Athletics Africa Magazine

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.