High powered rivalries expected in Nairobi – African Championships preview

Nairobi, Kenya More than half a dozen bitterly-contested rivalries among Africa’s premiere athletics talent will be on tap when the 17th CAA African Athletics Championships (28th July- 1st August 2010) kickoff at the Nyayo stadium in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Wednesday (28).

This year’s championships will also serve as an important qualifier to select Africa’s team for the IAAF / VTB Bank Continental Cup in Split, Croatia (4-5 September 2010).

Rudisha v Mulaudzi - men’s 800m

Africa’s biggest star in this track season has arguably been Kenya’s defending African 800m champion David Rudisha. The 21-year old, who started his season in February, has set the track season alight with some outstanding performances including a 1:41.52 in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium that took him to number three on the world lists and saw him smash the African record at the distance. In five starts over two laps, Rudisha remains unbeaten and brings with him the hottest unbeaten streak into the championships.

For all these fast times in top meetings in the last two years, Rudisha has yet to win any medals in global championships as a senior with the African title he won two years ago in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia his only senior championship medal. That, however, cannot be said about experienced South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, who is the reigning World champion at the distance and two-time World indoor champion in the event as well. The 29-year-old will again provide Rudisha’s biggest challenge, although the Kenyan has won all three of their head-to-heads this season.

The field will be missing Sudan’s twice world indoor 800m champion Abubaker Kaki, who chose to instead focus on anchoring the Sudanese team in the 4X400m. But it will not be short of star power with Alfred Kirwa Yego, the 2007 World champion and 2009 world bronze medallist.

Defar v Cheruiyot v Ejigu - women’s 5000m

?The women’s 5000m pits together an athlete with a large repertoire with an in-form one as Kenya’s reigning world 5000m champion Vivian Cheruiyot clashes with four-time World indoor 3000m champion Meseret Defar in a repeat of the 2007 and 2009 world championship 5000m finals.

Cheruiyot will toe the start line in Nairobi on the back of an impressive outdoor season in the Samsung Diamond League with victories in Lausanne (3000m) and Paris (5000m) where she handed out comprehensive victories to Defar and Melkamu in the former.

In contrast, Defar has endured a mixed 2010 campaign. The 26-year-old got the year rolling with the second fastest time over the 5000m indoors in Stockholm and then created her own piece of history by winning a fourth consecutive world indoor 3000m in Doha at the expense of Cheruiyot. Her outdoor campaign also started encouragingly with a personal best (4:02.00) over the 1500m in New York before a bout of flu saw her finish third over the 3000m in Lausanne behind Cheruiyot and Turkey’s Alemitu Bekele, despite pre-meet hopes of an African record at the event.

But a shocker in Nairobi could come from fellow Ethiopian Sentayehu Ejigu, who has surprised many this season by leading the diamond race over the 3000m/5000m and has victories in Shanghai and Monaco to show for her improved campaign.  Ejigu finished third behind Defar and Cheruiyot in Doha in March and should push the duo very closely in Nairobi.

Masai v Dibaba - women’s 10,000m

In addition to Cheruiyot who came of age in Berlin last year by becoming the first Kenyan winner of the women’s 5000m World title, Kenya will have high hopes once again in World 10,000m champion Linet Masai as she bids to regain the title from Ethiopian hands.

The 21-year-old has had a mixed season since her surprise victory in the German capital. Apart from winning the New York Mini 10km this year, Masai has performed on the track with modest results with appearances in Shanghai (2nd over 5000m) and Lausanne(10th in her least favourite 5000m). But she will start the race in Nairobi with full confidence having beaten Dibaba twice over the last year – in the 5000m in New York and at the World Cross Country Championships where she finished second to Dibaba’s below-par fourth place performance - and winning the ultra-competitive Kenyan trials for the championships.

In contrast, Dibaba is hoping to complete her first full track season in two years after sitting out 2009 with injuries. She brings a 100% record on the track this season to Nairobi following 5000m victories in New York and Eugene and is unbeaten in the 10,000m in the five years since she made her debut over the distance in July 2005.

A surprise in the event could come from defending African 5000m champion Meselech Melkamu, who steps up to the 10,000m after her successful experimentation with the event last year. Melkamu improved Dibaba’s African record to 29:53.80 in Utrecht last year and was a close second at the World championships behind Masai and won the only high-profile 10,000m this season in Ostrava in 31:04.52.

