The 2020 Tokyo Olympics men's gold, silver and bronze medallists are set to headline the World Triathlon Championship Finals on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi on November 23-26.
Norway's Kristian Blummenfelt, Briton Alex Yee and New Zealander Hayden Wilde will all take part in the event in the UAE next month.
Joining the trio are the Olympic women’s gold and silver medallists Flora Duffy, of Bermuda, and Briton Georgia Taylor-Brown.
Blummenfelt, 28, made sporting history by becoming the first male triathlete to win the Olympic and World titles in the same year.
A powerful biker, his relentless running surges steered him to his most successful season in 2021, starting with a brilliant win at WTCS Yokohama and ending in Championship Finals glory in Edmonton – with gold in Tokyo in between.
Yee, 24, silver medallist behind Blummenfelt and winner of gold in the Mixed Relay in Tokyo, arrives in good form having added the triathlon title at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in the summer.
Wilde, 25, won three stages of the World Triathlon Championship Series and arrives as the World No 1.
He has skipped the World Triathlon Series Cagliari and Bermuda races and instead will arrive in Abu Dhabi three weeks early to put in a solid training block and adapt to the weather in the capital.
“The last few years have been incredible and winning an Olympic medal is a unique feeling few have the privilege of experiencing,” Wilde said in a statement.
“Behind this achievement was a long journey, and countless hours of training but any lover of this sport will understand that triathlon is well worth it.
“This year I took home silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, so what better way to end the year being crowned World Champ in Abu Dhabi?
“The competition is going to be fierce – especially from Alex. We’ve enjoyed some great battles on the racecourse so I can’t wait to go head-to-head again!
“I’ve chosen to prepare for the World Championships by coming to Abu Dhabi for a month prior to the race – I’ve heard that the training facilities are amazing, so I’m hoping it’ll be the perfect lead-up for me to take home a world title.”
Duffy, who created history by becoming the first Bermudian Olympic gold medallist, insisted she is motivated and excited by the potential battle for the world title in Abu Dhabi.
“For that kind of Grand Final to materialise, I first need a good score in Bermuda,” she said.
“Georgia more than deserves her top spot, and I’m the underdog at this point hoping to make it exciting.
“This season has been a strange and long one with many ups and downs – post Olympics and some Covid challenges, some injury and middle-distance goals.
“I have fond memories from last year in Abu Dhabi, which I can draw on, and expect the atmosphere to be even bigger this year with more triathletes competing over the weekend.”
Also confirmed for the event is American Allysa Seely, a paratriathlon gold medallist at the 2016 and 2020 Paralympics Games.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Rain Management
Year started: 2017
Based: Bahrain
Employees: 100-120
Amount raised: $2.5m from BitMex Ventures and Blockwater. Another $6m raised from MEVP, Coinbase, Vision Ventures, CMT, Jimco and DIFC Fintech Fund
The years Ramadan fell in May
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
Shooting Ghosts: A U.S. Marine, a Combat Photographer, and Their Journey Back from War by Thomas J. Brennan and Finbarr O’Reilly
