Kenya Rugby Union Co-opts Wangui Kibe and Peris Mukoko Into Board of Directors

The Kenya Rugby Union has co-opted two women – Wangui Kibe and Peris Mukoko, into the Board of Directors with immediate effect.

“We are keen to have a Board that reflects the spirit of rugby as a sport for all: men, women, boys and girls. The two ladies have, through the quality of their Rugby contribution, and enduring commitment proven that they will add value to the governance of the sport. It’s a one-year co-option.

Kui (Wangui), for instance, has been involved in the management of most of the Safari 7s tournaments since inception in 1996, 23 years later. Peris was the first woman World Rugby Match Officials’ Educator and is a former Kenya international”

Therefore, the two ladies have not been co-opted to the Board merely because they are women. They are strong Rugby persons in their own rights with achievements over the years. We look forward to their very meaningful contribution to the sport ” said Oduor Gangla, the KRU chairman

The chairman added that there was room yet to co-opt people in the various Board committees. For instance, former Kenya Lioness international forward, Angela Olum, has been co-opted to the Women Rugby Committee.

Kenya Rugby Union co-opts Wangui Kibe and Peris Mukoko into the Board of Directors

Kui, in addition to the involvement in the first Safari 7s, managed the KRU office when it was initially set up, handling fixtures, referees, media and national teams for a period of 2 years. She was the first Kenyan woman to attain the KRU Rugby Level 1 Coaching Award.

She has a business degree from Daystar University, as well as a Diploma in Professional Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Kui is currently employed at Safaricom in enterprise digital marketing. She joined Safaricom in 2010 to manage sponsorships, and worked closely with KRU during the Safaricom 7s. Other sporting associations she handled include Athletics Kenya and Kenya Lawn Tennis Association.

She has served as chairperson of Ungana (The Young Friends of AMREF), a non-profit organisation. Ungana is a Kenyan youth volunteer and empowerment organisation, under the auspices of AMREF – Africa’s largest health NGO.

Peris, beyond being the first Kenyan female World Rugby Match Officials’ Educator and former test player, is an accredited member of the Kenya Rugby Referees Association (KRRA). She began playing at St. Mary’s School before joining Kenya Harlequin and then moving to Stanbic Mwamba.

Kenya Rugby Union co-opts Wangui Kibe and Peris Mukoko into the Board of Directors

She has various Rugby technical qualifications in her in-depth involvement of over a decade.

Peris has been a government officer, for the last 5 years. She also has had some experience at ICON Sports Marketing. There, she handled premier sports events such as the Barclays Kenya Open and “Road to Anfield” competition. The latter was a partnership between Liverpool FC and Standard Chartered Bank.

Peris is a graduate of Catholic University of Eastern Africa where she was a founder member of the Catholic Monks RFC. She is currently pursuing an MBA in Strategic Management at the University of Nairobi.

Nigeria To Host ITTF African Cup, Club Championships

Following the successful staging of one of the elite tournaments in the world – the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) backed by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has awarded the hosting right to Nigeria for the 2019 ITTF African Cup and Club Championships in August 2019.

According to the President of African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy, it was Nigeria’s pedigree in staging one of the continent’s most colourful tournaments that prompted the ATTF Executive Council (EC) to give the West African nation the nod to stage the tournaments.

ITTF Africa President, Khaled El-Salhy

“Nigeria applied for the hosting rights such a prestigious event on time and the EC found it is a very good chance to bring the event to Lagos just prior to the 2019 ITTF Challenge Plus Nigeria Open in order to give multiple benefits for the African players to play more than one tournament especially at same venue. Also it aims to encourage more African players to feature in the Nigeria Open this year.

He expressed optimism that more players would feature in the tournaments as most of them would be using as tune-up to the 2019 African Games in Morocco, which serves as Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifiers.

For the President, Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Ishaku Tikon, Nigeria is known to have staged one of the most colourful table tennis tournaments in the world, adding that hosting the continental tournaments would not be an issue. “We are ready to host the tournaments as ITTF and ATTF have both agreed to do the necessary things to ensure we stage a befitting tournament. We have the experience and the human resources to put up a good show and we hope to again put Africa on the world map with hosting of the championships,” Tikon said.

On the ability of Nigeria to stage the tournament, the ATTF boss said: “Nigeria is one of the very experienced African Federations hosting Continental & World title events, and I see that success is increasing year by year for their ITTF World Title event, thus this year with additional African events, they will have more success.”

For this event, each national association is expected to register four players made up of two men and two female as the African Cup serves as qualifiers for the ITTF World Cups for men and women.

“Each Association will register two male and two female players including the title holders – Aruna Quadri of Nigeria and Dina Meshref of Egypt being the champions of previous edition in Agadir, Morocco in 2017,” El-Salhy added.

