Nigerian track queen, Tobi Amusan, the African, World 100m hurdles champion and Commonwealth record holder, has been crowned the 2022 African Female Athlete of the Year by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA).
Amusan who set a new world record of 12.12 secs to win the 100m hurdles at World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, United States, earlier in the year, was honoured on Wednesday for her record-breaking 2022 season.
Amusan is also the record holder in the African Championship, Diamond League, and Commonwealth Games 100m hurdles champion with different record times in 2022 alone, which set her miles apart from the pack of female athletes on the continent.
The hurdles queen was crowned ahead of Faith Kipyegoner of Kenya, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, who came second following her 1500m triumph at the World Athletics Championships and the 2022 Commonwealth Games, while Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia came third with her 1000m triumph in Oregon.
In the male category, Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkalil who is the 3000m Olympic champion and gold medalist at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, emerged as the 2022 Africa Male Athlete of the Year.
Kenyan long-distance runner, Eliud Kipchoge, who won gold at the 2022 Berlin Marathon, came second on the continent while Emmanuel Korir, another Kenyan middle-distance runner, who won gold at the World Athletics Championships and Diamond League finished third on the list.
Roma manager, Jose Mourinho, has heaped praises on Nigerian forward, Victor Osimhen, after the striker scored a wonder goal which can potentially compete for the goal of the season in the Italian Serie A.
The former Chelsea boss said Osimhen, who is a target of one of his former clubs, Manchester United, can compare favourably with former Ivorian striker, Didier Drogba who terrorised defences in the English Premier League.
However, Mourinho said the only hindrance to the Napoli striker reaching legendary status is if he desists from “diving” to gain favours from referees.
“He is of the same level as Drogba, but Didier didn’t dive,” Mourinho told reporters after the game when asked to access the Super Eagles forward’s performance.
“If Victor changes, then OK. I’d buy him if I was at a club with a lot of money.”
“However, if he does go to England one day, he needs to change, because in Italy they put up with this sort of behaviour, whereas in the Premier League, they’d come down hard on him.”
“I told him that he scored a wonderful goal and needs to stop diving so much. His goal was fantastic, he did the same thing when we met earlier this season, so he’s a fantastic player. But he mustn’t dive,” the Portuguese coach said.
The red hot Osimhen, has scored 14 goals in 16 league matches, propelling Napoli to a healthy 13 point lead at the top of thr Serie A.
It was a night of shocks and history on Saturday at the ongoing African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Algeria when one of the tournament’s favourites, Ghana, was knocked out by outsiders, Niger Republic in a 2-0 defeat which saw the Nigeriens qualify for the semi-finals.
As if the shock was not enough, first-time qualifiers, Madagascar, thumped Mozambique 3-1 to also qualify for the semi-final in some style.
While Madagascar was dealing with Mozambique in Constantine, Niger shocked two-time runners-up, Ghana, in Oran to complete the last-four line-up alongside host, Algeria and Senegal.
Niger’s reward is a date with Algeria while Madagascar will square up against Senegal, both on Tuesday.
Though Algeria and Senegal are outright favourites to win the tournament meant for African footballers playing in their country of birth, pundits believe underating the so called minnows could spell doom as Ghana, Cameroon, DR Congo and other top playing nations found out the hard way.
Madagascar had earlier shocked Ghana and hammered Sudan to win Group C, while Niger had pulled up the shock of the group stages by sending Cameroon packing with a 1-0 victory in their last group D match.