Africa's 3rd Day and Prospects for Day 4 at the London 2012 Olympics

 Although Africa hasn’t had much success yet in the current events taking place at the Olympics, the athletes have put up a good show.

Ahmed El-Nemr of Egypt lost out in the 1/16 Eliminations of the Men’s Individual Archery Tournament. In the Women’s Individual Archery event, Karen Hultzer of South Africa couldn’t make it past the 1/32 Eliminations.

The Men’s Singles Badminton Tournament saw Edwin Ekiring of Uganda lose to Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, China in the Group Play Stage of Group F. In the Women’s Singles, Hadia Hosnia of Egypt lost to Hongyan Pi of France.

The Women’s Doubles didn’t hold much cheer either as Edwards M. and Viljoen A. of South Africa lost to the duo of Jauhari M. and Polii G of Indonesia in the Group Play Stage of Group C.

In the Women’s Basketball Tournament, Angola recorded a second loss in their group match as they were defeated by USA, 38:90.

Mauritius lost to the Czech Republic in the Women’s Beach Volleyball preliminary round. In the Men’s Team, South Africa lost to Latvia.

The Boxing Tournament had a more positive turnout as Samir Brahimi of Algeria beat Darren Jackson Woods of Australia in the Round of 32 of the Men’s Flyweight. It was also a fight against brotheres as Hesham Abdelaal beat Benson Njangiru of Kenya and Duke Micah of Ghana defeated Jason Lavigilante of Mauritius all in the Men’s Flyweight.

In the Men’s Light Heavy Category, Nigeria’s Lukmon Lawal lost to Ihab Almatbouli of Jordan, while Christian Adjoufack Donfack of Cameroon lost to Enrico Kollin of Germany.

Hassanein Mona of Egypt lost out to Jo-Ting Hsu of Chinese Taipei in the Women’s Individual Epee of the Fencing Tournament.

The Angolan Women’s Handball Team didn’t fare well as they were beaten by Croatia 23:28 in the Women’s Handball Tournament Group A Preliminaries. This will be their second loss, having lost to Russia in their first game

Egypt’s Hussein Hafiz missed the quarterfinals of the Men’s 73kg in the Judo Tournament, when he lost to Legrand Ugo of France in the Round 16 Eliminations.

The Group A preliminaries of the Women’s Volley Ball Tournament, saw Algeria losing to hosts Great Britain by a 3:2 score line.

Day4 should hold better prospects, as we look forward to the outcome of Nigeria’s Men’s Basketball team against Lithuania.

The Boxing Tournament is also another hopeful event, as Africa will be well represented in the Men’s Light Fly Category and the Men’s Lighter Welter.

Alaaeldin Abouuelkasseem has also made it to the Quarterfinals of the Men’s Individual Foil in the Fencing Tournament. In a few hours, we’ll know if Africa can add another medal to her glory.

Africa at the London 2012 Olympics, Day 2

The second day of the Olympics held a little more cheer for Africa as Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa won the gold medal in the men’s 100m Breaststroke, setting a new world record of 58.46 seconds, beating the 58.58 record set in 2009 by Brenton Rickard; he also set another Olympic record, erasing the 58.83 record he made in the semi-finals on Saturday.

In the Women’s Judo 52kg, category, Christianne Legentil of Mauritius made it to the Repechage Contest for the Bronze medal but lost to Marie Muller of Luxembourg.

Aruna Quadri failed to make it past the second round of the Men’s Table Tennis Singles leaving El-Sayed Lashin of Egypt as the only African left in the tournament.

Senegal are really doing very well for their first time out. They had a 2:0 victory over Uruguay placing them at the top of their group. Gabon on the other hand lost to Mexico in a 2:0 defeat. Egypt had another draw with New Zealand, while Japan had a 1:0 victory over Morocco. Senegal are now leading Group A with 4 points.

Ahmed Mejri of Tunisia won Chitou Shafiq with 16:9 in the Men’s Light Category of the Boxing Tournament Round of 32; while Siphiwe Lusizi of South Africa won Abdulkareem Ahmed Ahmed of Iraq 17:13 in the Round of 32 of the Men’s Welter Weight category.

 

On the basketball court, Nigeria beat fellow African country Tunisia in a 60:56 victory.

  

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Africa's First Day at the Olympics.

Ines Boubakri of Tunisia made it to the quarterfinals of the women’s Foil Individual Fencing, losing out by one point to Valentina Vezzali of Italy.

The Women’s Teams didn’t have any success in their group matches yesterday in the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament.  South Africa lost to Canada 3:0 and Cameroon was defeated by hosts, Great Britain.

In the Qualification round of the Women’s Basketball Tournament, Angola – which also happens to be the only African team in the tournament, lost to Turkey with 50 :70 in the preliminary round Group A, and currently occupy the 5^th position in the group. They are yet to play against USA, China, Croatia and Czech Republic. The Qualification round will run between the 28^th of July and the 5^th of August.

