Nigerian champions Edo Queens made a stunning start to their 2026 WAFU-B CAF Women’s Champions League qualifying campaign, trashing AS Garde Nationale of Niger 7-0 in their opening Group B fixture in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

The emphatic victory immediately sent Edo Queens to the top of Group B on goal difference and underlined their ambition to return to the CAF Women’s Champions League.

Chioma Moses was the standout performer, scoring a hat-trick as the Nigerian champions produced a dominant attacking display.

Moses opened the scoring in the fifth minute before doubling Edo Queens’ advantage from the penalty spot in first-half stoppage time.

Edo Queens continued their assault after the break, with Atume Doosuur finding the net just two minutes into the second half. Doosuur completed her brace in the 56th minute to put the Nigerian side 4-0 ahead.

Aminat Folorunsho then added a fifth goal in the 62nd minute before Moses completed her hat-trick in the 76th minute.

Oluwakemi Adegbuyi rounded off the rout with Edo Queens’ seventh goal in the third minute of stoppage time.

The result gives Edo Queens three points from their opening match and a significant advantage in the group, with Ghanaian champions Ampem Darkoa Ladies also beginning their campaign with a victory over ASEC Mimosas.

Edo Queens will face ASEC Mimosas of Côte d’Ivoire in their next Group B fixture on Thursday, August 27.

The Ivorian champions are expected to provide a much tougher challenge after reaching the 2025 CAF Women’s Champions League final.

Edo Queens will then face Ghanaian champions Ampem Darkoa in their final group match on August 30.

The Nigerian club won the WAFU-B qualifying tournament on their debut in 2024 before finishing fourth at the CAF Women’s Champions League later that year. They are now hoping to repeat that regional success and secure another place in Africa’s premier women’s club competition.

Coach Kennedy Boboye will be encouraged by the team’s attacking performance, although he has warned that there is still room for improvement despite the huge scoreline.

The 7-0 victory, however, has already sent a strong message to the rest of the competition: Edo Queens have arrived in Burkina Faso with serious ambitions.

As the second ⁠edition of World Humanoid Robot Games kicked off at the National Speed Skating Oval for the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Beijing, a Chinese robot named Lightning ⁠has run ​the 100m in 9.32 seconds, ⁠beating the human world ⁠record, held by the Jamaican, Usain bolt, in 2009.

The humanoid, developed by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor, ‌reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second during ‌a test event for ​the second World Humanoid Robot Games. The ​performance surpassed ​the ​9.58sec men’s ​100m world record ​set ​by Usain Bolt 17 years ago at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

China is in the lead of promoting humanoid robots as an emerging industry, with policymakers and companies ‌believing that these advances in AI and hardware will accelerate their deployment in manufacturing, logistics ​and consumer applications.

Lightning also won the Beijing half marathon in April in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than the men’s world record. The robot stood 169cm tall and ​had ​95cm-long legs at ​the half marathon.

Researchers have since lengthened ​its legs ‌by 10​cm for these Games.

More than 2,000 humanoid robots are participating in the second edition of the five-day games, with the spectacle intended to demonstrate China’s rapid progress in advanced robotics as the technology race with the US heats up.

This edition has 51 events and more than 1,000 competitions taking place including running, table tennis and football.

The games opened the same week as Beijing held the 2026 World Robot Conference, where companies showcased around 3,000 products, including humanoid robots. China makes the majority of the world’s humanoid robots.

In what’s believed to be targeting China, last month, the US Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots. The Pentagon recently also added Unitree, one of China’s leading humanoid robot makers, to its list of companies that it deemed have ties with the Chinese military. Beijing has hit back at the accusations.

At Saturday’s opening of the robot games, the organisers and robot makers said that Chinese humanoid robots defeated human world records, as hundreds of humanoid robots marched in formation on to the field in a massive display of synchronised coordination.

In a standing high jump, a humanoid robot was able to reach 2.88m, well above the 0.95m best result by a humanoid in last year’s first edition of the games.

It equally surpassed the human high jump record of 2.45m set by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor in 1993. Both robots were from Beijing-based X-Humanoid.

Experts say humanoid robots are still mostly used for demonstrations, performances and research – at least for now – and it will take time to achieve mass real-world deployment. Some spectators at the robot games said they were excited about the humanoid robots’ quickly improving abilities.

Press reports indicate that humanoid robots are “evolving rapidly”, said Li Yanfeng, an education worker and a Beijing resident. “At first, I wasn’t very accepting of artificial intelligence. I was even a bit resistant to it, because of the possibility that it might replace or displace humans,” she said. “But now that I see this development is unstoppable, I decided to come and take a look.”

Yang Shangzheng, another spectator, said: “These sports are perfectly normal for humans, but now robots can do them. I find it amazing.” Liu Tao, who was watching the games with his son, said he was hoping to see “the best robots China currently has to offer”.

This year’s robot games – which the organisers say has 16 countries participating, among them Germany, Japan and the US – also includes other events such as weightlifting and tug of war.

Nigeria’s 12- player squad will depart for Kenya on Saturday to participate at the 2026 Women’s African Nations Volleyball Championship, scheduled for Aug. 23 to Sept. 5 in Nairobi, Kenya.

The News Agency of Nigeria ((NAN) reports that the team of 12 female volleyball players and their coaches were officially sent off by the Nigerian Volleyball Federation on Friday in Abuja.

In his address to the players, DCP Stephen Hasso, Chairman Nigerian Beach volleyball Commission, urged the players to be good ambassadors of the country.

“You were chosen from among many players to represent Nigeria and I believe you will be good ambassadors. You are lucky to be the first Volleyball team of this country to have a foreign technical adviser to train you throughout your three weeks camping,” he said.

“I pray when you go there you will exhibit what he taught you here. Listen to your coaches. Play to your coaches’ instructions. I have watched your training and I am really impressed with what I have seen. I believe you are equal to the task and you will come back successful,” he added.

Speaking on behalf of the players,  Captain Ijeoma Ukpabi said the team have worked hard enough to achieve success in Kenya.

“I believe we have worked hard enough to go far in the tournament. We have sacrificed  time and energy and I am sure it will not be a waste. As a team, we promise we will stay and stand strong no matter the opponents we face, ” Ukpabi said.

“We have worked together as a team and as a family, so we are going to prove to ourselves that there was no time wasted and no effort lost,” she added.

Head coach Elishama Elam said he and his staff worked very well on the players and  that he is confident of getting good results.

“We started with the basic things. We worked on their techniques. We cared about the players physically, and about injuries and technical aspects, which is the most fundamental. And I am happy with what we have going into the tournament. I am sure we will have good results,” the coach said.

Featuring 16 nation, the 2026 Women’s African Nations Volleyball Championship is a qualification pathway for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games and the 2027 FIVB Women’s World Championship.