Athletics Africa Magazine

The attitude of Haile to the sport is quite remarkable. Great man!

Her performances this season have been nothing less than dominant, her journey to Brussels this night was most improbable. But at the Belgacom Memorial Van Damme, IAAF Golden meeting , in front of a sell-out 47,000 crowd in the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, the Olympic and African champion Pamela Jelimo became a millionairess - in only her first season on the world athletics scene. Jelimo won the women's 800m in 1:55.16 seconds ahead of compatriot and World Champion Janeth Jepkosgei whilst Kenia Sinclair of Jamaica was third. Yet, a few months ago, the Kenyan teenager, was not even running the 800m, but she had been such a dominant force in the two-lap event this season that, had it not been for the emergence of Jamaican super star Usain Bolt, would have been the greatest story of the year. Jelimo, 18, secured the $1 Million ÅF Golden League Jackpot outright tonight , as Croatia Blanka Vlasic’s hope of at least a share of the prize crumbled as she failed under pressure at 2....

After an impressive display in front of a 26,000 capacity crowd at the IAAF's Weltklasse Zürich, Golden League meeting at the Zurich's Letzigrund stadium, Kenyan sensational teenager Pamela Jelimo now has only one more hurdle between her and a share of the Golden League $1 Million Jackpot. The 18-year-old Olympic 800m champion has remained undefeated over the distance so far this season and her latest improvement of both the senior African and World Junior 800m records jointly for the fourth time this season (the junior mark for a fifth) with a 1:54.01 run in Zurich, is simply phenomenal. When she lines up next Friday 5 Sept at the last meet of the series in Brussels, only herself and Croatian High jumper Blanka Vlasic (the only other athlete to have successfully won five out of the six stages) can stop her from claiming at least a share of the $1 Million Jackpot . However, watching Vlasic tiredly climbing over 2.01m in Zurich, who's going to bet on Jelimo not taking the w...

Nigeria women's 4x100m relay quartet of Franca Idoko, Gloria Kemasuode, Halimat Ismaila, and African sprint champion Oludamola Osayomi this evening at the Beijing's Birds nest stadium snatched a bronze medal in a time of 43.04s. The Barcelona 1992 bronze medalists only managed to qualified as one of the fastest losers from yesterday's semi-finals due to a near disastrous baton exchange between Gloria Kemasuode and Agnes Ozazuwa on the 3rd leg. But, today with UTEP Senior Halimat Ismaila running in place of Ozasuwa benefitted from baton disasters by the highly favoured Jamaican and American quartets to pick third. Russia , the Athens 2004 silver medal winners, with Evgeniya Polyakova, Aleksandra Fedoriva, Yulia Gushchina and Yuliya Chermoshanskaya took the gold medals in a time of 42.31 seconds, and reigning world championships bronze medalist Belgium, this time made up of Olivia Borlee, Hanna Marien, Elodie Ouedraogo, and Kim Gevaert, claimed the silver medals in a t...

Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba shrugs off a sluggish start to sprint to an Olympic double after winning the gold medal in the women's 5000m at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in a time of 15:41.40 minutes. Dibaba, 22, who ran the second fastest 10000m of all time earlier in the week, fell short of her own world record time of 14:11.15 that she set Oslo two months ago, but became the first female runner to have won the 5,000m and 10,000m titles. Olympics 10000m silver medalist Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey once again took silver, in a time of 15:42.74, while Athens 2004 Olympic gold medalist Meseret Defer claimed bronze with a time of 15:44.12. Reigning world champion Defar ran 14:12.88 earlier this year in response to Dibaba's world record of 14:11.55.

University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP) Sophomore Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria is truly a blessed girl. After failing by 0.01m to make the cut in the women's Long Jump Qualifying on Wednesday when she was beaten to the 12th position by Jamaica's Chelsea Hammod (6.60m to Okagbare's 6.59m), she must have thought her Olympics adventures was over . But as God would have it, Blessing was reinstated to the Long Jump final after Ukrainian heptathlete Liudmyla Blonska tested positive and was thrown out of the games yesterday. Today, Okagbare took the first medal of any kind for Nigeria at the Beijing Olympic Games. A huge 6.91m personal best in her first jump was enough to give the Nigerian queen a deserved Bronze medal Higa Maurreen MAGGI of Brazil took the Gold with her first effort of 7.04m, a season's best whilst defending Olympics Long Jump champion and current Triple jump silver medalist Tatiana Lebedeva of Russia settled for Silver despite a huge 7.03m final effort. Full ...

