One of the pioneers of women’s football in Ghana, Madam Sophia Okuley, last Sunday turned 80 years and she celebrated the anniversary with a party attended by most of the players she nurtured.

Joined by her family friends and women’s football family, Ms Okuley began the celebrations with a thanksgiving service presided over by Rev Father Nyan at the Anglican Church of Transfiguration at Haatso, in Accra and later a party.

As many players of the 1999 Black Queens squad who made their debut at the Women’s World Cup , turned up. They included Adjoa Bayor, Genevieve Clottey, Mercy Tagoe, Faustina Doyi, Gifty Lartey, Helina Wilson and Mavis Addae.

Jessica Tei and Nafiu Abubakar shared the glory after winning the ladies and men’s scratch events respectively at the Inaugural Open of the Achimota Golf Club played over the weekend. 

Both golfers beat off strong challenge to claim the top prizes -- a trophy and a return ticket to South Africa --on a weekend which brought together the cream of

Ghana’s golfers and some players from the West African sub-region, for the commissioning the country’s premier golfing destination, following extensive rehabilitation works undertaken by Pail McGinley Golf, which reshaped the course to bring it up to world-class standards.

The much anticipated All Africa Games (AAG) is over and participating nations are still assessing or digesting their performances. Since team Ghana returned, the country have been analysing her successes, as well as losses so that future participation would bring better results for the nation.

As the games closed a month ago with Ghana's best achievement coming in football - women's division and tennis placing 21st out of the 50 countries that participated in the games, Ghanaians no doubt showered lots of praises on the gallant ladies and George Darko and William Narh-Adirago.

One of Ghana’s representatives in this year’s All Africa Games in Brazaville, Maclean Dzidzienyo, has been presented with a Rambo 5000-litre Polytank - branded water tank by Polytank Ghana Limited.

The tank, valued at GH¢ 2,000, is to assist the wheelchair racer, who is into farming have easy access to water.

Dzidzienyo, who is also a two-time gold medalist of the Outeniqua Wheelchair Challenge (OCC) marathon in South Africa, expressed gratitude to the company for supporting his farming business.

Mohammed Alhassan, a former National Organiser of the National Chapters Committee of Accra Hearts of Oak, has called on the club, particularly supporters, to honour Mr Ato Ahwoi, a former board chairman of the club, for his immense contributions to the growth of the club.

He argued that Ahwoi, during his tenure between 1995 and 2005 acquitted himself so creditably as the most successful leader of the club since its formation some 104 years ago.

The veteran football administrator was the board chairman of Hearts when they won the CAF Champions League in 2000, CAF Super Cup (2001), the inaugural CAF Confederation Cup in 2004, as well as seven Premier League titles, among other achievements, and crowning it all with an eighth placing on the CNN World Best Club ranking in 2001.

The Ghana Karate-Do Association (GKA) last Saturday organised a programme designed to upgrade the performance of karate-kas selected from various clubs across the country

The exercise , held at the Media Centre of the Accra Sports Stadium saw the participants demonstrating their skills in various ways with the view of catching the eyes of the coaches examining them.

In all, a total of 30 athletes converged in Accra for the exercise , but only 16 who paid their participation fees to be examined were upgraded. Of the 16, three made it to 1st Dan, which was the lowest rank, with one of them qualifying to 2nd Dan, while three were upgraded to the 3rd Dan .

Four others who put up splendid performances succeeded in making it to the to 4th Dan ( Dan rankings are indicated by belt colour or stripes on the belt. The dan ranking system is also used to indicate the level of one’s ability within the sport).

Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski has been anonymously reported to police for drinking champagne on the pitch while celebrating Poland qualifying for Euro 2016.

The 27-year-old, arguably the best centre forward in Europe this season after scoring 15 goals in six games, was seen drinking from a celebratory bottle following his side's crucial 2-1 victory over Ireland at Warsaw's National Stadium.

The final group games of the Diwali Cup T20 Cricket tournament organised by the Indian Association of Ghana and the Ghana Cricket Association were played at the Achimota Cricket Oval last Sunday.

In the first game of Pool B, Bel Aqua who have already qualified to the semis took on Godrej Cricket Club. Batting first Godrej were restricted to 76 runs for nine wickets in their 20 overs thanks to a good spell of spin bowling by fast bowler Viveak who took four wickets for 18 runs.

The other day I was amazed at the funny design of the Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA), in "smuggling" Accra Hearts of Oak into this year's "invitational tournament," which was hither-to described as the "G Six". After the GFA Appeals Committee's decision to uphold Kotoko's protest over the earlier Disciplinary Committee's ruling in favour of Hearts in the "unqualified player" saga, Hearts were thrown  to the bottom where they were placed at the 13th position of the 16-club First Capital Plus Premier League. What a season that was!

Former national team player and member of the Seniors Hockey Club, Peter Obeng, took an early lead in the Ashanti regional hockey goal king race when he scored twice to give his side a 3-2 win over Unique at the resumption of the league in Kumasi last Saturday.

Obeng, once a key player for CEPS in the Greater Accra Hockey League, had his goals cancelled by Acquah Stephen and Amoako Bonsie for Unique before Wallace Ababio scored the match winner for Seniors in an exciting game.

In a bid to motivate the national tennis team, the Golden Rackets, at the ongoing Davies Cup in Cairo, Egypt, Interplast Ghana Limited last Thursday donated US$10,000 to the Ghana Tennis Federation (GTF).

The Arthur Wharton Foundation will launch the Arthur Wharton @ 150 birthday project at the residence of the British High Commissioner, Mr Jon Benjamin, at 5:30 p.m tomorrow.

The project is aimed at giving Ghanaians the privilege to know how helpful Arthur Wharton has been in promoting blacks in world football.

Wharton, who was the first recognised black man to play professional football, also has the record of being the first black sprinter.

Our job is to continue helping organisations like Football Unites, Racism Divides and the Arthur Wharton Foundation to educate the next generation about Arthur.

Nafiu Abubakar emerged the overall winner of the Inaugural Open of the Achimota Golf Club played over the weekend, beating his closest challenger Maxwell Osei Bonsu to second position of the men’s scratch competition.

Abubakar of the Obuasi Club, returned a gross score of 144 to finish ahead of Bonsu of the Royal Club of Kumasi who grossed 151, with Yao Dogbe of Achimota (152 gross) finishing third in the two-day event which brought together all who mattered in golf to officially commission the refurbished course and clubhouse.

Jessica Tei of Achimota club ensured the host club were represented on the honours list as she won the ladies competition, beating evergreen Mona Myles Lamptey of Tema Country Golf club and Felicia Okyei Gyeabour of the Royal Club to second and third positions respectively.

I have read of the purported origins of the Ghana Hockey Association in one Accra daily and feel the records must be straightened for the sake of the current generation and prosperity and also to be fair to those actually involved; at least, one of them is still alive.

In the said article titled “A National Icon”, the writer wrote: “Mrs Theodosia Okoh has earned her name not only as the designer or the national flag but also as a pioneer in the popularisation of hockey in the country. In early post independence Ghana, Mrs Okoh got herself in the popularization of the game by forming the Gold Coast Hockey Association and formed local teams which competed among themselves and teams from other countries......”

Jordan Ayew finally broke his goal drought in the English Premier League (EPL) last Saturday, but ironically it was his elder brother Andre Dede Ayew who stole the spotlight as Swansea defeated Aston Villa 2-1 at the Villa Park last Saturday.

The result left Jordan broken hearted as Villa sunk deep into the relegation zone and cost manager Tim sherwood his job the following day after six straight defeats.