Gabon moved closer to a first World Cup appearance by trouncing Togo 3-0 when the 2010 qualifying competition resumed in Africa on Saturday.
Bruno Ecuele scored after only 11 minutes in Libreville to give the home team a perfect start and second half goals from Roguy Meye and Moise Brou secured three more Group A points.
Thomas Dossevi did not help Togo by being sent off five minutes before half-time and teammate Emmanuel Adebayor was shown a yellow card soon after.
Victory maintained the 100 percent record of Gabon in a pool completed by Cameroon and Morocco, who were to clash yesterday.
Morocco fell at home to Gabon, while Cameroon were beaten in neutral Accra by Togo, who are barred from hosting World Cup fixtures as punishment for crowd violence.
The five group winners qualify for the Cup and the top three in each go to the African Nations Cup scheduled for January in Angola.
Moumouni Dagano raised his goal tally to 10 in the joint elimination competition by scoring the winner as Burkina Faso triumphed 1-0 in Malawi and maintained a perfect Group E record. The Qatar-based striker struck on 70 minutes at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre, volleying the ball past goalkeeper Swadick Sanudi from close range before a crowd restricted to 25,000 owing to security concerns.
Burkina Faso, another country that has never qualified for the World Cup, had six points, Ivory Coast three and Guinea and Malawi none ahead of a game between the Guineans and Ivorians scheduled yesterday.
Zambia followed up a shock Group C draw at African Nations Cup holders Egypt last March by edging Rwanda 1-0 in the northern town of Chililabombwe with Rainford Kalaba heading the lone goal on 79 minutes.
Tunisia also defeated Mozambique 2-0.
Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes on Tuesday night cruised to a repeat victory in the Iditarod, the about 1,609km sled dog race in Alaska. Holmes guided his dog team across the finish line in the old Gold Rush town of Nome, a Bering Sea coastal community. The race started on March 8 in Willow, a day after the ceremonial start in Anchorage. The course took dog teams and their mushers over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and across the unpredictable Bering Sea ice. Holmes, a former cast member on the National Geographic reality show Life Below Zero, is the
Taiwanese boxer and Olympic gold medalist Lin Yu-ting has been approved to compete in the Asian Boxing Elite Championships, the Chinese Taipei Boxing Association (CTBA) said yesterday. The championships start on Saturday next week in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Lin became entangled in a gender controversy, despite the International Olympic Committee confirming her eligibility to compete as a female boxer. In August last year, World Boxing mandated a new regulation that required all athletes to undergo a polymerase chain reaction. genetic test to determine their sex at birth and their eligibility. Since the introduction of the test, Lin has missed several
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