Samantha Mewis scored goals in both halves and the US women’s national team began their World Cup send-off series with a 3-0 victory over South Africa on Sunday.
Continue reading “US women defeat South Africa in World Cup warm-up”
Boniface Kongin of Kenya and Bizuwork Getahu Kasaya of Ethiopia won the 26.2-mile Pittsburgh Marathon with times of 2 hours, 10 minutes, 34 seconds and 2:36:29, respectively.
Continue reading “Kenyan, Ethiopian runners win at Pittsburgh Marathon”
By Colin Hass-Hill
Ebenezer Dowuona, a 6-foot-10 four-star big man and 2020 Ohio State target, wakes up in Georgia and picks up his phone around 7 a.m. to see and hear from his mother, who still lives in Ghana.
He hasn’t been back to his native country or his hometown of Accra since he and his brother, Emmanuel, left Africa for the United States in 2014 with a legal guardian who had a connection to the family.
Continue reading “Ebenezer Dowuona left Ghana to pursue basketball dreams, has become Ohio State target”
By Keith Idec
Nigerian-born Efe Ajagba didn’t waste any time getting rid of Michael Wallisch on Saturday night.
The heavyweight knockout artist continuously hammered Wallisch with thudding shots in their brief bout. Referee Tony Weeks had seen enough after 4 ½ minutes and stopped their scheduled 10-rounder at 1:40 of the second round on the Robert Easter Jr.-Rances Barthelemy undercard.
Continue reading “Nigerian-born Efe Ajagba Drops, Stops Michael Wallisch in Two Rounds”
By Caryn Tate
The undefeated heavyweight prospect is a man of many talents but boxing is still paramount as he returns to the ring Saturday night on Showtime.
Houston, Texas is a far cry from Ughelli, a town in southwestern Nigeria. No one knows that better than heavyweight prospect Efe “The One and Only” Ajagba (9-0, 8 KOs).
Ajagba is set to the return to the ring this Saturday, April 27, against Michael Wallisch (19-1, 12 KOs) at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The bout will open the televised portion of the Robert Easter Jr.-Rances Barthelemy main event on Showtime (10:00p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT).
Continue reading “Inside the Mind of Efe Ajagba”
By Jimmy Golen
The two-time Boston Marathon champion turned onto Boylston Street with a sliver of a lead, leaning in front of two others with the finish line in sight.
But one of them was Lawrence Cherono, the fastest man in the field.
And he needed every bit of his speed.
Cherono outkicked Lelisa Desisa and passed him just steps away from the tape, winning the 123rd Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 7 minutes 57 seconds on Monday to claim his first major victory.
Continue reading “Kenya’s Cherono Wins Boston Marathon in Sprint to Tape”
Few gave him a chance, but Nigerian-born Israel Adesanya has beaten Kelvin Gastelum to claim the Interim UFC Middleweight Championship by unanimous decision.
Continue reading “Nigerian-born Israel Adesanya wins UFC championship in Atlanta”
By Samuel Ahmadu
Thomas Dennerby is untroubled by Nigeriawomen’s setback following a 2-1 defeat to Canada in a friendly at Pinatar Arena.
Continue reading “Nigeria remains undeterred by Canada defeat”
Ghanaian-American wrestler Kofi Kingston made history at WWE’s biggest annual calendar event Wrestlemania 35 which took place at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday.
Squaring off against Daniel Bryan in a very feisty, entertaining and roller-coaster encounter, the veteran came up tops after finishing off Bryan with his signature Trouble in Paradise move to clinch the highly coveted WWE Championship.
Continue reading “Ghanaians celebrate Kofi Kingstons, WWE victory”
By Garry Brown
Leakey Kipkosgei, who came to American International College from Kenya, has had quite a career as a long-distance runner on coach Leo Mayo’s track and field team.
As a junior in 2018, he placed third in the steeplechase at the NCAA Division II nationals, and made the All-America first team.
