Lisbon, Portugal — Mozambican middle distance runner Maria de Lourdes Mutola Sunday won a gold medal in a hard-fought 800-metre race to bring Africa's haul to three gold at the last day of the 8th IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships in Lisbon, Portugal.
With hundreds of spectators at the Atlantic Pavilion on their feet cheering her on, Mutola pressed hard at the last two- metre stretch to overtake runner-up rival, Austria's Stephanie Graf, to grab the gold in 1 minute 59.74 seconds.
The duo, who have been winning the distance in turns lately since their famous encounter at the Sydney 2000, which Mutola won, hugged each other in mutual congratulations.
Holding hands, they did the victory lap around the tracks of the arena to more cheers from the fans.
"We are friends. We may have our differences but we really are friends. That is why we held hands," said Mutola.
Graf added: "I was running the race of my life. Maria took advantage of the fact that Helena (Dziurova-Fuchsova of the Czech Republic) and I were leading most of the race. These tactical races are always problematic.
Portuguese fans, who love their national athletes, nonetheless, seemed to have taken a liking for Mutola, apparently due to the historical links between the hosts and Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony.
The other African hopeful in the race, Tanzania's Lwiza Msyani John, came fourth behind bronze medallist Dziurova- Fuchsova.
A talented runner and the youngest in the race at 20 years old, John has nothing to be ashamed of as a possible successor to the 29-year-old Mutola in the near future.
Graf clocked in at 1 minute 59.78 seconds, Dziurova-Fuchsova 2 minutes 01.18 seconds, while John returned a time of 2 minutes 01.76 seconds.
Another tough encounter was the men's 800 metres, in which South Africa's Johan Botha (1 minute 46.42 seconds) walked away with silver behind gold winner Yuriv Borzakovskiy of Russia, who recorded 1 minute 44.49 seconds.
Andre Bucher of Switzerland took the bronze in 1 minute 46.46 seconds for placing third.
The other African finalists in the race were Kenya's David Lelei (30) and Botswana's promising young runner Glody Dube (22).
Perhaps the most disappointed runner of the night was Nigerian 60-metre sprinter Deji Aliu who got disqualified for jumping the gun twice.
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In spite of his dramatic protests to the officials, the only African to qualify for the highly charged race went home with shuttered dreams.
Africa's representative in the women's 400 metres race Chadian Nadjima Kaltouma, placed fourth behind winner Sandie Richards of Jamaica, second placed Olga Kotlyarova and third placed Olesya Zykina, both from Russia.
Nigeria's 400x4 relay team came sixth in the race won by Poland, with the US and Russia sharing the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Mutola's win brought Africa's gold medals tally to three. The other two were won by Morocco's Hicham el Guerrouj in the 3,000 metres and his compatriot Hasna Benhassi in the 1,500 metres earlier in the day.
Africa, thus ended the athletics festival with a total of six medals - three gold, one silver and two bronze medals won by Shaun Bownes in the 60 metres hurdles and Kenya's Noah Ngeny in the 1,500 metres on Saturday.
The United States topped the table with 17 medals, followed by Russia with 15 and Jamaica with five medals. Hosts Portugal, at number 13, settled for two medals.
IAAF President Lamine Diack and Portuguese Sports and Youth Minister Jose Lello, accompanied by the Portuguese Athletics Federation President Fernando Mota, officially closed the three- day sports fiesta amid music, strobe lights and colourful confetti strewn all over the tracks.
