Athletics
‘Blade Runner’ Pistorius Released On Parole 11 Years After Murdering Girlfriend –
South African former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius was released on parole on Friday, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend in a crime that shocked a nation long inured to violence against women.
Pistorius – dubbed “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetic legs – shot 29-year-old model Reeva Steenkamp dead through a locked bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
He has repeatedly said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he fired four shots into the bathroom at his Pretoria home, and he launched multiple appeals against his conviction on that basis.
“The Department of Correctional Services (is) able to confirm that Oscar Pistorius is a parolee, effectively from 5 January 2024. He was admitted into the system of Community Corrections and is now at home,” the country’s prisons department said in a statement.
Pistorius, now 37, has spent about eight and a half years in jail as well as seven months under home arrest before he was sentenced for murder. A parole board in November decided he could be freed after completing more than half his sentence.
Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius reacts as he listens to Judge Thokozile Masipa’s judgement at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, September 11, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Ludbrook/Pool/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
In a statement shared by the Steenkamp family lawyer on Friday, Reeva’s mother June said: “There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back.”
“We, who remain behind, are the ones serving a life sentence,” June Steenkamp said, adding her only desire was to be allowed to live in peace after Pistorius’ release on parole.
A monitoring official will keep an eye on him until his sentence expires in December 2029, whom Pistorius will have to inform if he seeks job opportunities or moves to a new address.
He is also required to continue therapy on anger management and attend sessions on gender-based violence as part of his parole conditions , the Steenkamp family has said.
June Steenkamp said the conditions imposed by the parole board had affirmed her belief in the South African justice system as they send out a clear message that gender-based violence is taken seriously.
A lawyer for Pistorius did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his release on Friday.
Local media expect him to live at the home of his uncle Arnold Pistorius in a wealthy Pretoria suburb.
South Africans have shown mixed reactions to his release, with some feeling he has served his time, while others see his punishment as too lenient.
“He paid his price. Let him rebuild his life,” a local resident told reporters gathered outside his uncle’s home on Friday morning.
FROM PARALYMPIC STAR TO CONVICTED MURDERER
Pistorius was once the darling of the sports world, and a pioneering voice for disabled athletes, for whom he campaigned to be allowed to compete with able-bodied participants at major sports events.
In August 2012, mere months before shooting his girlfriend, Pistorius became the first double amputee to compete at the London Olympics, where he made it to the 400 metres semi-finals.
He won two gold medals at the Paralympics.
He was first jailed for five years in October 2014 for culpable homicide by a high court. After his prosecutors appealed that ruling, the Supreme Court of Appeal found him guilty of murder in December 2015. But he only got six years when he was sentenced in July 2016, despite prosecutors arguing for a minimum sentence of 15 years.
Then in November 2017 the Supreme Court of Appeal more than doubled his sentence to 13 years and five months, describing his earlier term as “shockingly lenient”.
Pistorius met Reeva’s father Barry Steenkamp in 2022 in a “victim-offender dialogue,” an integral part of South Africa’s restorative justice system.
Based partly on how indigenous cultures handled crime long before Europeans colonised South Africa, restorative justice aims to find closure for affected parties in a crime, instead of merely punishing perpetrators.
He was initially denied parole in March. However, the Constitutional Court subsequently ruled he had completed half of his sentence by March 21 and was eligible for parole after it was backdated to July 2016 when he was first sentenced for murder instead of November 2017.
-Reuters
The proposed switch of allegiance by Nigerian sprint star Favour Ofili to Türkiye has hit a major obstacle, with Nigerian sports authorities insisting that the 23-year-old remains eligible to compete for Nigeria.
Ofili announced in September on her Instagram account, followed by more than 40,000 people, that she was beginning “a new chapter representing Türkiye,” signalling her intention to change sporting nationality after years of representing the Nigeria national athletics team.
“I moved to Türkiye to save my career from officials,” the U.S.-based sprinter later wrote, explaining that her decision was influenced by frustrations with Nigeria’s sporting administration.
