The streets of Johannesburg and Cape Town will be painted pink on National Women’s Day (Thursday, 09 August 2018) when thousands of women #RunUnited at the Totalsports Women’s Race in support of PinkDrive.

The Totalsports Women’s Race supports PinkDrive, a Non-Profit Company (NPC) that is committed to improving breast cancer awareness, education, and providing and offering free services to the medically uninsured across South Africa.

The Rugby Cranes suffered a 55-6 defeat at Hage Geingob Stadium on Saturday during the Rugby Africa Gold Cup

KAMPALA, Uganda, June 18, 2018/ -- Uganda Rugby (http://UgandaRugby.com) Cranes head coach John Duncan remains optimistic despite his sides embarrassing defeat to Namibia in Windhoek in the opening game of the Africa Gold Cup.

Belgium and Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has agreed a long-term sponsorship deal with sportswear brand Puma.
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The deal ends the 25-year-old’s long search for a boot sponsor after his agreement with Nike expired more than a year ago.

Lukaku, who is Belgium’s all-time leading goal scorer, played the 2017/18 Premier League campaign without a boot sponsor, but spent most of the season sporting Adidas footwear. The deal with Puma kicks in immediately with this summer’s World Cup in Russia, which got underway on Thursday with an emphatic 5-0 win for the hosts against Saudi Arabia.

Springbok loosehead Tendai Mtawarira, popularly known as “Beast”, revealed how the president rang him to celebrate his 100th cap ahead of South Africa’s Test series win over England on Saturday.
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Mtawarira told journalists after his side’s 23-12 win in the second Test at the Free State Stadium that he initially challenged the telephone well-wisher – who turned out to be President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Morocco 2026 lost by a sizable margin of 69 votes last week, making the United bid, the North American trio of Canada, Mexico, and the US, the comfortable winner of a competition many had thought would be tight.
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Minister of Youth and Sports Rachid Talbi Alami announced that the country would recollect its forces and fighting spirit and bid again to win the hosting rights of the 2030 FIFA World Cup.

NEW YORK (Monday, June 18) – Major League Soccer today unveiled the adidas jersey that the best of MLS will wear on August 1 when they take on Italian giants Juventus in the 2018 MLS All-Star Game presented by Target. The game is at 7:30 p.m. ET at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and can be seen live on ESPN and Univision.
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The 2018 adidas MLS All-Star jersey is a bold restyling of an iconic design -- a modern interpretation that can be worn from the stadium to the street. The jersey features cream white as its central color, with red and blue chevrons on the sleeves.

SA Rugby has announced that the Eastern Province Rugby Union (EPRU) had fulfilled all the criteria required by the mother body to complete its transition out of administration.

The Executive Council of SA Rugby formally rescinded the imposition of sanctions under clause 28 of the SA Rugby constitution which suspends a member’s voting rights and places them under administration.
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EPRU’s affairs had been placed into the administrative control of SA Rugby – at the union’s invitation – in April 2016 to help regularise the union’s affairs as it faced a number of financial challenges.

​FIBA Central Board
MIES, Switzerland - FIBA's Central Board met for the first time in 2018 this past weekend (June 16-17) at the House of Basketball.
The meeting coincided with the fourth edition of the FIBA Open - a 3x3 festival staged annually outside the headquarters of world basketball's governing body - and meant that the board members got the opportunity to watch some exciting games as well as interact with the participants.

• First exclusive Olympic Heritage lifestyle apparel collection designed by Lacoste as part of a three-year licensing agreement.
• The Olympic Heritage collection is an essential element of the new IOC Global Licensing Strategy, developed in line with Olympic Agenda 2020.
• The launch of the Olympic Heritage collection designed by Lacoste coincides with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Olympic Games Grenoble 1968 and Mexico City 1968.

Today, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Lacoste have announced the launch of the first exclusive Olympic Heritage lifestyle apparel collection, developed by Lacoste as part of a new licensing agreement and in line with the IOC Global Licensing Strategy. 

