African Youth Championships in Athletics to emerge as champions of the event. The competition, in its first edition, was held in Warri.
By the overall count, Team Nigeria have a total of 13 gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze medals to emerge champions while Egypt — leaders for first three days of competition — finished second with eight gold, six silver and two bronze medals. The Kenyans were tipped to finish within the top three but Ethiopia upstaged them with four gold medals on Sunday. The feat gave the Ethiopians a total of six gold, 13 silver, and six bronze medals. The Kenyans won five gold, four silver and two bronze medals.
A total of 16 out of the 33 countries that took part in the five-day championships are represented in the medals table.
On the final day of the competition, it was quarter-mile barrier runner, Nathaniel Onome, who set Nigeria on the path to an amazing gold medal rush by spearheading a Nigerian top two finish in the 400m hurdles event for girls. She ran 62.04 seconds to pick the gold ahead of her compatriot, Kadiri Adenike, who settled for the silver medal in 62.92 seconds. The third was won by Morocco’s Elghail Nezhu in 64.99 seconds.
In another event, Veronica Ugeh won the second gold for Nigeria in the girls Javelin event by throwing a distance of 44.33m ahead of Ethiopia’s Birinesh Dubale (40.35m) and Egypt’s Aya Mohammed Tawfik Elk (36.31m).
Divine Oduduru and Deborah Adewunmi successfully completed a sprint-double for Nigeria with the gold in the boys and girls 200m. Oduduru ran 21.56 seconds to lead a Nigerian top-three finish in the half-lap race. His fellow Nigerian Ismaila Adedeji picked the bronze medal at 22.03 behind Ethiopia’s Beker Toure (21.90), in a repeat of the 100m placing two days earlier.
In the girls’ version, it was a repeat of the 100m placing as Adewale raced to gold in 24.13 seconds to make it the second gold medal she won. Her compatriot, Amusan Ayomide won the silver medal (24.45 seconds) while Ethiopia’s Yuma Tegest Tamangnu (24.76 seconds) won the bronze medal.
Confederation of African Athletics president, Hamad Malboum, was among the dignitaries that witnessed the final day of the championships. Also at the Warri stadium for the fourth consecutive day was the Governor of Delta State Emmanuel Uduaghan.
The trio of Olamide, Iyanya and Timaya entertained the crowd to bring the championships to an end.
Mauritius will host the second edition of the championships in 2015.
