Athletics Africa Magazine

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