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D’Tigress stun Australia to claim first win at Olympics in 20 years

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Nigeria’s women basketball team, D’Tigress, on Monday pulled off a surprise at the Paris 2024 Olympics Games with a stunning 75-62 win over favourites and third seeded Australia.

The win over the Opals was the first ever victory D’Tigress has recorded in the Olympic Games in 20 years.

Point guard Ezinne Kalu produced a clutch performance, inspiring the Rena Wakama coached team to withstand a late rally from the Aussies at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium.

Kalu finished the game with 19 points and five rebounds, helping Nigeria to a memorable win over the third-best team in the world.

At the start of the game, Australia showed some real urgency and was all over the Nigerian ladies in the opening few minutes with
Jade Melbourne and Ezi Magbegor leading the early onslaught as the Opals raced to a 13-5 lead.

But the 12th seeded D’Tigress responded with a magnificent Kalu leading their lines while the gulf in quality that was suggested by the ranking was lost immediately after the match started.

D’Tigress showed more hunger with Murjanatu Musa, Kalu, and Amy Okonkwo scraping loose balls and shooting with superior ease.

Nigeria led 18-17 at the end of the first quarter, and the lead was extended to 41-28 by half-time.

Kalu was at the top of her game, hooping three-point shots with finesse, while Murjanatu, with her blocks and steals, kept the turnovers coming for Nigeria.

Although the Opals rallied in the third quarter and the early minutes of the fourth, D’Tigress held on for a historic victory.

The team will face France in its second game of Group B on Thursday.

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Faith Kipyegon considering moving to different discipline after 1,500m dominance

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Kenya’s multiple world and Olympics champion, Faith Kipyegon, says she is considering as switch to other distances next year after dominating the 1,500m for many years with no serious challengers.

The Kenyan Golden Girl who already has three Olympics titles, a world record, and as many world titles, which makes her the greatest female athlete in history over the distance, added a fifth Diamond League title to her trophy cabinet last weekend, and says a switch to other races to test herself is not off the table in 2025.

“I hope to stay strong and healthy towards next year and see what I am capable of doing. I don’t know if I will still do 1,500m or move to 5,000m but I hope for the best next year,” Kipyegon told Athletics Weekly after grabbing the Diamond League title.

Kipyegon stated that she has been motivated by other athletes who have contested different disciplines, such as Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen who made his half marathon debut last weekend, and Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan, who has won titles in marathon, half marathon, 1,500m and 10,000m.

“I have seen Jakob is running in Copenhagen, I hope he gives me the motivation and I can also do half marathon.

“Also, Sifan Hassan doing half, marathon and coming to 1,500m, 5,000m, so I think it is only to twist how you think and say I am going to do this and hopefully we will do it,” she added.

Kipyegon has already proven that she has what it takes to compete in the 5,000m after winning a world title in Budapest last year, this coming after she had broken a world record, while she also claimed Olympics silver in Paris over the distance.

She had also previously expressed her interest in running a marathon in future and 2025 could be the year she starts the transition if she makes the decision.

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Kenya’s female athletes maintain Diamond League dominance

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Kenya’s female athletes have continued to prove their dominance at the Diamond League final in Brussels, Belgium, as they have scooped most of the titles to maintain their good record at major championships.

Out of the nine track events this far competed for in Brussels, Kenyan women athletes have picked four of them with some stunning performances recorded along the way.

Three of the four titles were won on the second day of the competition after world champion Mary Moraa had regained her 800m crown in superb fashion on Friday.

The Commonwealth champion ran a very tactical race to win the 800m Diamond Trophy in a season’s best 1:56.56, having saved the best for last, as she stormed to victory in the final 200m.

Moraa last won the trophy in 2022 before she was defeated by American Athing Mu last year but she made amends with her victory ahead of Britain’s Georgia Bell who clocked 1:57.50 and Jamaica’s Natoya Goule-Toppin, who completed the podium in 1:58.94.

On Saturday, 20-year-old Faith Cherotich stunned Olympics and world champion Winfred Yavi to claim the 3,000m steeplechase title.

With Yavi and former Olympics champion Peruth Chemutai of Uganda in the race, few gave Cherotich a chance at victory but she proved everyone wrong.

The world and Olympics bronze medallist timed her jumps at the water barriers to perfection while keeping Yavi in check, and at the final hurdle, she had already managed a good gap which she held on to win her first-ever Diamond League title.

Faith Kipyegon was the next to prove her mettle in the 1,500m and the three-time Olympics champion smashed the meeting record to clock 3:54.75 for her fifth Diamond League title.

Double Olympics champion Beatrice Chebet put the icing on the cake for the Kenyan women when she commanded the 5,000m race from start to finish.

Chebet left her rivals by a big gap as she lowered Almas Ayana’s meeting record by setting a new mark of 14:09.82 for her second Diamond League title.

Chebet had also won her first trophy in 2022 before missing out last year, but made amends in emphatic style. To show how dominant she was, second-placed Medina Eisa of Ethiopia came home in 14:21.89 to add to her world record in 10,000m, World Cross-Country title, two Olympics gold medals and now the Diamond League title in 2024.

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