International Rep for the SLAA; Leslie Koroma of Texas and Lord Sebastian Coe at the recently concluded World Indoor Championships in Portland Oregon

In a very fitting way to celebrate the country’s 55th independence anniversary, the International Rep for the Sierra Leone Athletics Association Mr. Leslie Koroma of Texas has alongside some former national athletes for Sierra Leone launched an effort to aid in providing funding assistance for Sierra Leone’s international athletes alongside support for some grassroots sports initiatives in Sierra Leone through the Team Salone Project.

The construction of the Epworth Olympafrica Centre in Zimbabwe, is expected to begin after the dispute over the land that had been offered to the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC) by the Epworth Local Board was resolved.

According to the ZOC chief executive, Anna Mguni, the National Olympic Committee entered into a partnership with the Epworth Local Board wherein the local authority provided land for sport development. Mguni said the ceremony will be presided over by the minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Saviour Kasukuwere.

26 April 2016 - Yesterday, SASFA challenged SAFA’s decision of 29 March 2015 and 26 September 2015, respectively to withdraw its recognition of SASFA, and to withdraw SAFA’s mandate to SASFA to administer schools’ football in the country.  The matter was heard by Mr Justice Nkosi, Acting Judge. 

At the commencement of the hearing, SASFA withdrew the relief which sought to declare the SAFA decisions aforementioned, unlawful.  The matter was thus argued only in relation to SASFA’s claim that the alleged dispute between SASFA and SAFA arising from the aforesaid decisions, be referred to independent arbitration.

26 April 2016 – Olympics-bound South Africa u23 Men’s National Team will face Japan on 29 June in an international friendly match as part of preparations for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in August.
 
South Africa are in Group A with the hosts, Iraq and Denmark, while Japan has been drawn in Group B alongside Sweden, Colombia and Nigeria. The Olympics will run from 3 – 20 August in Brazil’s cultural capital of Rio de Janeiro.

The South African Rugby Union are still hopeful of hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup despite South Africa's Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula revoking their right to host international tournaments for failing to meet its agreed transformation targets.
 
SA Rugby said via a press release it acknowledged the findings of the Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) report on Transformation for 2014/15 and the sanction imposed by South Africa's Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, Minister for Sports and Recreation.

The ICC Board held its second meeting of 2016 at the ICC Headquarters in Dubai on 24 April. Among the decisions made and reports received were:
 
ICC World Twenty20 India 2016
 
The Board congratulated the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for completing an unprecedented treble by winning the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2016 as well as women’s and men’s titles at the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016.

Competing over the weekend in her home state of Ohio, Maggie Barrie who has been steadily improving this season has done it again and this time it was in the 100 meters where she clocked a new personal best of 11.69 seconds albeit with a little wind behind her at 2.1(m/s).

Maggie who holds the current indoor records for Sierra Leone in the 200 and 400 meters also recently ran a new personal best in the outdoor 400 meters (54.77 seconds) t which She just added a new PR in the 100 meters with her 11.69 seconds. This raises the number of Sierra Leonean ladies who have performed at the mid 11 seconds range in the last two months. The other two athletes are Hafsa Kamara of Arizona USA who recently ran an 11.69 seconds at the Mt. Sac Relays in California and Ngozi Musa of Harvard University who set Sierra Leone’s new national record of 11.66 seconds in Fort Worth, Texas back in March.

Nigeria (NGR) - Cameroon v Nigeria, 2015 Afrobasket Women, Yaoundé (Cameroon), Semi-Finals, 2 October 2015

ABUJA (2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) - Nigeria's potential to reach the Rio 2016 Olympics will be put to the test when they play two warm-up games against Turkey in Istanbul in May (27-28), three weeks after opening their training camp in the capital Abuja.

The Nigerians claimed a Third-Place finish at AfroBasket Women 2015 and as a result secured a place at the 2016 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament (WOQT) in Nantes, France to be held from 13-19 June.

Photo Credit mobserver.co.za
 
The Kingdom Stars completely dominated the Mpumalanga Sunbirds in their Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League (NPL) match at the Heartfelt Arena on Saturday, thrashing them by 59 points to 29, after leading 27-14 at halftime.
 
The Stars came out fast and furious, and the Sunbirds struggled to keep up with the pace.
 
It was a welcome result for Stars coach Marchelle Maroun, after two losses last weekend.

The Club Licensing seminar has made a stopover in Djibouti with the East African country hosting the educative workshop from 25-26 April at the Technical Centre of the Fédération Djiboutienne de Football (FDF) in the capital, Djibouti.  
 
Twenty-four (24) officials representing the country’s elite clubs which participate in the top flight FDF Division One participated in the two-day seminar which will tackle topics aimed at highlighting professionalism in club football.

Image credit: Leicester City
 
Algeria and Leicester City winger Riyad Mahrez crowned a wonderful weekend when he was voted Player of the Year by fellow English Premier League professionals.

The 25-year-old, a key figure in the transformation of Leicester from perennial strugglers to league leaders, is the first African winner of the title.

Hours before the lavish awards ceremony in London, Mahrez opened the scoring for Leicester in a 4-0 drubbing of Swansea City.

The second week of the elite league in the South-east African nation of Malawi provided a lot of highs and lows over the weekend.
 
Defending champions Nyasa Big Bullets registered their first win of the season after seeing off spirited soldiers Red Lions 2-1 on Sunday, 24 April 2016 at the 10,000-seater Balaka Stadium in the Southern Region.
 

The Sharks have been dealt hefty injury blows with the news that Cobus Reinach and Philip van der Walt have returned home from New Zealand.
 
The Springbok scrum-half and hard-working loose forward both suffered injuries in the Sharks’ hard-fought 15-14 win over the 14-man Highlanders on Friday.
 
