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World Athletics Championships: Burkina Faso wins 1st ever medal

Village Reporter

The 17th edition of the World Athletics Championships started on Friday, September 27, 2019 and will feature several highlights spanning 10 days as the biennial event is staged in the Middle East for the first time.

A total of 1,972 athletes from 208 countries and territories will compete in the championships, which are seen as an important staging post as Qatar prepares for the challenge of hosting football’s World Cup in 2022.

With the bulk of the competition taking place at the fully air-conditioned Khalifa Stadium, most athletes will be shielded from the ferocious heat and humidity in Doha, where temperatures can reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

In this article, we will follow the progress of African athletes, and celebrating every medal that is won for the continent.

Some of the information one can find in this article includes;

  • Medals table
  • Burkina Faso’s historic medal
  • How Kenya won the first medal in Doha
  • How Qatar and athletes are coping with the heat
  • African stars to watch
  • Controversies affecting Team Africa

Medals Table -Africa

Kenya, 1 Gold Medal, 1 Bronze medal (4th overall)
Ethiopia, 1 Silver medal (8th)
Burkina Faso, 1 Bronze medal (13th)
Ivory Coast,1 Bronze medal (13th)
Namibia, 1 Bronze medal (13th)

Burkina Faso wins first medal

Burkinabe athlete Hugues Fabrice Zango, won Bronze in the Men’s Triple Jump, earning the country’s first ever medal at the World Athletics Championships.

The reigning African champion also improved the continent’s record to 17.66m.

‘‘I’m really happy to have been able to jump this distance and set a new African record,’‘ Zango said after his feat.

Hugues was beaten to the gold medal by the United States’ Christain Taylor, who had a jump of 17.92m, while the silver medal was also clinched by an American, Will Cayle, at 17.74m.

Guinea-Bissau athlete hailed

Guinea-Bissau’s Braima Dabo is being hailed world over for helping exhausted Aruban Johnathan Busby across the 5,000 metres finish line in an astonishing display of sportsmanship.

It was an agonising and heartwarming end to Friday’s opening heat of the men’s 5,000m as a distressed Busby, near collapse, was rescued on the final lap by Dabo and helped home, with the two men crossing the line to a rousing ovation at Khalifa Stadium.

“The main objective was to represent my country as well as possible and I’m happy I could help the other guy,” Portuguese-speaking Dabo told Reuters.

“I saw he was not running in the right way, he was leaning, I realised he wasn’t going to finish.

“I knew I wasn’t going to beat my personal record, so when I realised that, it was better to go for the main aim, which was to finish the race. My thoughts were to help him finish, that is the point of the race.”

The heat was won by Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega in a time of 13 minutes 24.69 seconds but it was the heroic effort unfolding behind the winner that brought the crowd to its feet.

Asked about the crowd’s reaction to his gesture of sportsmanship a humble Dabo, 26, said nothing had changed.

“I continue being the same as before — I’m proud to be here representing my country.”

Kenya wins first Gold medal

Kenya won the first Gold medal of the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, when Ruth Chepngetich won the women’s marathon Friday, clocking 2:32:43.

Chepngetich overcame extreme heat and humidity to win, in a gruelling test of survival that saw nearly a third of the 70 starters fail to reach the finish line.

Chepngetich, who has clocked the third fastest marathon of all-time, did not come close to matching that in the punishing conditions. Her winning time of two hours, 32 minutes, 43 seconds was the slowest ever to win the world championships.

Still, it was enough for a comfortable victory over Bahrain’s defending world champion Rose Chelimo, who settled for silver crossing more than a minute adrift.

Namibia’s Helalia Johannes completed the podium taking the bronze.

“I am very happy with the win and bringing back the gold to Kenya,” said Chepngetich. “It was a tough race but I knew what to expect as I ran in Dubai.

“I trained for this weather running in the afternoon when the sun was high.

“I want to win another for Kenya in Tokyo.”

Too hot for competition?

The opening day of the 10-day event began with the governing International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) issuing a statement that the marathon would go ahead despite concerns over extreme heat and athlete welfare.

As temperatures hovered in the mid-30s Celsius the runners waited their turn in the spotlight as the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach sitting on one side and IAAF boss Sebastian Coe on the other, declared the championships open to an explosion of fireworks.

The midnight start tempered the sting of a searing sun but with the temperature sitting at 32.7C and the humidity index at 73% the conditions were right on the limit of what the IAAF said were allowable.

Despite IAAF assurances that athlete welfare was the top priority, some felt the conditions were so severe that the race should not have been run.

“The humidity kills you,” said Volha Mazuronak of Belarus. “There is nothing to breathe. I thought I wouldn’t finish.

“It’s disrespect towards the athletes.

“A bunch of high-ranked officials gathered and decided that it would take (the championships) here but they are sitting in the cool and they are probably sleeping right now.”

World Championships start

Athletics powerhouse Kenya will be in the spotlight, as the 17th edition of the World Athletics Championships gets under way on Friday in Qatar, following recent doping allegations.

A total of 1,972 athletes from 208 countries and territories will compete in the championships, which are seen as an important staging post as Qatar prepares for the challenge of hosting football’s World Cup in 2022.

Tonight’s midnight marathon launches a 10-day battle for medals as the biennial event is staged in the Middle East for the first time.

Managing the heat in Qatar

With the bulk of the competition taking place at the fully air-conditioned Khalifa Stadium, most athletes will be shielded from the ferocious heat and humidity in Doha, where temperatures can reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Marathon runners and endurance athletes, however, will be required to battle through the challenging climate alone, raising safety concerns.

The marathon and race-walking events have been scheduled for late at night to avoid the hottest part of the day, with Friday’s women’s marathon, where the first medals of the championships will be decided — starting under floodlights at 11:59pm (2059 GMT).

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe said he is confident marathon runners will be able to cope with temperatures forecast at around 32 degrees Celsius and humidity of 80 percent.

Organisers however are leaving nothing to chance, with larger than usual teams of paramedics on hand and an abundance of water stations populating the course on Doha’s Corniche waterfront.

“The overwhelming thrust of this is the welfare of the athletes,” Coe said on Thursday.

“We will have more water on the course than we’ve ever had in any marathon, we will have more medical support and more paramedics out there as well.”

Anticipated highlights

While the women’s marathon brings the curtain down on the first day of action, the newly renovated Khalifa Stadium will play host to the opening track and field events.

The highlights of the first day will include the opening heats of the men’s 100 metres, where US sprinter Christian Coleman will aim to shrug off the missed drug-test controversy which threatened to derail his career.

Coleman, the fastest man in the world over 100m this season, faced being barred from the championships last month after it emerged he had registered three anti-doping “whereabouts failures” in a 12-month period.

However the charges against the 23-year-old American were withdrawn earlier this month because of a technical loophole.

Coleman is amongst a crop of young American sprinters hoping to fill the void created by the retirement of Jamaican sprint icon Usain Bolt, who hung up his spikes after the 2017 worlds in London.

The likeliest candidate to replace Bolt however could turn out to be Noah Lyles, the charismatic 22-year-old who is the favourite in the 200m, with the final taking place next Tuesday.

Chasing records

In the women’s sprints, meanwhile, Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is chasing a record fourth 100m gold at the age of 32, two years after skipping a season for the birth of her son in 2017.

Fraser-Pryce opens her 100m campaign in Saturday’s heats with the final on Sunday.

Elsewhere during the championships, world records could come under threat in the men’s and women’s 400m hurdles.

Norway’s Karsten Warholm is set for a battle royale in the men’s event with American champion Rai Benjamin.

In the women’s race, Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad is hoping to improve her new world record of 52.20sec set at the US trials in July.

Team Africa

There is no place in Doha though for South Africa’s 800m star Caster Semenya.

The double Olympic champion misses out after losing a long-running battle against regulations requiring her to take medication to lower her naturally-elevated testosterone levels.

Kenyan athletes Jackline Wambui, who won the 800 metres at the country’s trials, and Linda Kageha, who was in the mixed relay team, also withdrew from the world championships after failing to take mandatory testosterone level tests.

“The IAAF has set tough conditions on gender and doping and we must comply. If an athlete fails to take the tests, they are definitely out of the (world) championships,” Athletics Kenya Vice President in charge of competitions Paul Mutwii told Reuters.

‘‘Wambui and Kageha declined the test on testosterone levels. They had no choice but to withdraw.’‘

Kenya’s doping woos

Meanwhile, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe says the body’s Integrity Unit is investigating allegations of doping against Kenyan athletes.

This follows a report by German broadcaster ZDF, which allegedly showed two Kenyan athletes, one male and one female, being injected with banned performance-enhancing substance Erythropoietin.

The documentary, shown less than a week before the start of the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, also featured a doctor who said he had treated eight runners.

ZDF also claims to have evidence of possible corruption and collusion between Athletics Kenya and the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK).

Up to 41 Kenyan athletes are currently under sanctions, and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has investigated the country, before publishing a report outlining several concerns over the structures in place.

Stars to watch

World athletics chief Coe, elected to a second term as IAAF president this week, hopes Doha will help draw a line under a turbulent first term dominated by the Russian doping scandal that erupted in late 2015.

“I can’t actually remember a time in the sport when I’ve been so optimistic and excited about young talent coming through,” Coe said on Thursday. “The sport is in great shape.”

In tonight’s women’s marathon, Kenya’s Edna Kiplagat will be hoping to wrestle the crown from defending champion, Rose Chelimo who competes for Bahrain.

In the men’s 5000m, Mo Farah’s crown is up for grabs, since he retired from the event. Ethiopia’s Telahun Haile Bekele, who is barely 20, is the fastest in the world this year. Another Ethiopian Selemon Barega, who ran 12:43.02 last year, and is 19, is also a contender for the crown.

Agencies

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