ITTF Premier Lotto Table Tennis Open,

The African Club Championships serves off on July 31 to August 2 while the African Cup holds on August 3 to 5 with an average 15 countries and 70 players expected to compete in the tournaments in Lagos, Nigeria.

WBSC Reveals Groups, Schedule For Americas Softball Qualifier After Historic First-Ever Draw

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced today the groups and a 42- game schedule for the WBSC Americas Softball Championship, qualification event for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad Tokyo 2020. For the first time in history WBSC staged a draw defining the composition of the Groups. The draw was held at the WBSC headquarters at the Olympic Capital, Laussane, Switzerland, and was live-streamed via YouTube.

The 12 participating nations have learned their fate for this summer’s WBSC Americas Softball Championship, on the road to Tokyo 2020.

Host Canada will highlight Group A, along with world No. 4 Puerto Rico, No. 17 Cuba, No. 18 Guatemala, No. 25 Argentina, and No. 39 Bahamas.

Group B will be led by No. 5 Mexico, joined by No. 16 Venezuela, No. 14 Brazil, No. 19 Dominican Republic, No. 20 Peru and No. 57 British Virgin Islands.

“It is a big milestone for our organization, staging the first-ever draw for an official international baseball softball tournament; it’s important to set groups by draw; this makes the process completely transparent”, said WBSC President, Riccardo Fraccari. “Good luck to all the teams. It will be undoubtedly an interesting tournament, marking the first step in the road to Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games”.

The WBSC Americas Softball Championship, the last opportunity for the Americas teams to qualify to the Olympic Games, will start on Saturday 25 August in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, with all 12 teams in play. The five-day Opening Round will finish on 29 August, with the top three squads of each group advancing to the Super Round. Three days later, the two best nations in the Super Round will clinch their ticket to Tokyo 2020.

The top two nations in the WBSC World Ranking, United States and Japan, are the only teams qualified for the historic softball return to the Olympic Programme in Tokyo (the US team for being WBSC World Champion 2018, and Japan as the host team of the Games). That’s why USA won’t be participating in this event.

With the groups draw, the teams have also known their rivals for each day of competition; however the exact time of each game will be announced at a later date.

2019 ITTF World Championships: ATTT Hails Aruna Quadri’s Feat In Budapest

For being the best player from Africa to reach the last 32 of the men’s singles at the 2019 ITTF World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) for being a record setter for the continent at global level.

The continental body through its President, Khaled El-Salhy described the Nigerian as a good ambassador for always putting the continent on the world map with his scintillating performance.

El-Salhy, however lauded Egypt’s Dina Meshref for her second feat in the women’s singles as well as her partnership with compatriot – Yousra Helmy for making it to the second round of the women’s doubles.

“Some African players did quite well especially Aruna Quadri (NGR) who was the last male player on track by reaching the round of 32, also Dina Meshref (EGY) who also made it to the round of 64 in singles while her doubles’ pairing with Yousra Helmy reached the last 32 of the event. I think they all tried their best and lost in some very tough matches,” the ATTF boss said.

For African players to excel at big stage, El-Salhy said: “Medals in this kind of events are very difficult due to the big competition from China with five players as well as strong teams like Japan, Germany, Koreas, and others, but maybe they should look to medals in World Cup and World title events.

Players must also work hard to be able to advance in this kind of competition and this will surely help their World Ranking, and also for the national associations to prepare the players while African countries should also be looking forward in in hosting similar WTTC in the near future.”

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY – [April 22]: Mens Doubles preliminary at the Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships on April 22, 2019 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Remy Gros/ITTF)

The ATTF boss commended the organisers of the competition, the Hungarian Table Tennis Association for putting up a good show. “I am so happy and satisfied in Budapest for the competition, facilities within hotels and transportation provided during the tournament and most importantly the good weather we enjoyed during the tournament.”

On the inability of Morocco to secure the hosting right for the 2021 World Championships, he said: “There is hope for Africa because this time Morocco put up a perfect bidding and ATTF supported them, while USA won the bidding due to their planning to use the event in 2021 as the 50th Anniversary for the Ping Pong Diplomacy. I am sure Africa could be hosting the WTTC soon.”

Nigeria Rugby Sevens To Play 2020 Olympic Qualifiers

Rugby Africa has confirmed Nigeria’s participation at this year’s Olympic Qualifiers to be held in South Africa in November following Nigeria’s superb performance at the Africa North regional 7s tournament in Cote d’Ivoire and a massive 59-13 test match win against Niger Republic in Niamey last year.

