Africa’s Highlights at the Olympics

Tatjana Schoenmaker and Bianca Buitendag both won silver on day four of the Olympics to claim South Africa’s first medals of Tokyo 2020.

Moroccan boxer Youness Baalla was at the centre of controversy in the boxing ring as he attempted to bite his opponent from New Zealand. In the women’s football Zambia’s Copper Queens lost 1-0 to Brazil in their final group to crash out of the tournament.

There was real disappointment for Tunisia’s 400m freestyle Olympic champion Ahmed Hafnaoui as he failed to reach the final of his preferred event the 800m freestyle. In rugby, Kenya lost all three of their Pool C matches as they were beaten 12-7 by Ireland on Tuesday.

The Kenyans then beat hosts Japan 21-7 in the play-offs for 9th to 12th places. As the taekwondo ended in Tokyo Ivory Coast’s Aminata Traore missed out on a bronze in the women’s +67kg category as she lost to France’s Althea Laurin.

Nigeria women’s basketball team lost 72-81 to USA in their opening Group B game, with the MVP from the 2019 Afrobasket, Ezinne Kalu top scoring for the African champions with 16 points.

And in  handball, Africa’s representatives in the women’s event, Angola, lost 30-21 to Norway on Tuesday after losing 33-22 to Montenegro in their opening Group A match.