However, nearly six months after the announcement, Ofili has yet to compete for her new country, and the process appears stalled.
A senior official of the National Sports Commission told reporters in February that Ofili is still considered a Nigerian athlete and cannot immediately switch allegiance.
“She is still our athlete,” the official said, adding that Ofili was among the elite athletes who received training scholarships from the commission last year.
According to the official, if the sprinter intends to compete for another country, she may have to wait until September 2028, potentially ruling out a change before the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Career Frustrations
Ofili’s rapid rise in athletics has been accompanied by several controversies that have strained her relationship with Nigeria’s sporting authorities.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, she was among Nigerian athletes barred from competing after failing to meet required out-of-competition doping control tests.
Ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, she also revealed she had been excluded from the women’s 100-metre event despite qualifying.
“It is with great sadness that I have just been informed that I will not be competing in the 100-metre dash at these Games,” she wrote at the time. “I qualified, but those in charge did not register me. I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity.”
Debate Over Loyalty
The controversy has sparked debate within Nigeria’s athletics community.
Former African sprint queen Mary Onyali recently said she rejected offers from European countries to compete under their flags during her career because of her loyalty to Nigeria.
Ofili responded by suggesting the circumstances were different, noting that Onyali “was never denied the opportunity to compete in any competition after working hard to qualify.”
Speaking through her coach, Dennis Shaver, Ofili also dismissed speculation that financial incentives were the main motivation for her proposed move.
“I am a woman, and I have a short-term job,” she said. “This is the ideal time to make the most of the time I have left in my career.”
Türkiye’s Recruitment Drive
Ofili’s case comes amid an aggressive talent recruitment drive by Türkiye aimed at strengthening its athletics programme ahead of the Los Angeles Olympics.
Following a disappointing performance at the Paris Games, where the country finished 64th in the medal table without a gold medal, Turkish authorities launched a strategy to recruit top athletes from abroad.
According to athletics coordinator Önder Özbilen, several international athletes have already agreed to compete for Türkiye.
Among them are four Jamaican athletes, including Olympic discus champion Roje Stona, as well as five Kenyan runners, including former marathon world-record holder Brigid Kosgei.
Whether Ofili will ultimately join them remains uncertain.
For now, the Port Harcourt-born sprinter remains officially tied to Nigeria, leaving unresolved the question of which flag she might carry on the road to the Los Angeles Olympics.
Join the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
Athletics
World Athletics Nullifies Junior Records of Three Ethiopian Runners Over Age Irregularities
World Athletics has refused to ratify several junior world records set by three Ethiopian distance runners after an investigation uncovered irregularities in their dates of birth.
The decision follows a probe by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which determined that the real ages of Birke Haylom, Melknat Wudu and Medina Eisa could not be conclusively verified when the records were set between 2023 and 2024.
The ruling means several outstanding under-20 performances by the trio will no longer stand as official world junior records.
Among the affected marks are Haylom’s world under-20 bests in the mile (4:17.13), indoor 1,500 metres (3:58.43) and outdoor 5,000 metres (14:23.71). Wudu’s junior indoor 3,000 metres record of 8:32.34 has also been invalidated, while Eisa’s 5,000 metres time of 14:21.89—previously recognised as the world junior best—has been struck from the record books.
Investigators confirmed that Eisa’s actual birth date is 17 October 2002, rather than 3 January 2005 as previously documented. The finding means she was 22 when she won gold in the 5,000 metres at the 2024 World Under-20 Championships, well above the age limit for the junior category.
The AIU also concluded that Haylom was older than indicated in her official documents, although details of the discrepancy were not publicly disclosed. In Wudu’s case, unresolved doubts about her birth date prevented the ratification of her record.
Under championship rules, athletes competing in under-20 events must be 19 or younger during the competition year and must provide verifiable documentation confirming their eligibility.
While the athletes’ performances remain valid as competition results, they cannot be recognised as junior records.
The investigation forms part of a wider age-verification campaign by the AIU in East African athletics ahead of the next 2026 World Under-20 Championships in the United States.
