23/03/2026

SPORTS MONDAY | MAR 23, 2026

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Top-prize target Amir Daniel aiming for Commonwealth Games gold after historic bronze

RESULTS & STANDINGS

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Brighton 2 (Welbeck 14, 56) Liverpool 1 (Kerkez 30) , Fulham 3 (King 67, Wilson 73, Jimenez 90+5-pen) Burnley 1 (Flemming 60) , Everton 3 (Beto 33, 62, Ndiaye 76) Chel sea 0, Leeds 0 Brentford 0. P W D L F A Pts Arsenal 31 21 7 3 61 22 70 Man City 30 18 7 5 60 28 61 Man Utd 31 15 10 6 56 43 55 Aston Villa 30 15 6 9 40 37 51 Liverpool 31 14 7 10 50 42 49 Chelsea 31 13 9 9 53 38 48 Brentford 31 13 7 11 46 42 46 Everton 31 13 7 11 37 35 46 Fulham 31 13 5 13 43 44 44 Brighton 31 11 10 10 41 37 43 Newcastle 30 12 6 12 43 43 42 Bournemouth 31 9 15 7 46 48 42 Sunderland 30 10 10 10 30 35 40 Crystal Palace 30 10 9 11 33 35 39 Leeds 31 7 12 12 37 48 33 Tottenham 30 7 9 14 40 47 30 Nottm Forest 30 7 8 15 28 43 29 West Ham 30 7 8 15 36 55 29 Burnley 31 4 8 19 33 61 20 Wolves 31 3 8 20 24 54 17 CHAMPIONSHIP: Blackburn 0 Middles brough 0, Derby County 1 Birmingham 0, Ipswich 1 Millwall 1, Bristol City 0 West Bromwich Albion 1, Charlton Athletic 0 Norwich 1, Hull City 3 Sheffield Wednesday 1, Queens Park Rangers 6 Portsmouth 1, Sheffield United 1 Wrex ham 2, Southampton 2 Oxford United 0, Watford 0 Leicester 0, Swansea 0 Coven 39 20 6 13 62 57 66 Southampton 39 17 12 10 63 48 63 LA LIGA: Elche 2 (Mir 62, Morente 71) Mallorca 1 (Torre 58) , Espanyol 1 (Fernandez 68) Getafe 2 (Duarte 45+3, Arambarri 45+7) , Levante 4 (Espi 4, 25, Losada 52, Romero 90+3) Real Oviedo 2 (Chaira 44, Vinas 45+3-pen) , Osasuna 1 (Budimir 80) Girona 0, Sevilla 0 Valencia 2 (Duro 38, Ramazani 45+5) . TOP 6 P W D L F A Pts Barcelona 28 23 1 4 77 28 70 Real Madrid 28 21 3 4 60 24 66 Villarreal 29 18 4 7 54 34 58 Atletico 28 17 6 5 47 25 57 Real Betis 28 11 11 6 43 35 44 Celta Vigo 28 10 11 7 38 31 41 SERIE A: Juventus 1 (Yidiz 14) Sassuolo 1 (Pinamonti 52) , Parma 0 Cremonese 2 (Maleh 54, Vandeputte 68) , AC Milan 3 (Pavlovic 37, Rabiot 54, Fofana 55) Torino 2 (Simeone 44, Vlasic 83-pen) . TOP 6 P W D L F A Pts Inter Milan 29 23 2 5 65 23 68 AC Milan 30 18 9 3 46 23 63 Napoli 30 19 5 6 46 30 62 Como 29 15 9 5 48 22 54 Juventus 30 15 9 6 52 29 54 Roma 29 16 3 10 39 23 51 BUNDESLIGA: Borussia Dortmund 3 Hamburg 2, Heidenheim 3 Bayer Leverkusen 3, Wolfsburg 0 Werder Bremen 1, Bayern Munich 4 Union Berlin 0, Cologne 3 Borussia Moenchenglad bach 3. TOP 6 P W D L F A Pts B. Munich 27 22 4 1 97 25 70 Dortmund 27 18 7 2 58 28 61 RB Leipzig 27 15 5 7 53 35 50 Stuttgart 26 15 5 6 51 34 50 Hoffenheim 27 15 5 7 54 39 50 Leverkusen 27 13 7 7 52 36 46 FRENCH LIGUE 1: Toulouse 1 Lorient 0, Auxerre 3 Brest 0, Nice 0 Paris Saint Germain 4. TOP 6 P W D L F A Pts Paris SG 26 19 3 4 58 22 60 Lens 27 19 2 6 54 24 59 Marseille 26 15 4 7 53 33 49 Lyon 26 14 5 7 40 27 47 Lille 26 13 5 8 40 33 44 Monaco 26 13 4 9 45 37 43 try 3. TOP 6 P W D L F A Pts 39 24 8 7 81 40 80 39 20 11 8 59 37 71 38 19 12 7 67 39 69 39 20 9 10 53 44 69 Coventry Mid’boro Ipswich Millwall Hull