Langat v Burka v Lakhouad - women’s 1500m

The women’s 1500m also sees another Ethiopia v Kenya rivalry between Olympic 1500m champion Nancy Jebet Langat and defending champion Gelete Burka. After a lacklustre 2009, Langat has returned back to top form this season with victories in Doha, New York, and Oslo, but finished third in her last competitive outing before Nairobi behind Burka and Moroccan Btissam Lakhouad. Burka clocked the first sub-four minute performance of the season on that occasion and will be eager to preserve her 100% record over the 1500m on African soil, while Lakhouad hopes to build on her performance in Lausanne where she broke the ten-year old national record over the distance, also with a sub-four clocking.

Badji v Mokoena v Gaisah - men’s Long jump

There is also an exciting matchup in the men’s Long Jump where South Africa’s Olympic and World silver medallist Godfrey Khotso Mokoena clashes with in-form jumpers Ndiss Kaba Badji, who heads the African lists this season with a leap of 8.27m; and Ghana’s 2005 World Championships silver medallist and 2006 African champion Ignasious Gaisah, who is consistently jumped this after two years of injury problems.

More Kenyan dominance expected

The host nation is also expected to feature dominantly in the many of the other middle distance races. Olympic 1500m champion Asbel Kiprop starts as the favourite in the men’s 1500m, although he can expect stiff competition from young star Silas Kiplagat, who ran the fastest time in the event in almost four years last week in Monaco. Ethiopian Mekonnen Gebremedhin, fourth at the World indoor championships, and South Africa’s reigning African bronze medallist Juan Van Deventer are expected to provide the biggest foreign challenge. 

Both the men’s and women’s 3000m Steeplechase titles should also go to the Kenyans even without the likes of double world champion Brimin Kipruto and Paul Kipsele Koech. The favourite in the men’s race is Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi with world bronze medallist Richard Mateelong and world leader Abraham Cherono also in the reckoning. Their biggest opposition should come from Uganda’s Benjamin Kiplagat, who improved his personal best to 8:03.81 in Lausanne three weeks ago.

World bronze medallist Milcah Chemos is the woman to watch in the women’s event along with compatriots Mercy Njoronge and Lydiah Rotich. Ethiopia’s Mekdes Bekele and Sofia Assefa, second and fourth in Addis Ababa two years ago, will hope to disrupt a Kenyan clean sweep.

And Olympic silver medallist Janeth Jepkosgei is also the favourite in the women’s 800m with Moroccan Halima Hachlaf her biggest challenge. ??Sprints - Can Okagbare win three gold medals?

As its tradition in these biennial championships, Nigerian athletes will start as favourites in the sprint events. The biggest star in their large squad of 60 is Olympic Long Jump bronze medallist Blessing Okagbare, who has shifted focus this year to the 100m with some success. The 20-year-old, who is a student of the University of Texas in El Paso, has been entered to compete in the 100m, 200m, and the Long Jump and has a realistic chance of winning a treble in Nairobi after leading the African lists in all the three events (11.03 for the 100m, 22.71 for the 200m, and 6.88m for the long jump). Her biggest challenge in those events should come from compatriot and defending 100m champion Damola Osayemi.

However, the men’s sprints are less likely to be dominated by one country. Ghana’s Aziz Zakari is the leader on the African lists, but can expect stiff competition from Nigerian trio Benjamin Adukwu, Ogho-Ogene Egwero, and Obinna Metu, who follow him on the season’s lists. South Africa’s Simon Mogakwe props the continent’s lists in the 200m. 

The best of the rest

In other events, Botswana’s defending champion Amantle Montsho is the women to look out for in the women’s 400m. The 22-year-old, who is a product of the IAAF High Performance Training Centre in Dakar, Senegal, has consistently appeared in the finals of major championships and top-tier track meets in the last three years and is looking to better her 49.82 championship record set two years ago in Addis Ababa.

South Africa’s Louis Van Zyl, defending men’s 400m Hurdles champion and another top circuit performer, starts as the overwhelming favourite in his event. Other returning champions to watch out for include Botswana’s Kabelo Kgosiemang in the men’s High Jump, the South African quartet of Simone du Toit (women’s Shot Put), Elizna Naude (women’s discus), Sunette Viljoen (women’s javelin), and Chris Harmse (men’s Hammer Throw). 

Elshadai Negash for the IAAF

Click here for the Championships’ website