The Black Stars of Ghana recorded their first win of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign after defeating Congo Brazzaville 1-5 away at the Stade Municipal de Kintele, Brazzaville on Tuesday afternoon.

Athletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey recorded his first hat trick for the Black Stars while Red Star Belgrade forward Richmond Boakye Yiadom, a late call-up to the squad scored a brace.

Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah has handed a starting role to Red Star Belgrade striker Richmond Boakye Yiadom for today's 2018 FIFA World Cup Group E qualifier against Congo Brazzaville.

The Black Stars will go into today’s crucial FIFA World Cup qualifying second leg encounter with Congo without second lead striker Jordan Ayew after he was forced to pull out of the match due to an ailment.

The Swansea forward’s absence adds to Coach Kwasi Appiah’s woes as he jetted off to Brazzaville yesterday afternoon with a depleted team following the withdrawal of his two most experienced stars, Asamoah Gyan, and Andre Ayew, as well as defender Harrison Afful, all through injuries.

The national skate soccer team, Rolling Rockets, last Saturday won the Binatone International Unity Skate Soccer Cup after beating Togo 5-1 at the Accra Sports Stadium.

In an impressive display, scoring two first half goals and adding three more after the break, the Rockets were ruthless against their Togolese counterparts who scored a consolation goal from a spot kick.

Hugo Broos admitted that Cameroun's 2018 World Cup qualification hopes are all but over following their 4-0 defeat to Nigeria last Friday in Uyo.

The Super Eagles are top of Group B on nine points after three matches, seven ahead of African champions Cameroun.

Ghana football chief, Kwesi Nyantakyi, believes Ghana’s World Cup hopes have been dealt a heavy blow by the Black Stars inability to beat the Red Devils of Congo, with the Stars having just two points out of a maximum nine and five points off group leaders, Uganda.

Mr Nyanktakyi, who as GFA boss supervised Ghana’s three World Cup appearances in 2006, 2010 and 2014 said he had all but given up hopes of a fourth consecutive campaign in Russia next year. "Our destiny is no longer in our hands," said the distraught GFA president in a post-match interview last Saturday.

Ghana’s Black Stars will miss the services of their captain, Asamoah Gyan, and his deputy, Andre Ayew, for tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier against Congo in Brazzaville, according to a member of the Stars medical team.

The two experienced players did not play the full duration of last Friday’s qualifying match in Kumasi, with Turkey-based Gyan replaced in the 62nd  minute by Thomas Agyepong, while Ayew was substituted six minutes later in the 1-1 drawn game.

The Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has pledged the government’s support in making the National Sports Festival a regular feature on the annual calendar of the National Sports Authority.

He has also given an assurance that everything possible would be done to revive the development and progress of sports in the country as a means of also promoting unity and providing jobs.

A former national athlete, Professor Charles Yendork, has called on the president of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA), Professor Francis Dodoo, to resign from his post following Ghana’s abysmal performance oat the World Athletics Championship in London last month.

Professor Yendork described Dodoo's seven-year reign at the GAA as a total failure and said he expected him to call it quits because the inability of Ghanaian athletes to qualify from the preliminary stages of the World Championship was an indictment on the sport’s governing body.

The Vice-President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, last Saturday opened this year’s National Sports Festival with a call on Ghanaians to use sports to unite the country.

He said aside from promoting unity, sports also held the key to job creation as had been exemplified by the vibrant economic activities that usually take place during sports events; hence, the theme for the ongoing sports festival, “Unity and Job creation.”

Ghanaian tennis star, Daniel Anum Quartey, has promised to win gold at the upcoming National Sports Festival in Kumasi since he is tired of playing second fiddle to his colleagues.

Quartey, Ghana’s number three seed, recently lost the 2017 Accra Open Tennis and the National Ranking Tour Two titles to Wisdom Na-Adjrago and Benjamin Fumi respectively.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the McDan Group of Companies, Dr Daniel McKorley, has announced a revolutionary tennis development project which he says will result in a Ghanaian making an appearance at the finals of the four Grand Slam competitions.

According to the tennis enthusiast, the ambitious project would involve his outfit sponsoring eight talented young tennis players to pursue their dreams of becoming tennis world beaters.

Black Stars skipper, Asamoah Gyan, has given an assurance that his side will defy all odds to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia despite trailing leaders Egypt by five points after two matches.

Gyan, who is the only player left from the Stars set up that made history by qualifying Ghana to its first ever World Cup in 2006, was hopeful of making the global showpiece for the fourth time and believes that the turnaround to Ghana’s World Cup campaign begins with today’s double header clash with Congo at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium.

Unless the rains that give life to every living creature, including the dog, stop wetting the earth, nothing can destroy the cordial relationship that the broth of a dog has succeeded in establishing between the Dagaabas and Frafras in Ghana.

My observation of the inextricable bond of affection and goodwill between these two ethnic groups finds expression in this message shared by the two groups: ‘’As long as it rains, as long as the dog lives, the Dagaabas and Frafras shall know no hate in their midst.”

Welterweight boxer, Justice Addy and Raphael Kwamena King will slug it out in a national championship title bout at the London Bridge in Cape Coast tomorrow as the highlight of the Fetu Afahye boxing bonanza.

Addy, 14-3-1, starts as a favourite against King, whose record of nine wins, one loss and one draw is a clear underdog in the main bout of the special Afahye bill dubbed, "Rescue the Perishing".