Acting NRFF Technical Director and Team Manager: Dele Coker announced the news on Monday in Lagos. “We are happy for the chance to participate in the 2020 Olympics qualifiers: Africa Men’s Sevens later this year. We will ensure our best players are available, ensure proper preparations and aim to go far at the tournament” says Coker.

This competition will allow one of the participating teams to qualify for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, in 2020. The participating teams are: Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Zambia, Tunisia, Senegal, Morocco, Namibia, Ghana, Botswana, Mauritius, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.

South Africa is presently competing in the HSBC World Sevens Series and may not participate at the Africa Sevens if they amass enough points and qualify for the Olympics automatically. Burkina Faso are waiting on the side lines to fill in the gap should South Africa excel at the HSBC.

The competition will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa on 9th – 10th November, 2019.

LAGOS COUNTRY CLUB TO HOST SNOOKER OPEN CLASSSIC

The Snooker and Billiard section of Lagos Country Club, Lagos premier recreational centre, her Sponsor and Partners (ASENTV, Cue Games and Perfect Events) are pleased to announce that the 2019 Snooker & Billiards Open Classic will be holding from May 23’u to May 26th, 2019 at the Lagos Country Club.

The N250, 000 prize fund event is a follow up to the successfully hosted 1s Femi Robinson Open Snooker Classic that took place from 2nd to 4th November 2018 at the Lagos Country Club.

This classic holding 23’d to May 26th aims at maintaining the gains and benefits of organising an open event that brings together the very best in the sport which will stimulate growth and interest thereby promoting the sports in Nigeria in line with the vision of the Club.

“The development of the game of Snooker and Billiards is very paramount for uS at Lagos Country Club Snooker / Billiards Section and that is why as a follow up to the Femi Robinson Open Classics, we have come up with another Open tagged “Balls Sticks and Holes”.

I would like to encourage players to come out in large numbers to support the sport. Our goal is to be able to produce a representative to play in an African open in the nearest future.

Looking forward to an exciting tournament” says Wole Robinsons, Chairman Snooker / Billiards Section Lagos Country Club lkeja.

The event is opened to both Snooker and Pool players who are interested in testing their shooting skills in snooker. The tournament would feature 32 players vying for Total Prize money of N250K and lots of Gifts ltems.

Amongst the top snooker players expected at the event are Wole Akintola, Olufemi Akinlade, Victor Ukueku, Waliu Nojeem (winner of the 1st Femi Robinson Open Snooker Classic) and many others.

Meanwhile, the English lnstitute of Sport in Sheffield is staging the qualifying rounds of snooker’s 2019 Betfred World ChampionshiP. The qualifying eventwhich started on the 1Oth ended on 17th April 2019, with all players ranked outside the world’s top 16 in action. 128 players are participating in the event; each needing to win three matches to earn a coveted spot at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The final stages then run from 20th April to May 6th .

2019 CAVB Beach Volleyball Nations Cup: It’s “Mission Accomplished” For Rwanda In Abuja – Bitok

The head coach of Rwanda national volleyball teams, Paul Bitok says he is leaving Nigeria a happy man after qualifying for the men and women World Championships in Germany.

Bitok stated this at the just concluded 2019 Africa Beach Volleyball Cup Seniors in Abuja, Nigeria.

He said they will go back and start preparation for the World Championship.

Team Rwanda at the 2019 Africa Beach Volleyball Cup Seniors

“I thank my players for fighting throughout this competition. It is unfortunate that did not finish first to win Gold but we won Silver.

“In the last Africa championship we end with fifth position now we are second, we will work hard to finish first in the next edition of the Championship. I am happy that we are now second at the continental level”, he said.

“My players fought well in the game and they came out victorious in the women’s third place match against Nigeria, I am happy that we were able to achieve our goal, we secure a place for the World Cup championship in Germany in the men and women category.

The head coach of Rwanda national volleyball teams, Paul Bitok

“We will go back home and prepare for the World Cup in June, I have asked the Rwanda Volleyball Federation to give us the opportunity to camp in Europe which they have agreed to.

Rwanda’s women volleyball team on Saturday defeated their counterparts from Nigeria 2-0 in a third place match, while Morocco men beat Rwanda 2-0 in final to lift the trophy in the men’s category of the African Beach Volleyball Cup in Abuja.

Nigeria’s Oyinlomo Moves Up ITF Ranking Again, Now Rated No. 2 In Africa

Nigeria’s Oyinlomo Quadre has for the second successive week risen significantly in the ITF ranking for junior players.

According to the new ranking released by the world’s tennis governing body on Monday April 29, the Morocco-based youngster climbed 26 places to 176 in the world making her the second placed African just behind Nahimana Sada of Burundi, who is ranked at 28 in the world.

