Seven things we saw last week | Plateau United suffered first loss; Nadal to lose uncle as coach

Plateau Utd suffer first league defeat

After eight weeks of Nigeria Professional Football League action, Kennedy Boboye’s Plateau United was beaten 2-1 by Akwa United in Uyo.

Christian Pyagbara got the hosts rolling on six minutes and Alhassan Ibrahim netted his side’s second five minutes into the second half.

Substitute, Chima Ndukwu, toe-poked a likely response with 20 minutes left on the clock but it turned out to be a mere consolation. Plateau are still top of the pile with 17 points from eight matches, three points better off than second-placed ABS.

Davis Cup champions dumped out

Defending Davis Cup champions, Argentina have lost out to Italy in the defence of their title after Fabio Fognini battled back from two sets to love in a deciding rubber to beat Guido Pella 2-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-2 after some rain delays.

Italy will now take on Belgium in the last eight in April after their 3-2 victory. The other quarterfinal ties to be played in April are Britain versus France, Serbia host Spain and the USA travel to Australia.

Kiptum retains Lagos City Marathon title in Kenya sweep

The 2016 winner of the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, Kenya’s Abraham Kiptum, returned to the scene of his conquest and successfully retained his title. He beat his Kenyan compatriots: Ronny Kipkoech Kiboss and Kiprotich Kiroi to second and third places respectively.

Kiptum clocked 2:15:23 in the 42km race while Kiboss came in second with a time of 2:15:25, while Kiroi was closely behind in third place in a time of 2:15:30. Kiptum won $50,000 while Kiboss and Kiroi got $40,000 and $35,000 respectively.

So, whilst congratulating the winners and the organisers, they must start preparing for the 2018 edition and try to ensure that a Nigerian breaks the ranks of these Kenyans. What do you say?

Ahlawat Beats Gayle’s record

Indian batsman, Mohit Ahlawat, became the first person to score a triple century in a Twenty match. Ahlawat unbelievably smashed 302 from just 72 balls in a local T20 clash in Delhi. The 22-year-old – who has played first-class cricket for Delhi and is highly thought of by former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir – crashed 39 sixes in his extraordinary knock in the Friends Premier League.

Nadal to split from longtime coach/mentor

Surprising news filtered in that Rafael Nadal’s uncle, Toni Nadal, who has coached and mentored the 14-time Grand Slam winner, announced he would stop touring with the Spaniard from next season.

Toni Nadal’s major grouse was that he is continually now being shut out of decision-making.

“Relations with my nephew are still excellent. During all these years, we have never been through a crisis,” he told tennisitaliano.it.

“Until he was 17 years old, it was me who decided everything. Then Carlos Costa arrived as manager. Then his father became closer, each having his opinions.

“And the truth is that every year I had less decision-making, until the day when I will decide on nothing,” he said. So instead of waiting to be kicked out, he jumped the gun. Whether this news would affect Nadal’s resurgence is now the question to be asked.

Dibaba smashes 2000m Indoor record

Genzebe Dibaba, the reigning World Champion in the 1500m, is back in the business of breaking records. Dibaba, who has several World Indoor Records to her name, obliterated the former record held by Gabriela Szabo by almost seven seconds, which had stood for 18 years.

The time of 5:23.75 is the fastest ever 2000m either indoor or outdoor and it is her sixth Indoor world record, and her seventh in total. She holds the WRs in the 1500m (Outdoor and Indoor), and Indoor records in the Mile, 3000m, 5000m and 2 Mile.

And finally…