The circuit may not have won universal approval from racing purists but it was enough for now. The most expensive Formula One race in history could be classified a success.
Back in the paddock, an end-of-term mood prevailed as teams began packing up their equipment for the long winter months. Some headed off to Aerosmith’s open-air gig at the 16,000-capacity amphitheatre in the shadow of Yas Island’s colossal Ferrari Theme Park, while others donned their dinner jackets and headed for the uber-exclusive Amber Lounge party at the Hilton where VIP tables costing 15,000 euros bought you and your companions a never-ending supply of Cristal Champagne.

Button, for one, promised to go large. To be fair it sounded as if he could be celebrating more than just a world championship-winning season. In a jovial post-race press conference the two Red Bull drivers had teased him – and us – by claiming that the Briton is soon to marry his stunning lingerie-model girlfriend Jessica Michibata.

Button, squirming in his seat, only half denied it. “I’m not getting married this year,” he said when pressed. “So it’s a January wedding then, Jens?” Webber inquired mischievously. The red tops are on red alert.

Button, who will be 30 by the time the paddock re-convenes in Bahrain next March, took it all in good humour. His composure and maturity have been the hallmarks of his season and yesterday was no exception.

Genuinely thrilled but utterly grounded, remembering to thank his team, congratulate his opponents and credit the event organisers.

“Today was a bonus after winning title in Brazil,” he told us. “All round Abu Dhabi was a fantastic experience and I’m looking forward to coming back.”

He is not the only one. Whatever your take on this jaw-dropping £26 billion development, whatever your social conscience tells you about the morals of pumping billions of gallons of water onto an arid desert in order to fashion lush green golf courses, whatever your views on the Hermann Tilke-designed circuit from a racing perspective, this event has raised the bar in terms of what F1 can deliver and expect.

The sheer scale and ambition of Abu Dhabi’s vision has staggered and appalled in equal measure. Poor old Silverstone, which cannot afford to sign Bernie Ecclestone’s latest contract offer to stage the British Grand Prix. What can it do to compete with the petro-dollars available to the sport’s septuagenarian ringmaster in places such as this?

No doubt Qatar or Doha will soon dangle their own golden vision in front of him and demand a slice of the estimated 600-million global television audience.

Formula One is at a crossroads. Somehow Ecclestone must find a way to retain the cash-strapped historic circuits such as Silverstone, Spa and Hockenheim, thereby servicing motor racing’s core market with their annual fix of high-octane action, while at the same time opening the doors to new blood, which helps to make F1 the sporting leviathan it is.

Yet for all its off-track glitz and glamour, for all the A-list celebs that congregated on the grid pre-race, for all the magnificence of the Yas Hotel lighting up as day turned into night, the race itself was average at best.

Naomi Campbell, Jay Kay and Freddie Flintoff barely had time to locate their VIP seats before pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was out of the race.

The McLaren driver, whose car had set the pace all weekend, led until the first round of stops without ever looking entirely comfortable. He was relegated to second after Vettel pitted and retired on lap 20 with brake failure. “I was locking and locking and locking it was harder than ever to drive the car,” he reported. “It’s a shame as it felt so good these last couple of days.”

Hamilton’s retirement meant the Red Bulls had the race all to themselves until the last few laps when Button, who had passed his team mate Rubens Barrichello on the first lap after the Brazilian’s front wing splintered in a collision with Webber, came roaring back.

Diving inside and out, the world champion actually passed the Australian more than once thanks to his Mercedes engine’s grunt on the straights, but could not make it stick. “It was a good, clean fight,” Webber said.

All of which meant a fourth one-two of the season for the Milton Keynes-based team and second place in the championship for Vettel, surely a world champion-in-waiting.

It is all set up for a fascinating 2010. As the yachts in Yas Marina bobbed gently to the strains of Steven Tyler’s falsetto, and the balmy desert air was turned assorted shades of green, red and blue by the already-iconic Yas Hotel, the curtain was well and truly brought down on 2009.
Telegraph.co.uk

Williams reached the last four – along with Jelena Jankovic and Caroline Wozniacki – despite losing two of her three round-robin group matches.

The American was assured of joining sister Serena in the semi-finals when Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Elena Dementieva 6-3, 6-2 in the concluding Maroon Group match.

On Saturday, Serena will face Wozniacki while Venus tackles Jankovic for places in the final of the 4.55 million dollar tournament.

Under a complicated qualifying system, Venus pipped Dementieva for a last four place despite both players having a win apiece and with the Russian having defeated the American when they met on Tuesday.

Venus went through having won more sets.

In the White Group, Jankovic also made the last four, comfortably defeating US Open runner-up Wozniacki 6-2, 6-2.

Wozniacki then faced the possibility of being eliminated from the tournament despite having two wins.

