Africa champion Grace Wanjiru celebrates after retaining her 20km walk title on Sunday in a new Africa record time of 1:34.19. Veteran David Kimtai won silver in the men’s race. Mohammed Amin | NATION
By CHRIS MUSUMBA cmusumba@ke.nationmedia.com and JONATHAN KOMEN jkomen@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, August 1 2010 at 20:21
Posted Sunday, August 1 2010 at 20:21
Kenya on Sunday produced a thrilling final day show to snatch the overall title as the Safaricom Africa senior Athletics championship ended at the Nyayo National Stadium.
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Kenya won 25 medals, 10 gold, seven silver and eight bronze to relegate champions Nigeria, with 18 medals – eight gold, five silver and five bronze, to second place followed by South Africa with 19 medals (6-7-6).
Final Medals Table
| Team | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| KENYA | 10 | 7 | 8 | 25 |
| NIGERIA | 8 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| S. AFRICA | 6 | 7 | 6 | 19 |
| EGYPT | 4 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| ALGERIA | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| MOROCCO | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| BOTSWANA | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| TUNISIA | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| ETHIOPIA | 1 | 4 | 4 | 9 |
| SENEGAL | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| COTE D'IVOIRE | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| GHANA | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| UGANDA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| LESOTHO | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| LIBYA | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
The hosts shrugged off the disappointment of losing the women’s 10,000m title to Ethiopia and the 800m to Algeria to steal extremely rare medals in 4x400m relays gold for men and a silver for the women’s team.
That was after stunning victories in the men’s 5,000m, 1,500m women’s 3,000m steeplechase and 20km women’s walk.
Janeth Jepkosgei picked herself up from the heartbreak of losing the 800m gold at the death to Algeria’s Akkaui Malika to anchor Kenya to thrilling silver in the 4x400m relay.
She gave Kenya a boost from fifth in the final hand over to redeem herself to the absolute delight of the crowd.
In her 800m race, Jepkosgei stormed into the lead at the 150 metre mark and controlled the race as World Junior silver medallist Winnie Chebet trailed her closely, leaving the pack stuck in tow. But with only 30 metres to the tape, Zahra emerged from the left side and blasted into victory in 2:00.22.
Jepkosgei had to be content with the silver medal in 2:00.50 ahead of Malika who timed at 2:01.01.
Edwin Soi 13:30.46, Vincent Yator 13:30.53 and Mark Kiptoo 13:39.80 secured a 1-2-3 clean sweep in the men 5,000m. The 10,000m silver medallist was fourth.
Grace Wanjiru set a new African 20-kilometre walk record to successfully defend her title on the fifth and last day of the African Athletics championships.
Wanjiru completed the race in 1hr 34mins 19secs, clipping over four minutes off her old mark set set in Addis Ababa in 2008.
Ethiopia’s Sofia Abebe Assefa denied Kenya a cleans weep in the women 3,000m steeplechase race as she scooped silver behind winner and Milcah Chemos on the final day.
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