Cameroon's reigning Olympic Triple Jump champion Francoise Mbango Etone successfully defended her Olympic triple jump title with a new Games record leap in Beijing today with a second round effort of 15.39 metres. Also this year she won the African Championships in Addis Ababa in May with a leap of 14.95m. In the men's 10,000m finals, Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele claimed his second Olympic gold medal , winning with an Olympic record of 27 minutes 1.17 seconds. Compatriot and serial silver medallist Sileshi Sihine took silver again with Micah Kogo of Kenya secured bronze, but Ethiopian veteran Haile Gebrselassie could only finish sixth, ending his dream of a third Olympic gold medal.

Five African women have made it into the last 16 of the women's 400m at the Beijing Olympics. Botwana's Amantle Montsho, Nigeria's Folashade Abugan and Ajoke Odumosu, Zambia's Rachael Nachula and Sudan's Nawar ElJack all progress into Sunday's semis. African 400m champion, Amantle Montsho of Botswana cruised the last 50m to hold onto second spot in Heat 2 with a time of 50.91secs. Nigeria's Ajoke Odumosu, the African 400m Hurdles champion, claimed the third automatic spot in Heat 1 after a storming 300m run behind Jamaican Rosemarie White and Christine Amertil of Bahamas. 2008 World Junior champion Folashade Abugan also settled for third spot in Heat5 behind race favourite Sanya Richards of USA who won in 50.54secs and Aliann Pompey of Guyana (50.99 secs). Zambian Nachula and Sudan's El Jack both progress after claiming third spot in their heats. Women's 400m qualifiers heat 1: 1 Rosemarie Whyte (Jam) 51.00 secs 2 Christine Amertil (Bah) 51.25 3 ...

Mozambique's Maria Mutola claimed the second automatic spot in Heat 1 of the women's 800m Semi-Finals. The race was won by Russian Svetlana Klyuka in 1:58.31. Kenya's 18-year-old Pamelo Jelimo wins heat2 in 1:57.31, with Hasna Benhassi of Morocco setting a season's best to claim the second automatic spot. Janeth Jepkosqei of Kenya took the third semi-final of the women's 800m, in a time of 1:57.28. Ukraine's Yuliya Krevsun was second in 1:57.32 . Tatiana Adrianova of Russia and Kenia Sinclair of Jamaica claim the two fastest loser spots in the final.

Nigeria's Oludamola Osayemi and Ghana's Vida Anim are the only two African women left in the wome's 100m event. The duo, reigning and former African champions respectively, were in good shape as they book their qualification from Heat 3 in second and third positions for tomorrow's Semi-Finals. According to the rules, the top three runners in each heat automatically qualify for the next round. The runner with the next fastest time out of all of the heats will take the last of the 16 semifinal spots. Results Women's 100m semi-final qualifiers - heat 1: 1 Shelly-Ann Fraser (Jam) 11.06 secs 2 Evgeniya Polyakova (Rus) 11.13 3 Jeanette Kwakye (GB) 11.18 Women's 100m semi-final qualifiers - heat 2: 1 Sherone Simpson (Jam) 11.02 secs 2 Muna Lee (US) 11.08 3 Chandra Sturrup (Bah) 11.16 Women's 100m semi-final qualifiers - heat 3: 1 Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (Bah) 11.21 secs 2 Oludamola Osayomi (Ngr) 11.28 3 Vida Anim (Gha) 11.32 Women's 100m semi-final qualifiers ...

(Photo credit -XINHUA) Ethiopia Tirunesh Dibaba has set a new Olympic record after running a perfect race to take gold in the women's 10,000m today, overtaking Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse with 350m to go to sprint home in a time of 29:54.68. Abeylegesse settled for silver in 29:56.43 and American Shalane Flanagan claims bronze in 30:22.22. More stories at - http://www. athleticsafrica.com Full Results results 1 Tirunesh Dibaba (Eth) 29:54.66 Gold OR 2 Elvan Abeylegesse (Tur) 29:56.43 Silver 3 Shalane Flanagan (US) 30:22.22 Bronze 4 Linet Chepkwemoi Masai (Ken) 30:26.50 5 Maria Konovalova (Rus) 30:35.84 6 Inga Abitova (Rus) 30:37.35 7 Lucy Kabuu Wangui (Ken) 30:39.96 8 Lornah Kiplagat (Ned) 30:40.27

