Three –time champions Nigeria soared high in concluding their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series with a commanding 3-0 defeat of the Crocodiles of Lesotho at an upgraded and effervescent Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
 
Technical Adviser Gernot Rohr rested first choice goalie Maduka Okoye and started Tyronne Ebuehi at right back instead of Olaoluwa Aina, Oghenekaro Etebo started in place of Joseph Ayodele-Aribo and Alex Iwobi picked shirt ahead of Henry Onyekuru after the Everton defender tested negative to COVID-19, days after he was said to have been positive in Benin Republic.
 
Yet, the flow of the squad was not in any way affected as they started in top gear, with Turkey –based Etebo drilling narrowly wide of the far post in the 8th minute following a good pass from the nimble –footed Samuel Chukwueze. Five minutes later, Osimhen had the ball in the net after a typical sweet exchange with Kelechi Iheanacho, but it was ruled off-side.

Sensational  Shakur Samed, the latest member of the Black Bombers to qualify to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has hinted Yours Truly in an exclusive interview that he has two plans for the Games.

According to the 2019 Ghana’s Amateur Boxer of the Year by the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) after a sterling performance that placed Ghana in the forefront of Boxing in the year under review, he is determined to enter the medal zone and then do for the big one.

His qualification was based on the Boxing Task Force (BTF) rankings released in February which ranked him 10th in the world and 3rd in Africa.

Peter Adjei, Secretary General of Ghana National Paralympic Committee (NPC) has disclosed in an interview with the media that he is impressed with the performances recorded by the disabled athletes from Ghana in their recent international outing in Manchester, UK (World Cup).

He said however there are other qualifiers in Georgia, Thailand and Dubai where they can take advantage to better their points.

Bayelsa State Governor Senator Douye Diri has charged Nigerian wrestlers to put in their best efforts at the forthcoming Africa/Oceania Olympic qualifiers in Hammamet, Tunisia, and ensure that they pick tickets to the Tokyo 2020 Games in Japan.

Gov. Diri gave the charge to the team in Yenagoa, where they have been camped for nearly one month in preparation for the qualifiers, which runs from 2nd to 4th April.

Following an injury to Blessing Onyebuchi (76kg), who fractured her femur in training a few days to the competition, 9 wrestlers, instead of 10, will now represent Nigeria at the 3-day event.
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​In a brief ceremony held in Yenagoa before the team departed Nigeria for Tunisia, the Bayelsa State Governor expressed confidence on the ability of the wrestlers to pick the desired Olympic tickets in the North African nation.

Emile Heskey, Former England Footballer, has teamed up with entrepreneur and businessman Davison Simango to launch Alkebulan Group.

Alkebulan Group is dedicated to the development of humanitarian projects and transforming Africa by sourcing and brokering investment opportunities in a portfolio that includes Energy, Healthcare, Mining, Infrastructure, Oil and Gas, ICT, Agriculture and Banking Solutions.

The Nation’s Leading Hard Cider Maker Will Help Amplify Region’s Premier Men’s National Team International Soccer Tournament 
NEW YORK, NY – (March 30, 2021) – Angry Orchard, the nation’s leading hard cider maker 1, and the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) announced today a year-long partnership, naming Angry Orchard the official hard cider of the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup. The Gold Cup is the region’s flagship men’s national team competition in which the best national teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean compete to be crowned regional champion. The tournament engages millions of fans across the region and will provide a great platform for Angry Orchard to join the fervor and fandom. 

Angry Orchard will celebrate the road to this summer’s Gold Cup through media integrations, customized in-store and on-premise programming, experiential activations at games and a sweepstakes offering drinkers a chance to win a trip to the Gold Cup Final.

To bring sweet soccer excitement to stores through the summer, Angry Orchard is also rolling out a golden, limited-edition Gold Cup Variety Pack – the Kickin’ It Mix. Featuring fan favorites Crisp Apple and Unfiltered as well as new Peach Mango and Strawberry Hard Fruit Ciders, this pack is a perfect combination for watch parties or post-rec league games.

Bulgaria’s new sensation, a former Cuban boxer, Javier Ibanez has been appointed as Ambassador of the upcoming AIBA Youth Men's and Women's World Boxing Championships, which will take place in Kielce, Poland on April 10-24. The AIBA Youth World Champion himself, Ibanez is one of the best of the men’s featherweight (57kg) among the elite boxers now and his successful career will be a wonderful example for the young athletes in Poland.
‘I am honored to be chosen as an Ambassador for those World Championships. The emotion is great. I believe that after I won the title for youth, I will be able to win a world title for men's elite as well, but this time it will be for Bulgaria. I am proud to be part of the Bulgarian national team - recently I defeated the world champion from Uzbekistan at Strandja 2021 Tournament and I hope that I will get a chance to participate in the Olympic Games to represent Bulgaria’, Ibanez said.

