Côte d’Ivoire is undoubtedly the new African country to beat in the sprints after dominating Day two of the 2016 African Championships, winning both GOLDs in the men and women’s 100m events respectively.
Just weeks after setting a new African Record in the women’s 100m, Murielle Ahouré has yet again taken another record from Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare, this time running a Championship Record (CR) of 10.99s (+2.0) to win the African title in Durban.
It was never in doubt that Ahouré would win, especially after running the fastest time of 11.08s in the semis, and with Okagbare not at the Championships, there wasn’t much of a challenger to rival her.
Ahouré stormed through the blocks and was never in danger as she crossed the finish line in a breathtaking pace. South Africa’s Carina Horn finished 2nd in 11.07s, with Marie Josee Talou making it an Ivorian double on the podium as she took Bronze in 11.15s.
Okagbare held the previous record of 11.00s set at the 2014 African Championships in Marrakech, with both Ahoure and Ta Lou finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. However, Ahouré would now be delighted to have gotten her hands
on the title on her second attempt.
It even got better for Ivory Coast in the men’s 100m with Ben Youssef storming to an impressive 9.95s (+2.4) to win the title ahead of Mosito Lehata who finished 2nd in 10.04s and South Africa’s Akani Simbine who was 3rd in 10.05s.
The win has now seen Meite hold two different African titles within a year, after winning the African Games crown in Brazzaville last year. About two hours after he won the 100m on Thursday, Meite came back to help his team in the 4x100m relay, running a breathtaking anchor leg and coming from behind when he received the baton to power his country to victory in 39.70s.
No doubt they will be top team in the 4x100m relays in both categories, and with South Africa dominating other events, Coted’ivoire seems to have made the shorter sprints theirs.
South Africa’s Claudia Heunis won the women’s 100m title, scaling through the barriers to win GOLD in 13.35s. Burkina Faso’s Marthe Yasmine Koala finished 2nd in 13.36s with another South African, Maryke Brits winning Bronze in 13.47s.
In the women’s 400m semis, Kenya’s Margaret Nyairera ran the fastest time of the two heats, taking heat 2 in 51.97s and beating defending champion Kabange Mupopo to win. Mupopo finished 2nd in 52.05s and Lydia Jele 3rd in 52.51s.
Meanwhile, heat 1 was won by Nigeria’s Patience Okon George in 52.42s, and Regina George 2nd in 52.89s as they all made the final coming up on Friday.
In the men’s category, Karabo Sibanda won heat 1 of the quarter-mile semifinals in 46.23s with Baboloki Thebe clocking 45.75s to win heat 2. Defending champion Isaac Makwala was beaten in heat 3 by Sudan’s Sadam Koumi who won in 45.80s, with the former African Record holder settling for 2nd in 45.90s.
Kenya’s Boniface Mucheru stunned LJ Van Zyl in the first heat of the 400m Hurdles in 49.78s, with the South African finishing 2nd in 49.94s. Heat 2 was won by Senegal’s Aadou Ndiaye in 49.74s, although champion Cornel Fredericks didn’t push himself too much as he finished 2nd in 49.74s. Cape Verde’s Jordin Andrade won heat 3 in 51.22s.
Nijel Amos is on course to win the men’s 800m after running 1:49.91 to take heat 1 of the semifinals, but he will be wary of the threat of Mozambique’s Albertino Mamba who won heat 2 in 1:48.36.
Despite the top East African athletes not competing in the women’s 5000m, they still dominated the event. It was a Kenyan 1-2 as Sheila Chepkirui won GOLD in 15:05.45 and Margaret Chelimo won Silver in 15:07.56 with Ethiopia’s Dera Dida Yami 3rd in 15:15.26.
Leading the field events was the men’s Long Jump where two South African athletes dominated. In fact at some point it became a duel between Ruswahl Samaai who GOLD after leaping to a distance of 8.40m (+2.9). His country man Luvo Manyonga finished 2nd with 8.23m and Bostwana’s Ruri Rammkolodi 3rd with 7.90m.
Both athletes thrilled the spectators with their big leaps, at some point jumping 8.20m, 8.19m, 8.21m between them, made more so as Samaai had to jump immediately Manyonga finished jumping.
Coming into the competition, Samaai was ranked 2nd in the world with the third best jump of 8.38m, and only Goodwin Marquise has jumped better than him this year with marks of 8.45m and 8.42m respectively.
In the women’s Pole Vault, it was a Tunisian 1-2 finish with Syrine Balti winning her country’s first GOLD of the competition with a mark of 4.00m. Her compatriot finished 2nd with 3.80m and Morocco’s Nisrine Dinar 3rd with 3.60m.
South Africa won the GOLD and Silver in the men’s Discus through Victor Hogan who threw a distance of 61.68m to take the win and Rusell Tucker 2nd with 61.44m as Nigeria’s Stephen Mozia finished 3rd with 59.16m.
