Interview by Mohammed Benchrif

After 10 days of competition (30 July - 8 August), the athletes from the African continent left the XXXII Olympic Games in Tokyo with a harvest of 23 medals (8 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze). Eight nations of the continent contributed to this achievement, namely Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Botswana.

In a very difficult context due to the pandemic, African athletes have once again demonstrated the excellent health of African athletics, a source of satisfaction for the President of the Confederation of African Athletics, Mr Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, who kindly granted us this exclusive interview.

Mohammed Benchrif (translated by Raphael Miller)

The Tokyo Olympics closed on Sunday with a final flourish thanks to the second consecutive Olympic title for Eliud Kipchoge in the marathon.

After 10 days of competitions (30^thJuly -8^thAugust), the representatives of the African continentare set to depart from the 32^ndOlympic Games held in Tokyo with a haul of 23 medals (8 of them gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze).

Eight (8) African nations have played their part in amassing this collection (Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Botswana).

Kenya once again led the packwith 10 podium finishes, four of which were first places, which propelled the country to 3^rd place on the track and field medal table behind the USA (26 medals including 7 gold) and Italy (5 gold medals).

(Mohammed Benchrif)   

Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge triumphed in Sunday’s Olympic marathon in Sapporo (north Japan). He led from the front and left his main competitors in his wake after breaking away from them 10 kilometres from the finish line, which he crossed with a time of 2hours 08 min 38 sec. 

Dutch athlete Abdi Nageeye (+1min 20sec) and Belgian Bashir Abdi (+1min 22sec), both originally from Somalia, took the two remaining podium spotsruling out another Kenyan one-two the day after the one seen in the women’s marathon.  

(Mohammed Benchrif)

On the 9^th day of athletics events at the Tokyo games, African athletes claimed one gold (in the women’s marathon), two silver and two bronze medals.

And so it was that Kenyan, Peres Jepchirchir, became the Olympic marathon champion on Saturday in Sapporo (north Japan), taking first place in 2 hours 27 minutes 20 seconds.

Jepchirchir outpaced her compatriot Brigid Kosgei, the world record holder over this distance (2:14:04) by 16 seconds and was 26 seconds ahead of American Molly Seidel, who took bronze.

The eighth day of athletics competitions at the Tokyo Olympic Games was defined by the crowning of Kenyan Faith Kipyegon over 1500m, the Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei over 5000m and the stunning qualification of Botswana for the final of the men’s 4x400m relay. 

Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, the title holder, retained her Olympic crown in the 1500m with victory in 3 min 53 sec 11/100 ahead of British athlete Laura Muir (3 min 54 sec 50) and Dutch star Sifan Hassan (3 min 55 sec 86).

Mohamed Benchrif

On Thursday, a bronze medal, truly worth its weight in gold, was secured by Hugues Fabrice Zango in the triple-jump. This is the very first Olympic medal ever won by Burkina Faso since its first involvement in the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

Despite taking part in nine Olympic Games, Burkina Faso was yet to win a single medal, a situation which the triple-jumper aimed to change this year in Tokyo.

“I wanted to win an Olympic medal in the triple-jump for Burkina Faso because we’ve never won one before.”

On Tuesday, Namibia and Nigeria claimed their places on the medal table thanks to the remarkable exploits of promising young stars Christine Mboma (200m) and Ese Brume (long jump). The athletes respectively delivered Namibia (silver) and Nigeria (bronze) their first medals of the Tokyo games.

The young Namibian sensation, Christine Mboma (18) who has only been competing in the 200m for two months, was outpaced by Jamaicain Elaine Thompson-Herah, who clinched the 200m Olympic title on Tuesday, thereby completing a sprint double three days after the 100m, as in Rio in 2016, with the second fastest time ever recorded (21:53). The bronze medal was taken by American Gabrielle Thomas.

(Mohammed Benchrif)

Kenya largely dominated the final of the two-lap event by taking gold and silver thanks to the efforts of Emmanuel Korir, the newly crowned Olympic champion with a time of 1 min 45 sec 06, who beat his compatriot Ferguson Rotich by 17 hundredths of a second and Polish athlete Patryk Dobek (who finished in 1 min 45 sec 39).

Korir followed in the footsteps of another compatriot the legendary David Rudisha, world record holder and twice winner of the Olympic title, in London 2012 and Rio 2016.

The Moroccan athlete Soufiane El Bakkali was crowned Olympic champion in the 3000m steeplechase on Monday in Tokyo, thereby gifting Morocco its 7^th Olympic gold medal, all of which have been won on the track.

After the gold medals taken home by Nawal El Moutawakel (400m hurdles in Los Angeles), Saïd Aouïta (5000m in Los Angeles), Brahim Boutayeb (10,000m in Seoul), Khalid Skah (10,000m in Barcelona) and the historic double of Hicham El Guerrouj (1500m and 5000m in Athens), Soufiane El Bakkali will return bearing precious metal, becoming the first Moroccan Olympic champion in the 3000m steeplechase.