The Women’s Handball Tournament didn’t yield any positive results either as Angola – once again the only African team playing handball in the Women’s Tournament – lost to Russia in the Preliminaries of Group A.

Quadri Aruna. Photo:London 2012.com

Quadri Aruna of Nigeria, Omar Assar and El-Sayed Lashin, of Egypt made it through the first round of the Men’s Singles Table Tennis Tournament. The second round continues today.

In the Lawn Tennis Men’s Singles Tournament, Malek Jaziri of Tunisia made it through the first round after defeating Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Tapei.

In the Men’s Boxing Tournament, there was some victory in the ring in the Round of 32.  The Men’s Bantam Weight (56kg) had Algerian, Mohamed Amine Ouadahi win by walkover, Merab Turkadze of Turkey; though Africa recorded more losses in the ring: Jonas Matheus of Namibia lost to Vittorio Parrinello of Italy; Aboubakr Seddik Lbida of Morocco was defeated by Ibrahim Balla of  Australia by way of countback after a 16-16 draw. Ayabonga Sonjica of South Africa lost to Dalakliev Detelin of Bulgaria and Isaac Dogboe of Ghana lost to Satoshi Shimizu of Japan.

 

In the Men’s Middle (75kg category), there was a little more success as Mujandjae Kasuto of Namibia won Sobirdzhon Nazarov of Tajikistan and Abdelmalek Rahou of Algeria defeated Jesse Ross of Australia in the Round of 32.

Mohamed Hikal of Egypt lost to Soltan Migitinov of Azerbaijan, Badr-Eddine Haddioui of Morocco was defeated by Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan.

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Memories of A Glorious Night

London definitely put up a glorious show – if that comes close to describing last night’s Opening Ceremony. It was a marvelous fusion of traditional and contemporary Great Britain, the old and the new – I mean what was it with James Bond and the Queen…that was super! ...And dear old Rowan Atkinson, our lovely Mr. Bean. He made such a great comic at the performance of the Chariots of Fire by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Fireworks at the Olympic Stadium. Photo: London 2012

The evolution of pop culture was phenomenal – tracing the timeline of pop music using the concept of social media. The performance of by NHS was aglow – what with glowing hospital beds and dancing nurses. Health care couldn’t get more exciting than that!

The quartet of Independent Olympic Athletes where quite excited with themselves as they paraded under the Olympic flag. South Sudan’s Guor Marial is one of them, as his native country was unable to be officially recognized by the Olympic Committee as a bona fide paying member, due to lack of funding and of course all the domestic issues facing them right now.

With all the color and excitement, as the Athletes began their parade into the Olympic Stadium, one cannot help but marvel at how powerful sports is.

Quite a number of African countries are having it rough back home – Mali, Somalia, DR Congo, Nigeria; some are just trying to get back on their feet – Rwanda, Egypt, just to name a few. For these countries and others, the Olympics holds a deeper meaning – it is a ray of hope and light; a source of true joy and happiness if they can bring back a medal or attain some level of success at the Olympic Games.

PANA Television wishes all African Teams a successful outing at the XXX Olympiad.

Team South Africa at the Opening Ceremony London 2012

Photo: London 2012

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Walking Down the Isles of Wonder at the XXX Olympiad

In less than 30 minutes, athletes from 205 countries of the world, who have made great sacrifices to get to the Olympics will gather to celebrate a sporting tradition that dates back as far back as 8 B.C

Everyone will stand united in a spirit of true sportsmanship, each person with similar goals – go for gold- or maybe not everyone. Having a chance to compete at the Olympics is every athlete’s dream. If the medals come in, that’s just more icing on the cake. It’s amazing how sports just happen to bring the peoples of the world together. All differences set aside.

Tonight’s ceremony is also a chance for the world to get the best of British culture and hospitality. Apart from the cultural display and performances, another major highlight is the entrance of the Olympic flame and the lighting of the Cauldron, which signifies the beginning of the games and will remain lit till the closing ceremony.

In spite of a highly anticipated rich cultural display, certain Olympic traditions will be observed such as the Parade of Nations with Greece leading the procession as the progenitors of the Olympics, followed by all other teams in alphabetical order, and then the host nation comes in last, the speeches by the president of the Organizing Committee and the president of the IOC.

53 African teams will feature in the Parade of Nations. The number of athletes competing per African  country with their respective flag bearers is as follows:

Algeria: 39 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Abdelhafid Benchabla

Angola: 35 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Antonia Moreira

Benin: 5 Athletes;

Botswana: 4 Athletes;

Burkina Faso: 5 Athletes;

Burundi: 6 Athletes

Cameroon: 37 Athletes; Flag Bearer -  Annabelle Ali

Cape Verde: 3 Athletes;

Central African Republic: 6 Athletes;

Chad: 3 Athletes

Comoros: 3 Athletes

Congo: 7 Athletes

Cote d’Ivoire: 10 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Murielle Ahouré

