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One of the most consistent and important players for Nigeria over a 13-year period, Joseph Yobo played in a star-studded testimonial on Friday to put a lid on an illustrious career that began in a small Nigerian village and ended with a century of international caps, 10 FIFA World Cup™ matches over three tournaments, six CAF Africa of Nations finals including one continental championship and over 250 appearances for English Premier League club Everton.

Manchester City midfielder Kelechi Iheanacho came off the bench to score his first senior goal for Nigeria in an unimpressive 1-0 friendly win over Mali. Iheanacho, who claimed 14 goals in all competitions for City last season, replaced fellow teenager Alex Iwobi of Arsenal and grabbed the 77th-minute winner. Three-time African champions Nigeria will be in action again on Tuesday when they meet European minnows Luxembourg.  

In a fitting end to her High School years Mary Foday of Central High School in Maryland finished her high school track and field career at the Maryland High Schools State Championships on   Saturday May 28th 2016 with a Gold Medal performance in the 100 meters which she won with a time of 12.30 seconds a couple of hundredths of a second lower than her personal best which stands at 12.14 seconds.

Mary also competed in the 200 meters where she came in second and took home a silver medal in the process with a time of 25.52 seconds.

2016 FIBA Europe General Assembly in Dublin, Ireland

DUBLIN, Ireland - The leaders of Europe's national basketball federations gathered in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday for the annual FIBA Europe General Assembly.

The 45 national federations represented in the Irish capital were greeted by the President of the European Olympic Committee (EOC) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Patrick Hickey, himself an Irishman.

Lara Sanders (TUR) - Turkey v Russia, 2015 EuroBasket Women, Budapest - Budapest Sports & Events Arena (Hungary), Classification 5-6, 27 June 2015

ISTANBUL (2016 FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament) - In less than two weeks, Turkey will be heading to the 2016 FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament (WOQT), trying to qualify for the Olympics for the second time in a row. Over the weekend, it had a moral booster beating WOQT-bound Nigeria in a two-game warm-up series.

Agnes Mansaray being interviewed in center of photo after a record setting performance with her teammates in the 4x400 meters relay – (photo Credit Penntrackxc twitter acct.)

A week removed from her record setting performance in the 800 meters for Sierra Leone women; Agnes Mansaray on Saturday May 29th 2016, once again attacked her own record and lowered it by over two hundredths of second from 2:09.69 to 2:07.53. She stands exclusively as the greatest 800 meters runner in Sierra Leone women’s athletics history.

Ahmed Khalaf, Egypt head coach Branislav Jemc (SRB) and Esam Tamer - Award Ceremony - 2015 FIBA Africa U16 Men, Bamako (Mali)

TRAVNIK (2016 FIBA U17 World Championship) – Egypt gained some valuable experience in the build-up to the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship by nearly knocking off Bosnia and Herzegovina in a warm-up tournament which was won by the U16 European champion Bosnians.

2015 FIBA Women's Empowerment Workshop


SOUTHPORT – In September last year FIBA invited eight prominent females from basketball federations throughout the pacific to participate in an exciting Women's Empowerment Programme on the Gold Coast.


The objectives of this workshop were to identify, support and train key women currently involved in basketball across the Pacific region. The programme is focused on helping attendees enhance their leadership, governance, and public speaking skills.

Newly promoted Dutch Eredivisie side, Sparta Rotterdam have signed Sierra Leone youngster Abdul Bai Kamara on a two-year deal with an option for one additional year.

The 19-year-old central defender joined the newly promoted Eredivisie club from NEC Nijmegen on a free transfer.

Could Isha Johansen’s (in photo above) comment spark another controversy

President of Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) Isha Johansen said there are still attempts to disrupt the process of an ongoing match-fixing investigation process in the country.

The SLFA boss made this revelation during her address at the at David Cameron's landmark anti-corruption summit in United Kingdom (UK) a few weeks back in which she was one of the five speakers at the summit. In an article published on the Huffington Post, the SLFA boss also stated that her attempts to get the match-fixing commission started has faced intense opposition from prominent figures in both the business and political world.

Tori Bowie and Dafne Schippers - photorun.net

The Prefontaine Classic has one of its best catches in the women’s 200 meters – the World Champion--and its best and most unique half-lap field in history.
     
Eugene, Oregon – The Prefontaine Classic has one of its best catches in the women’s 200 meters – the World Champion--and its best and most unique half-lap field in history.

Blessing Okagbare on Friday night May 27th 2016 met the Olympic Standard for the Long Jump at the Rio Olympic Games with a Jump of 6.73m at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meet in Eugene Oregon USA, placing fourth in the event. From Eugene the African and Nigerian superstar expressed some reservation but mostly satisfaction in her performance, as she was thankful that she had met the Rio Standard for the Long Jump.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce - photorun.net

The four fastest women sprinters from last year are ready to unleash down a fast track in the Prefontaine Classic 100 meters.

Eugene, Oregon – The four fastest women sprinters from last year are ready to unleash down a fast track in the Prefontaine Classic 100 meters.

The 3x3 workshop in San Juan witnessed more than 15 national federations attend from around the Lesser Antilles.

