St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 149/7 (Brooks 53, Thomas 20, Allen 20, Gurney 2/23, Walsh Jr 2/37) beat Barbados Tridents 148 (Shakib 38, Reifer 34, Cottrell 3/27, Brathwaite 3/30, Cottrell 3/27, Emrit 2/24) by 1 run
 
St Kitts & Nevis Patriots secured their 2019 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) playoff spot in dramatic style as Dominic Drakes bowled Harry Gurney with the final ball of the night to seal a thrilling one-run victory over Barbados Tridents, who now face a winner-takes-all clash with St Lucia Zouks on Sunday after a dramatic batting collapse when victory appeared in their grasp.


Superb bowling from Carlos Brathwaite, Sheldon Cottrell and Rayad Emrit on the back of what would prove a crucial 33-ball 53 from Shamarh Brooks all helped set up the dramatic finale and ultimately what had looked for most of the night an unlikely victory. The two points move the Patriots up to second in the table for now but more importantly certain of at least fourth no matter what happens over the next few days.


Tonight’s result means Trinbago Knight Riders are also sure of a top-four finish despite their recent struggles, while the Tridents are condemned to what amounts to an eliminator before the Eliminator against the Zouks to determine the final top-four spot.

MIES (Switzerland) – FIBA announced today that Argentina and Canada will host the two FIBA Women's Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments 2019 for the Americas region. 
 
The newly developed Olympic pre-qualification tournaments will tip-off in November 2019 to qualify teams to the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2020, and ultimately the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Africa will host one tournament, with the Americas and Asia-Oceania hosting two tournaments each. Hosts for Africa and Asia-Oceania will be announced next week. 
 
Argentina and Canada will be the hosts of the FIBA Women's Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments 2019 for the Americas. The teams competing in the two pre-qualifying tournaments will be Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and USA. ​

Sporting rainbow-coloured hair, two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce found a pot of gold at the end of the track, winning her fourth 100m title at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha tonight.
A decade after she won her first title, and 13 months after giving birth to her son, 32-year-old Fraser-Pryce returned to the pinnacle of her sport, gapping the field to win in 10.71.
The event began with a dramatic sound and light show to introduce the world’s best sprinters, but Fraser-Pryce outshone all the special effects.
The double Olympic champion made her characteristic bullet-like start and had already established a clear advantage on the seven-strong field by 30 metres. The Jamaican superstar then simply ran away from the opposition to stop the clock in 10.71 – exactly the same time she ran to win her second world title in Moscow in 2013, and within 0.01 seconds of her lifetime best.

The United States broke the world record for the second time in as many days in the mixed 4x400m relay as Michael Cherry anchored the squad to a new benchmark of 3:09.34*, taking almost three seconds off the first round performance and delivering a 12th world gold to their second leg runner, Allyson Felix.
The US had swapped their entire quartet of world record breakers from the previous day, bringing in four runners who had missed individual places but were selected for the men’s and women’s relay squads. The effort earned the team a US$100,000 world record bonus.
Silver in an event that will make its Olympic debut in Tokyo next year went to Jamaica in a national record of 3:11.78, and Bahrain, fielding 2017 women’s 400m silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser, took bronze in an Asian record of 3:11.82.

Ebenezer Tetteh who bragged to revenge the defeat of Richard Harrison to UK’s Daniel Dubois was worse as he suffered a round on knock out in his first bout outside Ghana.
Ghana’s Ebenezer Tetteh experienced a massive chastening as he was knocked out in the first round by Britain’s Daniel Dubois in their Commonwealth Heavyweight title clash on Friday in the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, London.
The two men were vying for the vacant in what was Tetteh’s first bout outside Ghana and the shock of the new environment and new experience told heavily on the Ghanaian.
The 31 year-old Ghanaian forgot to put his gumshield into his mouth before he got into the ring and that was a foretaste of what was to happen on the night.

Top Ghanaian musician, Stone Bwoy was in the early hours of Sunday September 29, 2019 presented with a citation and plaque from organisers of the Millennium Excellence Awards, WASH Africa and Wahala Entertainment, the organisers of the Zero Borla Fashion and Music Concert at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Ambassador Ashim Morton, director of Wash Africa conferred on Stone Bwoy the Global Ambassador to promote the ban of single use plastic and polythene waste in Ghana.
Wael Hakim of Wahala Entertainment congratulated Stone Bwoy for gracing the Zero Borla Fashion & Music Concert.