Prior to that, he received male track athlete of the year honors after winning the 1,500 and steeplechase in the Northeast-10 meet.
Continue reading “Long journey for American International College runner from Kenya”
By Tom Reynolds BBC Sport
“Apparently if you want to book it you have to say: ‘The Efe Obada room please.’ That’s really cool.
“If someone’s in there, I’ll just kick them out…”
Efe Obada is joking about the meeting room we are about to enter at the NFL’s UK headquarters in central London.
Continue reading “Efe Obada: The Nigerian NFL star abandoned on London’s streets at age of 10”
Milwaukee Bucks All-Star opens up about his African upbringing
By Marc J. Spears | The Undefeated
Continue reading “Giannis Antetokounmpo: ‘The Greek Freak’ wants to go back to his Nigerian roots”
John Korir thought he was going to join his brother as a winner of the Los Angeles Marathon. But the Kenyan saw his chances of victory on Sunday pass him by within view of the finish line.
Elisha Barno of Kenya passed his countryman with 150 meters to go for the closest finish in the race’s 34-year history. Barno — who won the race for the second time in three years — crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 46 seconds and beat Korir by seven seconds.
Continue reading “Barno of Kenya, Merachi of Ethiopia win Los Angeles Marathon”
Giannis Antetokounmpo is the Milwaukee Bucks forward who seized the NBA by the scruff of the neck since joining in 2014. He was voted Most Valuable Player in 2019 and has featured in the All Star teams. But not many people are aware of his African heritage. Antetokounmpo was born in Greece to Nigerian immigrants, and he has been the driving force of a Milwaukee Bucks team that holds the league’s best record.
By Yomi Kazeem | Quartz Africa
Continue reading “Giannis Antetokounmpo: The best player in the NBA is “Nigerian” but Africans have no idea who he is”
United States named up to five Kenyans in its team to Aarhus, Denmark as the battle for World Cross Country Championship medals heats up.
The USA cross country champion and Rio Olympics 10,000 meters’ champion Shadrack Kipchirchir is in a 28-person star-studded team that will take part in the event in Aarhus, Denmark.
The Kenyan born runner will be flanked by 2018 US cross-country champion Leonard Korir, Hillary Bor, Stanley Kebenei and Emmanuel Bor. The senior men’s team will have only one US-born athlete in the name of Mason Ferlic.
Three of the five Kenyan athletes serve in the US Army with Emmanuel Bor and Leonard Korir are Sergeants while Hillary Bor is a Staff Sergent.
Continue reading “U.S. names five Kenyans in team for World Cross Country Championships”
By Mark Gleeson
When the new season of Major League Soccer kicks off at the weekend, all but three of the 24 teams in the north American league will have representation from Africa.
A total of 44 players are drawn from 19 different countries and do not include the players of African heritage who have gone on to play for either Canada or the United States at national team or junior level.
It is a significant representation for the continent whose numbers have been bolstered by several high profile signings.
Continue reading “Major League Soccer: African representation bolstered by new signings”
Kamaru Usman has become the first African fighter to win a Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) title.
He won the mixed-martial arts (MMA) bout against American Tyron Woodley.
The fighter, known as the “Nigerian Nightmare”, dominated the Las Vegas contest for the welterweight title.
The UFC is the biggest competition in MMA, where competitors combine boxing, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, wrestling and other disciplines while fighting in an octagonal cage.
Usman, 31, produced the performance of his career to dominate long-reigning welterweight champion Woodley.
He extended his winning streak to 14 and maintained his unbeaten record in the UFC.
Continue reading ““Nigerian nightmare,” Kamaru Usman, becomes first African UFC champion”
By Andy Greder | St. Paul Pioneer Press
Word is starting to spread across the Big Ten basketball scene this winter about Daniel Oturu. He’s making people notice, on and off the court. The Gophers basketball team’s 6-foot-10 freshman center from Woodbury, Minn., and Cretin-Derham Hall made the short trip to the U as one of the nation’s top recruits in the 2018 class. And through 25 games, he has established himself as one of the most promising young players in the conference.
