search

Qatar sealed their place in the AFC U-23 Asian Cup knockout stage in dramatic fashion with a last-gasp 2-1 victory against Jordan at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium on Thursday. Both teams looked set to share the spoils in their second Group A encounter until Mohamed al-Mannai headed in a free-kick deep in the 13th minute of added time, with VAR confirming the goal after a review to see Qatar become the first side to qualify from the group stage.Determined to claim their first win after opening their campaign with a stalemate against Australia, Jordan put their hosts under pressure from the start and Baker Kalbouneh had a sight of goal after just 90 seconds, only to see his low shot saved.Sief Darwish then had a shot blocked before Moustafa Mashal registered Qatar’s first effort on target on 21 minutes when he met Khaled Ali’s pass with a header but it was easily held by Ahmad Juaidi.While the Jordanians saw more of the ball, they lacked a cutting edge upfront and were made to pay in the 40th minute as they fell behind. Saifeldeen Hassan started a flowing move from left-back and after surging into the centre of the pitch, he picked out Ali on the right. The winger, in turn, released an overlapping Abdulla al-Yazidi and the right-back’s attempted cross ended up in the far corner instead to break the deadlock.Conceding the goal only served to spur on Jordan and they were rewarded for a bright start to the second half when, following a VAR review, Amer Jamous was adjudged to have been fouled in the box.Aref Haitham stepped up and coolly sent Yousef Abdullah to the right and the penalty into the bottom left corner for the equaliser in the 52nd minute.The home side tried to hit back immediately two minutes later and Juaidi had to be alert to tip over a fierce strike from distance by Hassan. A good opportunity was spurned by Haitham late on after he raced clear down the left but that miss was to be severely punished as the game moved into added time.Substitutes Jassem al-Sharshani and al-Mannai combined to devastating effect after Qatar earned a free-kick on the right, with the former’s inviting delivery met by a thumping header from his team-mate to clinch all three points as Jordan were left stunned.Teguh goal helps Indonesiastun AustraliaKomang Teguh’s first half header earned tournament debutants Indonesia a 1-0 win over Australia at Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium in Group A to reignite his nation’s challenge for a place in the quarter-finals.Ernando Ari Sutaryadi saved Mohamed Toure’s 25th minute penalty before Komang’s close range header 20 minutes later allowed Shin Tae-yong’s team to pick up their first win of the campaign after an opening 2-0 loss against hosts Qatar.The result leaves Australia on one point from two games having drawn with Jordan in their first match of the competition and Tony Vidmar’s side needs to win against the Qataris in the final round of group matches on Sunday to have any chance of progressing.Playing in front of a raucous band of Indonesian fans, Shin’s side threatened as early as the second minute, Jeam Kelly’s rising shot deflected wide after Rafael Struick’s pull back had found the Persik forward with time to take aim.As the half entered the final minute the Indonesians took the lead. Witan Sulaeman’s corner was nodded by Kelly to Nathan Tjoe-A-On on the edge of the area and his mishit shot was headed beyond Beach by Komang from six yards out.Ernando denied Toure again seven minutes after the interval with a stop low to his right while Jacob Italiano’s attempt was deflected wide for a corner as the Australians steadily increased the pressure. Toure thumped his shot over the bar from the edge of the area with 15 minutes remaining and Vidmar introduced FIFA World Cup forward Garang Kuol in a late effort to find a way through, but the Indonesians held on.

