Category: Sports

The organisers of the 11th edition of the Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) remain confident that the event will go ahead in Madagascar in August as planned.

The president of the International Games Committee (CIJ), Antonio Gopal, said: “I have just recently spoken to both the Minister for Sports and the President of Madagascar, who both assured me that the games will go ahead as planned.”

In a recent article published by Reunion 1ere, on May 2, there was conflicting view on whether or not the games as there were conflicting views from the president of the Olympic Committee of Madagascar and the country’s Minister for Youth and Sports.

“Uncertainty still hangs over the future of the Island Games which are due to be held from 23 August to 3 September. The president of the Olympic Committee of Madagascar estimates the chances of the Games taking place at 2 percent. The Minister of Youth and Sports says that 98 percent, if not 100 percent of the IOG will take place,” said the article.

Gopal, who is also the president of the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association, remains confident that the games will go ahead.

He told SNA that in the unlikely event that Madagascar cannot host the games, then another country will have to take on the hosting duties and the games will likely be postponed up until 2025.

Meanwhile, another article on Reunion 1ere on May 4 said that “The President of the Malagasy Republic, Andry Rajoelina, candidate to his succession, has just broken his silence on the subject of the Island Games which are due to take place from 23 August to 3 September 2023 on the Big Island.”

It added that “With three months to go, President Andry Rajoelina has asked officials in the Ministry of Sports to roll up their sleeves to meet the deadline.”

The 2023 games are scheduled to take place in Madagascar from August 23 to September 3 and some of the main issues are whether or not the renovation of certain facilities will be done in time.

The IOIG is a muti-sport event that takes place every four years for athletes from the Indian Ocean Islands. For the 11th edition, 23 sporting disciplines are on the programmes with the participation of over 2,000 athletes.

They are athletics (track and field – handi-sport), badminton, basketball (3×3 and 5×5), boxing, cycling, equestrian, football, beach soccer, weightlifting, handball, judo, karate, kickboxing, wrestling, swimming (handi-sport), petanque, rugby (7×7 and 15×15), taekwondo, archery, tennis, table tennis, yachting, volleyball, beach volleyball, and surfing.

Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar, Mayotte, Reunion and the Maldives are the regular participants in the games, with Mauritius, the previous hosts, claiming the most gold medals in the 2019 games.

Source: Seychelles News Agency

The Under 17 Lions have lost their chance of advancing to the next stage of the 2023 African Cup of Nations currently taking place in Algeria.

They were beaten by Burkina Faso on May 7 by 2 goals to 1 in the day 2 fixture of the youth continental football championship.

With a draw the Lions still stood a chance of qualifying to the next round as one of the best thirds but ythis was unfortunately not the case.

The baby lions were leading at the 61 minute but their opponents over took them scoring 2 goals in 2 minutes thereby eliminating them from the competition.

In a group where they were considered as favorites following their smooth run during the preparatory matches they were unfortunately not able to live up to expectations.

It should be noted that the defending champions played 2 matches and lost all receiving 4 goals and scoring just 1.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

The baby Lions have one last chance to determine if they advance to the next round of the U17 Africa Cup of Nations in Algeria or exit the competition.

The defending Champions take on Burkina Faso on Sunday, May 7, at 8:00 pm, a fixture which will determine which side qualifies for the quarter-finals of the ongoing youth tournament.

Serge Mimpo, Cameroon’s coach, assured fans that they will not be disappointed this time. “We have our backs against the wall, and we have to win. We are going to do our best against Burkina Faso and I believe we will not disappoint Cameroonians. I’m certain about that,” the coach was speaking during the pre-match press conference.

His counterpart from Burkina Faso said they are determined to defeat the Lions.

“After Mali’s defeat, we were all frustrated but we are highly motivated for the game against Cameroon. We are here to win all the three points. We are not looking at the fact that the Lions are the title holders, we are here to play for a win,” Coach Brahima Toure said.

Both Cameroon and Burkina Faso lost their first games against Mali, 0-2 and 0-1 respectively. The two sides have no point behind Mali who are already qualified for the quarter-finals with 6 points in three-team Group C.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Luanda – Angolan National Team won 59 medals at the Alvalade swimming pool, in Luanda, and is close to reaching the 2015 record.