MIES (Switzerland) - Steve Nash (Canada), Svetislav Pesic (Serbia) and Alexander Volkov (Ukraine) are three giant figures headlining the Class of 2020 for the FIBA Hall of Fame.

The Class of 2020, which wasn't announced until now due to the coronavirus pandemic, has 12 basketball icons in all. They will be enshrined into the FIBA Hall of Fame during a digital ceremony on June 18, together with the Class of 2021.

Nash, one of his country's most celebrated players, was a point guard at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 1994 in Toronto and captain of his national team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Also the MVP of the FIBA AmeriCup 1999 in Puerto Rico after leading Canada to a runners-up finish, Nash's professional career spanned almost two decades in the NBA, where he was MVP in both 2005 and 2006.

Pesic, one of the finest coaches ever, entered the profession in 1982 and enjoyed huge successes with various clubs in Europe. As a national team coach, Pesic steered hosts Germany to the FIBA EuroBasket crown in 1993 and then led Yugoslavia to glory at both FIBA EuroBasket 2001 and the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2002.

World Rugby has announced today at its Player Welfare and Laws Symposium that it is to evaluate the latest eye-tracking technology to assist with the identification and management of concussions in the sport.

Reflecting the sport’s unwavering commitment to embracing and evaluating the latest science and technology in a rugby context, the international federation is set to partner with two leading providers of eye-tracking technology – EyeGuide and NeuroFlex®  – to run in-match pilot studies.

​It is envisaged that the technology would be used within a ‘shadow study’ alongside the Head Injury Assessment (HIA) to determine whether the technology could further enhance an HIA process that is operating at approximately 90 per cent accuracy in elite competitions. It will also be used within the six-stage graduated return-to-play process to monitor players returning from injury.

Eye-tracking technology as a means of supporting brain health has demonstrated positive potential in various clinical settings with the latest aggregate data suggesting that oculomotor functions are altered at the time of, or shortly after, concussion*. 

World Rugby Chief Medical Officer Dr Éanna Falvey said: “As a key element of our progressive approach to injury reduction and management in rugby, rugby continually explores and assesses technology developments that could enhance the care of players in our sport at all levels. ​

Partners of the Nigeria Football Federation, Nigeria Breweries PLC, is laying on line the sum of N1 million (One Million Naira Only) for the Man-of-the-Match in Tuesday’s 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match between the Super Eagles and the Crocodiles of Lesotho.
 
The offer is being made through the 33 Export brand of the company and will see the best player of the day smile to the bank as a millionaire.
 
Thenff.com can also report that another of the NFF’s partners, GAC Motors will also come to the stadium with a cheque of N1 million (One Million Naira Only) for the Most Valuable Player of the day.
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Wedjane took time out to give Rugby Africa insight into her journey as a citing commissioner and share some of the experiences that have stood out for her in the last few years.
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​What does your appointment as a citing commissioner liaison officer (CCLO) for the Six Nations match between France and Scotland (on 26 March) mean to you, especially since you were the only female appointed representing the French panel?
 am extremely proud and honoured to be the first African and Tunisian women to be appointed as a CCLO, and I am thankful to the French Professional championship and LNR for offering me this opportunity and for their trust in me.

​How long have you been a citing commissioner and what appealed to you about the role?
I have been a Citing Commissioner since December 2018 (the citing commissioner can be appointed as a Citing Commissioner or as a Citing Commissioner Liaison Officer), and what appealed to me the most initially was the importance of this role. It is not only vital to ensure the safety of the players, it also guarantees fairness in a match.
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MLS NEXT has announced a series of initiatives aimed at combating racism, hate and discrimination while advocating for social justice in the sport of soccer. With a mission of ensuring an inclusive player development environment, free from racism, hate and discrimination, MLS NEXT has established the Equity Action Committee (EAC), adding this new diversity, equity, and inclusion arm of the player development platform, to the overall MLS NEXT governance structure. 

MLS NEXT is committed to creating and enacting policies and programs that protect and educate its youth soccer culture of players, coaches and staff through a series of initiatives including educational sessions, guided discussions, and shared experiences. MLS NEXT will provide support for coaches and players without discrimination while emphasizing the League’s commitment to drive positive social change. 