Mozambique's only ever Olympic gold medalist, Maria Lurdes Mutola led the qualifers for the 800m semis in 1:58.91. She won heat four just ahead of Marilyn Okoro of Great Britain, who ran a time of 1:59.09. The Women's 800m finalists and their qualifying time: 1. Maria Mutola Mozambique 01:58.9 2. Marilyn Okoro Great Britain 01:59.0 3. Lucia Klocova Slovakia 01:59.4 4. Tamsyn Lewis Australia 01:59.7 5. Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei Kenya 01:59.7 6. Tetiana Petliuk Ukraine 02:00.0 7. Neisha Bernard-Thomas Grenada 02:00.1 8. Brigita Langerholc Slovenia 02:00.1 9. Egle Balciunaite Lithuania 02:00.2 10. Yuliya Krevsun Ukraine 02:00.2 11. Elisa Cusma Piccione Italy 02:00.2 12. Tatiana Andrianova Russia 02:00.3 13. Jennifer Meadows Great Britain 02:00.3 14. Zulia Calatayud Cuba 02:00.3 15. Sviatlana Usovich Belarus 02:00.4 16. Hasna Benhassi Morocco 02:00.5 17. Ekaterina Kostetskaya Russia 02:00.5 18. Olga Cristea Moldova 02:00.6 19. Svetlana Klyuka Russia 02:01.7 20. Rosibel Garcia Colom...

Nigeria's duo of Olusoji Fasuba - the world Indoor 60m champion, Obinna Metu - the reigning national champion, and Ghanaian Aziz Zakari have all crashed out of the Beijing Olympics Games men's 100m at the second round today at the Bird's Nest stadium. Fasuba, fourth in the 2nd rd heat2 in a time of 10.21secs failed to make it as the fastest loser as he was overtaken in the time ranking by Qatar's Nigeria born Samuel Francis, who ran 10.11secs to place fourth in his heat3 won comfortably in 9.92 by the World record-holder and favourite Usain Bolt of Jamaica.

Olympics Games kicks off in Beijing.... Photo credit: Xinhua

A friend of mine said last week that 'God is a Nigerian'. Well, I'm tempted to believed him now as Nigeria has miraculously found her way into the women's 4x100m relay event at the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing, China, even after all reasonable hopes were lost. When the relay teams to the Games of XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008, were announced by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) on Monday 21 July, Nigeria was in 18th position in the women’s 4 x100m qualification standings. However, today one qualified nation , Finland pulled out and Nigeria moved up to the 16th - Cuba (originally 16th) had earlier declined their invitation for the women’s 4 x100m and was replaced by Thailand, originally 17th - and final placing and will now compete in Beijing. Last week, Nigeria's last ditched and ill advised efforts at muscling the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to field a women's 4x100m team in Beijing was thrown out after the IAAF argued that the...

World Indoor 60m Champion Olusoji Fasuba speaks to AthleticsAfrica.com on his Olympic preparations in Abuja, July, 2008.

Obinna Metu beats World Indoor 60m Champion Olusoji Fasuba in the 100m men's race at the 19th NNPC/Exxon Mobil Nigeria Olympics Trials in Abuja, June 2008.

By now it's no longer news that the best athlete in Britain would not be going to the Olympics. I have followed the events of the past few months with regards to Dwain Chambers closely and crawled so many sites/forums to sample opinions about this case, and as divided as these opinions have been, one thing that struck me is the level of hypocrisy i see. From the sad and lamentable actions of the British Olympic Association and UK Athletics, the sorry utterrances of it's leading officials and the gang-up of some disaffected former athletes and their cronies in the media , it all smacks of a society of people eager to bury their own shame at the expense of a scapegoat. To me Chambers is not being punished for taking drugs in the past , he is being punished now for daring to stand up to the establishment and for being honest to call a spade a spade. As a consequence, he's been bullied, pilloried and abused by the ''holier and morally upright' lynch-mob. Liste...

Top Nigerian athletes, including the World Indoor 60m champion Olusoji Fasuba have arrived at the Abuja camp of the Nigerian athletics team for tommorrow's NNPC/ExxonMobil track and field championships at the National Stadium. Athletes such as Uche Isaacs, Adetoyi Durotoye, Deji Aliu, Taiwo Ajibade and Uchenna Emedolu are expected to compete with Fasuba for the first three positions on offer for the 100m men at the Olympics. In the Women events, African champions, Damola Osayemi (100m), Ajoke Odumosu (400mH) and Toyin Augustus (100mH) and other US based athletes; Jessica Ohanaja (100mH) Brenda Toluwani Faluade (Triple Jump) are all set to contest at the trials.

Zimbabwe's Florida State University freshman Ngonidzashe Makusha has broken his national Long Jump record after soaring to a huge 8.30 metres leap - the fourth-best jump in the world this year, the best in FSU history and the best Drake Stadium has ever seen - to earn FSU the first individual crown of the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa - USA. Makusha , who is also the NCAA indoor champion, has now surpassed the Olympics A Standard qualifying mark of 8,20m and thus receives an automatic bid to represent Zimbabwe in Beijing 2008. Read More

A new women's 5000m World Record for Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia at the IAAF Golden League meeting in Oslo, Norway.

