Michael Essien and Persib Bandung missed an opportunity to move top of Indonesia Liga One on Saturday night after being held to a 0-0 draw at Didier Zokora's Semen Padang.

The two African legends went head-to-head from early in the second half when Essien came off the bench for Persib. But neither the former Ghana star nor Ivory Coast icon was able to help his new team break the deadlock, though Zokora was the busier of the two players.

The point means that Persib stays in second, below leaders PSM, while Semen Padang is in 10th.

The wife of Ghanaian football star Michael Essien, Mrs Akosua Puni Essien was left disappointed with her Italian third division club, Calcio Como as they failed to progress beyond the first round of playoffs for promotion to the Italian Serie B.

Como's promotion hopes were crushed after a 2-1 loss away at Piacenza on Sunday at the Stadio Leonardo Garilli.

Defending champion Immigration Service clawed their way back to the top spot after emphatic 3-0 wins against Team Coach Addo and Ashaiman Club in the ongoing Stanbic Bank-sponsored Table Tennis League being staged at the D.G. Hathiramani Sports of the Accra Sports Stadium last Saturday.

In the first round matches of  Week Two fixtures, Synergy lost 2-3 to Team Coach Addo, while SmartLine@Emefs beat Madina Stars 3-0 before Police lost 0-3 to Tesano Spinners.

Ghana’s rising triathlete Leila Werburi Zangwio won the female category of the 6th Kempinski-Cowbell Race Series held at the University of Ghana Swimming Pool yesterday.

Leila, 23, defended the title she won at the same venue early this year, as she finished tops in the 600m swimming, 18.9km biking and 5.6km run in a time of 1:24:49 hours, an improvement over her personal best of 1:26:59 hours.

Ghana's presence would be felt at this year's World Championship after wheelchair racing duo of Botsyo Nkegbe and Maclean Atsu Dzidzienyo secured qualification for the world event at a meet in the USA.

The two athletes won two medals each over the weekend and improved on their time during the Dessert Challenge competition in the USA to book a spot for the big competition.

Accra Hearts of Oak coach Frank Elliot Nuttal yesterday guided his charges to record a shocking 3-0 away win over city rivals Liberty Professionals at the Carl Reindorf Park at Dansoman. The win offered the Phobians an opportunity to keep holding on to the third position on the log with 26 points at the end of the first round of the league.

Ghana’s only medal hopeful, Welbeck Aryeh defeated his Malian counterpart, Allasaine Moumbachair, yesterday to progress to the quarter-final stage of the 100kg category of the ongoing Eighth ECOWAS Wrestling De Dakar being staged in the Senegalese capital.

Ghana took five wrestlers, namely Mbalilo Mod, Vitus Adakurah, Richard Tsiyo, John Dekagbe and Welbeck Oliver Ayeh. The Ghanaian team were led by Cynthia Dotsey, a certified trained wrestling trainer who was very optimistic about the wrestlers’ chances.

Accra Hearts of Oak ended the first round of the Premier League season in style with an emphatic 3-0 win over city-rivals Liberty Professionals at the Carl Reindorf Park at Dansoman.

The massive away win, courtesy Leonard Tawiah, Cosmos Dauda and Thomas Abbey enabled the Phobians to hold on tight to the third position of the league log with 26 points, six points shy of leaders WAFA.

The coach of Benin Rugby team, Kossou Euloge, has admitted Ghana’s national team has quality and conceded his side lost to a better side in their opening game of the Rugby African Challenge at the Accra Sports Stadium last Sunday.

The Black Eagles, as Ghana’s team, are nicknamed, beat their Beninois counterparts 46-5 on the first day of the 2017 Rugby African Regional Challenge at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Ghana's Under-17 male football team, the  Black Starlets began their campaign to win this year’s African Championship with an emphatic 4-0 win over rivals, Cameroun as the competition being staged in Gabon opened yesterday.

Braces from Eric Ayiah and Ibrahim Sulley, who scored two goals within two minutes, ensured that the Starlets’ dream of picking a ticket to the Under-17 World Cup in India later in the year, got off to a sound start.

Black Stars skipper Asamoah Gyan scored the winning goal for Al Ahli as they pipped Bani Yas 2-1 on the final day of the Arabian Gulf League (AGL) season on Saturday.

Ahli took the lead through Senegalese striker Diop Makhete in the 7th minute at the Al-Rashid Stadium.

Defending champion, Alexander Oppong, will have the chance to open his title defence later today when 50 players challenge him at this year's edition of the Hunter's National Pool Tournament (NPT) at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Kumasi-based King Faisal boss, Alhaji Karim Gruzah, has called on the Chief Justice to settle the protracted dispute between his club on one side, and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and Aduana Stars, on the other, and ensure his club’s reinstatement in the Premiership.

Gruzah dragged the GFA to court for failing to deduct points from Aduana Stars for not paying a fine within the stipulated period as prescribed by GFA Statutes.

OlympiAfrica is to support the construction of the abandoned Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) complex at Amasaman with $150,000 to enable the GOC to embark on the project.

After more than 25 years of silence, former prolific striker Tony Yeboah has finally accused officialdom as the main cause of the Black Stars’ failure to win the Senegal 1992 AFCON trophy for Ghana.

“Nothing went wrong among the players during the 1992 tournament. It was the officials who were not honest to the players and that affected our performance on the pitch”, Yeboah disclosed during an exclusive interview with Graphic Sports in Kumasi.