SAN JUAN - The FIBA International Basketball Foundation (IBF) has launched a project to bring a host of Caribbean islands closer together on and off the court through the launch of a 3x3 youth tournament.

In an area known as the Lesser Antilles, members of more than 15 national federations have been encouraged to facilitate their own National 3x3 Championships for boys and girls born in 1999, 2000 and 2001 which would qualify teams for what promises to be an exciting international event.

© Getty Images

FIFA can today confirm sanctions imposed on several football associations for discriminatory and unsporting conduct of fans in relation to chants during 2018 FIFA World Cup™ qualifying matches as well as international friendly matches.

Following match reports and additional evidence generated by the Anti-Discrimination Monitoring System, FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings against the associations of Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Croatia.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced today that reanalysis of the “A” samples from 23 athletes in five sports and from six National Olympic Committees (NOCs) who competed at the Olympic Games London 2012 has returned Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs)*.

In total, 265 selected doping samples from the Olympic Games London 2012 were reanalysed, all based on intelligence-gathering that began in August 2015. The reanalysis programme is ongoing, with the possibility of more results in the coming weeks.

Celebrated locally for his career at Inter Milan, where he cemented reputation as the finest striker in the world, Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, also know as "El Fenómeno" or "R9,” was one of the first players to wear the Mercurial boots back in 1998. R9’s history in the line made him the perfect choice to open the "Science of Speed,” and he kicked off proceedings by presenting the first pair of the latest Mercurial Superfly V to its delighted new owner.

“Speed has always defined my style of play,” declares Ronaldo, whose brilliant skill and goal scoring sparked the imagination of an entire generation of players “and this enabled me to make the difference in the most decisive moments on pitch. Mercurial was designed to enhance the speed and attacking play of athletes like myself and Cristiano Ronaldo.” 

FIBA Regional Director - Asia Mr Hagop Khajirian with Mr Guo Qilin, Founder and Managing Director of Atlas Sports

BEIRUT, Lebanon/BEIJING, China (25th FIBA Asia Champions Cup) - FIBA's Asia Regional Office on Tuesday awarded the hosting rights for the 25th FIBA Asia Champions Cup to Beijing Atlas Sports and Cultural Development Co. Ltd.

The event will take place in Chenzhou city in China's Hunan province from 8-16 October.

Sofia Galeron (ESP) - 2015 FIBA U16 European Championship Women

ZARAGOZA (2016 FIBA U17 Women's World Championship) - Spain have announced an initial 14-player roster as they prepare to host next month's 2016 FIBA U17 Women's World Championship in Zaragoza.

The magnificent Barys Arena in Astana, capital city of Kazakhstan was the site of the 2016 AIBA Women’s World Championships from 19-27 May, where defending champions, Olympic gold medallists and emerging new talents produced the strongest competition in its 15 years of existence.

Ten World Champions have been crowned at the culmination of eight days of exciting competition, the ninth Women’s World Championships to date. As well as the gold medals, twelve Olympic quota places were also available to the semi-finalists at flyweight, lightweight and middleweight, completing the line-up for the Rio 2016 women’s boxing competition.

The FIBA Europe Board convened in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday 27 May.
DUBLIN, Ireland - The FIBA Europe Board Term of Office 2014-19 which convened in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday 27 May, discussed, among other items, the recent developments in European club basketball.

The Board had received and reviewed a report by the Executive Committee of FIBA Europe regarding the remodelling of European Club Competitions.

With no disrespect meant towards the up and coming Toronto Raptors it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Cleveland Cavaliers would close the deal and win game six in Toronto on Friday May 27th 2016 and advance to the NBA Finals for the second straight year. That is exactly what they did as they took the lead in the early going of the first quarter and never looked back to send the Raptors home for the holidays with a final score of 113 - 87.

The British Lionhearts were on dazzling form in London’s York Hall on Friday night, going one better than their 3-2 first leg win to record a famous 4-1 victory over the titleholders to reach their first ever WSB final. The 7-3 aggregate score means they will now meet the Cuba Domadores in the final in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, next weekend.

The Arlans’ former National Champion Azamat Issakulov started brightly against the Lionhearts' Armenian draft pick Koryun Soghomonyan with some swift attacking flair, but Soghomonyan soon found his rhythm and accuracy in the second and third rounds to assume the advantage. Issakulov finished strongly, but the Armenian flyweight had already done enough to earn a unanimous decision and set the home side on their way. 

26 May 2016 – The South African Senior Women’s National Team, Banyana Banyana will face the United States of America Women’s Football National Team – for the first time ever - in an international friendly match as part of preparations for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
 
Banyana Banyana and the Stars and Stripes will meet on Saturday, 9 July 2016 at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.

Olcay Cakir (TUR) - Turkey v Russia, 2015 EuroBasket Women, Budapest - Budapest Sports & Events Arena (Hungary), Classification 5-6, 27 June 2015

ISTANBUL (2016 2016 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament) - The 12-team 2016 FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament (WOQT) tips off next month in Nantes, France, but Turkey and Nigeria - two teams looking to secure two of the remaining five tickets for the 2016 Rio Olympics - are making sure to get ready for the battle by facing off in a two-game warm-up series in Istanbul on Friday and Saturday.