Barbados Tridents 141/6 (Charles 47, Shakib 22, Santokie 2/25, Viljoen 2/26) beat St Lucia Zouks 117 (Ingram 25, Viljoen 22, de Grandhomme 21, Walsh Jr 4/26, Gurney 3/17) by 24 runs
 
Three wickets in an over from Hayden Walsh Jr and a superb spell from Harry Gurney turned the Barbados Tridents’ whole season around as they defended 141/6 to defeat St Lucia Zouks and grab the final 2019 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) playoff spot in a winner-takes-all clash at the Kensington Oval.


The Tridents looked to be heading out of the competition when the Zouks had got the target down to 31 runs from 28 balls with six wickets in hand, but Gurney then dismissed Hardus Viljoen before Walsh Jr’s three-wicket burst in the next over made it four wickets in eight balls and turned the match on its head.

• Wimbledon champion and 2014 WTA Finals runner-up Halep to make her fifth appearance at Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen 
• US Open winner Andreescu set to make her debut at the year-end finale following three WTA titles this season
• Wimbledon doubles finalists Dabrowski and Xu become the fourth of eight doubles teams to secure their spot in Shenzhen

ST PETERSBURG, FL, USA - The WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) announced today that Simona Halep, Bianca Andreescu and the doubles team of Gabriela Dabrowski and Xu Yifan have qualified for the 2019 Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen, set to take place from October 27 - November 3 for a record-breaking $14 million in prize money.

The Women In Sports Association (WISA) of Ghana has celebrated their five years anniversary in grand style at the Accra Sports Stadium.
The ceremony which coincided with the third awards ceremony attracted lot of female sports personalities including the president of WOSPAG, Mrs. Joyce Mahama, president of WISA Madam Rose Mary Gaizie, Madam Elizebeth King of the Ghana Hockey Association.
Nii Adote Dzata 1, president of the Ghana Kickboxing Association presented a special birthday cake to Madam Gloria Commodore.

Nana Adu Mankatta II, a board member of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) has commended Women In Sports Association (WISA) for honouring outstanding female sports personalities and teams for their performances in the past season.
Also known in private life as Mr. George Owusu Ansah, the father of Keep Fit Clubs who was the logistics officer of Team Ghana at the 2019 African Games in Morocco said recognising and rewarding sports achievers is a way of encouragement and motivation, and he hailed the winners and sponsors of the awards, Ghandour Cosmetics and Omy TV.
The former president of Ghana Mass Sports Association said organising such events is expensive and called on others companies to support the Women In Sports Association (WISA) to achieve their positive objective.

Kenenisa Bekele made a sensational return to his international best with victory at the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON, missing the world record by just two seconds. For good measure, the 37-year-old Ethiopian set a national record and the fastest time in the world this year. Only his great Kenyan rival Eliud Kipchoge, who ran 2:01:39 here in Berlin last year, ranks above him in the world all-time list. Bekele knows all too well what it is like to miss the world record by a narrow margin. In 2016 he won in 2:03:03 which was just six seconds outside the then world record. There are also historical precedents for such narrow misses in marathon history: in 1985 the Welshman Steve Jones ran within one second of the world record in Chicago.​

This year’s The Best FIFA Football Awards™ ceremony took centre stage at Milan’s historic Teatro alla Scala this evening and crowned two household names as the players of the season: Megan Rapinoe and Lionel Messi.
The Argentina and FC Barcelona star was recognised by FIFA as the player of the year for the sixth time in his career − an absolute record – while Rapinoe capped an impeccable season that saw her lead the USA to their second consecutive FIFA Women’s World Cup™ title in France.
The Americans’ success in France also gave Jill Ellis the title of Women’s Coach of the Year, an accolade that, on the men’s side, was picked up by German Jürgen Klopp, who coached Liverpool FC to UEFA Champions League glory.
Brazilian Alisson Becker, also of Liverpool FC, was chosen as The Best FIFA Goalkeeper, a distinction that was also introduced this year for women’s football and saw Dutch Sari van Veenendaal voted as its maiden recipient.