Tang Chia-Hung of Chinese Taipei topped the qualification in men’s Horizontal Bar at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Doha at the Women’s Sports Committee Hall on Thursday.The 27-year-old has been in great form recently after he picked up gold medals in Cairo and Cottbus events with his new routine. Chia-Hung will be hoping he can repeat the same performance in the final, which will give him one of the two tickets on offer for the Paris Olympic Games.The Doha event the final Olympic qualification tournament for apparatus specialists and will determine 20 newly-minted Olympians heading for Paris 2024. The two gymnasts with the highest points score on each apparatus capture a ticket to the Games, with the best three rankings points scores counting toward the final total. A maximum of one place per apparatus can be secured by the same nation.Known as the ‘King of Cat for his rendition of the Yamawaki move, which involves a backward giant swing, a half turn, a front flip over the bar, and a regrasp, Chia-Hung tore his Achilles tendon in February 2023 during a simulated competition.The injury prevented him from competing for about seven months, causing him to miss the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Belgium and the Hangzhou Asian Games. But Chia-Hung has recovered and is back to his best and looks set to book his berth for Paris games.Lithuania’s Tokyo 2020 Olympian Robert Tvorogal also kept his Olympic chances alive as made it to the final after finishing sixth in the qualifications on Thursday.Kazakstan’s Milad Karimi, one of the favourites to win a medal here, accumulated 14.466 points to finish second behind Chia-Hung. Cyrpus’ Marios Georgiou, Arthur Barajas (Colombia), Isaac Nunez (Mexico), 2019 World champion Arthur Mariano (Brazil) and compatriot Caio Souza also made it to the eight-man finals.In the parallel bars, Uzbekistan’s Rasulijon Abdurakhimov and local favourite and former world champion Carlos Yulo of the Philippines qualified for the final along with Karim and Yuan-Hsi Hung of Chinese Taipei.Brazilian duo Diogo Soares and Caio Souza and Italian duo Lay Gianni and Nocolo Mozzato also secured berths among the top-eight finishers.Armenia’s Artur Davtyan and Yulo made it to the finals in the vault event. Davtyan had a perfect landing on both his turns to accumulate 15.116 points, followed by Yulo’s 14.966.Others to qualify were Audrys Nin Reyes (Dominica), James Bacueti (Australia), Noccolo Vannucchi (Italy), Chen Chun NG (Malaysia), Aurel Benovic (Croatia) and Yahor Sharamkou. Both Benovic and Bacueti are still in the race for an Olympic berth.

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti was beaming with pride after his team dug deep for long periods on Wednesday to keep Manchester City at bay and squeeze past them on penalties into the semi-finals of the Champions League.“I love it when a team gives their all and sacrifices everything in big games like this one,” he said after a pulsating two-legged quarter-final that ended 4-4 on aggregate before the Spanish side triumphed 4-3 in a penalty shootout.It was sweet revenge for Real Madrid, who were thrashed 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium in their exit from the Champions League at the semi-final stage last year. “I believe that there was no other way to beat Manchester City here. I’m proud of what we did,” added Ancelotti, who paced nervously up and down the touchline during the shootout until defender Antonio Rudiger scored the winning kick.“By the time the penalty shootout came, we were totally convinced we’d go through. You work, sacrifice and win however you can. We defended really, really well tonight. This was about survival. Madrid is a club based on always fighting to stay in situations where there seems to be no way out – but we always find a way.”Ancelotti said his counterpart, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, had been generous in defeat despite the frustration of seeing his team dominate possession but fail to win in Wednesday’s second leg 1-1 draw. “Pep Guardiola is a gentleman, always has been. He congratulated us, wished us good luck and that’s what a real gent does,” he said.After taking an early lead, Ancelotti’s men were pressed back throughout the game, conceding late on but then hanging on through extra time until the penalties. “We started well and scored in the beginning but the game changed, they pressured us and our plan was not to defend that deep but it’s a big game and you need to fight. We have seen Real Madrid do this many times before, a club that brings something out that nobody thought we would have.”No regrets, says GuardiolaCity manager Guardiola was gracious in defeat. “Congratulations to Real Madrid, they defend so deep, with incredible solidarity,” Guardiola said. “We did everything. I have no regrets about what we’ve done. Defensively, offensively, we played exceptional in all departments, in everything, and unfortunately we couldn’t win, so that’s what it is.”After capturing their first treble – Champions League, FA Cup and Premier League titles – last season, they appeared on track to become the first team in history to claim the three titles in back-to-back years. But despite completely dominating Madrid, firing 33 shots to Madrid’s eight and taking 18 corners to just one for the visitors, Guardiola’s men could not finish them off.Kevin De Bruyne scored in the 76th minute to cancel out Rodrygo’s 12th-minute goal, but both the Belgian and City’s goal-scoring machine Erling Haaland squandered several scoring chances as the tie finished 1-1 on the night and 4-4 on aggregate.Victory looked in City’s hands when Luka Modric failed to convert Madrid’s opening spot kick. But momentum swung when Bernardo Silva shot straight into keeper Andriy Lunin’s hands, leaving Madrid’s Nacho and Antonio Ruediger to seal the win.City now switch their focus to their quest for another FA Cup title tomorrow when they clash with Chelsea in the semi-finals at Wembley.Guardiola’s team also have a two-point lead at the top of the Premier League with six games remaining.

