BEB Weekend Sports: Juicy News!

Norwich stun defending champions Man City

Norwich City produced a magnificent all-round display to inflict Manchester City's first Premier League defeat since January at an ecstatic Carrow Road.

The Canaries were missing eight players but made light of those injuries and took full advantage of a performance from the reigning champions that was careless in the extreme and characterised by chaotic defending.

Norwich were 2-0 ahead within 30 minutes after Kenny McLean rose unmarked to meet Emiliano Buendia's corner and then Todd Cantwell finished a flowing move involving Marco Stiepermann and Teemu Pukki.

Sergio Aguero's header just before the break hinted at a Manchester City comeback but a misunderstanding between John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi saw Buendia rob the Argentina centre-back and set up Pukki to score.

Rodri scored his first goal for Manchester City with two minutes left before referee Kevin Friend's final whistle was the cue for wild celebrations for the home side.

The rare defeat, meanwhile, leaves Pep Guardiola's side five points behind Liverpool.

Fati, 16, scores on first start for Barcelona

Barcelona's 16-year-old forward Ansu Fati marked his first senior start with a second-minute goal as the La Liga champions cruised past Valencia.

The teenager burst on to Frenkie de Jong's square ball to score the opener with a firm strike at the Nou Camp.

Fati then returned the favour five minutes later when he cut the ball back for De Jong to double the hosts' lead.

Kevin Gameiro hit back but Gerard Pique and a Luis Suarez double sealed victory before Maxi Gomez's late consolation.

The Barcelona academy graduate became the club's youngest La Liga goalscorer last month when he opened his account within six minutes of coming off the bench in the champions' 2-2 draw at Osasuna.

Fati, who joined the club's 'La Masia' academy in 2012 after moving to Spain from birthplace Guinea-Bissau at the age of six, was rewarded with a starting berth against Valencia after his performance in Pamplona.

There’s now political will to fix National Stadium -Sunday Dare

There is now a departure from the previous neglect and lack of political will to fix the abandoned National Stadium all over the country, the Minister of Youths and Sports, Sunday Dare, said on Saturday, noting that the facilities would now enjoy political will.

The minister, who paid a one - day working visit to the National Stadium, Lagos, said that the stadium's reinstatement was among his three point agenda as a minister.

According to News Agency of Nigeria , the minister in the company of the Chairman, Nigeria Women League, Aisha Falode and other directors in the ministry of sports visited the stadium that has suffered neglect for over 16 years.

Dare said that the ministry’s agenda for sports development in Nigeria would be in three key areas which includes, facilities maintenance, upgrade and management.

“ I am on a working visit to the National Stadium , Lagos today, but I have visited MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja, Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna and Daura Township Stadium. 

“I visited Daura Township Stadium because there is also a plan for grassroots development of sports in our agenda. 

“For us in the Youth Ministry, we will focus, on three major things which includes, facility maintenance, upgrade and management.” he said. 

Dare said that his working visit to the stadium was not for ritual sake, but to have an holistic assessment of the stadium with a strong political will to fix it.

Tokyo shows off snow blaster to beat Olympics heat

It was 25C (77F) in Tokyo, but snow fell in well-ordered flurries at a canoeing event in the Japanese capital.

It wasn't freak weather, but the latest innovation being tested by 2020 Olympics organisers hoping to keep spectators cool and comfortable when the Games take place next summer.

Around 300kg (47st) of artificial snow was sprayed over stands at the Sea Forest Waterway venue.
The goal: to see if it could lower heat and humidity levels.

Tokyo regularly sees temperatures of 35C and 80% humidity in July, prompting concerns that spectators could suffer heatstroke.

Half of the 2,000 seats are uncovered, after plans for a full roof were scaled back to cut costs.

So on Friday, members of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee filled the stands for a five-minute snow machine trial, during a test event for the canoe sprints.

The result may not have been what they hoped for, however. The temperature there was 25.1C before the snow - and exactly the same afterwards.

Takashi Okamura, head of communication, command and control on the organising committee, told the BBC the result was "not as expected", but said the snow had other merits.

from Bola Esho's Blog