A new Commonwealth paper finds “impressive improvements” in women’s access to maternal health, enrolment in primary school and participation in the workforce.
 
The technical paper was released at the 12th Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.
 
Findings suggest that in the Commonwealth, a girl is as likely to attend primary school as a boy is, and in some countries more so. In the parliaments of 13 Commonwealth countries, 30 per cent or more of members are women.
 
Against this progress, the paper highlights that persistent gender stereotypes and prejudices in policymaking, budgeting and service delivery are disrupting progress.

​Naomi Osaka did not drop a set all week en route to her second WTA title of the season on home soil at the Toray Pan Pacific Open (Osaka). The Japanese star jumped two places on this week's Porsche Race to Shenzhen Leaderboard to No.5, putting her within striking distance from a spot at the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen.

Sofia Kenin improves to No.12 on the Leaderboard after capturing her third WTA singles title of 2019 at the Guangzhou Open, becoming one of just four players to clinch as many titles this season following Karolina Pliskova (4), Bianca Andreescu (3) and Ashleigh Barty (3).

The IAAF Council announced today (23) that there had been no change in status of the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF).
Reporting to the 218th IAAF Council Meeting in Doha, Rune Andersen, the independent chairman of the IAAF Taskforce, said that while some progress has been made, key issues remain outstanding that prevent the reinstatement of RusAF.
Andersen said the task force noted that recent allegations that banned coaches continued to work with athletes were found to be true, putting into question the integrity of RusAF's anti-doping efforts.
"There is a recurring problem of athletes and local athletics federations working with banned coaches which undermines the creation of any strong anti-doping culture," Andersen said. "It is premature to tell if the reported measures taken by RusAF will work, therefore the associated conditions for reinstatement have not been met."

Eastern Conference: No. 5 New York Red Bulls vs. No. 4 D.C. United (5 p.m. ET)
Western Conference: No. 3 Minnesota United FC vs. No. 1 LAFC (7:30 p.m. ET)
 
NEW YORK (September 23, 2019) – With only two weeks remaining in the MLS regular season, urgency and star power will have heightened implications on the final seedings of the Audi 2019 MLS Cup Playoffs picture during the FS1 and FOX Deportes doubleheader this Sunday, Sept. 29. The second-to-last week of competition will feature intraconference matchups with every game in the Eastern Conference kicking off at 5 p.m. ET before all games in the Western Conference follow at 7:30 p.m. ET

​From their spine-tingling haka before kickoff to the final whistle on Saturday against SA in Yokohama, it was clear that the All Blacks are determined to win a third successive Rugby World Cup.

As if they needed another portent, their captain, Kieran Read, whose form and fitness this year have been questioned, led from the front.

It was all a declaration that a team which has never lost a match in the pool round of a Rugby World Cup will again be the side to beat this year in Japan.

Saturday’s 23-13 defeat of the Springboks was not the only pain to be suffered by SA. A group of South African fans spoilt the moment of the haka with undignified chanting of “Olé, olé”.

It was vile, uncouth and uncultured. They can get away with such behaviour at home, but there’s an expectation to behave better when you are a visitor in someone else’s house.

The IAAF Doping Review Board has agreed that the applications of 11 Russian athletes have met the exceptional eligibility criteria to compete in international competition as neutral athletes in 2019 under competition Rule 22.1A(b) while the Russian national federation (RusAF) remains suspended.
The application process for athletes seeking neutral status in international competitions in 2019 opened in December 2018. A total of 128 Russian athletes have so far been declared eligible to compete as authorised neutral athletes in 2019. 58 applications have so far been rejected and one neutral athlete status has been revoked.
The Doping Review Board, which is composed of Robert Hersh (chair), Sylvia Barlag and Antti Pihlakoski, has accepted the applications of the following athletes: 