“Major League Soccer is committed to cultivating and ensuring an inclusive environment at all levels of the game,” said Sola Winley, Major League Soccer’s EVP and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer. “The MLS NEXT platform offers an important opportunity to increase access and representation for diverse athletes and administrators, while educating the next generation of players, coaches, leaders and fans who will shape the future of our sport and our communities. Through the implementation of these key initiatives, our hope is that each participant that comes through this program will grow as an athlete and as a person.”

ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA - The WTA has announced adjustments to the WTA Ranking system to account for the continued schedule modifications affecting the Tour calendar following the 2020 pandemic-shortened season. 

WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon stated, "The WTA has worked closely with the WTA Players’ Council, players, and WTA Board over the past several months to identify appropriate changes to the WTA Rankings that will help serve as a pathway to return to the traditional 52-week WTA Ranking system."

The underlying principles to the latest ranking modifications include the following:

• Return to the traditional 52-week ranking system in the fairest possible way
• Whenever possible, WTA points should be on a player’s ranking for a minimum 52 weeks and not exceed 104 weeks 
• Players should have the opportunity to defend points that are dropping
• When WTA ranking points drop, they will drop at 100% 

The adjusted system will be implemented beginning Monday, April 5, at the conclusion of the Miami Open. 

Guidelines and a breakdown per below

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and insidethegames.biz have today launched an exciting new partnership to tell the inspiring stories at the heart of Commonwealth Sport in the lead up to Birmingham 2022.

The new partnership will see insidethegames.biz produce multiple Commonwealth Sport news stories each week that will span across the 72 Commonwealth Games Associations (CGAs) competing at Birmingham 2022.

The Commonwealth Sport stories will be hosted on a new dedicated section of the insidethegames.biz website and will feature an in-depth overview on the history of the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games as well as round-ups of top Commonwealth Games Moments and in-depth features on the Commonwealth Sport Movement’s focus on sport for social change. 
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NEW YORK (March 29, 2021) – Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer today announced the MLS club qualification procedure for the 2021 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. 

As announced by U.S. Soccer in February, eight U.S.-based MLS teams will qualify for the 2021 tournament. MLS and U.S. Soccer today confirmed that those eight teams will be determined by team performance through the first three weeks of MLS regular season play (April 16 through May 3).

The U.S.-based MLS clubs with the highest number of regular season points per game (three points for a win, one point for a tie) at the conclusion of the first three weeks of MLS play will qualify for the 2021 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. 

In the event that two or more teams have an equal number of points per game, the below regular season tiebreakers will be used until one team ranks above the other(s). After the winner of the MLS regular season tiebreaker is determined, any remaining tied clubs will again go through a second round of the MLS tiebreakers in order to determine the next advancing club. The tiebreaker system will continue until qualification has been determined.

​After months of delay, the inaugural Basketball Africa League season has finally been scheduled to hold from May 16 to 30 in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

The Basketball Africa League (BAL), an initiative of the NBA and FIBA, was initially meant to take place in March 2020 but was suspended due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The competition will involve 12 teams split into three groups each containing four teams. The two top finishers and the two best third-placed teams will proceed to the quarterfinals. 

​All 26 games will be played at the magnificent Kigali Arena.

Kashimawo Laloko, 76, died on Sunday in Abeokuta. He was former technical director of the Nigeria Football Association (now Nigeria Football Federation).
 
He was a former coach of the Gambia national team and played a key role in Nigeria’s most successful football academy, Pepsi Football Academy which he founded.

Former Black Stars defender, Emmanuel Asare has congratulated the Ghana national team for qualifying to the next African Cup of nations after drawing with South Africa today.

Asare who played for Okwawu United in Ghana and pro soccer in Belgium is currently unearthing talents with his academy called Asarit Football Academy which he co-founded with his wife.

In a chat with Sammy Okine, he confessed that the Black Stars have done well and need to be encouraged.

Rising golf star, Chris Mdii from Tafo Golf Club won the 2021 first quarter MTN Invitational Sterling Edition Men’s Silver trophy on Saturday at the Achimota Club.

The banker who wishes to play at the Pro Am level and also in the Pro tournaments strike handicap two and scored 41 points.

Church Ansah was second in the event with handicap four scoring 41 points as Mawuli Ababio played handicap 10 scoring 40 points.