Atalanta progressed to the Europa League semi-finals despite losing 1-0 to Liverpool on Thursday as they triumphed 3-1 on aggregate to move one step closer to a first ever European final for the Serie A side.Atalanta had stunned the Premier League club 3-0 in the first leg of their quarter-final last week at Anfield, levelling another huge blow to Liverpool’s dreams of a fairytale ending in manager Juergen Klopp’s final season. Liverpool got off to a quick start in Italy as talisman Mohamed Salah scored from the penalty spot in the seventh minute, fuelling hope that a remarkable comeback was in the making.But while Klopp’s men looked little like the shaky side who were steamrolled by Atalanta at Anfield, Gian Piero Gasperini’s team held on in what the manager had called the biggest game in the team’s history to earn a semi-final place.Villa edge Lille on penalties to reach Conference League semisAston Villa kept their bid for a first European trophy in over 40 years alive on Thursday after beating Lille 4-3 on penalties following Matty Cash’s late goal that forced extra time. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez saved from Nabil Bentaleb and Benjamin Andre in the shootout to send Villa through after being whistled loudly by a crowd irked by his celebrations after his starring role in Argentina’s 2022 World Cup final win over France.There was a strange moment during the shootout when he was shown a second yellow card for more antics, but rules dictate that any bookings are reset before penalties commence. Unai Emery’s side won the first leg 2-1 last week, but Lille drew level in the tie when Yusuf Yazici steered home 15 minutes into the return clash in northern France.Lille captain Andre glanced in a corner midway through the second half to leave the Ligue 1 club heading towards their first major European semi-final, but a defensive mishap in the closing minutes proved costly.Cash hammered the ball home to bring Villa even at 3-3 on aggregate with three minutes left after Lille goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier spilled a looping cross following a collision with teammate Bentaleb. Chevalier redeemed himself with a sensational save from Douglas Luiz in extra time, reacting sharply to scoop the Brazilian’s header over the crossbar after parrying a powerful shot from Leon Bailey.But Martinez had the final say in the shootout after Chevalier saved Bailey’s attempt, with Villa moving on to face Olympiakos or Fenerbahce in the last four. Last season’s runners-up Fiorentina sealed a return to the semi-finals with a 2-0 win over 10-man Viktoria Plzen after extra time.Cadu was sent off in the second half for a foul on the edge of the Plzen box and Fiorentina made the extra man count when Nico Gonzalez struck in the 92nd minute.Skipper Cristiano Biraghi added a second on 108 minutes as the Italians progressed 2-0 on aggregate.

Fayq Al Shahania, in the colours of HE Sheikha Iman bint Mohamed bin Khalifa al-Thani, extended his productive 2023/24 campaign with a second win in a row at the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club on Thursday. Saddled by trainer Rudy Nerbonne, the five-year-old landed the Musheireb Cup, a 1500m Class 2 Purebred Arabian Handicap (85-105), comfortably by one and a half lengths to complete a double on the card for jockey Soufiane Saadi.Fayq Al Shahania had won the Aziz Purebred Arabian Handicap Cup during the HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Khalifa Al Thani Trophy, 35th Al Rayyan Meeting of the season, on March 14. Saadi earlier in the day, rode Wathnan Racing’s Arman to victory in the Local Purebred Arabian Graduation Plate for four-year-old+ contest. The Alban de Mieulle-trained grey colt finished three and half length ahead of Hassan bin Ali Hassan al-Matwi’s Burkan Zakhir to emerge winner.Abdulaziz Jassim al-Boenain, Al Uqda Complex Manager, crowned the winners.In the penultimate race of the day, Injaaz Stud-owned and Zuhair Mohsen-trained Kerindia won the Thoroughbred Fillies & Mares Plate contest for the three-year-old+. Jockey Faleh Bughanaim rode the four-year-old bay filly to finish ahead of Yousuf Mubarak YA al-Kuwari’s Miracle Nation to win the 1400m race.Zuhair Mohsen-trained Classic Order, in the colours of Hamad bin Abdulrahman bin Hamad al-Attiya, won the Thoroughbred Handicap (75-95) for four-year-old+. Wathnan Racing’s Just Bring It finished second.Al Bida Racing’s Taymoor Al Shahania won the Purebred Arabian Maiden Plate for three-year-olds. The Mohamed Khaled Elahmed–trained bay colt comprehensively defeated Umm Al Shukhut Farm’s Deauville.

