Day Three of competition at the ongoing African Senior Athletics
Championships in Marrakech, Morocco was an eventful one as the
country's medal haul tally to six gold medals, five of which were
secured on Tuesday in the women's 400m, discus throw, long jump and
4x100m men and women relays.
Folashade Abugan kick-started the medal rush as she clocked 51.21secs
to claim gold, ahead of Zambia's Kabange Mupopo, while team mates,
Patience George Okon and Ada Benjamin took bronze in 51.68secs, and
fourth position (52.59) respectively.
Not long afterwards, Amaechi Morton relinquished his African title to
South Africa's Cornel Fredericks, who is the newly crowned
Commonwealth Games champion. Morton returned a time of 48.92secs,
while compatriot, Miles Ukaoma who showed great promise during the
heats, finished in sixth position with 50.40secs, after stumbling
against one of the hurdles.
Chinwe Okoro successfully defended her title in the discus throw with
a Championship Record (CR) of 59.79m, while team mate, Nwanneka
Okwelogu followed in second place with 51.66m. Okoro will also compete
in the shot put event where won silver two years ago in Port Novo
behind compatriot, Vivian Chukwuemeka.
Ese Brume's leap of 6.50m took her to the top of the standings in the
women's long jump, with Chinazom Amadi, another Nigerian, followed
closely with a silver winning jump of 6.40m. Brume, the reigning
national champion, overcame her disappointing performance at the IAAF
World Junior Championships in Oregon, to win gold at the Commonwealth
Games in Glasgow barely a week later. She looks set to take over from
Beijing 2008 bronze medallist, Blessing Okagbare who opted out of the
long jump for the better part of this season.
Team Nigeria dominated the men and women's 4x100m relay as well, with
Okagbare anchoring the female team to gold in 43.56secs, while Cote
d'Ivoire and Ghana won silver and bronze with 43.99secs and 44.06secs
respectively. Other members of the quartet include Gloria Asumnu,
Dominique Duncan and Lawreta Ozoh.
In the men's race, it was Nigeria all the way as Ogho-Oghene Egwero,
Monzavous Edwards, Obinna Metu and Mark Jelks stormed to first
position in 38.80secs. Ghana and Algeria completed the top three
spots.
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