Category: Sports

Sports

Kenyan-born Olympic hopeful, Sally Kipyego is Training and waiting for a Fall Marathon

By SARAH LORGE BUTLER | RUNNERS WORLD

With her third-place finish at the American  Olympic Marathon Trials, Sally Kipyego secured her second trip to the Games. Her first was in 2012, when she was a citizen of Kenya, and she won the silver medal in the 10,000 meters. Kipyego, who was a nine-time NCAA champion at Texas Tech University, became an American citizen in 2017 after living for 15 years in the U.S.

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Sports

Kenyan Koranga set to write history in US Collegiate basketball

By PHILIP ONYANGO | Daily Nation

Felmas Koranga is set to become the first player from Kenya to play in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division One League in America after signing for Troy University. Koranga, was named the 2020 Women Basketball College Association (WBCA) Player of the Year in the just concluded National Junior Collegiate Athletics Association (NJCAA) League where she played for Tyler College.

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Sports

USA’s Olympic marathon team has three Africans

BY ERYN MATHEWSON | THE UNDEFEATED

Aliphine Tuliamuk, Sally Kipyego and Abdihakem “Abdi” Abdirahman, three of the six runners who make up the the U.S. Olympic marathon team All three runners are African-born American citizens and vary in how they identify: American, African American, Kenyan or Somali American, black. But they all agree on the title: marathoner.

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Sports

Azubuike and Dotson Named 2020 Wooden Award All-Americans

Nigerian-Born Kansas University senior Udoka Azubuike and sophomore Devon Dotson were each named to the 10-member 2020 Men’s Wooden Award All-American Team, the Los Angeles Athletics Club announced Wednesday. Additionally, Azubuike was named one of five finalists for the 2020 Wooden Award. The men’s and women’s Wooden Award All-American teams were selected by the Wooden Award National Advisory Board.

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Sports

Ex-Kenyan Hockey Star to Play for U.S. in Masters World Cup

Former Kenyan International Raquel Otieno hopes that her selection in the team that will represent United States of America in this year’s Masters Hockey World Cup will inspire upcoming players back home. Otieno, who holds a dual citizenship, made the squad that will compete in the World Cup which features women over 45 years.

The competition will take place in Cape Town, South Africa from September 19 to 28.

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Military, Sports

Kenyans in US Army miss 2020 Olympics marathon slots

By Hilary Kimuyu | Nairobi News

Five Kenyan-born athletes who took to the field in the United States to try and qualify to represent their new country at the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics, have failed to make the cut.

The five, 2LT Elkanah Kibet, SSG Augustus Maiyo, SGT Leonard Korir, SGT Samuel Kosgei and SPC Haron Lagat are all soldiers in the US Army.

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Sports

Nigerian Immigrant Eloquently Explains Why He’s the ‘Real American’ After Breaking MAGA UFC Fighter’s Jaw

Could this fight and subsequent interview have been the moment Donald Trump took a deep dislike of Nigerian immigrants?

Continue reading “Nigerian Immigrant Eloquently Explains Why He’s the ‘Real American’ After Breaking MAGA UFC Fighter’s Jaw” →
Sports

Basketball Africa League reveals teams; Hennessy activates NBA partnership

By Jabari Young

The Basketball Africa League is set after the 12 teams that will participate in the inaugural season next month were announced during the National Basketball Association’s 2020 All-Star Weekend in Chicago.

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Immigration, Sports

Austin’s basketball rebirth: Sudanese have given, received so much

By Pat Ruff

Moses Idris was asked what his life might look like once he’s finished high school.

Idris is a 6-feet-3, 190-pound Austin High School senior and starter on one of the top basketball programs in the state. Like the majority of the players on this team — three of them starters — Idris is of South Sudanese descent.

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Sports

Africans in Sports team visit Nigerian- American basketballer Victor Oladipo

The Africans in Sports team traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana to sit down with All-Star Nigerian basketball player Victor Oladipo to learn how his Nigerian roots impact his NBA Career.

Read from source Africans In Sports

Sports

Nigerian-American, Nneka Ogwumike, helps USA Women’s National Team Defeats Nigeria 76-71

Nigerian-American, Nneka Ogwumike, was voted Most Valuable Player after helping the USA women basket ball team secure a win over her native country.

It took nearly all 40 minutes for the 2020 USA Basketball Women’s National Team (3-0, 17-1) to earn its 76-71 victory over Nigeria (1-2) in the final game at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament on Sunday night in Belgrade, Serbia.

Continue reading “Nigerian-American, Nneka Ogwumike, helps USA Women’s National Team Defeats Nigeria 76-71” →
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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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’” →
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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Sports

The NBA’S New Africa League Builds On Strong Foundation

By Jack McCaslin

Popular culture, including sports, has long been one of America’s most powerful exports. Athletes, in turn, have been influential ambassadors, if not for the U.S. government, then for America writ large. Last week, for the first time in National Basketball Association (NBA) history, the Finals tipped off outside of the United States, in Toronto. While only about two hours away from the U.S. border at Niagara Falls, the NBA has set its sights much farther afield.

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Sports

Nigerian sends Canada’s only NBA team to its first final in history

By Francis Akhalbey

On Sunday, the Toronto Raptors made history when they beat the Milwaukee Bucks 100 – 94 to qualify for its first ever NBA playoff finals in its history.

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People, Sports

Raptors’ revelation: Cameroonian Pascal Siakam ‘has the spirit our game needs’

BY Marc J. Spears

Cameroon born Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, who was recently named a finalist for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, is focused on helping his team make its first Finals appearance in franchise history.

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Sports

Kenyan man, woman win Cleveland Marathon

 By: Courtney Shaw

A man and woman from Kenya have been crowned the winners of the Cleveland Marathon.

Edwin Kamaiyo, 33, made his American racing debut by overtaking two-time champion Philemon Terrer near the 24-mile mark and holding on for victory in the 42nd annual Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon. His winning time was 2:22:02.

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Sports

Chawonza wins prestigious US award

By Daniel Nhakaniso

RISING Zimbabwean athletics sensation Alfred Chawonza capped off a memorable season in style after being named as the winner of the prestigious Men of Essex Award during the 61st edition of the annual awards dinner at the Cedar Hill Golf & Country Club in Livingston, New Jersey in the United States last week.

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