True to their pre-championship boasts, Kenya have won the 21st African Senior Athletics Championships, Asaba 2018, which ended yesterday.
The East Africans, who hosted and won the 19th edition in 2014, beat defending champions, South Africa and host, Nigeria, to the second and third positions respectively.
The Kenyans swept six gold medals yesterday to bring their total medals to 19, made up of 11 gold, six silver and two bronze medals.
South Africa, who hosted and won the last edition in Durban, won a total of 30 medals made up of nine gold, 13 silver and eight bronze medals. Team Nigeria got 19 medals made up of nine gold, five silver and five bronze medals.
Morocco, Ethiopia, Cote d’ivoire, Tunisia and Botswana followed in that order.
In some of the events decided before yesterday’s closing ceremony, Nigeria captured six medals made up of three gold, one silver and two bronze. The women made Nigeria proud in the five-day championship, winning eight gold, while the men could only pick one.
Nathaniel Glory won the women’s 400m hurdles in a time of 55.53sec, beating Lamiae Lhabz of Morocco (56.66sec) and Wenda Nel of South Africa (57.04sec) to the second and third place respectively.
It was gold for Nigeria in the women’s triple jump, where Grace Agbata finished top, just as Nigeria also captured gold in the 4x400m women race.
In the 200m for men, U.S.-based Nigerian sprinter, Ejowvokoghene Oduduru was beaten to the gold medal by South Africa’s Ncincilili Titi. While Titi ran 20.46sec to grab the gold, Oduduru returned in 20.60sec to settle for the silver medal.
Another South African, Luxolo Adams was third in 20.60sec.