DR Congo: 4 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Ilunga Mande

Djibouti: 6 Athletes; Flag Bearer –

Egypt: 90 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Hesham Mesbah

Equatorial Guinea: 2 Athletes;

Eritrea: 12 Athletes: Flag Bearer

Ethiopia: 35 Athletes:

Gabon: 28 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Rudy Zang Milama

Gambia: 2 Athletes;

Ghana: 9 Athletes;

Guinea: 4 Athletes;

Guinea Bissau: 4 Athletes;

Kenya: 50 Athletes; Flag Bearer - David Rudisha

Lesotho: 4 Athletes;

Liberia: 4 Athletes; Flag Bearer - Phobay Kutu-Akoi

Libya: 5 Athletes: Flag Bearer – Mohamed Khouaja

Madagascar: 7 Athletes; Flag Bearer –

Malawi: 3 Athletes;

Mali: 6 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Rahamatou Drame

Mauritania: 2 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Souleyman Chebal Moctar

Mauritius: 11 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Natacha Rigobert

Morocco: 72 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Wiam Dislam

Mozambique: 6 Athletes; Flag Bearer –

Namibia: 9 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Gaby Ahrens

Niger: 6 Athletes;

Nigeria: 53 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Sinivie Boltic

Rwanda: 7 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Adrien Niyonshuti

S.Tome & Principe: 2 Athletes

Senegal: 35 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Ndiss

Seychelles: 6 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Dominic Dugasse

Sierra Leone: 2 Athletes;

Somalia: 2 Athletes;

South Africa: 133 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Caster

Sudan: 6 Athletes; Flag Bearer -

Swaziland: 3 Athletes;

Tanzania: 7 Athletes;

Togo: 6 Athletes;

Tunisia: 83 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Heykel Megannem

Uganda: 16 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Ganzi Mugula

Zambia: 7 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Prince Mumba

Zimbabwe: 7 Athletes; Flag Bearer – Kirsty Coventry

Caught The Olympic Bug Yet?

It may be summer, but at PANA Television, we’ve reached a fever pitch as we feel the Olympic frenzy with just one day to go.

The Olympic Football Tournament kicked off yesterday with our women getting beat up by Brazil and Sweden, but not to sweat it, they still have three more matches left.

On the men’s side, Morocco are feeling on the top of the world right now, with their 2:2 draw against Honduras in the first round of Group D. Here’s hoping Egypt, Senegal, and Gabon can match or exceed Morocco’s performance.

This year, Africa will be looking to top her medal count from Beijing 2008. At Beijing there were a total of 857 athletes that represented the continent. The total medal count was 40 with 12 gold, 14 silver and 14 bronze.

This time out, a contingent of 940 athletes are in London right now with South Africa topping the list with 133 athletes – hope they fare much better than Beijing 2008 where they came back with only one medal in spite of having the largest contingent. Tunisia and Egypt have the second largest with 90 athletes each.

We’ve got some newcomers to the Olympics like Senegal and Gabon who are first timers to football, Eritrea is sending her first cyclist, Daniel Teklehaymanot to the Olympics to compete. We’ve also got ourselves a blade runner from South Africa  - athlete Oscar Pistorius, who has stirred quite a lot of controversy being the first and only double amputee to compete in the Olympic Games, with some critics thinking that he has an unfair advantage over able-bodied athletes.

Oscar Pistorius the 'blade runner'

While we say welcome to the debutantes, we will miss some faces this year. Haile Gebrselassie, two-time Olympic champion from Ethiopia did not qualify; and for the first time in 24 years, we will not have the Maputo Expres, Maria Mutola, running the 800m. Namibian star athlete, Frankie Fredericks will also not be making an appearance.

Hey, but the young shall grow right? So we look towards the young ones to take off where they left off.

Stay logged on to www.panatelevision.com for more Olympic flavour and features.

PANA TELEVISON STREAMING LIVE FROM THE AFRICA VILLAGE, 2012 OLYMPICS

As the official online media partner of the Africa Village, PANA Television joins the rest of the world to throw the spotlight on the 2012 Olympic Games taking place in London.

This will be the first time this sort of concept will be created in the history of the Olympics. The spirit of Africa will have a physical presence at the Africa Village, located at Kensington Gardens, London.

The Africa Village is created to receive the 53 National Olympic Committees and all the African athletes throughout the duration of the games. The village is divided into Africa House and Africa Land.

Africa House is the official reception area of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), and all 53 African NOCs to welcome African sports leaders and African athletes competing at the Olympic Games.

Africa Land is where all the exciting stuff will be happening. Visitors will be exposed to the rich cultural heritage of the African continent in all possible forms such as music, dance, fashion, theatre and of course, an unending variety of African cuisine.

So stay logged on to www.panatelevision.com for all the exciting updates coming from the village.

Also, apart from the Olympics, the Africa Fashion Week London will be taking place on the 3^rd and 4^th of August at the Spitalfields Market Hall, London, where a total of 55 African designers will showcase their best creative pieces. Stay with PANA TV and experience the raw ingenuity of African fashion.