The Gauteng Jaguars made it back-to-back triumphs in the Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League in a month when Netball South Africa’s 2023 World Cup bid has gained momentum.
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SASCOC President Gideon Sam recently endorsed the bringing of Netball’s biggest global tournament to South Africa and Africa for a first time, and the response from several cities has been equally supportive. All bids have to be formally handed in by the end of June, with New Zealand - bidding to host the World Cup for the fourth time - among South Africa’s strongest challengers.

This match was Peter De Villiers first competitive match since taking on the Zimbabwean job
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HARARE, Zimbabwe, June 18, 2018/ -- Zimbabwe taking on Morocco, the side recently promoted from Silver to Gold group was the opener for this year Africa Gold Cup. The Africa Gold Cup this year, 2018, is also working as Japan 2019 World Cup qualifiers. The match ended in a peculiar 23 all draw.

​With Mexico (and all soccer fans around the world) still buzzing about yesterday’s 1-0 win over defending World Cup champions Germany, head coach Juan Carlos Osorio heralded LAFC’s Carlos Vela play in the hard-fought match.  

“He was one of our best players today,” Osorio said. “If you remember, Carlos was the one who made the last pass for the shots we had, for the chances in the final third, and the idea with him was to give us everything for 60 minutes. He made a very big effort.”

Cricket Australia is pleased to announce a partnership with Woolworths which will see them play a major role in supporting the next generation of Australian cricketers via the junior pathways program.
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The partnership sees Woolworths secure naming rights of Australian Cricket’s highly anticipated and brand-new entry level program, Woolworths Cricket Blast, which is replacing the in2CRICKET and T20 Blast programs in schools and clubs from this season.

Cristiano Ronaldo has become a brand ambassador for SleepScore ahead of Portugal’s Fifa World Cup opener against Spain on Friday.

The move comes after SleepScore, which specialises in sleep measurement and improvement, launched a new mobile app which Ronaldo, 33, will now help to promote.
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Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, also has endorsement deals with the likes of Nike, Tag Heuer and Herbalife.

The Chief Executive of Ghandour Cosmetics, Mr. Tanal Ghandour has advised parents to encourage their wards to combine sports and education to make them smart and efficient in this modern era.
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Speaking to Yours Truly, he stressed that schools at all levels must also create the enabling conditions for pupils and students who are talented in sports to be awarded bursaries and scholarships to motivate them to do sports to an appreciable stage like it is done in the advanced countries.

​Lausanne, 19 June 2018 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has registered a request for arbitration filed by Caster Semenya against the International Association of Athletics Federations
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(IAAF) against the “IAAF Eligibility Regulations for Female Classification (Athletes with Differences of Sex Development)” that are due to come into effect on 1 November 2018.
 
Caster Semenya seeks a ruling from CAS to declare such regulations unlawful and to prevent them from being brought into force.

Lacoste has agreed a partnership with the International Olympic Committee that will result in the launch of the first exclusive Olympic Heritage lifestyle apparel collection.

The range will be developed by Lacoste as part of a three-year licensing agreement between the company and the IOC.
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The new men’s clothing and accessories line will include limited-edition collections to reflect the graphic legacy of the Olympics. Lacoste will celebrate the 50th anniversaries of the 1968 Grenoble winter Games and Mexico City summer Olympics for the first edition.

Fans have expressed their utmost love for the Bullring in response to a recent survey commissioned by the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium and conducted by Nielsen Sports.
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The much-loved sport venue first embarked on a knowledge and scientifically informed strategic approach in 2015 when a stadium experience survey revealed what fans loved, disliked and wanted to be improved. The most recent online survey was as such an update on this study to measure the progress that has been made and the Bullring has much reason to celebrate as it receives extremely positive feedback from cricket going fans.

