{"id":178,"date":"2021-01-13T08:26:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T08:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/networklivenews.com\/?p=178"},"modified":"2021-01-13T08:26:04","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T08:26:04","slug":"2020-was-not-a-bad-year-for-african-teams-in-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/networklivenews.com\/?p=178","title":{"rendered":"2020 was not a bad year for African teams in sports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Article by: Obriel Maposa (Sports Editor), Dineo Modise (Journalist) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a weird year with very few events given green light to proceed, but 2020 still featured so many incredible moments in the sporting world. For Africans there was a lot of success to be proud of from a number of sporting disciplines. Here\u2019s our picks at Network Live News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Athletics <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethiopia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The athletics season\nstarted off with a world record from Ethiopia\u2019s Ababel Yeshaneh, who ran\n1:04:31 at the RAK Half Marathon in the United Arab Emirates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenya<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, Kenya\u2019s\nPeres Jepchirchir beat the women-only half-marathon world record in Prague,\nclocking a 1:05:34 finish. Only a month later, she ran to the win at the World\nHalf-Marathon Championships, where she beat her own women-only record, this\ntime posting a 1:05:16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei\nretained the women’s London Marathon title on Sunday, producing a brilliant\nsolo run to claim a fourth career win in the 42.2km race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uganda<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uganda\u2019s Joshua Cheptegei\nran in Monaco on two occasions in 2020, both times running 5K. His first race came\nin February, when he ran to a 5K road world record of 12:51. Several months\nlater in August, he returned to Monaco, this time to contest 5K on the track.\nJust like he did at the start of the year, Cheptegei set a world record over\n5,000m, running 12:35.36 to beat Kenenisa Bekele\u2018s record of 12.37.35.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Football<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In football Al Ahly won\nthe CAF Champions League and were voted the Club of the Century. The Egyptian\nGiants were also winners at the recent Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadio Mane , Joel Matip,\nNaby Keita & Mohammed Salah were big winners as Liverpool won the Premier\nLeague in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In France Idrissa Gueye\nwon the domestic treble with PSG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zimbabwean Tino Kadewere\nhas had a dream start to his career with French League giants Lyon being voted\nthe club\u2019s signing of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria’s Victor James\nOsimhen transfers from Lille, France to Napoli in Italy broke the history as\nthe most expensive African player in a deal worth almost 80 million euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COSAFA held its annual\nwomen’s tournament this year where South Africa claimed their fourth successive\nCOSAFA Women\u2019s Championship title following a 2-1 victory over Botswana in the\ndecider played at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Meanwhile, Tanzania were\ncrowned champions of the COSAFA Women\u2019s Under-17 Championship following an\nintense penalty shoot-out win over Zambia in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

African teams are now\nattracting some of the best coaches in the women’s game. American coach Randy\nWaldrum, who coached US Women’s league club Houston Dash was signed by Nigeria\nwhile Morocco signed Reynald Pedros, who has taken Lyon to the UEFA Women’s\nChampions League title twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cameroon created a fixed\nwage cap across Women’s football divisions, and South Sudan have announced\nplans to start its premier women’s professional league in February 2021.01.03<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congo’s AS Vita have\nappointed Bestine Kazidi as Club President and Tanzania’s Simba FC, have\nappointed Barbara Gonzalez as CEO. These are two African football club giants,\nand this is the first time in the history of the clubs that women have been\nappointed to top leadership positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cricket<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women’s cricket in Africa\nhad several ODIs and T20Is that had to be cancelled and rescheduled. The\nInternational Cricket Commission (ICC) commended Rwanda for its outstanding achievements\nin the growth of the women’s game. The Rwanda Cricket Association has won the\n100% Cricket Participation Programme of the Year due to its partnership with\nCricket Builds Hope, which is a charity that uses cricket to bring about social\nchange in rural Rwanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volleyball:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The African Volleyball\nConfederation (CAVB) has assigned former Moroccan international player Bochra\nHajij, the presidency of the CAVB, becoming the first female president of the\nConfederation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rest of the World<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamilton more than a\nsportsman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamilton equals\nSchumacher\u2019s record of 7 F1 Championships, the Brit away from the track managed\nto set up the Hamilton Commission to improve diversity in motorsport, and was\nalso named Laureus World Sportsman Of The Year, BBC sports personality of the\nyear, GQ\u2019s Game Changer Of The Year and was named in Time Magazine 100 most\ninfluential people. Hamilton is also to be knighted which is the highest honour\nin the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Athletes leading Black\nLives Matter Movement<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2020 saw a couple of\nathletes use their global personalities to speak out on racism in sport and\ncommunities. Across so many disciplines athletes become a beacon of hope in the\nfight against racism in the world. In a period, the world has been facing a\nglobal pandemic, we were faced with so many disturbing pictures of racism from\ndifferent parts of the world. It was heart warming to see athletes take a stand\nin this fight. Notable athletes were Naomi Osaka the tennis sensation, Raheem\nSterling the Manchester City forward, Anthony Joshua the boxer, and last but\nnot least Lewis Hamilton the F1 Driver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article by: Obriel Maposa (Sports Editor), Dineo Modise (Journalist) It was a weird year with very few events given green light to proceed, but 2020 still featured so many incredible moments in the sporting world. For Africans there was a lot of success to be proud of from a number of sporting disciplines. Here\u2019s our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n2020 was not a bad year for African teams in sports - Network Live News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/networklivenews.com\/?p=178\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2020 was not a bad year for African teams in sports - Network Live News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Article by: Obriel Maposa (Sports Editor), Dineo Modise (Journalist) It was a weird year with very few events given green light to proceed, but 2020 still featured so many incredible moments in the sporting world. 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