Oyinlomo Quadre poses with ITF officials in Tunisia

This development is coming barely one week after Quadre’s unprecedented ITF Grade 3 Junior Circuit win in Tunisia, which shot her up from 320 in the world to 202, one of the biggest movements in junior tennis in recent years.

Since her feat in Tunisia, Quadre, who will clock 16 on May 1, has stepped up the gear as highlighted in her recent engagement in the Grade 2 tournament in Algeria, where she defeated Ines Bekrar of Algeria in the second round at the 13th Tournoi International Juniors de Tlemcen Algeria.

Although she couldn’t go beyond the quarterfinals in the singles, the right-handed double-handed backhand player went as far as the final in the doubles which was enough to fetch her more points on the global log.

She is scheduled to feature in more Grade 2 tournaments across North Africa in the coming weeks in her bid to get into the top 100 rankings which is her primary target for the year.

FIFA U20 World Cup: Nigeria’s Flying Eagles Arrive Germany For Intensive Training

Nigeria’s U20 boys have arrived in Bad Goegging Munich in Germany for a three –week intensive final camping programme ahead of the FIFA U20 World Cup finals in Poland.

A delegation comprising team officials and 23 players traveled aboard a Lufthansa Airline flight from Abuja on Saturday night and arrived in Frankfurt just before 6am, before a 4-hour road trip to the city. The delegation is staying at The Monarch Hotel.

At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Saturday, the seven –time African champions welcomed the General Secretary of Nigeria Football Federation, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, who charged the team to adopt good character and discipline as winning words in the camp and at the global championship, while eschewing any conduct that could tarnish the image of Nigeria.

“A good name is better than gold. While we implore you to go out there and put in the best efforts to win your matches and do the country and the African continent proud, it is important that you do so with good conduct, discipline and dedication, and with respect for the good name of our dear country.

“You are flying the country’s flag and also flying the continent’s flag. It is therefore incumbent on you to show good character on and off the field of play at all times and abide by the tenets of fairplay,” Dr. Sanusi said.

While advising the players and team officials to valorize hard work and patriotism, Dr. Sanusi assured that the NFF is committed to giving the team its full support, including payment of their bonuses and allowances in the training camp and at the championship in Poland.

In his response, team captain Ikouwem Utin thanked the Federation for the support given the team so far and pledged that the players would give their very best to do Nigeria and Africa proud in Poland, while maintaining discipline as their watchword.

The Flying Eagles, two–time silver medallists at the FIFA U20 World Cup finals, will fly out of Germany to Poland on 19th May, five days before their opening match of this year’s competition against Qatar’s U20 team in Tychy.

They would afterwards tackle the United States of America on Monday, 27th May in Bielsko-Biala before concluding their group phase assignment against Ukraine on Thursday, 30th May at the same venue.

The 24–nation championship will hold 23rd May – 15th June.

African players need to raise their game – Wahid Oshodi

African players need to raise their game, says Oshodi…Wants coaches to be acquainted with modern techniques

Chairman of ITTF Nomination Committee, Wahid Oshodi believes for African players to comfortably test might against their Asian and European counterparts, there is need for them to up their game by competing in several competitions across the globe.

Speaking against the backdrop of African players’ performance at the 2019 ITTF World Championships held in Budapest, Hungary, Oshodi said: “The performance of the African players has been quite fair. We were hoping for better results but they have had to contend with difficult draws and players recovering from injuries.

The performances need to improve so we can challenge the top Asian and European players. But apart from this, I must commend Aruna Quadri who is still recovering from a hamstring injury but worked hard in getting to the round of 32 before going out in a closely contested match against the overwhelming favourite and World No 1 Fan Zhen Dong. It was a great performance. The young Nigerian former Junior Champion Ajoke Ojomu also showed great promise in her first world championship. She showed all the qualities needed to play at this level. Now she must add more hard work to her undoubted talent. The African female champion Dina Meshref also played well.”

The former President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) said for African players to win medals in global tournaments, there must conscious efforts by coaches to acquaint themselves with modern techniques in the sports.

Wahid Oshodi (left) with ATTF President, Khaled El-Salhy

“We must get our players playing more regularly against the best players in the world. Our coaches need to learn the latest techniques. We need more exposure for them and for the players. We need to get our players on the World Tour Circuit. This means money and they need more sponsorship and funding.

We have all witnessed the vast improvements made by Aruna Quadri, Olajide Omotayo and Omar Assar since they started playing regularly on the tour. You play against the best in the world and learn from them. The support Aruna Quadri has received from Baba Ijebu Bet has helped him in no small way to ensure he attends tournaments and pay for the extra coaching that is needed at this level. Others need to emulate this,” Oshodi said.