Kenya still the Olympic dynamo of Africa
Kenya have remained the Olympic powerhouse of Africa by winning the most medals of any country on the continent at Rio.
|||Cape Town – Kenya have proved that they remain the Olympic powerhouses of Africa by winning the most medals of any country on the continent at the Rio Games.
And there could be a few more coming for the east African nation, particularly in the men’s marathon today.
Tallying the medal counts at the end of Friday, Kenya have claimed 1 in total, five gold and five silver, with all the honours coming in athletics, especially in the middle-distance items.
Overall, Africa has surpassed its achievements in the 2012 London Olympics, when the continent won 34 medals. Africa has so far clinched 35 in Rio.
Team SA have improved significantly by grabbing 10 medals compared with the six which it took at the London Games in 2012, with 800m star Caster Semenya clinching a gold in the early hours of Sunday morning (SA time), following in the footsteps of Wayde van Niekerk’s amazing world record-breaking 400m run.
But it’s on the athletics track that Kenya have come into their own after a quiet first week at Rio in other sports. Paul Kipngetich Tanui got things going in the men’s 10 000m when he just missed out on gold to Britain’s defending champion, Mo Farah, claiming silver.
The gold rush came thick and fast in the last few days, with world record-holder David Rudisha winning the men’s 800m title, Conseslus Kipruto (men’s 3 000m steeplechase), Faith Kipyegon (women’s 1 500m) and Jemima Sumgong (women’s marathon).
But it’s not just the Kenyans who have been burning up the track for Africa. The sensational Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia produced one of the best performances in Rio by cutting 17 seconds from the women’s 10?000m world record, which was held by China’s Wang Junxia and had stood for 23 years.
Ayana followed this up with a bronze medal in the 5 000m, where she was outclassed by Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot, who gained revenge over her rival after Cheruiyot took silver in the 10 000m.
Ethiopia’s Dibaba sisters, Tirunesh (10 000m) and Genzebe (1 500m) brought home a bronze and silver respectively, while another, unrelated Mare Dibaba won bronze in the women’s marathon.
While the continent’s strength on the athletics track is well-known, an unexpected gold came in taekwondo when Ivory Coast’s Cheick Cisse triumphed in the men’s 80kg division, his country’s only win. Their only other medal came in the same sport in the women’s division where Ruth Gbagbi took the bronze in the 67kg category.
Two of Egypt’s three medals came via silvers in weightlifting, while Morocco’s Mohammed Rabii won Africa’s only medal (bronze) in boxing in the men’s 67kg welterweight division. Tunisia’s Ines Boubakri won a bronze in the women’s foil individual fencing and Marwa Amri a bronze in the women’s freestyle 58kg wrestling.
– THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT