Saudi taekwondo champion Dunya Abu-Talib wins IOC Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Award for Asia

LONDON: Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler has urged his side to “climb new peaks” as they seek to move into the Premier League’s top six.
The soaring Seagulls have been on an impressive run since being hammered 7-0 at Nottingham Forest on Feb. 1.
Brighton’s extra-time FA Cup victory at Newcastle last weekend was a fifth straight win in all competitions for the south coast side.
Hurzeler — at 32 the youngest permanent manager in Premier League history — has enjoyed an impressive first campaign at the club, who host Fulham on Saturday.
Marco Silva’s Fulham are ninth in the table, one place below Brighton as the race for European places hots up.
Hurzeler, two years younger than Brighton forward Danny Welbeck, has challenged his team to aim high.
The club’s best-ever Premier League finish was sixth, in the 2022/23 season, earning qualification for the Europa League.
“It is very important we focus on our journey and that we really believe in it,” Hurzeler said on Friday.
“Yesterday, I received a picture from a mountain. In a mountain you always have new peaks, new peaks you have to climb. That is the goal for us, we have to climb new peaks.”
He added: “Fulham will be a big, big challenge. They have played an unbelievable season, they play very compact as a team and have individual quality.”
Hurzeler said Japan winger Kaoru Mitoma would be available, having been forced off with cramp at Newcastle.

JEDDAH: Although a statement addition to the Roshn Saudi League in January, Unai Hernandez had to wait a little before making his debut.

Maybe that was to be expected. The Spanish starlet, a feature of FC Barcelona’s reserve side this season, only made the transition from teenager to 20-year-old man a month before he left his homeland for Saudi Arabia.

Born in Barcelona, his transfer from the Spanish giants to Jeddah’s Al-Ittihad represented the midfielder’s first taste of the professional game outside his own country.

However, a few weeks after he left La Liga for the RSL, Hernandez finally got the opportunity to show what he could do in Al-Ittihad’s home clash against Al-Okhdood last Sunday.

The young star was introduced at Alinma Stadium as a 76th-minute substitute, replacing Saudi winger Abdulrahman Al-Obud.

For Hernandez, it was worth the wait.

“I am very happy to make my debut in this great team,” he said after the 1-1 draw. “Since I arrived, I was really eager to play, and well, it has been a tough match where we lost these points and the victory at the end.

“But we can’t relax. And we have to try to win every possible match."

Despite his tender years, Hernandez already sounds like a seasoned pro. It maybe helps that he is surrounded in the Al-Ittihad squad by some of football’s most decorated stars.

Among them are Karim Benzema, the club captain and winner of the 2022 Ballon d’Or. Then there is N’Golo Kante, a FIFA World Cup winner. And Fabinho, who, like Benzema, is a European champion who has won the UEFA Champions League.

As they have already followed the same path from Europe to Saudi Arabia, they will be crucial to helping Hernandez settle swiftly.

“I feel very comfortable with my new teammates,” Hernandez said. “The fans also support me a lot, and that makes me happy and gives me a lot of confidence when I go out for those minutes.”

Although he missed Thursday night’s 1-1 draw with Al-Qadsiah, he has said before that he hopes to play a role, no matter how big or small, in Al-Ittihad’s intended march to the title. With such a talented group of teammates, no doubt he is biding his time as he waits for his next chance to shine.