On this day 31 July 2010 (Exactly 9 years ago today) Ghana’s Margaret Simpson won gold on day four of the 17th CAA African Athletics Championships at the Nyayo stadium in Nairobi, Kenya.
The 2005 World championship bronze medalist, improved South African Junice Joseph’s championship record to take the women’s heptathlon with 6031 points ahead of South Africa’s Janet Wienand (5500 pts) with Lesotho’s Ts’oalei Selloane winning her second medal of the championships after the high jump gold taking bronze (5302 pts).
In the other highlights of day four, Nigeria’s Oke Tosin leaped 17.22m to win the men’s Triple Jump, but missed the championship record, held by Ghanaian Andre Owusu by just one centimetre. Algeria’s Hadj Lazib took a surprise win in the men’s 110m Hurdles ahead of Nigerian favorite Selim Nurudeen. And Egyptian Abdel Mohsen Anani won the men’s hammer beating South African five-time champion Chris Harmse.
An impressive finishing kick by Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba won Ethiopia’s first gold.
On this day 31 July 2005 (Exactly 14 years ago today) AshantiGold walloped Hearts of Lions 5-1 in their match day 18 Ghana Premier League match played at the Len Clay Sports Stadium in Obuasi.
A minute silence was observed for the late Emmanuel Ofei-Ansah before the commencemence of the match.
AshGold came into the game strongly following their recent loss against Kotoko and made several incursions to find the opener but the defenders of Lions stood tall to most of the situations. Kofi Deblah found the opener in the 10th minute after Emmanuel Osei Kuffour had cleverly laid a perfect pass for Deblah to blast a powerful shot, beating goalkeeper Mozart Adjetey in post of Lions.
AshGold mounted pressure on the visitors and bombarded the goal area of Hearts of Lions but the attackers of AshGold squandered several opportunities to the relief of the visitors.
In the 13th minute Kofi Deblah’s shot was connected home by Opoku Agyemang in a goalmouth melee registering the second goal in favour of the soccer miners setting the Stadium alive.
Lions accepted the challenge and put their passes together that made things rather difficult for AshGold. Lion’s central defender Jerry Akaminko broke lose from their goal area and sneaked through the entire defenders of AshGold before delivering a powerful grounder that zoomed straight into the net with the defenders of AshGold caught ball watching.
Heart of Lions lifted their game, seized the midfield and dictated the pace but found the defenders of AshGold comprising Dan Asamoah, Alfred Arthur, Kwaku Wiafe and Joe Hendricks too hot to handle.
Emmanuel Osei Kuffour in the 33rd minute received a perfect pass from Nasir Lamine and blasted a powerful shot that beat Mozart Adjetey for the 3rd goal. A minute later Kofi Deblah also came close to scoring when he beat his marker and delivered a bullet but missed the post by inches.
Jerry Akaminko was yellow carded in the 37th minute for bringing down Ofosu Amoah who actually proved so stubborn to the defenders of Lions.
Heart of Lions however made their first substitution in the early part of the second half when they brought on Ibrahim Sulemana for Bob Zeo with Offei Adu also taking over from Masiri Joseph.
Kuffour again set the Stadium alive in the 55th minute when Opoku Agyemang headwork was tapped in by Kuffour for the forth goal. Mubarak Wakasu replaced limping Adamu Mohammed while Adu Gyamfi was also brought on for Opoku Agyemang in the 64th and 67th minutes respectively.
Lion’s resorted to dangerous plays with Sulemana Ibrahim attracting the second yellow card after he had savagely brought down Nasir Lamine in the 67th minute.
‘General’Osei Kuffour registered a hat-trick when he received a perfect pass from midfield supremo Nasir Lamine and dummied the goalkeeper before slotting the ball in the empty net attracting cheers from the stands.
Kuffour was substituted in the 82nd minute for Matthew Attiogbe. Attiogbe however squandered a glorious opportunity in the later part of the game with only the goalie to beat he hesitated for the ball to be disposed of him to the disappointment of the fans.
The head coach of AshGold Hans Van Der Pluym after the match accepted the fact that he had been missing the services of natural midfielders like Nasir Lamine who got injured after their match day 9 league match against Hearts of Oak at the Accra Sports Stadium. He said, “We scored our goals quickly enough to avoid troubles”. He showered praises unto the entire players and urged them to keep the spirit high for the other matches ahead.
AshGold: George Owu, Dan Asamoah, Alfred Arthur, Kwaku Wiafe, Joe Hendricks, Adamu Mohammed/Wakasu Mubarak, Ofosu Amoah, Nasir Lamine, Kofi Deblah, Osei Kuffour/Matthew Attiogbe, Opoku Agyemang/Adu Gyamfi
On this day 31 July 1928 (Exactly 91 years ago today) Halina Konopacka of Poland hurls discus world record 39.62m to win first gold medal in women’s Olympic athletics at the Amsterdam Games; American Lillian Copeland and Ruth Sveberg of Sweden take minor medals
On this day 31 July 1928 (Exactly 91 years ago today) Betty Robinson won gold medal in women’s 100m final.
She was the inaugural Olympic champion in the event, since athletics for women had not been on the program before, and its inclusion was in fact still heavily disputed among officials.
On this day 31 July 1936 (Exactly 83 years ago today) IOC awarded Tokyo, Japan 1940 Summer Olympic Games (later cancelled, Second Sino-Japanese War)
On this day 31 July 1948 (Exactly 71 years ago today) American swimmer Wally Ris won the coveted 100m freestyle gold medal at the London Olympics beating team mate Alan Ford by 0.4 seconds
On this day 31 July 1948 (Exactly 71 years ago today) American sprinter Harrison Dillard run an Olympic record 10.3s to beat countryman Barney Ewell for the 100m gold medal at the London Olympics
On this day 31 July 1976 (Exactly 43 years ago today) East German runner Waldemar Cierpinski beat American Frank Shorter by 50 seconds to win the Olympic Games marathon in 2:09:55 in Montreal
On this day 31 July 1984 (Exactly 35 years ago today) US men’s gymnastics team score emotional upset win over world champion Chinese team in the combined event to take the gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics
On this day 31 July 1992 (Exactly 27 years ago today ) Hungarian swimmer Krisztina Egerszegi earned her 3rd gold medal of the Barcelona Olympics winning 200m backstroke for the 100-200 double along with 400m Individual Medley gold
On this day 31 July 2012 (Exactly 7 years ago today) Germany won London Olympic equestrian eventing final; daughter of Princess Anne, Zara Phillips part of GB silver medal winning team