By Samson Michael 

Meseret defeats Tirunesh

Reigning athlete of the season Kenenisa Bekele opened IAAF African Athletics Championship 15th edition in victory while double World Champion Tirunesh Dibaba lost to arch rival and compatriot Meseret Defar .

Mauritius had brought together 450 athletes from 47 African nations making this year's collection the biggest in the championship's three decade history.

South Africa is the hot favorite to take top spot as it did in the last edition two years ago. South Africa takes the lead in presenting the highest number of athletes - 47 - as the country is preparing for next years athletics cup in Athens .

Nigeria , best known for its short distance runners and jumpers will face a strong challenge from Egypt one of the strongest nations with many renewned weight lifters and throwers. The middle and long distances should be left to Ethiopia and may be Kenya .

Kenenisa and Tirunesh came to Mauritius following IAAF's insistence.

As expected, the 5,000 meter women's race between the Ethiopians Tirunesh and Meseret was the highlight of the race as expected. The two displayed true grit as the race was decided on the line just like in the last IAAF race.

Though Tirunesh held on to the race until the last second, a determined and confident Meseret returned the favor as she beat the World Champion on the line. It was one of the strongly contested races, deserving a place in the athletics history books. The heart touching moment happened when the two athletics queens embraced after the race.

Kenenisa's victory was not easy as he had to fend off seven athletes with three hailing from Kenya and hot on his heels. The Kenyans did everything to stop Kenenisa even though all traps fell to pieces when the race came down to the good old final sprint. Kenenisa wisely used his power and intelligence before unleashing his killer dash which left Kenyan Mike Kegan flabbergasted. The Olympic gold medalist clocked 14:03:41 while Kegan came three seconds later. Ugandan Moses Kiprono finished third in 14:05:20 to claim the bronze medal.

Egypt won two gold medals in the opening day - one in the hammer throw and the other in shot put. South Africa has won one gold and two silver medals while Kenya and Morocco have one bronze each.

Ethiopian short distance runners in both genders failed to qualify for the final which takes place today. Wetere Gelelcha was disqualified as he made two false starts. The women's 100 meter athlete Atkelt Wubeshet finished last in her group.

Chelsea in a hurry for a third league title

Chelsea have come to the premier league looking much stronger and in a hurry to win the Premier League for the third time in a row, a feat if achieved would be the first time in the club's history.

Thanks to super rich Chelsea owner Roman Abrahamovich , Jose Mourinho has signed two of the world's most sought after internationals to his already bulging squad. Those envious of the big money have already started branding the two players as old legs who would hang their boots soon. Any Chelsea supporter must have said HURRAY following the signings, and any one who isn't blues fans is not entitles to any suggestion!

Chelsea signed one of the world's best playmakers Michael Ballack from Bayern Munich and one of the world's sharpest stikers Andrei Shevchenko from AC Milan. The 29 year old Ballack is expected to give Chelsea the midfield width while the 31 year old Shevchenko is expected to bring in the goals. Salomon Kalou of Ivory Coast and John Obi Mikel of Nigeria are the other players who joined Stamford Bridge as clear favorites to win the new English premier league season which kicks-off next Saturday.

Alex Ferguson , Arsene Wenger and Rafael Benitez still seem to be in their own league fighting for the premier league's second and third spot and any crumble left by Mourinho, if he feels kind enough to leave any. We all said bad things about Mourinho last season, let's see what we would say when he wins more than one trophy this season.

We now have a new league under the premier league called runners up league. Where Manchester United, Arsenal Liverpool and may be only may be Tottenham and Newcastle would be competing. These clubs have not even participated in the transfer market. Theo Walcott of Arsenal said he preferred to sign for Arsenal than Chelsea and now, he seems to be eating his word in silence as he prays Wenger doesn't forget his name. The Gunners have only one thing to show this season, their new state of the art 70,000 capacity Emirates Stadium.

Alex Ferguson must be confused whom to sign and seems content to start the season with a squad full of has beens (except for Rooney, Ferdinand , Carrick and Saha). Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are just decoration's to remember the good old days at old Trafford. What is really happening at Old Trafford is surprising when Ferguson decided to kick out Ruud Van Nistelrooy with out at least finding some one to replace him.

The other runner up league member Liverpool might succeed this time to second place for the first time since 2001. Steven Gerard , leading by example, seems to be surrounded by names that can't match those of Chelsea 's has to make sure that his team fights for every point this season. However hard he tried to build a strong team, win the Champion's League and FAC Cup, Benitez seems to have yet to understand the recipe of winning the Premier League's.

Tottenham Hotspurs manager Martin Jol has already given his vote of confidence to Chelsea .

Girma takes over at Banks

After eight years as assistant coach to Banks, Girma Tsegaye has appointed as head coach of the team. Following strong speculations that former coach Ashenafi would take the seat vacated by Gebremedhin Haile , Banks club administrators decided to give Girma responsibility of the team.

One of the country's financially strong teams, Ethiopia Banks are considered as underachievers as the team has never won the premier league title.

When Gebremedhin took charge of Banks two seasons ago, many thought that banks would break the tradition of warming the mid table and start challenging the top teams. But things never worked out the way they were planned as Gebremedin joined Trans Ethiopia after two years with Banks.

Though Girma is relatively young, friendly with both the players and the sport committee, he was never popular for his disciplinary records as a player. Girma's appointment as head coach was never easy as it comes with heavy burdens. Girma is expected to d what his predecessor was never able to do. Banks are known to be quick in hiring and firing coaches just like the counting machines in their bank lobbies. By now everyone hopes Girma knows why and tries to avoid being a statistic.