A FTER making history as the country’s first judoka to win a medal at the 2022 Birmingham Common wealth Games, Amir Daniel Abdul Majeed (pic) is now setting a bolder target for the next edition in Glasgow. Amir Daniel, who delivered a bronze medal in the men’s 73kg cate gory in England, is determined to script a new chapter in the nation’s sporting history by upgrading that medal to gold at the quadrennial Games scheduled from July 23 to Aug 2 in Scotland this year. The Penang-born athlete, who moved up to the men’s 81kg category two years ago, described his mission as a continuation of his winning momentum after ending the coun try’s 44-year wait for a judo gold medal at the 2025 Thailand SEA Games. Despite being ham

Commonwealth the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) stu dent said he is excited to once again experience a high-level competitive atmosphere similar to what he encountered in Birmingham. “I hope to gain a similar experi ence to Birmingham in Glasgow. The athletes’ village inn Birmingham was great, with all types of equipment and facilities available, the venue and food were also top-notch,” he said. Meanwhile, he acknowledged the need for two to three international tournaments to help him strengthen his preparations ahead of the 2026 Commonwealth Games. As such, he is planning to com pete in a tournament in Vietnam this May, followed by another in Europe in July, before heading to Glasgow. Amir Daniel said he will Games,

“I am not worried about the injury because it is part and parcel of an athlete’s life, it’s just about how you adapt to it,” he told Bernama . However, Amir Daniel is

returning from Thailand, the 21-year old’s spirit remains undi minished, stressing

that his recovery process is on the right track. “Currently, I would say I am in a much better shape com pared to last month. I am still recovering, but recently I have started spar ring.

aware that the path to the top of the podium in Glasgow will not be easy, especially with the pres ence of Canadian ace Francois Gauthier Drapeau, who is currently ranked fifth in the world in the men’s 81kg category. On his second appearance at t h e

also train with several judokas from Japan in Penang to fur ther enhance his physical condition and strength. – Bernama

pered by meniscus and medial collateral liga ment (MCL) injuries to his left leg upon

Specific medal quest for Games A NEW approach in setting the national contin gent’s medal target for the 2027 SEA Games in Malaysia is being studied, said Youth and Sports Minister Dr Mohammed Taufiq Johari.

