Ethiopia’s 20-year-old Diribe Welteji continued to impress in the women’s 1500m, following up her win in Nairobi earlier this month with a 3:59.19 triumph. Her second-quickest ever time behind her national U20 record run last year, she led the next six finishers to PBs and was followed by her compatriots Ayal Dagnachew – her fellow 20-year-old who won world U20 800m gold last year and improved her 1500m PB by almost nine seconds to 3:59.87 – and Netsanet Desta with 4:00.84.
Lamecha Girma surged to 12th on the world 3000m steeplechase all-time list with a world-leading Ethiopian record of 7:58.68. Girma joined Bol in making a major statement in a year when the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 is the main aim.
After finishing second on his season opener at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha, there looked to be no question as to his success this time as he broke away with his compatriot Hailemariyam Amare and went on to dominate the race. They followed the pacemakers through 1000m in 2:42.37 and Girma passed 2000m in 5:19.22 before reaching the finish line ahead of the clock hitting eight minutes, becoming the first athlete since 2018 to break that time barrier and improve his own Ethiopian record. Amare was second in a PB of 8:07.70.
Diribe led Ethiopian trio while Lemecha clocked World Leading
Twitter, SuperSport Bring Football Highlights and News Closer to African Fans
Anticipation for the 2022 FIFA World CupTM just hit full throttle for African sports enthusiasts following the announcement of a new partnership between Twitter and SuperSport, the leading broadcast aggregator of sporting content across Sub-Saharan Africa. This builds on a successful collaboration with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from the African Cup of Nations (AFCON 2021), and represents a further expansion of sports coverage on the social media platform.
The new sports deal is set to bring the roar of the stadium even closer to football fans on the Timeline. @supersporttv on Twitter will provide dynamic new opportunities for fans to enjoy coverage of the World Cup and some of the world’s biggest sporting events like, the English Premier League (EPL), UEFA Champions League (UCL) and the DStv Premiership.
As part of the agreement, there will be near real-time match highlights, live analysis and commentary via Twitter Spaces as well as hand-curated Twitter moments and more original content from fan favourite league broadcasts every week. And with football being a major conversation driver across the continent on Twitter, fans and pundits can expect an even higher level of engagement with interactive Q&As, Polls, compilations etc. Additionally, video clips via @supersporttv will be available for advertisers to sponsor from DStv and through Twitter’s Amplify program.
In a statement from Twitter, Sr. Partner Manager, GCP Tunde Onakoya said, “For so many Africans, Twitter is the place to follow the latest sports news, join global conversations, and watch intense global sports rivalries unfold. We’re thrilled to capture the energy of these moments by collaborating with our partners at SuperSport to drive conversations in a fresh, new way.”
Marc Jury, Chief Executive of SuperSport, added, “SuperSport embraced digital several years back and this is another important, exciting step in that journey. Partnering with a global business like Twitter will allow a greater spread of our content, and also help SuperSport engage more with our viewers. The possibilities are endless and we look forward to a vibrant partnership.”SuperSport content is transmitted across various channels on DStv and other digital platforms in Sub-Saharan Africa. Join the conversation along with your favourite countries!
Ejegayehu left Letesenbet to second place on opening night in Eugene
On an evening of touted world record attempts at the Prefontaine Classic, none actually materialized, though Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye turned in worthy efforts, clocking 14:12.98 for 5000m to go fifth on the all-time list.
The women’s 5000m produced, as expected, a blazing performance from an Ethiopian, but it was not world record-holder Letesenbet who proved strongest but her compatriot Ejegayehu, who powered away over the final two laps to clock a meeting record and world lead of 14:12.98, which puts her fifth on the world all-time list.
The touted world record attempt by Letesenbet appeared on track after she reached 3000m in 8:32.07, but it was clear when she hit 4000m in 11:24.38 that the 14:06.62 mark she ran in October 2020 was safe for another night.
Letesenbet’s pace fell well behind the pace lights on the penultimate lap and Ejegayehu blew by her, the world indoor 3000m bronze medalist taking two seconds off her PB when hitting the line in splendid isolation. Letesenbet finished a distant second in 14:24.59 with Eritrea’s Rahel Daniel third in a national record of 14:36.66.
Azerbaijan celebrated Independence Day in Addis Ababa
Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of Azerbaijan Ruslan Nasibov made a statement, that says:
I am honored to welcome you today to the Celebration of the 28 May – Independence Day. On that day, 104 years ago Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was established, becoming the first parliamentary democracy in the Muslim world, the first country in the Muslim world and European continent that granted universal suffrage to women as early as in 1918.
Our rapid economic development after restoration of the state independence on October 18, 1991 helped us transform the country. In the last twenty years the level of poverty in the country dropped to less than 6 percent, economy grew more than three times, more than 260 billion USD have been invested into the country. With population reaching 10,2 million people, foreign currency reserves hit the mark of 53 billion USD, more than five-fold higher than our foreign debt. In terms of quality of infrastructure, Azerbaijan is ahead of some developed states. Many of you might have watched spectacular and dramatic Baku city races of Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, next round of which is kicking off in a few days.
Using our geographical location we invest in building bridges between Asia and Europe. Despite being a landlocked country, Azerbaijan turned into one of the international transportation hubs. We have built diversified railroad network connecting us with our neighbors and seven international airports with five star Heydar Aliyev International Airport. One of them Fuzuli International Airport in the liberated territories was constructed from scratch and commissioned in just 8 months. Two more airports in the liberated territories are coming up. We continue re-shaping Eurasia’s transportation map.
Azerbaijan’s vast oil and gas reserves and its role in energy security is already known. We have also built multiple pipelines to transport our oil and gas to international markets. Among largest transnational energy transportation projects are Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan oil pipeline, Southern Gas Corridor, running from Azerbaijan through Georgia and Turkey to Europe up to Italy. Nowadays, relevance and importance of diversified energy supplies are drastically increasing from day-to-day. Azerbaijan has become an indispensable partner for Europe and a regional hub connecting countries and continents. Referring to a famous saying “all roads lead to Rome”, today we may say that before “all roads run through Azerbaijan”.
Bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Ethiopia since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992 develop dynamically. We are friendly countries. Later this year we mark 30th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between our two states. Embassy of Azerbaijan in Addis Ababa started functioning in the end of 2014. Our relations have a historical background dated back to medieval and continued through 20th century during the Soviet period when leaders and well-known cultural figures paid mutual visits. Azerbaijan’s universities became alma mater for almost 800 Ethiopians out of 8000 African students who received education in our country during the said period. Since 2000s Azerbaijan re-started extending scholarships to African countries and Ethiopia in particular.
We had a number of high-level visits before COVID-19 pandemic and will continue same pace in the post-pandemic period. We have strong potential to practically develop our bilaterals spanning from political, economic to social and humanitarian fields including crucial areas like public service delivery.
We look towards future with strong confidence, are ready for any geopolitical turbulence and will continue setting patterns for development and achievements in different fields.
Ye Azerbaijan ena Ye Ethiopia wedajinet Lezelalem Yinur