Alberta Lomofio won the Ladies Event. She was followed by Jiang  Yang and Rita Pellegrino placed third. Max Prah won the Men’s Bronze, Gustav Godonou was second and Masina Pacal was third.

Closest to the pin (Men) was taken by Edward Annobil, with R. Amponsah Mensah winning the Ladies Felix Akakpo took the longest drive prize for men, while Vivian Dick won the ladies.

The Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) has congratulated the impressive performances of sprinter Benjamin Azamati; the national amateur boxing team, the Black Bombers; the senior national team the Black Stars, for qualifying to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

Benjamin Azamati on Friday broke Leo Myles-Mills' 22-year old national 100m record with 9.97s clocking at Texas Relays, Austin USA.

Azamati is the first man to break 10 secs barrier this season with 9.97sec and thus becomes the World Leader, National Record Holder and gains qualification to the Tokyo Olympic Games joining compatriots Joseph Paul Amoah and Nadia Eke who already have booked their tickets.

“SWAG acknowledges the performances of the athletics team and salutes your great feat”.

Prince Patel from the United Kingdom on Saturday night put up a good performance dropping Julius Kisarawe from Tanzania twice in the ninth  round to win via TKO to claim the WBO Africa, WBO Global, Commonwealth and IBF Intercontinental titles.

He did it in style at the Cahaya Lounge at East Legon in Accra under the SOAQ Empire Promotions.
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WBO Africa Super Bantamweight champion, Isaac Sackey also defeated Gabriel Odoi Laryea on points over 12 rounds of action with all judges scoring 120-108, 120-108 and 120-108  to hand him a unanimous decision.

Female boxers Lucy Wildheart and Flora Machela on Saturday night thrilled boxing fans as they promised.

Ever confident Lucy won on split points decision over Flora from Tanzania. The judges scored 77 - 78, 80 -74, 80 -72 for the UK based female boxer. She thanked the fans for the massive support.

They both said the bout was to encourage more Ghanaian ladies to do sports.
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​Flames of Malawi and Cranes of Uganda go against each other on Monday afternoon at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre for a crucial decider of the other Group B qualifier for the African of Nations Cup in Cameroon.

Both sides have the mathematical chance to sail to harbour with Uganda on second (8 points from five games) and Malawi following closely behind, one point adrift (7 from 5).

Malawi got a boost for qualification when it edged South Sudan 1-0 last week while Uganda was held to goalless draw by Burkina Faso who have already booked a ticket to Cameroon. The results threw the group open for either sides prospective qualification.

The Cranes are strong on the paper having clobbered the Flames 2-0 in their first encounter in Kampala and will just need to salvage a draw to go seal the deal while needs a win if they are going to qualify.
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MIES (Switzerland) - FIBA's Central Board convened by video conference today for their first meeting of 2021. The following key topics were discussed during the meeting:

Successful FIBA Continental Cup Qualifiers
The Central Board received a comprehensive report on the impressive operational efforts from the FIBA Continental Cup Qualifiers recently played in February, with national team basketball taking place on all five continents, across 14 different cities, despite the ongoing pandemic. A concerted effort by FIBA's Headquarters as well as Regional Offices in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania demonstrated once again FIBA's capacity to organize operations safely on such a large scale during difficult times. The vast majority of all initially scheduled qualification games have been played in the meantime and, two continents, Europe and the Americas managed to have all teams qualified for the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 and the FIBA AmeriCup 2022. The few remaining games to qualify teams for the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 will be played between June 4 and 20 and for the FIBA AfroBasket 2021between June 15 and July 5, 2021.

DOHA (Qatar) - Amsterdam Talent&Pro (NED) won their first-ever FIBA 3x3 World Tour Masters after defeating 4-time World Tour winners Novi Sad (SRB) (21-19) in the final of the Doha Masters on March 27, 2021.

With the game tied at 19 with a few seconds to go in the game, new recruit Maksim Kovacevic swished an amazing shot off the handoff from outside the arc to give Amsterdam Talent&Pro their first-ever title on the World Tour. He scored a whopping 13 points in the championship game. 
His teammate Arvin Slagter topped all scorers at the event with 35 points and was named MVP. 
The number one 3x3 player in the world Dusan Bulut did not win this time but he still led a new-look Novi Sad team all the way to the final. New addition Strahinja Milosevic led his squad in scoring in Doha with 31 points.
In the individual contests, Piotr 'Grabo' Grabowski  (POL) won the Elite Air Dunk Contest while Darius Tarvydas (Sakiai Gulbele, LTU) dominated the McDonalds Shoot-out Contest