Atlanta, the United States, yesterday. Muhammad Azeem, alongside Alejandro Cardenas, Ian Myers and Tyler Davis, finished the race in 39.75 seconds. Second place went to the Lipscomb University quartet of Emery Eckert, Joel Nimoh, Wessel Vandernest and Justin Davis, who clocked 41.93s. No third-place finisher was recorded for the event after the remaining five teams were classified as did not finish (DNF) and did not start (DNS). This marks Muhammad Azeem’s second medal at the meet after he secured silver in the 100m on Saturday. Kegler Timmy in finals NATIONAL bowler Timmy Tan produced an impressive performance to advance to the stepladder finals of the PBA Indiana Classic. Competing at David Small’s Pro Bowl West, the 31 year-old finished third in the qualifying round after knocking down 8,689 pins over 36 games. Boog Krol topped the qualifying round with 8,765 pins, followed by Marshall Kent in second with 8,741 pins. Ryan Barnes placed fourth with 8,678 pins and EJ Tackettin fifth on 8,661 pins. Except for Timmy, all the other finalists are from the United States. “Sepak takraw is currently receiving a very great response at the grassroots level. Apart from main taining the excellence of existing athletes, it is important for the association to unearth new talent. We do not want a period of vacancy for replace ments,” he said. – Bernama Therefore, Dr Mohammed Taufiq said the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) plans to hold engagement sessions involving various stakehold ers including national sports associations, athletes and sports experts to determine medal targets before the relevant decisions are made. In recent years, the national contingent has taken a more cautious approach by only setting a target for the total number of medals rather than a specific gold medal target for the sports games it participates in. Meanwhile, Dr Mohammed Taufiq sees sepak takraw as a sport that has the potential to contrib ute to the country’s success at the 2027 SEA Games if the current momentum of success can be main tained. He said it is hoped the excellent achievements of the national sepak takraw squad at the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand are translated into greater suc cess when Malaysia becomes the host. “That is our wish so that what we achieved at the Thailand 2025 SEA Games becomes a catalyst for the 2027 SEA Games. We do not want the success to stop there,” he said.

344/26

22/03/2026

4260 1368 1493

Hakim Danish third on grid NATIONAL Moto3 rider Muhammad Hakim Danish Ramli delivered an impressive performance in the Brazilian Grand Prix (GP) qualifying session to secure third on the grid for the overnight main race. The Aeon Credit-MT Helmets-MSi rider clocked 1:26.448s in Qualifying 2 (Q2) at the Autodromo Internacional de Goiania circuit. LevelUp MTA rider Joel Esteban of Spain set the fastest time and will start from pole position after recording 1:26.241s. Argentina’s Valentin Perrone of Red Bull KTM Tech3 finished second in qualifying with a time of 1:26.447s. The result puts Hakim Danish in conten tion for his first podium of the season after opening his 2026 campaign with an 18th-place finish at the Thailand GP earlier this month. Azeem wins 4X100 for AU NATIONAL sprinter Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi helped Auburn University’s 4x100m quartet clinch gold at the Yellow Jacket Invitational in He said the proposal to set a specific gold medal target as opposed to the total number of medals used previously is still under discussion. He said the move needed to be thoroughly examined to ensure that any targets announced later does not put undue pressure on athletes, espe cially in terms of morale and momentum ahead of the biennial sports games. “Actually, this matter is still under discussion, not decided yet. I am just throwing out the idea so that we look at a new approach in announcing the gold medal target or the overall medal target,” he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama . “We need more research and scrutiny so that it does not affect the athletes, either in terms of morale or their spirit.” Dr Mohammed Taufiq said the new approach also takes into account Malaysia as the host of the 34th edition of the Games, thus taking on a bigger challenge compared to previous editions. He said that as the host, the target is no longer just to be in the top three, but rather needs to be directed towards emerging as the overall cham pion. “To become the champion, we definitely need to target the most gold medals,” he said. BRIEFS

5299 6871 1110 1504 8041

3791 4772 8545 9181 2690

6990 8657 3537 6960 7780

2105 2332 1417 4773 5007

RM3,135,039.47

4260 + 1493 1368 + 1493 1493 + 1368

4260 + 1368 1368 + 4260 1493 + 4260

RM223,570.06

6 7 121728303135

1 3

RM12,094,249.17

RM126,419.35

6 0 6 8 9 3 60689

06893

6068

6893

606

893

60

93

68

02

All jackpot amounts stated above are for this Draw. Subject to T&Cs of the Scheme. Please visit to www.magnum4d.my for more info. THE BIGGER PLAY IS TO PLAY RESPONSIBLY