© Copyright – 2019 – Athletics Illustrated
Kenya finished second in athletics in the medal standings at the 2019 African Games in Rabat, Morocco.
On the last day of competition, Titus Ekiru helped his country make history to win the half-marathon event. He recorded a winning time of one-hour, one-minute and 42 seconds (1:01:42). Finishing second was Moroccan Reda Elaaraby who finished in the time of 62:44 and countryman Hamza Sahli in 62:45.
The win was the first of six gold medals on the history-making day for Kenya. They ended the championships with 10 golds, seven silvers and three bronze medals.
Although, as expected, the Kenyan’s performed well on the track, they also picked up a medal on the field with Julius Tego throwing the javelin to 87.73m to win gold.
The Nigerians, even in political disarray with their athletics federation, still managed to pull out more medals than Kenya, all toll, they ended with three more bronze medals than Kenya.
The 27-year-old Ekiru’s half-marathon to cap the day was a personal best performance; however, he has run a 61:02 last June in San Diego. The course, however, is apparently not certified 21.195K.
In April of this year, he ran the marathon in the time of 2:04:46 in Milan, Italy. It was a new personal best and he won by 2:26 over countryman Evans Chebet Kiplagat and Edwin Koech Kipngetich. They finished in 2:07:22 and 2:08:24.
Overall Egypt earned the most medals, in the multi-sport continental championships with 271, 139 gold, 117 silver and 15 bronze. Nigeria was second with 126 and South Africa was third with 87.
