Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Collin Matiza
3 June 2008
Harare — One of Zimbabwe's top sprinters Young Talkmore Nyongani moved a gear up in his preparations for the forthcoming Olympic Games when he won the 400m event at the Confederation of African Athletics Grand Prix Series in Congo Brazzaville on Sunday.
Fresh from winning another 400m race at the IAAF World Athletics Tour meeting in Dakar, Senegal, last month, Nyongani reasserted his claim as one of the top African sprinters over this distance when he romped home first in a good time of 45.76 seconds.
Following on from his win in Dakar, Nyongani again beat this year's African Athletics Championships bronze medallist James Godday of Nigeria (45.85sec) into second place on Sunday, according to reports from Congo Brazzaville. "I need four more races before the Olympics," Nyongani said after Sunday's race in Congo Brazzaville. "This is my second race and I am improving myself. In Dakar, I won in 45.97 seconds, today I clocked 45.76 seconds. I will continue working (hard) so that I'll be ready for the Olympics." Nyongani, who turns 25 on September 2, is now expected to move to Europe for his final preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, which are set to run from August 8-24 in Beijing, China.
He recently told The Herald that he was looking at running in four top international meetings during his sojourn in Europe to boost his preparations for the Olympic Games. Based at the Pretoria High Performance Training Centre in South Africa, Nyongani is one of Zimbabwe's brightest medal prospects in Beijing along with swimming icon Kirsty Coventry. After a disappointing outing at the last Olympics in Athens, Greece, in 2004 where he failed to reach the semi-finals of the 400m event, Nyongani is determined to perform much better in Beijing.
And he looks to be well on course of producing a medal-winning performance in Beijing judging from his recent results in Dakar and Congo Brazzaville. In Sunday's meet in Congo Brazzaville, Nyongani was among a host of Olympic Games-bound athletes who set the Alphonse Massamba Debat Stadium alight with some impressive performances.
One of the athletes who produced an eye-catching performance was Stephan Buckland of Mauritius in the men's 200m event. A month since the 16th African Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Buckland took revenge over the man who beat him there, African champion Thuso Mpaung, when winning the 200m race in front of 14 000 spectators. Buckland (31) clocked 20.74 seconds, beating South Africa's Mpaung (20.95sec), the man who had pipped him to the continental gold. The Brazzaville meet is one of a select group of Area meetings at which points can be acquired by athletes to qualify for the IAAF/VTB Bank World Athletics final, to be held on September 13-14 in Stuttgart, Germany.
In the 100m, the African silver medallist Uchenna Emedolu of Nigeria was the winner but the whole field was disturbed by the noisy crowd at the start. Emedolu finished first in with a poor 10.40sec beating South African Leigh Julius (10.51sec). Third place went to the meeting record holder from Burkina Faso, Idrissa Sanou (10.54sec). In the women's dash, Idoko Franca who is the meeting record holder, took a second consecutive victory in 11.35sec but the time was slower than the 11.25sec she recorded last year. In second place came the 2006 African champion Vida Anim of Ghana who clocked 11.57sec.
Gloria Kemasuode of Nigeria came third and then won the 200m in 23.40sec, again beating Vida Anim. By contrast Chad's Nadjima Kaltouma, who finished seventh but who had won the 200m and 400m at the last Francophone Games in Niamey (Niger) in 2005, is back competing after having a baby boy 11 months ago. After the race, she said: "Coming here in Brazzaville, was first to perform well and make my comeback after two years of absence". Only four field events were scheduled in Brazzaville.
The most interesting one was the women's shot put, where Nigeria's Vivian Chukwuemeka, the African champion, was beaten into third by Anca Heltne of Romania.
After two attempts, the Nigerian led with 17.17m but in the fourth produced a Personal Best of 18.19m.
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