Australia’s Andrew Ikstrums, Olivier van Lelyveld of the Netherlands and Englishman E Calum Fitzgerald shared a joint one-shot lead in the opening round of the 2024 WAGR Qatar Open Amateur Golf Championship at the Doha Golf Club on Thursday.On a challenging day, the trio returned with cards of two-over-par 74 followed by Pakistan’s Omar Khalid Hussain, who is one stroke behind the leaders and will look to stay in the hunt for the title to be decided on Friday.Trailing the leaders by two shots, Bahrain’s Yousif Ali Janahi, Scotland’s Paul Stewart, Canada’s Rob Skinner and England’s Chris Hughes are also in contention for the title after the first round.Qatar’s Saleh al-Kaabi, who was not at his best on Thursday, shot five-over par 77 as he followed the quartet.Around 100 golfers representing 30 countries are taking part in the tournament, which is in its 38th edition. The winner of the tournament will seal the coveted berth for the prestigious Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.The event is one of the oldest golf competitions having launched back in 1983. It attracts the world’s best amateur golfers who showcase their skills at the picturesque venue.Welshman Joe Jones, who won the last year’s title, is not taking part in the 2024 edition.

Mohamed Dhafi al-Marri astride Destiny 297 clinched the Small Tour class during the 12th round of the Longines Hathab at Qatar Equestrian Federation’s outdoor arena on Thursday. Al-Marri clocked 55.16 secs to win ahead of Faris Saad al-Qahtani (Hidiene) and Mohamed Abdulla Juma (Fito R), who registered times of 55.46 and 56.44 respectively. Also on Thursday, Hadi Mansour al-Shahwani, who teamed up with Coco Chanel SB, triumphed in the 80cm Future Rider category, while Sultan Jassim al-Suwaidi rode Tabra Blue to win in the 60m Future Rider event. Hathab Deputy Director Faisal al-Kahla honoured the winners.

Charles Leclerc said on Thursday that Ferrari will be closer to Red Bull at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, but he still expects hisfight to be for the minor podium places.Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez secured a dominant one-two in Japan two weeks ago with the Dutch triple world champion more than 10 seconds ahead of his Mexican teammate.The Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was next, with teammate Leclerc trailing home in fourth, almost half a minute behind the winner.“I think in the race we will be (closer), yes,” Leclerc told reporters in Shanghai. “But let’s see. It’s been a very long time since we drove here.”Formula One is back in China for the first time in five years with a packed programme including a Saturday sprint race.The Shanghai International Circuit has not been raced upon by the current generation of F1 cars and appears to have had the newly laid tarmac given a coat of paint to improve grip, raising a few eyebrows in the paddock.“I think the track was painted or there’s something strange on it so we will have to see how our car behaves with that and what the main limitations are in the race,” said Monaco’s Leclerc.The pecking order was very different at the last Chinese Grand Prix, in April 2019, when the race was won easily by Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes one-two.This time there will be just 60 minutes of free practice today morning ahead of sprint qualifying.Leclerc has been in the top four in all four races this season, but is keen to nail qualifying better – especially important on a sprint race weekend.“I still think Red Bull will have the upper hand this weekend,” said Leclerc, who is third in the standings, 18 points behind Verstappen but only five behind Perez.“We will just have to focus on ourselves because it can be very easy, as we have seen especially in qualifying in Suzuka, to not do a good job on the Saturday and then you don’t go from fourth to fifth, you go from fourth to eighth.“Sprint weekend with two qualifyings to extract the maximum out of the car – it’s going to be very important.”

