Nigeria’s Super Eagles sharpened their claws by walloping Portuguese club Farense 5-0 with three days to go before the Africa Cup of Nations kicks off tomorrow.
Spain-based Uche Ikechukwu scored a hat-trick, and Emmanuel Emenike and John Obi Mikel one each, as a side that is among the favorites for the tournament in South Africa completed a four-match warm-up schedule.
It could have been a much wider victory margin as Nosa Igiehor was foiled three times and Chelsea midfielder Obi twice by the woodwork, with Nigeria dominating the second half after leading 1-0 at halftime.
As part of their warmup, the team that have finished among the top three in all but three of 16 Cup of Nations appearances drew 1-1 in Spain with Catalonia before a goalless stalemate with Cape Verde and a 1-0 win over Sparta Rotterdam in Portugal.
Nigeria are in Group C with defending champions Zambia and rank outsiders Burkina Faso and Ethiopia, and it would be calamitous for the vast West African nation if they failed to make the knockout stages.
The form of Ikechukwu was particularly encouraging for coach Stephen Keshi, as the Villareal goal poacher is set to team up with Emenike as the Super Eagles’ first-choice strike force.
Burkina Faso are the first opponents of twice-champions Nigeria on Monday at Mbombela Stadium in the north-eastern city of Nelspruit, near the world-famous Kruger National Park, followed by Zambia and Ethiopia.
The Burkinabe Stallions, who have gone 17 Africa Cup matches since 1998 without a win, continued a low-key buildup by defeating Swaziland league leaders Mbabane Swallows 3-1 in Nelspruit.
Aristide Bance, Mohammed Koffi and Wilfried Dah were on target for Burkina Faso, who are guided by Belgium-born former Gambia coach Paul Put and skippered by veteran striker Moumouni Dagano.
A couple of other country-club clashes, between Morocco and Bidvest Wits in Johannesburg, and Niger and Platinum Stars in the Indian Ocean city of Port Elizabeth, ended goalless with the Africa Cup sides experimenting.
Morocco are considered potential qualifiers from Group A, which includes South Africa, Angola and Cape Verde, while Niger are outsiders in Group B against Ghana, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The injury concerns of Ghana continued with teenage striker Richmond Boakye-Yiadom limping out of a training session in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates city were the Black Stars are preparing.
Boakye-Viadom joined defender Isaac Vorsah and midfielder Anthony Annan on the sidelines, while midfielders Albert Adomah and Mohammed Rabiu received the green light to resume training.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier