Crowd Boos Brazil President Michel Temer At Opening Ceremony

Protesters jeered Brazil’s new President Michel Temer on Wednesday as he participated in the county’s Independence Day parade in Brasilia and the opening ceremonies of the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, his first official events since taking office on August 31.

Protesters at the events and in nearly a dozen other state capitals across Brazil were shouting “Temer Out” and “Usurper”.

Police in Brasilia estimated the number of protesters gathered in the nation’s capital at about 600, relatively small compared with protests that brought millions to the streets on occasion over the last two years of impeached President Dilma Rousseff’s administration.

Despite the early demonstrations, markets have given Temer and his economic team the benefit of the doubt, for now. Brazil’s real and main stock index have gained nearly 3 percent since Rousseff’s ouster, even as a new corruption scandal hit the government last week.

His team is expected to oversee a recovery of Brazil’s economy, bogged down in its worst recession in 80 years, but economists do not predict a robust turnaround over the next 12 months.

Investors also expect Temer to push through unpopular and difficult reforms of the country’s bloated pension system, burdensome tax code and inflexible labor laws.

‘I’m dying of shame’-says student who leaked pics of Usain Bolt in bed with her

A 20-year-old student who appeared in photos in bed with Rio 2016 Olympics hero Usain Bolt says she is ‘dying of shame’ since the snaps went viral.

The pictures of the fastest man in the world were shared on Whatsapp by Jady Duarte and have been circulated widely online.

Local newspaper Extra reports that Duarte says that the impact of the pictures has not been good for her,insisting that she just shared the pics among her friends – and that she didn’t expect the whole of the world to see them.

She explains:

“It’s very negative. I never wanted to be famous, I’m dying of shame.”

 “I just sent it to the group of my girlfriends, now you see…
“I just sent and said ‘anyone who saw the Olympics will know who is.”

Duarte says she was at the club All In in Barra in the West Zone of Rio, with friends when “Bolt spotted her”.

“He sent a security guard to call me over. We spoke quickly.
“But at that moment I didn’t know it was him, because there were many Jamaicans who looked similar.”It was not a big deal.

It was normal.”I’d rather not talk about it – in order not to complicate matters.”Like I said, it was normal.”

Olympics: Neymar crowned samba king as Farah sealed ‘double-double’

Neymar sent Brazil into ecstasy as he clinched Olympic football gold and Mo Farah sealed a rare distance double-double in a pulsating final evening of track action in Rio on Saturday.

Neymar swept home a brilliant free-kick and scored a trademark stutter-run penalty to win a shoot-out against Germany as the hosts headed towards Sunday’s closing ceremony on a high.

Later, Britain’s Farah headlined the last night of track and field as he won a thrilling 5,000m race to earn the first consecutive 5,000m-10,000m doubles in 40 years.

Matt Centrowitz produced the biggest upset when he beat defending champion Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria to become America’s first 1,500m champion in more than a century.

And the United States ran away with both the men’s and women’s 4x400m relays as the curtain closed on the last full day of competition, with only 12 gold medals available on Sunday.

With 294 of 306 titles decided, the United States led the medals table with 43 golds, with Britain in surprise second place with 27 to China’s 26.

China won their third Olympic Games women’s volleyball gold with a 3-1 victory over Serbia. Only the former Soviet Union — with four golds — has been more successful in Olympics women’s volleyball than China.

South Korea’s Park In-Bee won the first women’s golf Olympic gold in 116 years by a commanding five strokes, and the USA routed Spain in the women’s basketball final.

Millions of Brazilians were glued to the men’s football and celebrations were long and loud when the five-time world champions grabbed their first Olympic title at the Maracana stadium.

Victory, 5-4 on penalties after the scores were locked at 1-1 after extra time, left Neymar and his team-mates sobbing uncontrollably as they erased the nightmare of Brazil’s 7-1 World Cup semi-final defeat to Germany two years ago.

It was a fairytale finish for Neymar, who missed the 2014 defeat with a back injury and faced heavy criticism for his performances early in the Olympic competition.

“This is one of the best things that has happened in my life,” said the Barcelona star who promptly stepped down as captain.

“Now (the critics will) have to swallow what they said.”

Did NFF hijack Japanese donation of about $390,000 to Dream Team Vi?

Katsuya Takasu

There are reports that officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have hijacked the donation of wealthy Japanese man Katsuya Takasu to the Dream team Vi totalling $390,000.

Former Super Eagles goalkeeper and SuperSports football analyst Peterside Idah posted on his Twitter handle that the officials of the football house want to use the money to pay coaches’ salaries.

Katsuya Takasu

“More trouble in the dream team camp….the money from the Japanese man to the dream team.has been hijacked by the NFA .they want to use,” Idah tweeted.

“The money to pay the coaches as salaries/ Bitrus Bewarang was sent to get the money from the Japanese, but the players say it’s their money,” he added.

More trouble in the dream team camp….the money from the Japanese man to the dream team.has been hijacked by the NFA .they want to use

— idah pee (@IdahPeterside) August 20, 2016

THE money to pay the coaches as salaries/ Bitrus Bewarang was sent to get the money from the Japanese ,but the players say it’s there money
— idah pee (@IdahPeterside) August 20, 2016

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Football Federation president Amaju Pinnick has blasted former goalkeeper saying he is ‘mischievous’.

“His message was a lie, an atrocious false alarm before an important match,” Pinnick raged. “I had exchanged correspondence with the Honourable Minister on the issue of the donation and we agreed that there was need for caution.

“The minister said to me that he read the donation in the papers and had expressed serious concern. I also received a mail from the NFF Integrity Officer who expressed very serious concern with this kind of donation.

“I got in touch with the ambassador of Nigeria to Brazil and the honourable minister to say that whatever had to be done should be done after the bronze medal match, to avoid any distractions. The NFF may be having financial challenges, but I assure you nobody in the Federation is interested in that money.

“If we get the government’s go-ahead to collect the money, no official of the NFF will be involved even in the collection. The money will be received directly by the team.”

Pinnick added that the status of Nigeria as a sovereign nation, and the integrity of Nigeria football, is bigger than such financial gains. “If we had rushed to collect that kind of money and hand over to the players, the same people who are condemning the NFF now would have said worse things.

“There are matters in the football world today that FIFA and the various confederations frown at. We are very much aware of that.

Japanese billionaire Katsuya Takasu promised each member of the Dream Team VI squad $30,000 should they win gold in football at the Rio Olympics.

Takasu also pledged $20,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze after the hearing financial crisis that have plagued the national U-23 team.

U.S. women’s water polo team beats Italy to defend Olympic gold medal

The U.S. women’s water polo team has been an unstoppable force in Rio and won its second straight Olympic gold medal on Friday afternoon with a 12-5 win over Italy.

This is the first time that a women’s water polo team has defended its Olympic gold medal. Team USA won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics before claiming gold in London.

According to The Post’s Adam Kilgore, the team won all six games in Rio by a 73-32 point margin.

After the victory, each player took turns placing their gold medals around Coach Adam Krikorian’s neck.

The Olympics have felt like therapy for Krikorian, whose brother Blake died suddenly at age 48 two days before the Opening Ceremonies.

“When you see a bunch of young adults and even young kids, some of them fighting to achieve their dream, it reminds me of the qualities my brother had,” Krikorian said. “Which were hard work, passion, perseverance. In a lot of ways, this team reminds me of him. Their attitude, their approach reminds me a lot of just how my brother was and how he’d want us to be.”

Women’s 4x100m: USA Granted Re-run after Obstruction

USA’s women’s 4x100m relay team has been granted a re-run at the Olympic Stadium here in Rio after being obstructed in the earlier race this morning.

The solo re-run will take place at 11:00pm Nigerian time (7.00pm here in Brazil), with the composition and running order of the team to remain the same. USA will have the opportunity to qualify by time, with 42.7 seconds the time to beat.

According to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) statement, the USA team will be given the opportunity to run once again following the disqualification of Brazil for obstruction.

Television pictures appeared to a show a collision between Brazil and the USA moments before the second exchange.
Allyson Felix and her teammate, English Gardener lost hold of the baton and stood in amazement before Gardener picked it up and USA finished out of the qualification places.

“I think I got propelled at about 20 miles an hour,” Felix said afterwards. “It’s going to mess up the momentum and the handover.”

Olympics: Brazil dump Honduras to reach football final

Neymar scored twice, including the fastest goal in Olympics history, as Brazil coasted into Saturday’s gold medal football match with a 6-0 thrashing of Honduras at Rio’s iconic Maracana.

A rematch with the Germans is in store should the world champions see off 1996 winners Nigeria in Wednesday’s other semi-final, later in Sao Paulo.

Neymar had been much criticised for his lacklustre displays in two 0-0 draws to start the tournament, but his transformation back from the nation’s whipping boy to golden boy was capped by his determination to open the scoring after just 15 seconds.

The Barcelona star hounded defender Johnny Palacios to rob possession on the edge of the Honduras box and goalkeeper Luis Lopez’s attempt to atone for his teammate’s error only ricocheted the ball off Neymar’s midriff and into an empty goal.

For a moment, Neymar’s bravery looked like it may have come at a cost as he had to be stretchered off after being winded in the challenge.

However, there was no repeat of his tears of anguish when carried off with two broken vertebrae in his back that ended his World Cup participation in a brutal quarter-final against Colombia two years ago.

The 24-year-old was soon back terrorising the Honduras defence as he teed up Luan for an effort Lopez managed to repel, before Bryan Acosta and Allans Vargas were booked for taking their uncompromising attempts to stop Neymar too far.

However, it was Manchester City’s new £27m ($36m, 31 million euros) wonder kid Gabriel Jesus who piled on the pain for Honduras with two more goals before the break.

Luan’s lovely through ball was prodded past the helpless Lopez by Jesus for his second goal of the tournament on 26 minutes.

Nine minutes later, Neymar turned provider with a precise pass down the left that Jesus burst onto before crashing the ball into the roof of the net.

Neymar was even whipping the near capacity 78,000 crowd into a frenzy as he uncharacteristically crashed into tackles, with Brazil relieved from the burden of expectation that appeared to weigh heavy on the young squad early in the competition.

Luan missed a huge chance at the start of the second period when he fired straight at Lopez with Jesus waiting for a tap-in to complete his hat-trick.

However, Brazil didn’t have long to wait for a fourth when Paris Saint-Germain defender Marquinhos took advantage of some awful Honduras marking to sweep home a corner six minutes into the second-half.

Fittingly, in their best performance of the tournament, Luan converted a fine team goal for Brazil’s fifth as Gabriel Barbosa slipped in Felipe Anderson to cross low to the far post.

And Neymar capped a fine display with his second of the afternoon from the penalty spot in stoppage time.

Victory also guaranteed Brazil a fourth Olympic men’s football medal, but after bronze in 1996 and 2008 and the shock of losing to Mexico in the London 2012 final, only gold will suffice for an expectant nation back at the Maracana on Saturday.