Reigning premier league champions Saint George , in a surprising have signed a new coach from Portugal . The surprise was that the club was happy to just release Serbian coach Muicho and go to South Africa . Muicho had led the side to two consecutive titles before joining Orlando pirates. While the public started speculating the champions are to trace back the normal procedure to hire an Ethiopian coach, the club officials showed that they weren't ready to hire one. Though St George haven't announced it publicly, Jose Perriera Pinto will take chare of the champions.

Perriera is expected to try and win a double in Ethiopia , a feat that Muicho failed to achieve. He is also expected to surpass the second round achievement made by his predecessor.

Carlos ' summer camp delights many

The third week encounter among the eight teams in Carlos ' Summer Camp Youth Basket ball project proved to be a bit different from the previous two occasions.

The Abebe Bikila Gymnasium, courtesy of ICS, the base point for Carlos 's dream camp, was busy as players nervously started getting ready for the day's matches in front of their sponsors. Many others including Capital sport reporters were present to witness the days event followed by a small gathering for the introduction of sponsors among themselves.

The first match of the day was between What's up Addis Ababa and Life Fitness teams.

In front of their respective sponsors, the two teams started showing what they had learnt with brilliant shots from distances and breath taking dribbles past opponents. Life Fitness took the upper hand until the second half where What's up Addis' Asteway Sileshi geared up the game.

The 18 year old Unity College player is believed to have a bright future in the game if his height doesn't work against him. Asteway, who makes up for his height by a blinding dribble steered his side to an astonishing win with the score line reading 30-24.

What's up Addis team coach Ibrahim Abubeker, an active player with the Ethio- Investment club said that Carols inspired him and his friends to pursue this blessed idea of helping kids to pursue their dream.

A fourth year A.A University physical education student, Ibrahim believes he has learnt a lot on how to run a successful project. “I though that I would help the kids pursue their dreams, instead I ended up learning and not reaching,” said Ibrahim.

There are about four training centers for the eight teams that made the summer camp. More than 450 trainees practice every day except on Saturdays - match day - and Sundays, rest day. ICS and Juventus Club have offered their courts for the teams' training sessions.

Sponsors of the eight teams were more than happy to extend their help. “Watching kids happy while playing ball makes me happy more than anythingm,” said Mesfin represented the Life Fitness team. “Eyob, the official representative of Life Fitness would have done a better job telling you how glad he was about this project,” added Mesfin.

Meanwhile, Bridgestone Tyre manager Hussein Ahmed was very enthusiastic about the project.

“ Carlos and I know each other for a long time and we are very close friends so I trust he will help the children in many ways. I am also concerned about the future of the kids and how they would join the society as grown ups. Carlos is making them good people and molding them for their social lives. He is giving them a chance to children who were never given any chances previously. Bridgestone is more than happy to sponsor Carlos 's summer project because we believe he is working more than the money he gets in sponsorship,” Hussein said.

“Imagine where the street children could pass this cold and rain had it not been for this summer camp,” he added.

Better compromise than confrontation

I don't understand why Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) the country's soccer governing body prefers to take a harder line when it comes to one of the strongest football clubs Ethiopian Coffee.

As recent as last week the federation took the already bitter confrontation into a new chapter making the relationship between the two as good as war. The EFF's executive body (this time the president's turf) passed a ruling that says unless Ethiopian Coffee withdrew its charge against the federation, the club will be expelled from the premier league for good.

I am afraid this time the federation led by Dr. Ashebir W/Giorgis , the very man who cried foul when the former Deputy Minister of Sports tried to throw him out of the office is treading on thin ice. Imagine expelling one of the two strongest sides in the country from one of the weakest leagues in the world, where on the other hand, we are bragging of building a team that would qualify for the coming Cup of African Nations.

It is a fact that when strong club competition takes place, the national side benefits from stronger players. Then how could one justify vanquishing one of the strongest clubs arguably with the highest number of supporters. Supporters are the pillar of any sport occasion and soccer being the game of spectators, could the EFF afford to expel Coffee from the Premier League?

As the country's soccer governing body, its main task is to maintain law and order among clubs as well as keep those clubs alive so that league competitions can survive. Where there are no clubs, there will be no league competition, and so no governing body is needed. The EFF should make sure that as many clubs as possible should play in all leagues, because in the end more clubs means more supporters and more supporters means more income from stadiums.

But the EFF is being very harsh on Coffee, one of the most popular clubs in the country along with its vast number of supporters. Believe it or not, only a St George Vs Coffee game makes a sell out crowd at the Addis Ababa Stadium. One reason for this is that the two clubs have the highest number of supporters between them and the second is they are bitter rivals. Since the best way to help clubs to get stronger is creating a healthy rivalry atmosphere amongst them, the killing off of one club would no doubt be the downfall of the other. The EFF's duty is to keep balance among these clubs and make sure that the premier league goes smooth.

But things don't seem to be going well for the EFF, as it was responsible for the chaotic premier league season that ended a couple of months ago. Coffee and EFF are playing a cat and mouse game that could destroy the premier league. “To err is human to forgive is divine” as they say. This is not a situation where you get rind of one child so that the rest could get peace. As a national institution, the EFF is supposed to tolerate some misgivings and forgive their misdoings for the bigger good.