The eighth day of athletics competitions at the Tokyo Olympic Games was defined by the crowning of Kenyan Faith Kipyegon over 1500m, the Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei over 5000m and the stunning qualification of Botswana for the final of the men’s 4x400m relay. 

Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, the title holder, retained her Olympic crown in the 1500m with victory in 3 min 53 sec 11/100 ahead of British athlete Laura Muir (3 min 54 sec 50) and Dutch star Sifan Hassan (3 min 55 sec 86).

Mohamed Benchrif

On Thursday, a bronze medal, truly worth its weight in gold, was secured by Hugues Fabrice Zango in the triple-jump. This is the very first Olympic medal ever won by Burkina Faso since its first involvement in the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

Despite taking part in nine Olympic Games, Burkina Faso was yet to win a single medal, a situation which the triple-jumper aimed to change this year in Tokyo.

“I wanted to win an Olympic medal in the triple-jump for Burkina Faso because we’ve never won one before.”

On Tuesday, Namibia and Nigeria claimed their places on the medal table thanks to the remarkable exploits of promising young stars Christine Mboma (200m) and Ese Brume (long jump). The athletes respectively delivered Namibia (silver) and Nigeria (bronze) their first medals of the Tokyo games.

The young Namibian sensation, Christine Mboma (18) who has only been competing in the 200m for two months, was outpaced by Jamaicain Elaine Thompson-Herah, who clinched the 200m Olympic title on Tuesday, thereby completing a sprint double three days after the 100m, as in Rio in 2016, with the second fastest time ever recorded (21:53). The bronze medal was taken by American Gabrielle Thomas.

(Mohammed Benchrif)

Kenya largely dominated the final of the two-lap event by taking gold and silver thanks to the efforts of Emmanuel Korir, the newly crowned Olympic champion with a time of 1 min 45 sec 06, who beat his compatriot Ferguson Rotich by 17 hundredths of a second and Polish athlete Patryk Dobek (who finished in 1 min 45 sec 39).

Korir followed in the footsteps of another compatriot the legendary David Rudisha, world record holder and twice winner of the Olympic title, in London 2012 and Rio 2016.

The Moroccan athlete Soufiane El Bakkali was crowned Olympic champion in the 3000m steeplechase on Monday in Tokyo, thereby gifting Morocco its 7^th Olympic gold medal, all of which have been won on the track.

After the gold medals taken home by Nawal El Moutawakel (400m hurdles in Los Angeles), Saïd Aouïta (5000m in Los Angeles), Brahim Boutayeb (10,000m in Seoul), Khalid Skah (10,000m in Barcelona) and the historic double of Hicham El Guerrouj (1500m and 5000m in Athens), Soufiane El Bakkali will return bearing precious metal, becoming the first Moroccan Olympic champion in the 3000m steeplechase.

The third day of competitions in the flagship Olympic discipline (Athletics) was marked by the stellar performance of South-African Akani Simbinein the 100m final, the fall suffered by Botswanan Amos Nigel and his elimination from the 800m semi-finals as well as the qualification of several representatives of the African continent for upcoming rounds.    

On Friday in Tokyo, Ethiopian Selemon Barega was crowned Olympic champion in the 10,000m and in so doing unseated the out-and-out favourite and world record holder, Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei. He thereby provided Africa with its 9th Olympic title over this distance.

Barega, a surprise winner, finished in 27min 43sec 22, outpacing Cheptegei (27min 43sec 63) and fellow Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo (27 min 43 sec 88) in a race hotly contested by runners from Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya who made up the leading pack for the entirety of the final.

Moroccan Aziz Daouda, Technical and Development Director of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) was sure to congratulate all CAA member federations who have managed to secure qualification for their athletes, despite exceptionally tough circumstances. The number of athletes who have qualified is exactly one third of those who participate regularly in the African Championships. In other words, the continent has come a long way and many countries, who until now had not managed to gain qualification for their athletes, are now present, some of who even are genuine medal prospects.

The Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), in partnership with World Athletics, intends to provide exceptional media coverage of the athletics competitions at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Thus, from July 30 to August 8, articles on promising African athletes, the day before their competition days, but also a report of their performances will be published on the website of the African Athletics Confederation: http: / /www.caaweb.org. The CAA will build on the teams deployed by World Athletics to Tokyo and Monaco over the ten days of athletics competition.

 The goal is for athletics to be the sport with the most distribution on websites, social networks, Instagram etc. ...