African runners achieved their best results in long-distance events at the Olympics on Saturday.
Maria Mutola of Mozambique has shown herself a leading contender for the women's 800m final by winning one of the two semi-final heats. Her time, of 1 minute 58.86 seconds, was the fourth fastest in the semi-finals. The final is run on Monday.
Twelve of the 25 qualifying athletes for the semi-finals of the men's 800m race were from Africa. Three of the eight heats were won by Africans: Khalid Tighazouine of Morocco and Hezekiel Sepeng and Werner Botha of South Africa. Others to qualify were Djabir Said-Guerni and Adem Hecini of Algeria, Mahjoub el Haida of Morocco, Arthemon Hatungimana and Jean Patrick Nduwimana of Burundi, Glody Dube of Botswana, Johan Botha of South Africa, and William Yiampoy and Japheth Kimutai of Kenya.
In the second round of the women's 400m competition, four Africans have gone through to the semi-finals. Falilat Ogunkoya of Nigeria clocked the fastest time of the four, at 50.49 seconds. She came second in her heat to the Gold medal favourite, Cathy Freeman (50.31 seconds).
Heide Seyerling of South Africa qualified with a time of 50.87s, Mireille Nguimgo of Cameroon with 51.08s and Amy Mbacke Thiam of Senegal with 51.64s.
Only Hendrick Mokganyetsi of South Africa made a place in the men's 400m semi-finals. He took second place in his heat, with a time of 45.15 seconds. He ran faster than the favourite for Gold for the event, Michael Johnson of the USA (45.31s).
In the 100m races, Vida Nsiah of Ghana narrowly missed a place in the women's final, and compatriot Leo Myles-Mills also just missed the men's final. Nsiah came fifth in her semi-final, with Leonie Mani of Cameroon just behind her. Marion Jones of the USA went on to win the Gold medal in the women's race. In the men's 100m dash, Aziz Zakari of Ghana reached the final, but did not finish the race. Favourite Maurice Greene of the USA won the Gold medal.
