Spain's Iker Martinez, left, and Xabier Fernandez celebrate after winning the silver medal for the 49er men sailing competition.
Spain's Iker Martinez, left, and Xabier Fernandez celebrate after winning the silver medal for the 49er men sailing competition.

Second Spanish 49er protest rejected



QINGDAO // A second protest by the Spanish 49er silver medallists Iker Martinez and Xavier Fernandez against the gold medal awarded to Denmark's Jonas Warrer and Martin Kirketerp Ibsen was rejected today. "We have upheld our original decision," the chairman of the jury David Tillett said. "We do not believe we made any errors." A protest by the race committee and Spain was rejected by an international jury yesterday, a day after Denmark took gold after an extraordinary medal race in which Warrer and Ibsen sailed in a boat borrowed from the Croatian team after their mast snapped on the way to the start of the race.

The jury said that despite infringement of technical rules, it had decided not to impose penalties as the Danes had not gained an unfair advantage by swapping boats. Spain, along with Italy, filed a second appeal today. Italian brothers Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello finished fourth overall. The Danes were presented with their gold medals on Monday. At the medal winners' news conference Martinez told reporters he was "happy" to win silver and congratulated the Danish team.

Spain have the option of filing another appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) President Alejandro Blanco hinted to Spanish newspapers, before the result of the second protest was known, that they would fight all the way to get the result overturned. "This doesn't make any sense. The rules can't be broken and things like this shouldn't happen in the Olympic Games," he was quoted as saying.

"We believe that if we make a good case our exceptional sportsmen will get the gold again." Martinez and Fernandez won gold in Athens in 2004. *Reuters

Bareilly Ki Barfi
Directed by: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring: Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao
Three and a half stars

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

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F1 line ups in 2018

Mercedes-GP Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas; Ferrari Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen; Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen; Force India Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez; Renault Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr; Williams Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa / Robert Kubica / Paul di Resta; McLaren Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne; Toro Rosso TBA; Haas F1 Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; Sauber TBA

Info

What: 11th edition of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship

When: December 27-29, 2018

Confirmed: men: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Kevin Anderson, Dominic Thiem, Hyeon Chung, Karen Khachanov; women: Venus Williams

Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae, Virgin megastores or call 800 86 823

Our legal advisor

Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.

Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation. 

Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.