However, the blonde Dane was saved when best friend Victoria Azarenka was forced to retire injured against Polish replacement player Agnieszka Radwanska.

Azarenka had led 6-4, 5-2 before becoming severely restricted by a right thigh and back injury which needed constant attention.

She was eventually forced to quit in floods of tears in an echo of Wozniacki’s injury-hit win over Vera Zvonareva the day before.

Radwanska, who had in turn replaced an injured Zvonareva and goes home with 200,000 dollars for her day’s work, was leading 4-1 in the final set when the Belarussian hobbled away.

“I feel so sorry for Victoria, because I know how she’s feeling. It’s never fun to pull out with an injury, especially in such a big tournament,” said Wozniacki.

“But I’m in the semi-finals and I’m happy about that. I’ve also been fighting on the court.”

Jankovic came into her match far fresher than 19-year-old Wozniacki, the world number four.

The 24-year-old Serbian had spent just 95 minutes in total on court in two matches after Dinara Safina withdrew through injury from her second tie after only 12 minutes.

In a dramatic contrast, Wozniacki needed 5hr 48min to see off Azarenka and then Zvonareva, only surviving the clash with the Russian after overcoming a crippling attack of cramps.

“I didn’t have anything left,” said Wozniacki, who again played with her left thigh tightly-strapped and appeared at her news conference with her leg and stomach iced.

“I couldn’t play like I wanted to. I had some pain in my stomach muscle, as well, so I couldn’t serve, but I feel I deserve to get to the semi-finals.”

For Jankovic, who made the season-ending championships as the eighth and last qualifier, it was a third win in three career meetings against the Dane.

“I wanted to reach the semi-finals and I didn’t want to get into long rallies with Caroline,” said Jankovic, who admitted she had let herself down in her opening defeat to Azarenka.

“I only arrived on Sunday from Moscow where it was very cold and here it’s very hot. It takes time to get used to the conditions. It was a bad day against Victoria.

“But in tournaments like these it’s important how you finish, not how you start.”
AFP

The organisers of the inaugural Asian Martial Arts Games will probably draw a sigh of relief as the unpopular event draws to a close on Sunday.
The competition ended yesterday and there is only the closing ceremony to come. The first – and last – edition of the unpopular games was marred by a lack of interest and allegations of unfair officiating. Organisers feared rows of empty seats at stadiums so they hired _ or forced _ students to attend events. However, most events attracted only a few diehard fans and seats were empty when students, reportedly offered 200 baht to cheer on competitors, did not show up. Yutthasak Sasiprabha, president of the National Olympic Committee of Thailand (Noct), said most of the sports were new to Thais so they had no interest in them. He said the public relations committee should have promoted the ‘exciting’ sports on the programme. ‘They should have done this three months before the games,’ he said. Tourism and Sports Ministry was the main organiser of the games with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) assigned to oversee public relations work.
Gen Yutthasak said the Noct or the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT), which are more familiar with promoting sporting events, should have done the job. TAT deputy governor Juthaporn Roenron-Asa said her agency should not be blamed for the lack of interest in the games. She said the games could not sell themselves _ unlike popular English Premier League clubs such as Liverpool. The government allocated about 270 million baht to organise the games and Mrs Juthaporn said her agency received 50 million baht to promote the event with 30 million baht spent on TV advertisements. ‘We could not do much to promote the games with only 20 million baht,’ she said. The games, which were originally scheduled for April, were postponed twice due to political and other problems and the PR team were forced to pay extra money to re-produce printed and TV advertisements, she said. Mrs Juthaporn said her team had done their best to promote the games and should not be held responsible for the lack of spectators.
The sports themselves may be to blame. I think a large number of people knew about the games. The question may be whether the sports themselves were worth watching in the eyes of the public,’ she said. We told people about the games, but we cannot force them to watch. This may be about the ‘brand’ which determines whether people want to watch a sporting event. For example, when Liverpool came here, fans went to see them because they are Liverpool and not because of any PR work.’ When Liverpool played a friendly with the Thai national team last month, Rajamangala National Stadium was near capacity. Former tourism and sports minister Weerasak Kowsurat said it was not surprising to see low attendances at the stadiums. ‘It is hard to attract a big crowd in sports which are not popular among local fans,’ said Mr Weerasak, who last year signed an agreement with the Olympic Council of Asia to stage the games. As for allegations of biased officiating which prompted several protests, concerned parties said there were often problems with sports which rely on the assessment of judges. Sometimes some people may not understand the rules and that is a problem,’ said Gen Yutthasak. The games will become extinct after they are merged with the Asian Indoor Games to become the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. The new event will be staged in Qatar in 2013.
(courtesy of Bangkok Post
Writer: KITTIPONG THONGSOMBAT