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Tusk: Poland Will Seek to Host Olympics in 2040 or 2044

FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Beach Volleyball - Men's Preliminary Phase - Pool C - Poland vs France (Bryl/Losiak vs Bassereau/Lyneel) - Eiffel Tower Stadium, Paris, France - August 01, 2024. The Eiffel Tower and the Olympic rings are illuminated at the end of the game. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Beach Volleyball - Men's Preliminary Phase - Pool C - Poland vs France (Bryl/Losiak vs Bassereau/Lyneel) - Eiffel Tower Stadium, Paris, France - August 01, 2024. The Eiffel Tower and the Olympic rings are illuminated at the end of the game. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo
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Tusk: Poland Will Seek to Host Olympics in 2040 or 2044

FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Beach Volleyball - Men's Preliminary Phase - Pool C - Poland vs France (Bryl/Losiak vs Bassereau/Lyneel) - Eiffel Tower Stadium, Paris, France - August 01, 2024. The Eiffel Tower and the Olympic rings are illuminated at the end of the game. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Beach Volleyball - Men's Preliminary Phase - Pool C - Poland vs France (Bryl/Losiak vs Bassereau/Lyneel) - Eiffel Tower Stadium, Paris, France - August 01, 2024. The Eiffel Tower and the Olympic rings are illuminated at the end of the game. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo

Poland will seek to host the Olympic Games in 2040 or 2044, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday.
Tusk said it was not yet clear whether the goal was realistic for Poland. However, according to Reuters, he said he believed he could do a lot to make it happen.
"Taking into account the preliminary decisions and declaration of the International Olympic Committee, we can talk about 2040 or 2044," Tusk told reporters at a news conference on modernizing soccer stadiums.
Poland with Ukraine co-hosted Euro football tournament in 2012 and last summer hosted the multi-sports European Games, but has never hosted the Olympic Games.
The previous Polish government had said it would bid to hold the Olympics in summer 2036.
Los Angeles will host the 2028 summer Games and Brisbane, Australia, is preparing to stage the 2032 Olympics.
Egypt has also said it will bid to host 2036 and 2040 summer Olympics.
Potential host nations' willingness to take on the Olympic Games was in doubt after questions about scandals, costs and legacy. Tokyo's 2020 Games were largely spectator-less because of COVID.
But the Games that ended earlier this month in Paris have been credited with rejuvenating the Olympic brand.

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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)

Local driver Yazeed Al Rajhi took advantage of a miserable stage by South Africa's Henk Lategan to grab the Dakar Rally lead in the Saudi Arabia desert on Tuesday.

Lategan led the Dakar for the past week, but errors and bad luck on the 357-kilometer ninth stage from Riyadh south-east to Haradh turned his overall lead of more than five minutes over Al Rajhi into a potentially decisive seven-minute deficit.

The rally has effectively two days and 400 kilometers remaining in the dunes of the Empty Quarter. The last day, Friday, is a ceremonial drive to the finish line in Shubaytah.

Al Rajhi, like Lategan, has never won the Dakar. This is the Saudi's 11th attempt with a best finish of third in 2022. He'd been lying second since last Wednesday. The title race appears to be between only them.

Third-placed Mattias Ekström of Sweden and five-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar were about 25 minutes behind.

“It's a bit of disaster to be honest,” Lategan said. “About 13 kilometers in we got lost. We thought we missed the waypoint but we actually had it. When we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat. So, it was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it's not the end of the world, we're still in it.”

Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings were 11th on the stage and Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk third.

“We did a great job like we planned to,” Al Rajhi said. “We pushed well. We enjoyed it, that's the most important. I hope everything goes well the next two or three days to win the Dakar ... I will fight to win. It won't be easy.”

Al-Attiyah won the stage ahead of Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius in under three hours to rise to one minute off third place overall.

His 49th car stage win, and first in the Dakar for Romanian manufacturer Dacia, lifted him to only one behind the record jointly held by Finland's Ari Vatanen and France's Stephane Peterhansel.

Sanders cushions motorbike lead Australian rider Daniel Sanders bolstered his motorbike lead to nearly 15 minutes when closest challenger, Spain's Tosha Schareina, crashed early.

The back wheel of Schareina's Honda hit a rock and sent him flying only 20 kilometers in. He resumed racing but the nearly four minutes he finished behind Sanders dropped him in the general standings.

Schareina's teammate Adrien van Beveren of France remained third, more than 20 minutes behind, while Sanders' KTM teammate Luciano Benavides of Argentina strengthened his position in fourth place by winning his second successive stage.

Benavides, thanks to collecting time bonuses of nearly five minutes by opening the way, beat Van Beveren by nearly two minutes, and repeated his win into Haradh two years ago. Sanders was third after leading until about 70 kilometers from the end.

“I only got lost a couple of times ... and lost a little bit of time,” Sanders said. “I could have pushed and made some more (time) but it's not too bad.”