th. Yonny Hernandez rounded out the top 10 on his Pramac Ducati and Andrea Iannone - who came through Q1 along- side Pedrosa - will start from 12th place. Karel Abraham missed the session having suffered a dis- located toe in a heav y accident during practice four. Aleix Espargaro A 15-strong contingent from the Malta University Sports Club will take part at the Universiades in South Korea