Africa's Olympics Update -- Final Week in Beijing

Monday August 25, 2008

mens 10000m ethiopia and kenya medal winners

Kenya topped the Olympic medals chart (out of all the African nations) after an amazing second week at the Olympics where the country dominated the middle and long distance events. Watching the Kenyan national anthem play in front of 90,000 people as Samuel Wanjiru accepted his gold medal for the men's marathon at the closing ceremony was a wonderful thing. Kenya's total tally was 14 medals, including 5 gold. Kenyan women did particularly well this Olympics having never won an Olympic title before, they managed to win 2 gold and 3 silver medals.

Sudan won its first ever Olympic medal, silver in the men's 800m. At last something to cheer about for Sudan and ironically the man who brought it home is Ismail Ahmed Ismail from Darfur.

The East Africans swept the men's marathon, the men's 5000m and 10,000m. A mixture of Ethiopians, Kenyans and Eritreans blew the rest of the world away at almost every long-distance event including the steeplechase. Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele won his double gold at the 5000m and 10,000m distances as did his team mate Tirunesh Dibaba who completed her historic double in the same distances.

The Moroccans, also traditionally a force to reckon with in the distance events, grabbed a silver medal in the men's marathon and a bronze in the women's 800m.

South Africa had failed to medal in any of the swimming events last week, but the final week saw a medal win -- silver in the men's long jump. Natalie du Toit managed a respectable 16th place in the 10km swim as the first female Olympic amputee. She told the BBC, "I went out there and gave it everything, which was my goal... I had a good race but I'm glad it is over.

Nigeria finally got on the medal table with 2 bronze medals in the last week, one in the women's 4x100m relay and the other in women's long jump. They also won the silver in men's soccer -- they were beaten in the final by Argentina 1-0. Nigeria also won a bronze medal in Taekwondo.

Mauritius received their first Olympic medal in boxing. Bruno Julie a flamboyant indivdual with a unique hairstyle takes home the bronze medal in men's bantam weight.

All in all it was a very successful Olympics for Africa with Sudan, Togo and Mauritius all getting their first Olympic medals. Let's hope for further success in London 2012.