Ghana Chess Association announces to the information of the general public about the visit of American Chess Duo Maurice Ashley and Rochelle Ballantyne to conduct a workshop and mentorship program from 11th to 14th October, 2019 in Accra.
Maurice is a well renowned author, chess commentator and the first Black to ever obtain the coveted Grandmaster title. Maurice has shown commitment to supporting Ghana Chess Association with his skills and expertise and this would mark his second visit to Ghana for the same course.
Rochelle, on the other hand is among the few female Expert-level players in the US and a subject of the movie Brooklyn Castle. She played a famous game with Garry Kasparov termed as ‘ Harlem shake ’

The Homowo Beach Soccer Competition comes up this weekend at the Laboma Beach Resort in Accra.
Teams from communities along the coast of Greater Accra region have been invited to participate by Beach Sports Consult  (BSC), an events management company with the objective of creating awareness of unity among the Ga Adangbe people, and also educating them on sanitation, especially keeping tourist sites like the beaches clean.
Some of the communities expected to participate are Tema, Teshie, Nungua, La, James Town, Dansoman, Ada and Osu, the defending champions.
According to the organiser, the competition is to awaken the interest in beach soccer and keep the players busy.

After almost four hours of deliberations at the Extraordinary Congress of the Ghana Football Association held at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra, delegates have accepted the proposed statutes of the Normalization Committee after making some few amendments.
After the prolonged deliberations, which looked endless, 115 delegates accepted and adopted the new statutes for the Ghana Football Association.
Following the acceptance and adoption, the following key points were arrived at:
1. No more Chairman for the Association but still the title President will be maintained.
2. Number of delegates for Congress will be 120 from the previous 123.
3. There will not be any Board of Directors but an

The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) today launched “Make the Beat!”, a new project fusing sound, technology and social media to allow fans from all over the world – no matter where they are– to take part in energising venues and encouraging their favourite teams and athletes. “Make the Beat!” will introduce fans to the official Tokyo 2020 beat, a melodic rhythm that spectators can dance or clap along to, and encourage fans to create their own #2020beat content to be displayed in venues and at Live Sites.
The official Tokyo 2020 beat was created from a range of 1,000 different sound samples reflecting the themes of “sports”, “Japanese culture”, “daily lives” and “nature”; five different rhythms were compiled from these using Olympic World-Wide Partner Intel Corporation’s AI technology. Tokyo 2020 Olympic mascot Miraitowa and Paralympic mascot Someity oversaw the sampling and creation of the shortlist. Tsukuba University researchers then contributed to the final selection of the Tokyo 2020 official beat.

​After months of experimenting, it’s now time for business.

Okay, so the Springboks have one more World Cup warm-up to play before they kick off their campaign against New Zealand in Yokohama on September21, but I doubt there will be anything “friendly” about their meeting with Japan on Friday.

Over the last few months Rassie Erasmus – just like most other coaches – has mixed things up in terms of player personnel in certain positions to equip them with the best possible preparation for the World Cup.

Questions have been answered and claims have been staked, and right now it’s all about implementing all the hard work that’s been done.

There will, however, still be those who want to make a statement, although it will be for different reasons.

Delegates of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) at their Extra Ordinary Congress have agreed to adopt the proposed statutes of the Normalization Committee (NC).The NC has been in office since August 2018 to come up with reforms that will restore normalcy to the football governing body of the country following an Anas Aremeyaw Anas ‘Number 12’ video that highlighted several rots associated with the body.
After several months, the interim body set up by FIFA and the government of Ghana finally finished up the new statutes that they believe will help the running of the sport in the country.
Having received backing from FIFA, the GFA NC met with members of Congress at the College of Physicians and Surgeons Hall in Accra to address necessary concerns in a bid for it to be adopted.

Two executives of the Women Sports Association of Ghana (WOSPAG) have returned from Coutonou, Benin where they watched for the 4th edition des Olympiades Bountou from 23rd to 25th August, 2019.
Bountou is the Benin version of what is played in Ghana as Ampe.
The event took place at the national stadium and a large crowd attended three day event.
Over 20 clubs participated in the competition which was organized by L’Association Bountou Sports of Benin.
According to Madam Joyce Mahama, President of WOSPAG, the exciting event started on a very good note and ended well. 
The Bountou Association of Benin with the assistance of the LOC organized the well attended event and the media as well as spectators were content with the results.