Category: Sports

Sports

Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei Breaks Marathon World Record in Chicago

A record that seemed untouchable for years fell in 2:14:04. The run whacked 81 seconds off the previous women’s mark. 

By Matthew Futterman and Talya Minsberg

This city lived up to its billing as host of America’s fastest major marathon on Sunday as Brigid Kosgei of Kenya set a women’s world record.

A day after Eliud Kipchoge broke the two-hour barrier for the 26.2-mile distance, albeit in an event that did not count as a world record, his countrywoman Kosgei shattered Paula Radcliffe’s world marathon record, which no woman had come close to in the past 16 years.

Continue reading “Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei Breaks Marathon World Record in Chicago” →
Advertisements
Sports

Israel Adesanya: ‘Once the Nigerians pull up … it’s gonna be over for a lot of years in the MMA world’

Inside the strong and growing bond between the top Nigerian fighters in UFC

BY DORIC SAM

Israel Adesanya had never met Sodiq Yusuff despite the fact that both fighters hail from Lagos, Nigeria. But Adesanya, who has lived in New Zealand since he was 11, had the good fortune of making the four-hour trip to Australia in December to watch Fight Night 142: Adelaide, where Yusuff would be making his UFC debut.

Continue reading “Israel Adesanya: ‘Once the Nigerians pull up … it’s gonna be over for a lot of years in the MMA world’” →
Sports

Kenyan wins 2019 Montreal Marathon after race starts with 50-minute delay

Boniface Kongin of Kenya won the Montreal marathon on Sunday, finishing the 42-kilometre race in two hours, 15 minutes and 18 seconds. He beat Mohamed Aagab of Morocco (2:19:43) and fellow Kenyan Isaac Maiyo (2:23:17) to the finish line at Place des Arts.

Continue reading “Kenyan wins 2019 Montreal Marathon after race starts with 50-minute delay” →
Sports

These Seven Nigerians are part of the Minnesota vikings roster

By Lindsey Young

Seven players of Nigerian heritage are on the roster of NFLs Minnesota Viking. They include Ade Aruna, Bisi Johnson and Olisaemeka Udoh, Bené Benwikere, Kaare Vedvik, and brothers Ifeadi and Tito Odenigbo.

Continue reading “These Seven Nigerians are part of the Minnesota vikings roster” →
Sports

African boys win Jr NBA international pool, go on to global final

Basketball is progressing in Africa and so is the talent of the youth playing it, Refiloe Seiboko reports from Orlando, Florida

Somewhere in the United States, thousands and thousands of kilometres from home, a new generation of basketball players is being ushered in.

The Jr NBA Global Championship tournament which is underway for the second consecutive year in Orlando, Florida, is a youth basketball tournament for the top 13- and 14-year-old boys and girls from around the world. Three-hundred and sixteen teenagers have been competing and the semifinals began on Saturday.

Continue reading “African boys win Jr NBA international pool, go on to global final” →
Sports

Jackson State University students go to Ghana, gain understanding of ‘Sankofa’

By Donna Ditota

About three weeks ago, Bourama Sidibe and John Bol Ajak were driven to New York City by a Syracuse basketball team manager to secure a visa that would enable them to travel to Italy with their Orange teammates.

Sidibe, a native of the African nation of Mali, carries a 5-year student visa, which enables him to stay in the United States until its expiration date. But to travel anywhere outside the U.S., Sidibe needs to secure a visa. Ajak, who came to America by way of South Sudan and then Kenya, is governed by the immigration laws of South Sudan and his case apparently was complicated by his restrictive immigration status.

Continue reading “Jackson State University students go to Ghana, gain understanding of ‘Sankofa’” →
Athletics

Kenya’s Jepkosgei, Korio win 2019 Beach to Beacon

By  Liam Nee

CAJoyciline Jepkosgei and Alex Korio, both of Kenya, won 2019 TD Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race in Cape Elizabeth. Jepkosgei, 25, finished in 31:05, averaging about 5-minute miles. It’s the race’s fastest time since Mary Keitany’s 30:41 course record set in 2017.

Continue reading “Kenya’s Jepkosgei, Korio win 2019 Beach to Beacon” →
Sports

The NBA Is Pushing Into Africa. Can It Compete With Soccer?