Reinach has picked up a calf injury while Van der Walt looks set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a neck injury.

Tim Anderson: “These awards are very important in identifying individuals and programmes which are helping the game of cricket grow in emerging nations” 

Cricket Scotland has taken the top prize in the annual ICC Development Programme Awards 2015, claiming the Best Overall Cricket Development Programme Award. 

Cricket Scotland’s Development Programme continues to go from strength to strength, growing cricket across the country with a number of innovate new programmes introduced in 2015.  These programmes includes Thriving Clubs which provides hands on professional support from experts to cricket clubs, the expansion of Last Man Stands across Scottish cities and the  first Cricket Force scheme, which was launched in conjunction with Jewson to help improve facilities in local communities.

Catherine Ugo Eke in the black shorts above in photo

On the eve of Sierra Leone’s 55th Independence Anniversary and the launch of an effort to support Sierra Leone’s International athletes along with some grassroots support initiatives for sports in the country by the Sierra Leone Diaspora Sports Foundation Catherine Ugo Eke has been recognized as the New national record holder of the women’s outdoor 400 meters race at 52.37 seconds.

Supersport United coach Stuart Baxter says he will never try to destabilise his former club Kaizer Chiefs by poaching their star players.
 
Baxter left Amakhosi for Sweden at the end of the 2014/15 season before returning to South Africa to take charge of Matsatsantsa in January this year, following the sacking of Gordon Igesund.
 
Since then, a number of Kaizer Chiefs players have been linked with a move way from Naturena to reunite with their former mentor in Pretoria, including midfielder Reneilwe Letsholonyane, whose contract with the Soweto-based club is set to expire at the end of the season.

© Getty Images
With just 10 days to go until the beginning of the 2016 IAAF Diamond League, world and Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor spoke to the media via teleconference on Tuesday (26).

The 25-year-old US athlete is one of a number of stars who will flock to Doha for the first meeting of the season on May 6, with Taylor’s training partner Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands, compatriot Allyson Felix, and close rival Teddy Tamgho of France among those set to compete.

Defending champions APR reclaimed top spot of the Rwanda Premier League after edging Police 2-1 in a Week 18 topliner on Sunday in Kigali.  
 
A goal each from Issa Bigirimana and Jean Claude Iranzi earned the military side the maximum points and go four points clear at the top.

NEW YORK (Tuesday, April 26, 2016) – LA Galaxy forward Emmanuel Boateng was voted Major League Soccer Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) for the eighth week of the 2016 MLS season.
 
In his second start in a Galaxy uniform, Boateng’s incredible speed caused problems for defenders the entire match, with LA defeating previously unbeaten Real Salt Lake by a dominating 5-2 margin. An offseason signing from the top-level Swedish league, the Ghana native powered LA with one goal and two assists while playing a full 90 minutes for the first time in his MLS career.

Francine Niyonsaba & Jairus Birech

Organisers of the Meeting International Mohammed VI have confirmed that five more Diamond Race winners from last year will be in action at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rabat on 22 May.

Following last week’s announcement of the participation of Nijel Amos and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, it means seven of last year’s Diamond Race winners have now been confirmed for the newest meeting on the IAAF Diamond League circuit.

Lars Veldwijk has opened the door to a possible return to Nottingham Forest when his loan spell with PEC Zwolle expires at the end of the campaign.
 
The towering forward previously claimed he wouldn’t be returning to the Championship side, but since the sacking of Dougie Freedman, Veldwijk admits his future is now uncertain.
 
“Until three weeks ago, it was sure that I would be sold, but then the coach was fired,” he told ELF Voetbal. “Now I do not know if the club and if the new coach wants me there.”

SPAR Proteas international defender Karla Mostert has rounded off an impressive Mostert nominated for player of the season in the UK Superleague.
 
debut season for team Bath in the UK Super league with a nomination for the Sky sport Netball player of the season award.
 
The South African has been shortlisted alongside Ama Agbeze( Loughborough Lightning), Sara Bayman (Manchester Thunder), Sophia Candappa (Surrey Storm) and Sammy Wallace (Hertfordshire Mavericks) for the coveted award which is voted by the public.

© FIFA.com

At the age of 54, South Africa coach Owen da Gama is right to consider himself a well-travelled person. Thanks to football and his keen eye for goal, he built up an impressive collection of passport stamps in his playing days. “I’ve already been around the world. I played for Beerschot in Belgium, for Figueres in Spain, when they were in the first division, and I played in Ireland too, for Derry City, where I won the player of the year award. I didn’t play in the top leagues but I made a habit of scoring my goals,” he told FIFA.com in the bowels of the Maracana, following the draw for the group phase of the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016.

Sierra Leone international midfielder, Mohamed Medo Kamara is leaving options open for another move to any top flight league across Europe.
 
The midfielder who said he is currently enjoying football again since returning to HJK Helsinki on a short term deal did not rule out a possible contract extension with the Finnish giant or moving abroad again like he did during the 2010 summer. 
 
“If I want to stay and the club wants to keep me of course I will continue. But if I can get an offer, which feels better I will grab it,”Kamara told Finland based media, Yle.fi

Naignouma Coulibaly (MLI) - Mali v Gabon, 2015 Afrobasket Women, Yaoundé (Cameroon), Group Phase, 26 September 2015
SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda's African Message) - Mali international Naignouma Coulibaly over the weekend became the latest player to remind everyone how much basketball talent Africa has to offer.

Just last month, Nigerian Adaora Elonu was named the MVP of Spain's Copa de la Reina (Queen's Cup) after leading CB Conquero to a 60-52 win over Perfumerias Avenida. It was a remarkable achievement for the Huelva-based club as it won a first-ever national title.