So far, the country snatched 22 gold medals. Also 19 silver and 18 bronze at the African Swimming Championship in zone IV.

The result was attributed to the rise in wins recorded on Friday in the qualifying competition for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)

The 2023 All Stars Football Festival was launched on Wednesday in Sunyani with an appeal to the media to highlight the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions contributions to the football development in the country.

The festival, second in the succession is being jointly organised by the Business Africa Consulting (BAC) Group and the Bono-Ahafo Regional Football Association (BARFA) in recognition and honour of past and present local and national football stars from the three regions for their meritorious services through the discipline of football for the regions and Ghana’s progress.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Ralph Gyambrah, the BARFA Chairman who made the appeal claimed that the three regions combined had produced most football stars, administrators and investors than any other region in the country.

He therefore implored the media among other things to report positively through oral and written presentations about the past and present footballers from the three regions for their sterling and great contributions to football development in Ghana and beyond.

Mr. Gyambrah said all the longest serving senior national football team, the Black Stars captains with two of them, Kwasi Owusu of blessed memory and Asamoah-Gyan as top scorers in the history of Ghana football and Akwasi Appiah are natives of the Bono Region.

He said the regions had been the hub of Ghana’s football and deserved the fair share of the national cake in terms of resources and infrastructures towards their socio-economic development.

Dr. Ernest Koranteng, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the BAC Group explained the decision to organise this year’s edition of the Festival in the Bono-Ahafo was to celebrate the contributions of the regions to Ghana football over the years.

He mentioned legends like late Kwasi Owusu, Akwasi Appiah and Asamoah-Gyan who captained the Black Stars during their playing days, Dan Owusu, three consecutive times Ghana’s Premier Division goal king in the 1970’s and Alex Opoku who led Ghana’s Black Starlets ’91 to win the FIFA Under-17 World Cup that year in Italy among others as football icons who must be celebrated.

Other speakers at the event appealed to government and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to consider the region by constructing a standard sport stadium and a standard football academy as a monument for the three regions’ enormous contribution to Ghana’s football development.

Some of the scheduled activities for the festival are all-star festival float in the Ahafo Region, a gala night on June 21st in Sunyani in honour of the legends who have contributed significantly to the success of the football industry since 1957 to date in both the regions and Ghana.

Furthermore, a durbar in honour of the Black Stars would be held at Dormaa-Ahenkro by Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyeman Badu II, the Paramount Chief of Dormaa Traditional Area, a media launch and soiree in Accra, conferences on club football businesses, a special curtain raiser football match at the Coronation Park in Sunyani and the all-star football match to climax the festival at the Nana Agyeman Badu I Park at Dormaa-Ahenkro.

Consequently, a ten-member local organising committee (LOC) with Mr. Ransford Antwi, the CEO of Suncity Radio in Sunyani was officially inaugurated by Mr. Frank Nelson, a Board Member of Accra Hearts of Oak Football Club.

Mr. Antwi, on behalf of the members, assured them that they would work effectively in collaboration with other stakeholders for the success of the festival to justify the confidence reposed in them.

He appealed to residents to bury their differences and forge ahead in unity for the holistic development of the regions and the nation in general.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Angola’s national team finished Thursday in style the second day of the African Zone IV Championship, which ends on Sunday in Luanda.

Angolan team remain in second place in the overall medal standings, now with nine gold, five silver and the same number of bronze, making a total of 33 over the two days of competition.

Among the gold medals, stands out that obtained by Silvério Manuel (2.54.13), in the 200m breaststroke, relegating silver to Mozambican Mason Cohen (2.45.77) and bronze to Namibian Liam Kinnaird (2.45.71).

Another reference, Marco Furtado, who won gold in the 50m butterfly (29.02), after winning the bronze medal in the 2022 edition, in Zambia.

Marco edged Namibian Lorenzo Esterhuizen in second (29.02) and Mozambican Abdul dos Santos in third (29.72).

In the 200m freestyle, athlete Herinque Mascarenhas beat the competition (1.56.50), after being seconded by Mozambican Kaio Faftine (1.59.54), while Namibian Marco Henning took bronze (1.59.86 ).

Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)