Women’s tennis stars have called for more information on Chinese player Peng Shuai’s wellbeing.

There has been concern over Peng’s safety since November, when she posted allegations online of sexual assault against a former senior politician. She subsequently denied making the claim.

Victoria Azarenka says there has not been “much development” in the case.

“Hopefully we will get to hear from her personally at some point,” said the Belarusian.

Speaking after winning her second-round match at the Australian Open, Azarenka – who is on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Player Council – said players are making “all efforts to make sure she is safe”.

“I think that’s the goal, the main goal right now. As an association, women’s association, I am proud that we are supporting our players,” added the 32-year-old Belarusian.

“I think that kind of should go without saying.”

Peng, one of China’s biggest sporting stars, sparked global concern after posting allegations of sexual assault against former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli on the Chinese social media site Weibo.

She has since said there had been “a lot of misunderstandings” about the post, but the 36-year-old has not been seen in public since 19 December.

“The situation is really unfortunate,” said Azarenka.

“We all hope for the best. We will see what happens in terms of logistics.”

‘It’s a little bit scary’

Four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka, who voiced her concern over Peng in November, has also called for more information about her whereabouts.

“I feel like if I was in her position, I would want people to care for me too,” said Osaka, 24.

“It’s one of those things. Like I imagine myself in her shoes, and in that way, it’s a little bit scary. But you want to lend your voice and you want people to ask the questions.”

The WTA has been putting pressure on China over concerns about the safety of Peng, with the governing body in December announcing the suspension of all tournaments in China.

“I think the tennis community has come together,” said Australian world number one Ashleigh Barty.

“Obviously we’re all looking out for her safety. We all hope that she’s well.

“We hope that she’s doing OK. Hopefully it’s not too long until we see her back out here.”

Emmanuel Amuneke, Nigeria’s talismanic scorer at the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations where his two goals won the trophy for Nigeria will be among those who will conduct the draw for the  qualifying series for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Apart from his feat at the 1994 final match, it was his goal that won for Nigeria the gold medal of the football event of Atlanta ’96 Olympics.

He will be joined on the stage by former Cameroon skipper, Rigobert Song as the draw assistants of the draw holding on Friday in Douala.

It is at the draw that the path to Cote d’Ivoire 2023 will be mapped out. The hosts will be the only automatic qualifiers.

The Preliminary Round will see the 12 least ranked teams divided into two levels.

The six highest ranked teams (of the 12) will play against the six least ranked teams (the first leg will be played at home of the lower ranked teams).

The six aggregate winners will join the 42 highest ranked teams into the Group Stage of the qualifiers.

Level 1: Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Gambia, South Sudan, Mauritius

Level 2: Chad, Sao Tome & Principe, Djibouti, Somalia, Seychelles, Eritrea

Reigning Nigeria triple jump record holder Ruth Usoro has been confirmed as the ninth Nigerian athlete to qualify for the Oregon 2022 World Athletics Championships holding this July in Oregon, USA.

The 24 year old qualifies for World Athletics’ flagship event for this year following her incredible NCAA and Nigeria’s indoor record jump last Saturday in Texas.

Usoro hopped, stepped and jumped into a historic 14.76m at the Corky Classics held at the Sports Performance Centre in Lubbock, Texas.

The mark is 62cm farther than the 17.14m qualification standard set by World Athletics for the event.

She has now joined eight others who ensured their flight to Oregon last year.
They are Enoch Adegoke who ran 9.98 seconds at the Olympics to qualify
and Grace Nwokocha who ran 11.00 and 22.47 seconds at the Tokyo Olympics in the 100m and 200m respectively to qualify.

Others are Favour Ofili, the World U20 championships 200m bronze medal winner and Udodi Chudi Onwuzurike who won the World U20 200m title last August in Nairobi, Kenya.

Tokyo Olympics long jump bronze medallist Ese Brume, sprinter Divine Oduduru and shot putter Chukwuebuka Enekwechi have also booked their passage.

