Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Olympic champions Vivian Cheruiyot and Eliud Kipchoge were named Kenya’s top athletes at an awards ceremony that rounded off a controversial but successful year for sports in the country. Cheruiyot, 33, a former world double 5,000m and 10,000m champion, warded off the challenge of Jemima …
Read More »Top Kenyan official in court over Rio kit ‘theft’
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | The chairman of Kenya’s Olympic committee appeared in court on Tuesday after police uncovered boxes of Nike kits at his apartment which had gone missing during the Rio Games. Bernard Ekumbo is the latest official from the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) to be …
Read More »Olympics: Six medallists fail reanalysed Beijing tests
Paris, France | AFP | Six medallists from the 2008 Beijing Olympics were among nine competitors to fail drug tests as part of an International Olympic Committee campaign of retesting stored samples, it was announced Wednesday. The list of athletes to have their medals stripped includes three weightlifters — Ukraine’s …
Read More »Scandal-hit Kenya Olympic board back to work, agree to polls
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Officials from Kenya’s scandal-hit national Olympic governing body returned to their offices on Thursday after the government lifted a one-month ban to allow them to organise elections. Kipchoge Keino, the head of the Kenyan board, is facing corruption allegations but said he was grateful that …
Read More »Brazil’s big party is over – now the hangover?
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Brazil’s been partying hard for five years, hosting a string of international mega-events that end this Sunday with the Paralympics. So is it time for the hangover? There was the 2014 football World Cup, the Confederations Cup, the Rio+20 United Nations environmental summit, …
Read More »Paralympians, poor Rio kids teach each other about overcoming limits
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | French Paralympians got a taste of Rio’s tough realities in a visit to a favela Friday but the impoverished children greeting the disabled athletes got an eye opener of their own. Foreign celebrities and sports stars often follow a well-beaten track from Rio’s …
Read More »Doping: WADA urges Russia to stop hacks of top athletes
Montreal, Canada | AFP | The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) called on Russia to help stop the hacking of its computer systems as medical records of 25 more athletes including three-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome were revealed on Thursday. The Kremlin reacted immediately by saying it was ready …
Read More »Bahraini Jebet smashes 3000m steeplechase world record
Paris, France | AFP | Kenyan-born Olympic champion Ruth Jebet obliterated the 3000m steeplechase world record Saturday as Dafne Schippers got back to winning ways in the 200m at the Paris Diamond League. On a sultry Parisian evening, Jebet’s performance was the standout, the now-Bahraini having transferred allegiance to …
Read More »Kenya sports minister disbands Olympic committee
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s sports minister, under fire after a series of scandals and embarrassments at the Rio games, on Thursday announced the disbanding of the country’s Olympic committee. “I do hereby disband the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) with immediate effect,” Hassan Wario said at a …
Read More »VIDEO: Sports minister Bakkabulindi commends Uganda Rio Olympics team
VIDEO: Fresh from Brazil where Uganda ended without a medal at the just concluded Rio 2016 Olympics, the state Minister for education and sports Charles Bakkabulindi has lashed out at critics of the team. Speaking at the launch of the 2016 Africa Blackball pool championships that Uganda will host later this year, …
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