The Kenyan 4x100m relay, led by Ferdinand Omanyala, and the Ethiopian 3000m steeplechase were the big attractions of the third day of the 22nd African Championships in Mauritius, winning the Grail. A historic victory in two events, once dominated by Nigeria and Kenya.
The 4x100m relay team, composed of Dan Asamba, Mike Nyang'Au, Ferdinand Omanyala and Samwel Imeta, gave Kenya its first African title in the 4x100m relay. A historical performance, in an event often dominated by Ivory Coast, Ghana or South Africa.
Until now, the best result obtained by Kenya in this event was the silver medal, on two occasions. These were respectively at the 1985 African Championships in Cairo and the 1989 African Championships in Lagos.
Dan Asamba, Mike Nyang'Au, Ferdinand Omanyala and Samwel Imeta by clocking an excellent 39.28 set a new national record and achieved the second best African performance of the year just behind South Africa, who clocked 38.63 in Gaborone on April 30. South Africa took the silver with 39.79, while Zimbabwe finished third with 39.81.
The women's 4x100m saw the clear domination of Nigeria (44.45) ahead of South Africa (44.87) and Gambia (44.97).
The women's 400m saw the victory of South Africa's Miranda Coetze in 51.82, ahead of Zambia's Niddy Mingilishi (52.36) and Kenya's Veronica Mutua (52.76). In the men’ event, the surprise came from Muzala Samukonga (45.31) who won in the very last meters of the race, while the favorite, Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori (45.35) finished second and Tunisia’s Mohamed Glassi (45.54) finished third.
In the 800m final, Algeria’s Slimane Moula took gold with 1:45.59 and Ethiopia’s Hailemariyam Amare Tegegn won the 3,000m steeplechase with 8:27.38.
The results are available here: https://maa.mu/results/schedule.html