Sprint hurdler Tobi Amusan has been granted a wild card entry to the Championships following her historic 100m hurdles Diamond League win last year albeit the 24 year old has also met the 12.84 seconds entry standard several times since the qualification window opened in June 28, 2021.

Amusan’s wild card will give Nigeria the opportunity to field four athletes in the 100m hurdles if they all meet the entry standard.

In the relays, only the women’s 4x100m team has secured provisional qualification which is also subject to the doping case involving Blessing Okagbare.

Okagbare anchored the team to a 42.97 finish in Lagos on 19 June, 2021. The time has provisionally qualified the team to run in Oregon but if the 33 year old’s doping allegations are confirmed, the team will have to run fast elsewhere between now and June 26 to secure another qualification.

Meanwhile, World Athletics last week launched ‘Road to Oregon’, an online tool to help athletes, fans and media track the qualification process for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

Searchable by event, country and qualification status, the tool provides a real-time view of each event over the course of the qualification period, which ends on 26 June 2022 (29 May 2022 for the marathon and 35km race walk). The World Championships will be held from 15-24 July 2022.

Athletes are able to qualify through one of four ways: by achieving an entry standard, by virtue of their placing at area championships or Platinum Label marathons (considered as having achieved the entry standard), by wild card entry or by world rankings position.

Bordeaux winger Samuel Kalu is on the verge of joining Watford after a deal, understood to be in the region of £2.5million, was agreed.

The Nigerian is set to undergo a medical at London Colney thursday before putting pen to paper on a four-and-a-half-year deal.

Club sources initially played down links to the winger, saying that attack was not an area they were looking to bolster this window.

However, the opportunity to move now and sign someone they have been tracking for some time, for what they consider to be a good price, has changed their minds, especially after they managed to identify and secure defensive targets early on.

The 24-year-old shares an agent with current on-loan Watford player Peter Etebo, but is not part of the Nigerian African Cup of Nations squad, so will be available as soon as he is registered, despite having 17 caps for the Super Eagles.

He has scored ten goals and provided 8 assists from 86 appearances for the Ligue 1 side. He has also represented KAA Gent.

RevolutionPlus Property, the official real estate partner of the NFF will be giving free lands in choice locations within its estates to the Super Eagles if the team wins the ongoing AFCON trophy.

According to Bamidele Onalaja, the company’s Group Managing Director/ CEO, the lands will be available in choice locations in Lagos, Abuja FCT, Nasarawa, Abeokuta, Shimawa and Mowe in Ogun State, Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State and Port Harcourt Rivers State.

Onalaja who spoke in Lagos on the eve of Nigeria’s final group match against Guinea Bissau in the ongoing AFCON, said the gesture is aimed at giving the team a boost in its quest to win the continental cup for Nigeria and make Nigerians proud again.

In appreciation of the team’s performance in the competition so far and the need to encourage the players to do more for fatherland, Onalaja said “now that the Super Eagles have qualified for the knockout stages of AFCON, RevolutionPlus Group will pay N1m for each goal scored by the team at every knockout stages of the competition”

Onalaja also reaffirmed his earlier pledge of N4m to the team during the World Cup qualifiers and urged them to bring AFCON glory to Nigeria once again.

The Super Eagles’ round of 16 opponent has been narrowed down to the third best placed team in either group E or F after Malawi, the third placed team in group B have been paired against Morocco, winner of group C.

Nigeria, the only team in the competition to record a perfect group stage record following their 2-0 defeat of Guinea-Bissau in their final group game on Wednesday may face any of the teams in group E except Algeria who cannot finish third in the group.

The Algerians face a must-win tie against Ivory Coast on Thursday with victory guaranteeing them either the top position or second.

In group F, the Super Eagles can also face any of the top three teams viz Gambia, Mali or Tunisia with Mauritania already eliminated even if they beat Mali on Thursday.

Nigeria will stay in Garoua to play her last 16 game on Sunday. If they win, they will still be in Garoua for their quarterfinal game.

The two semifinals will hold at the Japoma stadium in Douala while the third place match and final will be played in Yaounde.