A 21st-minute penalty converted by midfielder Mamadou Samake gave the Aiglonnets of Mali a lone goal victory over Ghana’s Black Starlets at the Stade de L’ Amite in Libreville yesterday to win the African Under-17 Championship for a historic second successive time.

The Starlets fell behind after conceding a penalty when Ghanaian defender John Otu brought down Ibrahim Kane. Ghana’s goalkeeper Danlad Ibrahim bravely saved the first kick but Samake reacted quickly to latch onto the rebound and drilled the ball home for what turned out to be the championship-winning goal.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has re-emphasised his government’s commitment to ensure sports thrive in the country with a promise to see to it that all sporting disciplines receive the necessary support.

As proof of his government’s commitment, President Akufo Addo said the sports budget received a 100 per cent increment this year to ensure that the sports ministry got adequate funding to support sports in the country.

Coach Stephen Polack of Asante Kotoko has indicated that the team can only seek to build on their performance after securing his second win for the club since taking over.

Kotoko defeated Tema Youth 1-0 in their 16th-week Premier League game at the Tema Stadium yesterday to register only their first win in their last eight league matches.

Ampem Darkoa Ladies Sunday beat Fabulous Ladies 2-1 in their crunch Round of 32 tie of the Sanford Women’s FA Cup competition.

A brace from newly crowned SWAG Female Footballer of the Year, Princella Adubea, helped the National Women’s League (NWL) champions avenge the loss they suffered at the hands of last year’s finalists to progress to the next round of the competition.

Golfers of the Royal Golf Club gave the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II,  a befitting 60th birthday present with unblemished display to win all the topmost prizes at this year's Vodafone Asantehene Gold Cup competition in Kumasi yesterday.

Apart from the professional event which was won by Tema-based Vincent Torgah, the host club literally blew away their competitors, including those from the neighbouring countries.

Liberty Professionals played a determined game to hold Accra Hearts of Oak to a 1-1 draw at the Accra Stadium yesterday.

Liberty striker Benjamin Eshun put the visiting side ahead after he finished off an ambitious run on the left by Richard Kissi Boateng in the 34th minutes, but the visitors allowed Hearts to come back after a slight loss of focus.

Wembley Sports Complex (WSC), a privately owned Ghanaian Company with marked experience in the construction and management of artificial football pitches in Ghana is set to construct artificial football pitches in all the 270 constituencies in the country.

The  swag kickboxer of the year, Lawrence Nyanyo Nmai, has presented a number of equipment and training gear to the Ghana Kickboxing Federation (GKF) to support the training and development of talents towards the Japan 2020 Olympic Games.

Ghana’s Black Starlets will aim for a record third continental title when they face Mali in the final of the African Under-17 championship at the Stade de l’Amitié Sino in Libreville.

Veteran ping-pong trainer and former head coach of defending league champions, Immigration, Ebenezer Tetteh Anang Whyte, has parted ways with the team, following a misunderstanding in the ongoing Table Tennis League.

Ghana’s elite football league returns this weekend with exciting fixtures across the league centres.  Accra Hearts of Oak and Liberty Professionals will clash at the Accra Sports Stadium and the Kumasi Asante Kotoko versus Tema Youth game will be at the Tema Stadium, tomorrow.

Russian kickboxer Viktor Kichigin suffered further embarrassment after losing via TKO in the second round of a Mix Martial Arts (MMA) fight at FNG 67 in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

The Kichigin family is full of MMA devotees. Brothers Georgy, Grigoriy, and Viktor are all professional fighters, and their mother Anna Azovskaya is responsible for their training.

Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL), Ghana’s leading total beverage business, has presented quantities of its products to the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) towards the successful organisation of this year’s MTN SWAG Awards night scheduled to take place tomorrow, May 27, at the State Banquet Hall, Accra.

Coach Kwasi Appiah is carrying out his plans to build a Black Stars team for the future by leaving out some key players as well as those who played in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) to give room for new players.

And so it ends where it all began. Saturday's FA Cup final between Chelsea and Arsenal is a rerun of a fixture that proved so defining this season it should be awarded a blue plaque.

Usually, any given campaign can only be made sense of after myriad factors have been pieced together like a join-the-dots drawing. To attempt to quantify its singular most important moment would be akin to wandering into a rice field looking for the tastiest grain.