This evening at the ExxonMobil Bislett Games , IAAF Golden League meet in Oslo, Ethiopian Double World 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba has just knocked out her compatriot's, World and Olympic 5000m champion, Meseret Defar's World Record of 14:16.63, also she set at this same meeting on 15 June last year . Dibaba, virtually running alone for the last two laps after a very slow first half and badjob from the pacemakers, broke the tape in an astonishing 14:11.15.* Sudan's World Indoor champion Abubakar Kaki also set a World Junior record of 1:42.69* in the men's 800m. *(a new World Record subject to ratifications) More stories later.....

The 6ft 5in, 21-year-old Jamaican,Usain Bolt unsurprisingly nicknamed Lightning Bolt in the Caribbean, clocked 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix in the Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island to wipe 0.02sec off the mark set only eight months ago by his compatriot, Asafa Powell.

Ever since former world 400m champion Jerome Young revealed he had failed a drugs test prior to the Sydney Olympics Games in 2000, the whole world have been waiting for the America 4x400m relay team members to return the Gold medal won and hand it over to the rightful winner Nigeria . The International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) tried to strip the team of their Olympic gold medals after Young, who was part of the team but did not run in the final, tested positive for drugs and was banned for life, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overruled the IOC and said the entire team should not be disqualified, allowing them to keep their medals. It seems common sense has finally prevailed. US anchor and world 400m record-holder Michael Johnson has decided to return the relay gold he won at the Sydney Games, after yet another team mate, this time Antonio Pettigrew admitted taking drugs - the fourth member of that team to have faile...

Fresh from their impressive performances at the 16th African Athletics championships in Addis Ababa last week, Kenyan athletes stormed to victories in the 800, 3000 and 3000m Steeplechase at the IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting in Doha, Qatar on a night when David Oliver (12.95 personal best) and Allyson Felix 100m and 400m double in 10.93 and 49.83 respectively dazzle the world with 2008 bests. Osaka bronze medalist, Richard Mateelong's posted a 3000m s/c win in 8.07.64 (another world lead), NewAfrican champion David Rudisha out-foxed all comers with a 1.44.36 win in the 800m, whilst Augustine Kiprono Choge took the 3000m in 7.32.01 ahead of compatriot Edwin Cheruiyot Soi, Ugandan Moses Kipsiro and another Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge. African champions Amantle Montsho of Botswana and Olusoji Fasuba of Nigeria suffered from their exhaustive performances in Addis Ababa and could only stumbled home 7th and last in 51.87 in the women's 400m and 6th in the men's 100m with 10.27 ...

South Africa bagged 22 medals (12 gold, two silver and eight bronze medals) to become the top nation , out of 46 African countries, at the 16th CAA African Athletics Championships which ended in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia tonight. Nigeria and Ethiopia rank second and third with 19 (seven gold, seven silver and five bronze) and 15 (six gold, six silver and three bronze) medals respectively, while Kenya and Egypt follow at fourth and fifth. Ethiopian Olympic and world 10000m champion Kenenisa Bekele comfortably defended his African 5000m title with an outstanding sprint finish to win in 13:49.67 ahead of Kenyan Isaac Songok (13:49.91) on the final day of the championships. Kenyan 19-year-old Pamela Chelimo (1:58.70) caused the biggest upset of the day after beating Mozambique’s former Olympic and multiple world 800m champion Maria Mutola in the final of the women’s 800m. Click here for Full Results and more stories .

Kenya and South Africa achieved a clean sweep of the medals in the men’s 3000m steeplechase and the women’s high jump today, Day three, at the 16th CAA African Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa. Kenyan World championship bronze medallist Richard Mateelong (8:31.86) led Michael Kipyego (8:32.94) and All-African Games champion Willy Komen (8:41.98) to a clean sweep of the men’s 3000m steeplechase, whilst South Africa's Anika Smit jumped 1.88m to clinch gold ahead of compatriots Marcoleen Pretorius and Marizca Gertenbach (both cleared 1.84m)in the women’s high jump. Also Kenya’s world junior 800m champion, David Rudisha won the men’s 800m final in a new world lead and African championship record in 1:44.20. Sudanese Ismail Ahmed Ismail clinched the silver medal with 1:45.41 ahead of another Kenyan Asbel Kiprop took bronze in 1:46.02. All-Africa Games 400m hurdles champion Louis Van Zyl of South Africa won comfortably in 48.91 seconds, with Algeria's Hamad Abderahmane taking...