Casper Ruud racked up a tour-leading 26th win of the season on Thursday by reaching the Barcelona Open quarter-finals.The world number six from Norway eased past Jordan Thompson of Australia 6-1, 6-4 to move clear of Jannik Sinner for most wins in 2024.Ruud, the runner-up to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Monte Carlo Masters last weekend, raced into a 5-0 lead against Thompson.He then clinched a break in the seventh game of the second set before moving onto victory in just 73 minutes.Ruud will next face Matteo Arnaldi after the Italian world number 40 defeated Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 6-0.Seventh-ranked Tsitsipas clinched a 7-5, 6-3 triumph against Roberto Carballes Baena as the Greek extended his winning streak to eight matches.“It’s good to be on a streak like this,” said Tsitsipas, whose title run in Monte Carlo was his first of this season.“It tends to get tougher, the more you proceed. To maintain it is the most difficult part, so to have that number so far is good. It adds confidence to me, I really like to be on a streak like this.”Britain’s Cameron Norrie defeated Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-3 to make the last eight and record his 200th tour-level win.“It’s a big tournament with a lot of historic past champions, so I want to try and win this tournament,” said Norrie of the Spanish clay-court event.On Wednesday, Spanish veteran Bautista Agut had won his 400th career match by seeing off Andrea Vavassori in the second round.“I know that on Thursday Roberto got 400, so I’m halfway to his. To get 400 wins is impressive and I’ll take that, a 200th win against a top player,” added Norrie.The Briton next faces Argentine 13th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry for a place in the semi-finals. With Bautista Agut and Carballes Baena defeated, the tournament has no Spanish players left with 12-time winner Rafael Nadal having exited on Wednesday.Australian fourth seed Alex de Minaur, the man who knocked out Nadal, was himself defeated on Thursday, losing to world number 36 Arthur Fils of France 7-5, 6-2.

Max Verstappen again publicly committed his long-term future to Red Bull on Thursday, saying that as long as he was happy there was “no reason to leave”.There has been speculation the triple world champion could move to Mercedes to replace Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton next year after Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was accused of inappropriate conduct towards a woman colleague.Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing ahead of the season-opener in Bahrain but the off-track scandal rumbled on for weeks. The Dutchman Verstappen is signed with Red Bull until 2028 but suggested earlier in the season that he would consider leaving if the team parted company with long-time mentor Helmut Marko.Verstappen’s father Jos has claimed that Red Bull faced being “torn apart” if Horner remained in position. However, the paddock chatter in Shanghai this week has been firmly back on racing, something that pleased Verstappen.“After 2021 I signed a long deal with the team. The only thing I said from the beginning was that I wanted to have a quiet, peaceful environment,” Verstappen told reporters.“Lately we have been talking about the car, so I am very happy about that already.“That’s also how it should be. And of course as long as I am happy with the team, there has never been a reason to leave.”Verstappen is chasing a fourth victory in five races in 2024 but admitted the weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix will be an unknown quantity. The Formula One circus is back at the Shanghai International Circuit for the first time in five years with a sprint race tomorrow.“With the new cars of course there will be a little bit of the unknown,” said Verstappen. “Of course it is the same for everyone.”There is only one practice session on Friday before sprint qualifying, so Verstappen said it was important for the team to get the set-up nailed early. “We need to have a good FP1 where we don’t have to fine-tune too much on the car. That will really help,” he said.“Time will tell, I’m not too worried about it.”Hamilton doesn’t need ‘vindicating’ over Ferrari switchSeven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday he was shutting out the noise surrounding his move to Ferrari next year, saying he didn’t need “vindicating” that it was right for him.The Formula One veteran, 39, shocked Formula One in February when he said he would leave Mercedes at the end of 2024 after 12 years to join the Italian team.Hamilton was asked on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix if Ferrari’s strong start to the season – they have been consistently closest to the dominant Red Bulls – meant the decision to switch had been justified.“I don’t feel like I need my decision vindicating,” Hamilton told reporters.“I know what was right for me, and that hasn’t changed since the moment that I made the decision. There’s not been a moment where I questioned it. And I’m not swayed by other people’s comments.”Hamilton said he had to endure criticism before when he left McLaren to join Mercedes in 2012.“Even today, there’s people continuing to talk shit and it will continue on for the rest of the year,” he said.

