French veteran Stephane Peterhansel won the Dakar Rally for a record-extending 14th time on Friday, and his eighth in the car category, after a gruelling two weeks in the Saudi Arabian deserts.
The 55-year-old X-Raid Mini JCW driver, nicknamed "Mr Dakar" for his unprecedented success, first won the endurance event on a motorcycle in 1991 and switched to cars after five more wins on two wheels.
"It’s still the same emotion...there are no easy victories on the Dakar," said Peterhansel after a triumph that also made him the first driver to win the rally on three continents.
Argentine Kevin Benavides, riding a Honda, became the first South American to win the motorcycle title after the 12th and final stage that ended in Jeddah.
The annual rally started in 1978 as a race from Paris to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, but moved from Africa for safety reasons in 2009. It is now held entirely in Saudi Arabia after a stint in South America. This year was the 43rd staging of the event.
Friday's finish was clouded by news of the death of French amateur rider Pierre Cherpin who had been in an induced coma since he crashed on the seventh stage. The 52-year-old amateur was the first fatality of this year's event. Two motorcycle riders died on the Dakar last January.
Peterhansel, who had led since the second stage but won only one of the 12, finished 14 minutes and 51 seconds ahead of Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah, a three times Dakar winner, in a Toyota.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz, the defending champion and Peterhansel's team mate, won the final stage and finished third overall.
"The difference was probably that Nasser made the first mistake on the prologue. He won the prologue and I think it was his first mistake. He probably lost the Dakar because he wanted to win the prologue," said Peterhansel.
By winning the January 2 prologue, Al-Attiyah had to go first on stage one and open the road for those behind. He lost 12 minutes.
In the motorcycle class, 2020 champion Ricky Brabec of the United States won the final stage to finish runner-up to teammate Benavides and complete Honda's first one-two Dakar finish since 1987.
Britain's Sam Sunderland, the 2017 winner, finished third overall for KTM.
"On stage five I was worried, because I crashed so fast and hit my head and my ankle and felt a lot of pain. On that day I said maybe the Dakar is finished for me. But I continued pushing," said Benavides.
"I still have some pain, but at the moment I am more happy than in pain."
Manuel Andujar made it an Argentine double with victory in the quadbike class.
Russian Dmitry Sotnikov took his first title in the truck category, won by the Kamaz team for the fifth year in a row.
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Analysis
Maros Sefcovic is juggling multiple international trade agreement files, but his message was clear when he spoke to The National on Wednesday.
The EU-UAE bilateral trade deal will be finalised soon, he said. It is in everyone’s interests to do so. Both sides want to move quickly and are in alignment. He said the UAE is a very important partner for the EU. It’s full speed ahead - and with some lofty ambitions - on the road to a free trade agreement.
We also talked about US-EU tariffs. He answered that both sides need to talk more and more often, but he is prepared to defend Europe's position and said diplomacy should be a guiding principle through the current moment.
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last-16. first leg
Atletico Madrid v Juventus, midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports
