SPORT - The African Mirror

Sep

07

2021

Bottas leaves Mercedes for Alfa Romeo

SPORT

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER AFTER spending the past years playing second fiddle - “wingman” - to Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes driver Valterri Bottas is leaving to become the frontman at Alfa Romeo. Bottas spent five years during which he helped Hamilton win the driver’s championship and Mercedes the constructors title. He will replace the legendary Kimi Raikonnen -”The Flying Finn” - for the 2022 season. Raikonnen, whose career includes driving for Ferrari and Renault, is retiring from F1. Bottas will be replaced by George Russell, whose seat at Williams is expected to be filled by Alexandra Albon. Bottas…

Sep

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Verstappen delights home Dutch crowd

SPORT

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen absorbed the pressure from both Mercedes cars and won his first Grand Prix in front of the Dutch “Orange army ”. Verstappen took his seventh win of the season from pole, producing a magnificently controlled performance at the whirlwind Zandvoort circuit. A delightful display of fireworks and an orange haze greeted Verstappen as he crossed the line 20 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton and teammate Valterri Bottas, who finished second and third. The lead Red Bull driver now leads the Drivers' Championship standings with 224.5 points to Hamilton's 221.5 though - interestingly - Mercedes leads the constructors'…

Sep

04

2021

By The African Mirror

Chelsea FC’s Ziyech ousted from Morocco team

SPORT

Chelsea star winger Hakim Ziyech has been omitted from the Morocco national team due to ‘unacceptable behaviour’, confirmed Morocco head coach Vahid Halilhodzic. Morocco competed in a game against Ghana, a 1-0 victory in which Ziyech featured from the bench, prior to the team announcement for the World Cup qualifiers. Head coach Vahid Halilhodzic subsequently left Ziyech off the team list for the qualifiers against Sudan and Guinea. “For the first time in my coaching career, I have seen behaviour that disappoints me.” Halilhodzic said,” A player who refuses to play a game, Admittedly a friendly, on the pretext that…

Sep

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Repeat racism offenders should be kicked out of international football, says Bale

SPORT

WALES captain Gareth Bale has called for countries whose fans are repeat racism offenders to be banned from international football after reported abuse towards England's Raheem Sterling and Jude Bellingham against Hungary in Budapest on Thursday. Speaking ahead of his side's World Cup qualifier against Belarus on Sunday, the Real Madrid winger questioned the long investigations that habitually follow such incidents and demanded more immediate action. "I don't know the severity of what to do to but the easiest thing is ... whether you ban the fans from the stadium or if they keep repeatedly doing it, which seems to…

Sep

01

2021

By The African Mirror

SHOCK: Uganda dump Nigeria out of AfroBasket

SPORT

UGANDA ended Nigeria's attempt at claiming the 2021 African Basketball Championship (AfroBasket) crown with a surprising 80-62 win at the Kigali Arena, Rwanda. On the back of a disappointing run at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where D'Tigers - Nigeria's Senior Men's Basketball team - finished 10th, a different team was fielded in an attempt to claim the African basketball throne. Coach Mike Brown led the Nigerian warriors to wins against Mali and Kenya in the group stage where D'Tigers looked in fine form - replicating that of their undefeated string of qualifying games. Uganda picked the pace up in every…

Feb

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Road to basketball Olympic gold

SPORT

BOITUMELO RANTAO THE stage is set for the ultimate battle of the hoop to see who will qualify to challenge the highest prize in world basketball - Olympic gold - in 2021. The draw for the 2021 Men’s olympic tournament took place today and has affirmed spectators' assumptions that there will be no shortage of entertainment for international basketball fans at this year’s Olympics. Nigeria, one of Africa’s top teams, will face off against Australia, and the winners of the Olympic Qualifying tournaments (OQT) held in Lithuania and Serbia. Belgrade in Serbia will play host to Senegal, New Zealand, Puerto…

Feb

03

2021

By The African Mirror

Olympics-Undaunted by pandemic, S.Sudan athletes in Japan fix eyes on the prize

SPORT

KIYOSHI TAKENAKA AFTER the coronavirus forced a delay in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, athletes from South Sudan who are training in Japan seized the opportunity for more practice, which they have vowed to keep up, despite mounting uncertainty over this year's event. Four track athletes and a coach from South Sudan, the world's youngest country, and one of its poorest, arrived in November 2019 in Maebashi, a city 100 km (62 miles) northwest of Tokyo, to exploit Japan's better training conditions. Forced to extend their stay after the summer games were postponed by a year, they find infections are still…

Feb

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Why Bafana haven’t repeated their 1996 success

SPORT

BAFANA Bafana’s triumph at the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) held the promise of a new era, one in which the sleeping giant of the continent rose to rival traditional titans Nigeria, Cameroon and the Arab nations to the north. But two and a half decades on, it remains their only success. Bafana Bafana’s fortunes declined slowly at first, then hastened to the point where they are now barely considered outsiders for the biannual continental crown. As FNB Stadium swayed in jubilation at the 2-0 win over Tunisia in the 1996 final and beaming president Nelson Mandela handed the…

Feb

01

2021

By The African Mirror

The Jake White Effect on champion Bulls

SPORT

BOITUMELO RANTAO SOUTH African rugby franchise the Blue Bulls lifted the trophy as Currie Cup champions for the first time since 2009, completing their climb to the summit of South African rugby. The Pretoria franchise dramatically defeated the Cell-C Sharks 26-19 in a hard-fought Currie Cup final. A season of twists and turns due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic delivered one of the most thrilling Currie Cup finals in recent memory and the longest such encounter of all-time. The weather extended the fixture after a lightning warning took teams to the sidelines in the 25th minute. The Sharks ran ahead,…

Feb

01

2021

By The African Mirror

Enzo wins Virtual F1 GP

SPORT, E-SPORTS

BOITUMELO RANTAO FORMULA One’s digital race series, which emerged during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, returns for a three instalment championship series, acting as a preface to the season. Haas driver Enzo Fittipaldi took race honours after a nail-biting final lap brawl with Ferrari Driver Academy driver Arthur Leclerc, brother of Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc. Enzo’s brother Pietro Fittipaldi, who contended for Haas towards the conclusion of the 2020 F1 season, finished in a respectable fifth. Williams duo George Russell and Nicholas Latifi had hopes to impress in the days leading up to the race.…