Former England Test batsman Raman Subba Row has died at the age of 92, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced on Thursday.At the time of his death, he was England’s oldest living men’s Test cricketer.Subba Row played first-class cricket for Cambridge University and then joined the powerful Surrey side of the 1950s, which won seven successive County Championships.Unable to secure a permanent first-team place at The Oval, he moved to Northamptonshire, where he was appointed captain in 1958.In that year, Subba Row won the first of his 13 England caps and in 1961 he scored a century in both his first and last Tests against Australia.In all, he scored 984 Test runs at an average of over 46.After retiring to pursue a business career, he was the manager of England’s tour of India and Sri Lanka in 1981.Subba Row also served five years as chairman of the Test and County Cricket Board, the forerunner to the ECB, from 1985.He later became one of the International Cricket Council’s first match referees, overseeing 160 fixtures.ICC general manager of cricket Wasim Khan said: “It is sad to hear of the passing of Raman and I would like to extend deepest condolences on behalf of everyone at the ICC.“Raman was a respected cricketer of his era, who went on to become the chair of the Test and County Cricket Board. He was also one of the earliest ICC match referees, officiating very ably in different parts of the world.”ECB chairman Richard Thompson said: “We are extremely saddened to hear of Raman’s passing.“He was a great cricket man and his remarkable cricket career saw success both on and off the field – as a player, official, administrator and chair of both Surrey and the Test and County Cricket Board.”

Two-time world champion Kento Momota said on Thursday he is retiring from international badminton aged 29, admitting he had never been the same since a serious car crash four years ago.Japan’s Momota was once badminton’s undisputed king, winning 11 titles in 2019 and losing just six of the 73 matches he played that year. But in January 2020 the vehicle taking him to Kuala Lumpur airport crashed hours after he won the Malaysia Masters.The driver was killed and Momota needed surgery to repair a fractured eye socket.When he returned after a year out Momota suffered double vision and failed to regain the scintillating form that had taken him to world number one, although he did win two more titles.“At the time of the accident I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think to myself, ‘Why me?’,” Momota told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday.Now ranked 52 and having missed out on a place at the Paris Olympics, Momota will retire from Japan’s national team after playing at the Thomas and Uber Cup in China later this month. After that he will play only in domestic competitions in Japan and not on badminton’s World Tour.“There were a lot of tough times after that traffic accident,” Momota added.“I tried to get back to the way I used to play through trial and error, but there was a gap between my feelings and my body.“That continued and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to a level where I was competing with the world’s best.”Smiling broadly throughout his 45-minute press conference but pausing often to choose the right words, Momota said he had no regrets about retiring from top-level badminton.“There was a lot of hardship and it wore me down, but I didn’t want to blame the tough times on the accident,” he added.“I wanted to bounce back from it and that attitude along with the support of people around me at least allowed me to get a foothold.”Viktor Axelsen, who supplanted Momota as the best men’s player in the world, said: “It has been an absolute pleasure sharing the court with you.”The reigning number one wrote on X: “I feel lucky to have been able to compete with a player of your calibre.”Momota had targeted this summer’s Paris Olympics but his national ranking was not good enough to earn him a spot in Japan’s team.He was banned from selection for the 2016 Rio Olympics for gambling at an illegal casino.He lost in the opening round of the Tokyo Games in 2021 in a huge shock which he described as “nothing but a frustrating memory”. “I don’t think I was fully prepared for it but I had dreamed of playing at the Olympics for a long time so in that sense it was a good experience,” he said.Momota urged his Japan teammates to learn from his mistakes and keep calm when they step out onto the Olympic court in Paris this summer.“I really felt how difficult it was to do the things you do normally, so don’t think about the result, just give it your all so that you have no regrets,” he said.