African Athletics

From left Omar El Ghazaly (1392) won the discus for the third consecutive outing. Algeria’s Lardi Bouraada (1004) set a decathlon champinships record. Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot (1718) prevailed inthe women’s 5000m and Morocco’s Nisrin Dinar won the women’s pole vault.

Despite a season plagued with injury Egyptian defending champion Omar Abdellatif El Ghazaly retained his discus title at the Africa Senior Athletics Championships in Nairobi Kenya on Thursday (29 July).
Taking on the task at hand with commitment, El Ghazaly claimed victory with a modest throw of 59.30. His compatriot Yasser Fat Ibrahim Farag (58.71) and Victor Hogan (58.11) followed.
“This is a huge consolation after suffering a setback in February when I pulled my hamstring while training in South Africa. Up until then I had high hopes this year after throwing over 64m in the Egyptian championships, El Ghazaly explained.
With his third consecutive championships title secured El Ghazaly sounds positive going forward. “Since recovering from my injury, I have been taking it easy and came hoping to make the Africa team to the Inter Continental Cup in Croatia next month,” says El Ghazaly. Men’s decathlon
Algeria’s Lardi Bourrada entered the record book after amassing 8,148 points to establish a decathlon champion record. This eclipsed Tunisia’s Djloubi Hamdi 7,965 mark set in Tunis in 2002. Fellow Algeria Mouerad Souissi collected a life time best of 7,818 to take the silver medal while third placed Guillaume Thierry (7,100) handed Mauritius their first medal of the championships.
Men’ Long Jump
A fourth round leap of 8.25 against a head wind of +2.4 enabled Khotso Mokoena to snatch the lead from Senegal’s Ndiss Kaba Badji (8.10). Nigerian Stanley Gbagbeke (8.06) settled for the bronze medal.
Women’s 5000m
For the fans who packed the Nyayo Stadium to capacity, the duel between Olympic 5000 champion Vivian Cheruiyot and Ethiopia’s four-time World Indoor 3000m champion Meseret Defar was the race of the day. Unfortunately for them the runners had other thought on their mind considering the race was at high altitude.
They run the race at a pedestrian pace and saved their effort for the sprint on the last lap. This played out to Cheruiyot’s advantage as she cross the finish line in 16:18.72. Defar who later complained that abdominal pains impeded her sprinting ability was runner up in 16:20.54, ahead of her teammate Sentayehu Tamerat Ejigu (16:22.32).
 Women’s pole vault
Morocco bagged their first medal of the championships when Nisrin Dinar cleared the bar at 3.70 in the women’s pole vault. Burundi’s Laetitia Berthier (3.50) was second as Cote d’Ivoire’s Sinali Alima Outtara (3.40).
For Kenyans the contest between Caroline Cherotich and Minnie Langat was noteworthy. Prior to the championship Cherotich held the national record at 2.65m. With the athletes gaining access to proper landing mats a few weeks before the championships, each set out to work hard. They tied at 2.80m, a new national mark, before Cherotich eventually pulled away with a new national record of 3.00m.

Filed under: 2010 Africa Senior Athletics Championships