The women’s 10,000m produced one of the major highlights of the fourth day of athletics at the African Games in Rabat, with Ethiopia stamping their authority in the event on Thursday.
Tsehay Gemechu ensured her teammates followed the game plan to the letter. Halfway into the race, the Ethiopian trio comprised of Tsehay Gemechu, Zeineba Yimer, Dera Dida and Kenya’s Irene Jepchumba disengaged from the rest of the pack. Jepchumba tried to keep up with Gemechu, staying in second place, but at the sound of the bell, the latter sped away. Her compatriots took that as a signal and followed hard after her, eventually overtaking the Kenyan while Gemechu took gold in 31:56.92. The silver medal went to Yimer (31:57.95) while Dida took bronze with 31:58.78.
However, Ethiopia was not the only nation to achieve a sweep of the medals on Thursday as Egypt achived the same feat in the men’s hammer, replicating their 2018 African Championships form.
Ethiopia participated in 13 sport categories in the current Games. On the leader’s board, Ethiopian athletes have managed to collect 5 gold medals, 4 silver and 10 bronze medals so far. The medals collected were mainly in the discipline: athletics, taekwondo and cycling.
Egypt leads the medals board via 79 gold medals, Nigeria following with 40 and South Africa comes in third amassing 31 gold medals.
