Sports records held by Africans that may never be broken

By Peter Ochieng

Over the years, Africans have contributed immensely to sporting activities, setting mind boggling records that may never be broken.

Here we go:

1. Fastest red card in football

Ivorian Serge Djiéhoua holds the red for the fastest red card ever handed out to a football player.

While playing for his Greek second division side, Gylfadas in 2013, the striker was brought in while his team was trailing Olympiakos Volos 3-1.

Instead of helping steady the ship for his team, the striker was shown a straight red card three seconds after coming onto the field of play as a substitute for catching his opponent with his right arm.

2. Fastest hattrick in the Premier League

This record is held by Senegalese, Sadio Mane.

The forward who currently features for Al Nassr in the Saudi Arabia Pro League, while playing for Southampton against Aston Villa on May 16, 2015, scored 3 goals within 2 minutes and 56 seconds to write his name in the Premier League history.    

The previous record of 4 minutes and 33 seconds had been set by Liverpool great, Robbie Fowler 21 years earlier.

Interestingly, Mane later joined Liverpool where he led to a resurgence that landed the Reds a Premier league and Champions League title under Germany tactician, Jurgen Klopp.

3. Oldest player to score at the World Cup

This record, held by Cameroonian legend Roger Miller may actually stand the taste of time, given the fact that footballers nowadays retire from international football between 30 and 35 years – mostly for defenders and goalkeepers, with the rest retiring much earlier.

In 1992 aged 42, Roger Milla scored against Russia to become the oldest player to ever score in a World Cup match.

He actually broke his own record, having scored 4 years earlier while aged 38 years.

4. Fastest win in boxing

Nigerian boxer Efe Ajagba got this record under peculiar circumstances.

In 2018, Ajagba was about to fight Curtis Harper in a heavyweight bout. The bell rang to start the fight, only for Harper to walk out of the ring, just 1 second after the bell rang. His move led to a disqualification and a record win for Ajagba.

Harper reportedly walked out in protest of the financial aspect of the fight.

According to the rules, the fight had officially started since the bell had already been rung.

5. Sub 2-hour marathon run

The only man to run a 42km marathon race under two hours is Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge.

He achieved the feat in 1:59:40 in Austria, during a special race organized by Ineos, titled ‘no man is limited.’ S

The record wasn’t officially recognized by the IAAF because the race was not competitive. However, it went into the Guinness book of records as the fastest marathon ever run by any man.