Nairobi — Kenya's prospects of medals in the women's 800m look good after all the three entrants in the race - Faith Macharia, Pamela Chelimo and Charity Wandia - qualified for Sunday's final.

Macharia (2:07.69) qualified as one of the two fastest third placed finishers after coming in third in the first semi-final, which was comfortably won by Maria Mutola in 2:0674.

Wandia (2:05.06) strained from second last at the the 200m mark to finish second behind Namibia's Agnes Samaria who clocked 2:04.42.

Chelimo produced a storming run to qualify first in the second semi final.

Running in her first international meet for Kenya, Chelimo calmly outpaced Ethiopian pretender Mestawot Tadesse with 200m to go to qualifying an impressive time of 2:03.

Joyce Zachary will also be contesting for a medal in the 200m on Sunday after qualifying in second place in the first semi final. She was timed at 23:94.

* Amare Amsalu, CEO of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC), on Sunday stressed that close collaboration is required if Ethiopia is to position itself as a venue for international sports meets.

Ethiopia's sole telecommunications provider is one of the sixteen sponsors of the biennial championships and is providing seamless broadband internet connection to cater for the huge demands of both international and domestic media.

"We are not sponsoring the 16th African athletics Championships for the purpose of promotion," he said. "In its 114 years of existence, ETC is known all across Ethiopia and globally for its services and performance.

The reason we have sponsored the championships is to help the government pursue its development strategies. In that token we believe that the successful hosting of the championship will not only help promote the image of ethiopia in a positive light but also build capacity of the nation to hold high profile events. We are of the opinion that with the right strategy Ethiopia can hold the Olympics."

Additional reporting by Elshadai Negash