Continue reading “Before basketball in Woodbury, Oturus were playing ping pong in Nigeria”
Continue reading “NBA and FIBA announce plan to launch professional basketball league in Africa”
Continue reading “From Nigeria to Toledo, Richard Olekanma has lived quite a journey”
The National Basketball Association announced recently that 108 international players from a record-tying 42 countries and territories are on opening-night rosters for the 2018-19 season. Among them are 13 players from Africa.
This marks the fifth consecutive season that opening-night rosters feature at least 100 international players and that all 30 teams have at least one international player.
The record for international players (113) and record for countries and territories represented (42) were set at the start of the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons respectively.
The most-represented countries among the 108 international players on opening-night rosters are Canada (11 players), Australia (record nine players), France (nine players), Spain (seven players) and Germany (record six players), followed by Croatia, Serbia and Turkey (five players each).
Opening-night rosters also feature 13 African-born players and a record 65 European players.
The Dallas Mavericks have an NBA-high seven international players.
The Utah Jazz and L.A. Clippers each have six.
The Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Philadelphia 76ers and San Antonio Spurs field five each.
The NBA’s 73rd season started with a doubleheader as part of Kia NBA Tip-Off 2018.
In the opening game, the Celtics hosted the 76ers in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinals.
In the second game, the Thunder visited two-time defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors at 4:30.
A record 26 former Basketball Without Borders campers are on opening-night rosters, including Joel Embiid (76ers; Cameroon; BWB Africa 2011), Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets; Canada; BWB Global 2015), Dario Saric (76ers; Croatia; BWB Europe 2010) and Ayton (BWB Global 2016).
BWB is the NBA and FIBA’s global basketball development and community outreach programme that has seen more than 55 former campers drafted into the NBA or signed as free agents since 2001.
In addition to the 108 international players on 2018-19 opening-night rosters, there are six international players from five countries on “two-way” contracts.
For the second consecutive season, NBA teams can sign up to two two-way players to NBA contracts.
These contracts allow two-way players to be with their NBA parent team for up to 45 days, spending most of the season in the NBA G League.
International player milestones and storylines for the upcoming season:
· There are 11 international players on opening-night rosters who have been NBA All-Stars: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks; Greece), Luol Deng (Minnesota Timberwolves; South Sudan), Goran Dragic (Miami Heat; Slovenia), Embiid, Al Horford (Celtics; Dominican Republic), Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies; Spain), Pau Gasol (Spurs; Spain), Kyrie Irving (Celtics; Australia), Dirk Nowitzki (Mavericks; Germany), Tony Parker (Charlotte Hornets; France) and Kristaps Porzingis (Knicks; Latvia).
Nowitzki will set an NBA record for most seasons played with one team (21), breaking a tie with Kobe Bryant, who spent 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers. Nowitzki will tie the NBA record for most seasons played overall (21), joining Robert Parish, Kevin Willis, Kevin Garnett and the Atlanta Hawks’ Vince Carter, who is also beginning his 21st season.
As part of the NBA.com 2018-19 GM Survey, Antetokounmpo was voted the No. 1 player with whom general managers would want to start a franchise. Murray was voted the No. 1 player most likely to have a breakout season.
Pau Gasol needs 15 points to pass David Robinson (20,790 points) for 38th place on the all-time scoring list and 105 points to pass Bob Pettit (20,880 points) for 37th place on the all-time scoring list.
Tony Parker needs 306 points to pass Bob Lanier (19,248 points) for 50th place on the all-time scoring list.
Yuta Watanabe (two-way player for the Grizzlies; Japan; NBA Global Camp 2018) is seeking to become the second Japanese player to play in the NBA (Yuta Tabuse; Suns 2004-05).