​NAIROBI, Kenya, June 19, 2018/ -- Kenya start their Rugby Africa Gold Cup campaign with an away clash against Morocco on Saturday 23 June, exactly 11 years to the day since their only win over the Moroccans, a 23-16 result at Nairobi’s RFUEA Ground in 2007.

With this year’s competition also doubling up as the African qualifying round for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, the importance of starting on a winning note is not lost on the Simbas who are winless in their previous two visits to the North African country, losing 29-3 on 7 May 2005 and 29-11 on 11 July 2009.

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 19, 2018/ -- Kenya start their Rugby Africa Gold Cup campaign with an away clash against Morocco on Saturday 23 June, exactly 11 years to the day since their only win over the Moroccans, a 23-16 result at Nairobi’s RFUEA Ground in 2007.

With this year’s competition also doubling up as the African qualifying round for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, the importance of starting on a winning note is not lost on the Simbas who are winless in their previous two visits to the North African country, losing 29-3 on 7 May 2005 and 29-11 on 11 July 2009.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has informed the IAAF this morning (19 June 2018) that it has received a request for arbitration filed by Caster Semenya vs/ IAAF. We await further information and stand ready to defend the new regulations which were introduced to address the following issue in Athletics:
Sex differences in physical attributes such as muscle size and strength and circulating haemoglobin levels give male athletes an insurmountable competitive advantage over female athletes in sports where size, strength and power matter. These advantages (which translate, in athletics, to an average 10-12% performance difference across all disciplines) make competition between men and women as meaningless and unfair as an adult competing against a child or a heavyweight boxer competing against a flyweight. Only men would qualify for elite-level competition; the best female athlete would not come close to qualifying.

With one hundred days to go to the weekend-long festival of running, several highlights mark this year’s Sanlam Cape Town Marathon. The spring marathon, which takes place on 23 September in Cape Town, enters its third consecutive year as the continent’s only IAAF Gold Label event.
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The event is also doing good things in the area of sustainability. Recently it was awarded bronze in the Climate Change category at the 2018 Eco-Logic Awards, sponsored by the Department of Environmental Affairs. This recognition sits alongside the AIMS Green Award, presented to the marathon in November last year by the Association of International Marathons and Distances Races (AIMS). Race director Janet Welham, the driving force behind the marathon’s Run4Change sustainability initiative, says, “It’s a great honour for the marathon to be recognised for environmental excellence, and we hope it inspires other similar events to take charge in this arena.”

​NEW YORK (Friday, June 15, 2018) – Montreal Impact midfielder Ignacio Piatti was voted the Alcatel Major League Soccer Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) for the 16th week of the 2018 MLS season.
 
Montreal defeated Orlando City SC 3-0 on Wednesday night at Stade Saputo, with Piatti scoring two goals to help lift the Impact. Piatti has seven goals and six assists this season, making him the only player in the league to rank in the top 10 of both categories in 2018. The Impact sit ninth in the Eastern conference with 15 points (5-11-0 overall record).

The official podcast will launch on June 15 and cover the entire qualifier for the Rugby World Cup. The Rugby Africa Gold Cup will be played from 16 June to 18 August by the national teams of Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco, Zimbabwe and Tunisia
 
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 15, 2018/ -- APO Group (www.APO-opa.com), the leading media relations consultancy in Africa and the Middle East, and World Rugby' African association, Rugby Africa (www.RugbyAfrique.com) today announce that they have partnered with The Three Quarters Podcast (http://www.apo.af/RUGBYpodcast), a sports banter/analysis show focused on the game of Rugby 15s in Africa, to launch The Rugby Africa Gold Cup Official Podcast, a series of review and preview shows focusing on the Rugby World Cup' African qualifications and offering listeners a mix of news, interviews and insights.

Super Falcons of Nigeria have taken the final qualification spot for the forthcoming 2018 Total Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) after a comprehensive 6-0 battering of Scorpions Queens of Gambia   on Monday at the Agege Stadium in Lagos and went ahead 7-0 on aggregate.