So far, World Athletics has not announced disciplinary sanctions against the athletes, although AIU regulations allow bans of between two and four years in proven cases of age manipulation.
The removal of the five records marks a significant setback for performances that had previously placed the runners among the most promising young talents in global distance running.
Join the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
The Future Olympian Athletics Classic has been rescheduled from the first quarter of 2026 to the last quarter of the year, as organisers move to transform the meet into a truly national developmental programme spanning Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
In a statement signed by Bruce Ijirigho, a former quarter-miler and Team Nigeria captain to the 1976 Summer Olympics, the postponement was described as a strategic decision aimed at broadening participation and ensuring that young talents across the country are discovered and nurtured systematically.
The competition is being organised by the Youth Sports Renaissance Foundation (YSRF), a non-profit organisation registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission by Ijirigho, Godwin Obasogie and Charlton Ehizuelen. The foundation’s primary objective is to revive athletics, particularly at the secondary school level, and rebuild Nigeria’s once-thriving grassroots sports culture.
Ijirigho, who serves as Project Lead, explained that the initiative is not about creating something entirely new but about restoring a proven system that once produced champions.
“This competition is not about reinventing the wheel,” he said. “It is about bringing back the culture that ensured that my contemporaries and I were discovered early in secondary school, received the right coaching and academic support, and went on to earn scholarships while combining sports with education. Many of us later became national, continental and global champions.”
He identified early exposure and modern, age-appropriate coaching as the missing links in youth development across Nigeria and much of Africa.
“The bane of sports in Nigeria and many African countries is that our youth don’t get opportunities early enough and lack modern coaching techniques that accelerate their development,” Ijirigho stated.
According to him, the Future Olympian Athletics Classic will go beyond competition by incorporating international coaching clinics designed to transfer contemporary skills and knowledge to Games masters and grassroots coaches nationwide.
“The Classic will not only discover talents in their early teens but also upgrade the capacity of our coaches. That way, we will nurture them properly to become Olympians and world beaters in their late teens and early twenties. This programme is strictly for high school students because it is developmental.”
The decision to expand the event to all six geopolitical zones, he noted, reflects a commitment to inclusivity and equal opportunity.
“Talents abound in every nook and cranny of the country. There are middle- and long-distance runners, sprinters, quarter-milers, jumpers and hurdlers who were either not discovered at all or discovered too late. With this postponement, we can widen the tent and give every Nigerian child a fair chance.”
Ijirigho expressed confidence that with proper planning and sustained grassroots investment, Nigeria can reclaim its place at the summit of global athletics.
“We have what it takes to dominate athletics worldwide. All we need is to get our development programme right. The Future Olympian Athletics Classic will lay that foundation for our youth and for the country when it begins in the last quarter of 2026.”
With its expanded national scope and emphasis on structured youth development, the initiative signals a renewed push to reposition Nigerian athletics for long-term global success.
Join the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
Mali Withdraws Recognition of Western Sahara’s SADR, Backs Morocco’s Autonomy Plan
Debuts, Farewells and Destiny: The Super Eagles’ Curious Jamaica and Unity Cup Tradition
Senegal’s Cisse named Angola coach 24 hours after leaving Libya role
- AFCON3 days ago
Motsepe in Dakar: CAF Intensifies Diplomatic Push After AFCON Final Dispute
- World Cup1 week ago
Infantino promises FIFA backing for Iran to play at World Cup
- Governing Bodies6 days ago
The Building of Another Sports Dynasty: From Fahmy to Adamu
- World Cup1 week ago
Italy federation chief resigns after another World Cup failure
- Boxing5 days ago
Wilder edges retiring Chisora in chaotic heavyweight boxing fight
- Nigerian Football1 week ago
NFF to inaugurate electoral committees ahead of September elections
- Nigerian Football4 days ago
A Battle at Both Ends as NPFL Heads Into Home Stretch
- AWARDS5 days ago
Night of Stars: Dikko, Oshodi Lead Roll Call of Honour at 2026 Sportsville Awards