Kenyan women swept the podium in the 5000m, Cameroon’s Joelle Mbumi Nkouindjin dominates Triple jump, and young South African Russell Tucker claimed a surprise gold in men’s Discus on the first day of athletics at the 11th African Games (formerly [link id=”644″ tax=”post_tag” text=”All Africa Games”]) in Brazzaville, Congo on Sunday.
2015 World cross country finalist Margaret Chelimo led the Kenyan podium chasers home for the first 1,2,3 of the championships in a time of 15:30.15.
Rosemary Wanjiru clocked a 15:30.18 with Alice Aprot settling for the bronze medal in a season’s best time of 15:31.82.
[link id=”82″ tax=”category” text=”Ethiopians”] Gotytom Gebreselsa (15:42.44), Genet Yalew (15:43.77) and Habetameenesh Tesfaye (15:52.10) finished in fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively.
Another Kemboi is Steeple king
[link id=”833″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Clement Kemboi”] emulated his compatriot [link id=”261″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Ezekiel Kemboi”]’s feat at the [link id=”522″ tax=”post_tag” text=”IAAF World championships”] in Beijing, by taking the gold medal in the men’s 3000m steeplechase in Brazzaville in 8:20.31.
Another Kenyan, [link id=”597″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Hillary Kemboi”] clocked a season best of 8:22.96 for the silver with Amare Hailemariyam of Ethiopia edging his countryman Wegene Sebsibe for the bronze, 8:24.19 to 8:26.62.
Tucker comes of age in Brazzaville
South Africa [link id=”835″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Russell Tucker”] landed his first major medal with victory in the men’s Discus with a best throw of 60.41 metres in fourth round.
Tucker, a third-year accounting student in Johannesburg was a little disappointed he hadn’t thrown farther than 60 metres.
“I really haven’t had enough time to recover from a left knee injury and today my shoulder wasn’t moving well either so it’s been a tough time lately. And there’s also been lots of studying as well,” said the 25 year-old.
“It’ll take some time to get back to 66m form but the encouraging thing is that I’m not studying next year during Olympic year so my plans are all laid down building up for [link id=”315″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Rio 2016″],” Tucker added.
Essohounamondom Tchalim of Togo picked the silver in a new national record of 52.72 metres for Silver while local hero [link id=”836″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Franck Elemba Owaka”] settled for the bronze medal with 50.30 metres.
Thimotee Lingani sets a Burkinabe record of 47.54 metres in the fifth round to nick the fourth place.
Nkouindjin hands Cameroon Triple jump gold
2014 African champion, [link id=”834″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Joelle S Mbumi Nkuindjin”] of Cameroon, added the African Games gold medal to her collection with victory in the women’s triple jump, soaring to 13.75 metres on her final attempt.
Blessing Ibukun Ibrahim of [link id=”815″ tax=”category” text=”Nigeria”] took the Silver with a best of 13.52 metres while Nadia Eke of [link id=”7″ tax=”category” text=”Ghana”] sets a National record of 13.40 metres to claim the bronze medal.
Selected Results – Day 1
5000m Women Final
| 1 | Margaret CHELIMO | KEN | 15:30.15 | |||||
| 2 | Rosemary WANJIRU | KEN | 15:30.18 | |||||
| 3 | Alice APROT | KEN | 15:31.82 | SB | ||||
| 4 | Gotytom GEBRESLSA | ETH | 15:42.44 | |||||
| 5 | Genet YALEW | ETH | 15:43.77 | |||||
| 6 | Habetameenesh TESFAYE | ETH | 15:52.10 | |||||
| 7 | Olivia Mugove CHITATE | ZIM | 17:02.97 | |||||
| 8 | Rahma MEHAMMED | ERI | 17:07.95 | |||||
| 9 | Clene MAMBEKE | CGO | 17:35.00 | SB | ||||
| 10 | Nina Ines OMBANDA | CGO | 17:58.65 | |||||
| 11 | Mokulube MAKATISI | LES | 18:19.89 | |||||
| Cavaline NAHIMANA | BDI | ABS | ||||||
| Mercy MALEMBO | MAW | ABS |
Meet The Authors
Yomog Meje is a former Nigerian junior athlete and the Associate editor at Athletics Africa.
