Picks of the week: Unforgettable moments in Paris with a unique opening ceremony, a twist of fate for the Belgian GP Mercedes team as team Nigeria’s poor start increases; meanwhile, the pre-season tour for premier league clubs kicks off.
The world’s greatest athletes have gathered, records are set to be shattered, and moments of glory have been revealed for some teams who have garnered gold medals already.
Paris 2024 offered an opening ceremony that is certain to join the most memorable moments in Olympic history. For the first time in the history of the Olympics, the opening ceremony did not take place in a stadium. Instead, they broke new grounds by bringing sports into the city, which is evident in the venues for the games, and the same thing is true of the opening ceremony. The ceremony was held in the heart of the city along its main artery, Seine, where 6,800 attending athletes boarded 85 boats for a 6km parade. From the River Seine, colourful outfits of athletes, lights, spectators, and performers down to the historic landmarks were all aesthetically pleasing. The ceremony winded down with the Olympics torch final journey from the hands of Zinedine Zidane to Rafael Nadal and sports stars like Serena Williams, Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci down to French sporting heroes Teddy Riner and Marie Jose Perec who walked up with the Olympics flame to the cauldron a ring of flames attached to a hot air balloon lit it and it rose into the sky. Simultaneously, Celine Dion emerged on the Eiffel Tower balcony and gave a strong live performance.
Teams like Australia, France, China, and the USA have gotten gold medals already.
Nigeria’s poor form at the Olympics 2024 began with the Super Falcon’ss 1-0 loss to Brazil in their return after 16 years of absence,ce, as the best of their efforts could not yield a result. The second game against World Champion Spain had everyone on the edge of their seat. From the first half of the game, it was one-way traffic as Spain dominated possession. Alexia Putellas, in the 85th minute of the game, fired a beautiful free kick to break down the resilient defence of Nigeria, despite that, the Falcons still showed strength as Ihezuo tried to cut down the deficit but to no avail, and after four minutes of added time, the Super Falcons lost to Spain and still without a point in Group C and next up is Japan.
The Nigerian table tennis players lost their matches in the first round of the competition. Aruna Quadri lost to Eduard Ionescu while Omotayo Olajide lost to Iranian Noshad Alamiyan.
Boxer Olaitan Olaore crashed out of the men’s 92kg heavyweight events to join Cynthia Ogunsemilore, who was disqualified after failing a doping test while Dolapo Omole was ruled out due to injury.
Away from the Olympics, Premier League clubs are gearing up for the 2024/2025 season with pre-season friendlies. Some of the premier league sides, Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool, Crystal Palace, and Aston Villa, are all in the USA for their warm-up games. Here are some of the scores.
In F1, the Belgian Grand Prix was rocked with a dramatic final lap, which initially led to George Russell pipping Lewis Hamilton to win the race as he used a divergent strategy in which he called for only one stop, which later helped him to withstand the pressure from Hamilton. But after 90 minutes of the Belgian Grandprix conclusion, Hamilton, who came second earlier, inherited the win from his teammate as Russell was disqualified because his car was found to be 1.5kg under 798kg minimum weight at the end of the race. Oscar Piastri comes second, Charles Leclerc 3rd, and despite Max Verstappen’s start from 11th on the grid, he completed the top four in fourth position.
The draws for the Caf women’s Champions League qualifiers were held, and Nigerian representative Edo Queens were drawn in group B along with 2021 winners Hasaacas Ladies, As Garde and Omnisports Etincelle. The competition will take place between the 10-23 August in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium and Champroux Stadium. Here’s the full draw and fixture.
Join us next week for another exciting recap.