ATHLETICS - The African Mirror

Sep

2023

Tigst Assefa redefines women’s marathon running in Berlin

ETHIOPIAN runner Tigst Assefa made history at the 2023 BMW Berlin-Marathon, on Sunday (September 24), breaking a previous record by over two minutes. Assefa, who crossed the finish line at the Brandenburg Gate in an incredible time of 2 hours, 11 minutes, and 53 seconds, surprised even herself. "I didn't expect to run this fast, that is to say, to break 2:12, but it is the result of hard work," she stated in an after-race interview with the marathon press team. The previous record was held by Kenyan Brigid Koskei. Koskei broke the record set by Paula Radcliff in 2003,…

Sep

2023

By JOEL OMOTTO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Women on top: How female athletes rescued top running nations in the 2023 World Athletics Championships medals table

ATHLETICS

WHILE the USA was the top-ranked country in Hungary, with 29 medals (12 gold, eight silver and nine bronze) and Kenya the most successful African nation, with 10 medals (three gold, as many silver and four bronze), it was the women athletes who brought home most of the medals in both cases. The year's premier athletics event saw America's women bag 14 medals compared to 13 for the men, while Team Kenya had six from their women and four from the men. Kenya would have missed gold completely, had it not been for in-form women runners, in the shape of…

Jul

2023

By The African Mirror

Semenya says discrimination verdict was ‘long time coming’

ATHLETICS

THE verdict of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of Caster Semenya raises "serious questions" about the validity of World Athletics’ requirement that female athletes with high natural testosterone levels take drugs to lower it, the South African athlete said. The ECHR ruled, by a slender majority of four votes to three, on Tuesday that the double Olympic 800m champion's original appeal against World Athletics regulations had not been properly heard by the Swiss Federal Tribunal, criticising the process followed rather than the verdict reached. Semenya, 32, is an athlete with XY chromosomes and differences in…

Jul

2023

By The African Mirror

Kenya’s Ekiru facing 10-year ban, says AIU

ATHLETICS

KENYAN athlete Titus Ekiru is facing a 10-year ban for four charges of anti-doping violations, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said. Ekiru has the joint sixth-fastest marathon time of 2:02.57, set en route to winning the Milano City Marathon in 2021. The alleged violations relate to the use of a prohibited substance on two occasions, as well as two cases of tampering with doping control through the submission of falsified medical explanations and documentation. "The 31-year-old's charges stem from AIU investigations into Ekiru's positive in-competition doping tests after marathon victories in the Milano Marathon on 16 May 2021 and the…

Jul

2023

By The African Mirror

Ingebrigtsen holds off Girma to win 1,500m at Diamond League in Lausanne

ATHLETICS

OLYMPIC champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen held off Lamecha Girma in a battle of world record holders to win the much-anticipated men's 1,500 metres at the Athletissima Diamond League meet on Friday. The 22-year-old from Norway, who broke the world mark in the seldom-run two-mile event this month in Paris, clocked three minutes 28.72 seconds, less than a second off his personal best despite a chilly evening at Stade Olympique de la Pontaise. "I have had to make some adjustments with my strategy, I have been putting in extra miles in the last couple of weeks," Ingebrigtsen said. "It's all to get myself in…

Jun

2023

By BIRD STORY AGENCY

Africa’s extraordinary distance running prowess: South Africans dominate the 96th Comrades Marathon

ATHLETICS

SOUTH Africans Tete Dijana and Gerda Steyn shattered records and set new ones and, in the process, showed off Africa's capacity for extraordinary distance running performances at the highly rated 2023 Comrades Marathon on Sunday (June 11). The race on Sunday, June 11, 2023, attracted over 17,000 passionate runners who embarked on the gruelling 87 km challenge. Starting from the iconic Pietermaritzburg City Hall and culminating at the Hollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium in the coastal city of Durban, more than 2300 international athletes participated in this 96th edition. In a breathtaking display of sheer determination and athleticism, Tete Dijana claimed a…

May

2023

By The African Mirror

Kenya’s 10k world record holder Kipruto provisionally suspended

ATHLETICS

KENYAN athlete and 10-km road race world record holder Rhonex Kipruto has been provisionally suspended for an anti-doping violation, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said. Kipruto, who also won a 10,000m bronze medal in the 2019 world championships, broke the 10-km road race world record in 2020. The AIU said on Twitter that Kipruto had been suspended "for the use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (ABP)". ABP refers to the Athlete Biological Passport, which shows discrepancies that can reveal the effects of doping. The AIU added that a notice of the charge has been issued to the 23-year-old runner. Thomson Reuters…

May

2023

By STEPHEN GRANGER, BIRD STORY AGENCY

South African steps into world trail running

ATHLETICS

MBULELI Mathanga, winner of this year’s Two Oceans Half Marathon, Johardt van Heerden, multiple winner of the Otter, Whale and Cape Town Trail marathons and Siboniso Soldaka, fastest 3000m steeplechaser in the country this year will represent South Africa - and the continent - at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships. They will be joined by world-class, internationally-based athletes, Toni McCann, Naomi Brand and Meg Mackenzie. While South Africa has participated in both trail and mountain running championships in the past, this will be the country’s first involvement in the newly constituted, combined event. Both disciplines have been formally…

Apr

2023

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Going the Extra Mile: How ultra-marathons are bolstering the legacy of running in Africa

ATHLETICS

AFRICAN athletics is often synonymous with sleek, speedy runners dominating the standard marathon. But there's another side to the continent's running culture, one that's been thriving for decades: ultra-marathons. From South Africa's iconic Comrades Marathon to Morocco's gruelling Marathon des Sables, ultras are attracting the biggest names in athletics and bolstering the legacy of African sports. Last weekend (April 15), Cape Town played host to thousands of athletes from South Africa and beyond for the latest edition of the Two Oceans 56km Marathon. According to Sports Network Africa, an African sports site, thousands of eager athletes flocked to the Cape…

Mar

2023

By JULIETTE JABKHIRO

Corruption sentence for Papa Massata Diack stands

ATHLETICS

PARIS appeal court upheld a corruption conviction for Papa Massata Diack, son of Lamine Diack, the late former head of the world athletics governing body. Papa Massata, who has denied all wrongdoing, is currently in Senegal, where he fled seven years ago when the French investigation first began. His lawyer said he was unable to attend the trial because he was under legal supervision and could not leave the country. Papa Massata and his father were at the heart of a scandal that involved taking kickbacks from Russian athletes in return for concealing positive drug tests that enabled them to continue…