Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/682623
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 MAY 2016 Sport 54 RUGBY OLYMPICS International Clubs Rugby tournament at Marsa BRYAN CORLETT AS the Rugby season ends throughout Europe, Clubs head out to fields afar to celebrate a good year or to say goodbye to team mates who are moving on to pastures new,the end of sea- son tour is a great way to finish the year. Five Clubs lined up for the tournament that ran from mid- day through to 6pm on pitch 3 with a rotor of Maltese Referees on call to adjudicate. The young French team from ESSEC had already made their presence felt while training up in Mdina during the week. The Business College had also sent a Women's team as well to play a Malta Barbarians Ladies team(more on that later). Falcons Rugby Club from Qrendi was the only local team in the competition, this young club fared well and played some running Rugby that helped them beat a couple of the foreign teams. The young French players were fit and fast, but the heat of the day did wear them down to a walking pace at times, but they had the playing numbers to sub- stitute at will with fresh legs. Tarleton RUFC from the UK had some wise old veteran play- ers who pushed the Referees to their limit with back chat and who were constantly trying to usurp the Referees decisions. Horsham RUFC also from the UK played an attractive run- ning Rugby, which matched the Harlequins style shirts they were wearing, especially the game against the French who played with f lair, Horsham lifted the speed of their game and won with style. Buckinghamshire playing in Irish green also had some tal- ented players in their ranks, but could not match the speed nor expansive game that the other teams played, in one particular game they lost three players to the sin bin, as they lost their dis- cipline. But the games that had the men on their feet, were the two 7s games between the Malta Ladies Barbarians team and the Women students from ESSEC College of Business. In the first game Malta ran away with it to the tune of 40 points to nil, outclassing a side that were physically bigger. The Malta Barbarians moved the students from side to side put- ting their speedsters into space with Amanda Cassar and Jaque- line Richards scoring two and three tries respectively. Sairita Cassar had a strong game once fending off two players to run in a try from 40 metres out. Kim- berly Riolo another player with "wheels" ran in a couple of tries on the day. The French were surprised with the intensity of the game, but in talking with them they said they usually play on half size pitches, so I could understand why they struggled with the wide game played by Barbarians. Malta La- dies won the first game 40 to nil. In the second game played lat- er in the afternoon, the French contested more intensely and did manage to score a converted try and held the Malta ladies to 7 all at half time. But Malta ac- celerated away in the second half with tries to Riolo(2) Jaqueline Richards and Deborah Cutajar, Riolo's second try was a length of the field run from behind her own tryline blitzing the defence with pure speed out wide, to the cheers of all the men on the side- line. Winning the game 22 to 7. On the Men's side Horsham ran out the winners on the day, going through all their games unde- feated, playing a stylish 15 man game. A lot of fun in the sun to end the season. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBERT PORTELLI RUSSIA is financing an addi- tional testing programme for its track and field athletes who may compete in the Rio Olym- pics, a step to prove commit- ment to cleaning up the sport amid widespread doping al- legations, the country's sports ministry said. Russia is at the heart of the biggest doping scandal in sport and its track and field athletes are suspended as a result of a probe into doping accusations, putting their participation in this year's Olympics in doubt. The ministry said late on Friday that Russian athletes who may be competing in Rio would now be tested at least three times by the world ath- letics governing body IAAF, in addition to all the anti-doping tests they may have to undergo in the normal course of their preparations. All samples will be collected by foreign companies and ana- lysed in laboratories accred- ited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), while plan- ning of those tests will be car- ried out by UKAD, Britain's anti-doping agency, the minis- try said. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Rus- sia supports investigations into doping allegations, adding that he hoped the focus on his country was not politically- motivated. Russia says financing extra doping tests for athletes going to Rio China's world No.1 Liu misses out on Rio singles spot WOMEN'S world number one Liu Shiwen will not take part in the ta- ble tennis singles at the Rio Olym- pics after failing to secure one of China's two spots in the competi- tion, the International Table Tennis Federation has announced. The Chinese Table Tennis As- sociation have instead handed the slots to tried and tested Olympic campaigners in reigning champion Li Xiaoxia and world champion Ding Ning, the London silver med- allist. Liu will, however, get the chance to make her Olympic debut in Bra- zil when she teams up with Li and Ding to defend China's team title after London gold medallist Guo Ye was dropped from the national team due to a spine injury. Zhang Jike will have the chance to defend his singles title in Rio after being picked alongside world number one Ma Long in the men's competition. The 28-year-old world number four was preferred to Xu Xin and Fan Zhendong for the Aug. 6-17 tournament despite being below them in the world rankings. World number three Xu will join Ma and Zhang to defend the team title but teenager Fan, second in the world rankings, missed out on the chance to make his Olympic debut. World champion Ma missed out on a singles berth at the 2012 Olym- pics after a brief dip in his ranking, despite having dominated the game for much of the previous two years. China has swept all four table tennis tournaments at the last two Olympic Games. Kuala Lumpur