Nigeria's World Indoor champion Olusoji Fasuba and Damola Osayemi won the men’s and women’s 100m today at the 16th CAA African Athletics Championships. In the men’s 100m, Nigeria’s Olusoji Fasuba comfortably defended his African title thanks to a 10.10 performance ahead of compatriot Uchenna Emedolu with South African Hannes Dreyer, the fastest qualifier in yesterday’s heats, beating Burkina Faso’s medal hopeful Idrissa Sanou to bronze. While 22-years-old Damola Osayemi, who is the All-African Games 100m/200m double champion, took victory in 11.22 seconds ahead of Ghana’s defending champion Vida Anim and Cameroon’s Delphine Atangana. Full Results WOMEN 1. 5 322 Damola OSAYOMI - 11.22 2. 4 154 Vida ANIM - 11.43 3. 8 57 Delphine ATANGANA - 11.46 4. 1 323 Franca IDOKO - 11.47 5. 6 324 Gloria KEMASOUDE - 11.47 6. 7 444 Geraldine PILLAY - 11.53 7. 2 58 Myriam Leonie MANI - 11.60 MEN 1. 6 350 Olusoji FASUBA - 10.10 2. 5 354 Uchenna EMEDOLU - 10.21 3. 3 472 Hannes DREYER - 10.24 4. 4 858 ...

Ethiopia top the medals table at the end of day one of the 16th CAA African Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa , despite the absense of three-time 10000m champion, and defending champion Kenenisa Bekele. Gebregziabher Gebremariam, 25, led Ethiopian compatriots Ibrahim Jeylan and Eshetu Wondimu to an Ethiopian clean sweep of the men’s 10000m race yesterday. Gebremarian who had disastrous outing at the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh a month ago where he finished 17th, won in 28:17.11 with world junior XCC champion Ibrahim Jeylan (28:30.66) taking silver ahead of national champion Eshetu Wondimu (28:56.36). It was Gebremariam’s first track victory on home soil since 2005 where he took a 5000m/10000m double at the 2005 Ethiopian Championships. However, all the favourites have made it through to the semifinals in the 100m men and women. Nigeria’s defending All-African Games champion Damola Osayemi won the women's Semi-Final 1 easily in 11.41 seconds follo...

Oh what a shame! whatever happened to Nigerian Athletics stars of the 80s and 90s. I was reading through the list of inductees to the 1st ever Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) Athletes Hall of fame and to my shock there was no Nigerian on the list. There were many worthy athletes that have done Africa proud in the past, those with outstanding achievements - Olympic, World and African titles - on the list, but you also have athletes with barely any known achievements on the continent inducted. It will interest me greatly to know the criteria CAA had used to select the list of thirty-five (35) great African athletes of our generation without the inclusion of long time African 100m champion in the late 80s and early 90s, Chidi Imoh , African queen of the track, and Olympic 200m bronze medallist Mary Onyali , Olympic 400m silver medallist Falilat Ogunkoya or Olapade Adeniken . These are athletes who dominated the All African Games for many years and won laurels for Africa at the Wo...

at the 36th IAAF WORLD CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Classic Bekele's performance despite the initial shoe problem

Nigeria's Franca Idoko posted another personal best in two weeks after equalling the year's world-leading time of 7.09 seconds at the LAC Chemnitz Erdgas Indoor Meeting in Chemnitz, Germany. In what was a huge leap in her personal best in the women’s 60m, Idoko was commanding in winning the event, significantly lowering her previous best of 7.19, set two weeks ago in Leipzig. "I knew I was ready to run fast," she said, "I’m really happy!" Germany's Verena Sailer and Cuba’s Virgen Benavides tied for the second position in 7.25 seconds.

Road to Beijing ...

Bayo Adio in the highjump at the Emporia State Twilight quailifier meet 7' 2.50" last year.

I have been training hard and i am happy i finally have a guidance of a coach that has coached former Olympians and still is currently coaching some of the best jumpers in the US. It has been hard for me training on my own and trying to critique myself. So that is the new transition I have been going through I have a new approach, and I am learning new and effective ways of doing things that is going to take some time to get used to. even with the new style and technique that I have just incorporated. I jumped in a special high jump invitational meet and still managed to clear 2.14m. and I still have so much to correct and it is still early in the season We'll see how I can progress from here on now. It's hard juggling school, work and practice. and very expensive to travel to all this meets, eat right. go back and forth to training sessions because my coach is in another city located three hours from where I go to school. So financially I am getting drained and I am not gettin...

Bayo Adio's winning jump at the 2007 MIAA conference championship that took place at Fort Hays state university - May 2007