By Sarah Maslin Nir

Even though he was 6-foot-6 by the time he was 14 years old, when an aspiring basketball star in Senegal picked up a ball for the first time, his friends were skeptical: In this soccer-mad region, why bother with a ball you dunk, when everyone else is kicking?

“My friends thought I was weird in the beginning,” said the young player, Mouhamed Lamine Mbaye, now 18 (and 6-foot-9), as he stood on the court of a new basketball academy, the first to be built by the NBA in West Africa.

Read more from source

Sports

Nigerian Efe Ajagba out-punches Demirezen

Remains undefeated after 11 fights, although this was a much harder test.

By Keith Idec

Ali Eren Demirezen demonstrated Saturday night that Efe Ajagba remains very much a work in progress. The previously unbeaten Turkish heavyweight gave Ajagba the toughest fight of the Nigerian knockout artist’s two-year pro career. Ajagba went the distance for the first time in 11 professional fights and had difficulty dealing with Demirezen’s pressure at times in a fight that seemed more competitive than two of the three scorecards suggested.

Continue reading “Nigerian Efe Ajagba out-punches Demirezen” →
Sports

Audible Football Camp to Launch Morocco’s First American Football Conference

By Celia Konstantellou 

Audible Football Camp, a non-profit US organization, will partner with Rabat Pirates, the Moroccan association of American football, to organize the first major American football conference in the country’s history.

The five-day conference will be held from July 12 to July 16, 2019 in Ben Slimane. It will be open to all American football lovers, including people who are already play the sport, as well as to anyone seeking to discover more about it.

Read more from source

Sports

‘The Mike Tyson of MMA’ Cameroonian Francis Ngannou destroys Junior dos Santos in 71-second TKO

By Brian Mazique 

Cameroonian heavyweight Francis Ngannou needed just 71 seconds to destroy former heavyweight champion and vaunted striker Junior dos Santos. A clubbing right hand from Ngannou resulted in a broken and visibly shifted nose for dos Santos. He promptly asked to be allowed to challenge for the UFC heavyweight Championship.

Here is a look at the finish:

Continue reading “‘The Mike Tyson of MMA’ Cameroonian Francis Ngannou destroys Junior dos Santos in 71-second TKO” →
Sports

Yorgan De Castro becomes first UFC fighter from Cape Verde

Following his win on Dana White’s Contender Series last week, Yorgan De Castro says it’s “very special” to be the first UFC fighter from Cape Verde, Africa.

De Castro joined a growing list of Africans on the UFC roster, including welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, interim titleholder Israel Adesanya, Francis Ngannou, Sodiq Yusuff, Kennedy Nzechukwu, and Don Madge.

By Nick Baldwin.

Continue reading “Yorgan De Castro becomes first UFC fighter from Cape Verde” →

Sports

Wizards to dangle $10M Per-Year Contract Offer to Lure Raptors’ Masai Ujiri to Washington

By Chris Bengel

The Toronto Raptors are fresh off of winning their first NBA title in franchise history after defeating the Golden State Warriors. However, with that type of success, a team’s assets are coveted by the rest of the league.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Washington Wizards are “preparing” a massive $10 million per year offer for Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri and are expected to seek permission from Toronto to speak with him about their vacancy in the coming days.

Continue reading “Wizards to dangle $10M Per-Year Contract Offer to Lure Raptors’ Masai Ujiri to Washington” →
Sports

Three Africans help Toronto Raptors Win NBA finals

There has been wild celebrations all over Canada as Toronto Raptors became the first team from the country to win the NBA finals. Three Africans were pivotal in helping Raptors beat Golden State Warriors in Game 6 to to win the championship for the first time in their history.

Raptors President, Masai Ujiri from Nigeria, Pascal Siakem from Cameroon and Serge Ibaka from Congo DR are among the African contingent that have brought joy to Canada.

Continue reading “Three Africans help Toronto Raptors Win NBA finals” →
Sports

Scott becomes MLB’s first South African pitcher

South African-born Tayler Scott made history over the weekend when he made his debut for the Seattle Mariners in Major League Baseball (MLB). Scott became the first South African pitcher to appear in an MLB game and the second South African to feature in the prestigious American league after Gift Ngoepe.

Continue reading “Scott becomes MLB’s first South African pitcher” →