Nigeria and Angola took a big step towards the 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) finals in Rwanda after emphatic wins in their qualifiers over the weekend.

The second week of the ongoing Diwali Cup T20 Cricket tournament has ended at the Achimota Cricket Oval with two interesting encounters.

In the first game, newcomers Kotobabi Knight Riders played Godrej Cricket Club in a Pool B clash. Both teams had lost their opening games and were keen on winning to keep alive their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals.

Accra-based technology tracking firm, Nsoroma GPS Tracking Systems, will kit the Nsoroma cricket team and provide equipment and logistics for their training as part of a new sponsorship deal.

The company will also seek to expand the team into more age groups beyond the current Under-15 and 19 male and female teams.

The Nsoroma cricket Under-19 male team last week won the Under-19 Cricket Championship, while their Under-15 female counterparts also won gold at the behest of Accra Taysec Titans.

Velocity Stars Cycling Club’s duo of Moro Yakubu Igala and Emmanuel Quartey powered the club to victory in the inaugural Open Invitational Road Race held in Accra.

The 100-kilometre race last Saturday saw cyclists from the major cycling clubs in Accra racing through Dodowa, Somanya, Adukrom, Mamfe, Aburi and back to Adenta.

Igala and Quartey imposed their dominance when the peloton, comprising 50 cyclists, began climbing the steep Adukrom hill. The fast-pedalling duo broke away from the chasing pack to cross the finish line.

The local Black Stars, led by Coach Maxwell Konadu, will welcome their Cote d’Ivoire counterparts in a crunch African Nations Championship (CHAN) decider to be played tomorrow at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi.

Both teams will be playing on a home-and-away basis to decide which of the two qualifies to play in the fourth edition of the tournament which was introduced six years ago with Ghana winning silver in the first and third editions.

Engineering and Construction firm, Taysec Group of Companies, has pledged  to sponsor cricked competitions in different age groups  across the country to make the sport more appealing to the youth.

The  Chairman and Managing Director of  the  firm,  Asuama Yeboa Abebrese,  made the pledge when he hosted the female  and male teams of the Taysec Titans who placed first and second respectively in the just ended Under 15 and 19 Cricket championship at New Achimota Accra.

A former light heavyweight boxer, Joe Ansah, has bemoaned the dwindling fortunes of Ghana boxing, citing bad leadership and inadequate preparations towards international tournaments as the cause.

The boxer, who is now chief of Opetekwei, near Mpoasie in the Greater Accra Region, said boxing had given the country more titles than football yet the ministry gives more premium to football than other sports.

He added that the only national boxing gym at high street where he and his colleagues used to train has been sold and turned into a church called the Global Revival Ministry (Baden Powell Hall).

The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, has underscored the benefits golf offers a country as it has a huge potential to build in individuals rich values such as self-discipline and integrity.

An avid golfer himself, the Okyenhene made a clarion call for stakeholders to support young folks to take the sport serious, taking into account the benefit a country stands to gain from the right values. He typically debunked the notion that golf is a game for the rich.

Addressing the Okyenhene Invitational Golf Tournament at Tafo last Saturday, he said: “I hold the strong belief that the game of golf requires, and builds in all of us rich values like self discipline and integrity.

The management of Premier League debutantes, Dreams FC, have decided to adopt the Dawu Park in the Eastern Region as their home ground in the 2015/16 First Capital Plus Premier League season.

The non-operating park, which is located on the Akuapem hills, was once a hot spot during the peak days of defunct Dawu Youngsters.

A source close to the club revealed that management was close to sealing a deal with the owners of the facility.

Single handicapper Teye Lartey Gbebei last Saturday won the second edition of the Access Bank Medal Play at the Tema Country Golf Club.

Playing on handicap eight, Gbebei, 68, beat Godwin Asem and S.K.  Afari by just a stroke.

Tema Country Golf Club Lady captain Esther Antwi  beat Mercy Werner on count back  with a 77 score, while  fashionable Cathy Boateng finished tops in the ladies Group B event after a 76 score, three clear points ahead of  Gladys Awuni.

The President of the Ghana Taekwondo Federation, Frederick Otoo, has charged regional executive members to manage and promote the sport in their respective regions.

That he said, was to ensure that taekwondo remained a national sport patronised across the country.

Inaugurating the Central Region Taekwondo Association in Cape Coast, Mr Otoo commended the executive memebers for setting up various taekwondo clubs in the region and urged them to support the national federation in its quest to register all taekwondo clubs and individual practitioners.

Comoros Island have been handed a difficult opponents — Ghana — for the second round of their 2018 World Cup qualifiers, after their dramatic qualification from the preliminary round.

Last Tuesday, the island-state of Comoros advanced on the away goal rule after a 1-1 draw away to Lesotho, having drawn goalless in the first leg at home.

This will be the first time Les Coelecantes' are going past the first round of the World Cup qualifiers and despite the fact that they have never won a World Cup qualifier, they get to advance, a feat which has been received with mixed feeling.

In many ways, this was probably the news that Cameroun's Issa Hayatou privately dreaded. Some 111 years on from its founding, FIFA is expected to be technically run by an African for the first time - news which should of course be welcomed on the continent.

But the acting FIFA president could never be accused of courting the media, preferring instead to make his distance as large as possible.

Now though, a man who is far happier in the backrooms of power has been thrust into the limelight.

 Ahead of a tough World Boxing Organisation (WBO) Africa featherweight title clash between James Town-based George Krampah and Isaac Dogboe, at the Aborigines Beach Resort in Keta on November 6, the trainer of Dogbe, Paul Dogboe, has assured boxing fans of overwhelming victory for his boxer.

The bout, dubbed the “Rumble at Hogbetsotso Festival”, would be a fierce contest since both boxers have started predicting early knockouts as the day for the bout draws near.

 Over 150 swimmers across the country will battle for medals and certificates in a day’s swimming championship being organised by the Ghana Swimming Federation (GSF) in the Kumasi Metropolis.

The championship, which will be held at the poolside of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology on November 1, is not only designed to unearth talents across the country, but also to induce the youth to be interested in the sport.