Gaisah Wins Gold

TODAY: Vida Anim -Gold in 100 meter Women
Eric Nkansah - Bronze in 100 meter Men
Thur. 10 August 2006 -- A dramatic last attempt saw Ghana's Ignisious Gaisah win the Long Jump on day one at the Africa Championships at the Germain Commarmond Stadium in Bambous, Mauritius on Wednesday.

Gaisah took the lead with an opening jump of 8.24m and extended the lead at the fourth attempt with an 8.34m effort. However with South Africa's Khotso Mokoena improving with each attempt, Gaisah skipped his fifth jump.

It all came down to the wire with Mokoena briefly taking the lead with an 8.45m effort. Gaisah responded with massive albeit wind-aided (+3.7) effort to win the contest with a leap of 8.51m. Algeria Issam Nima was third with a legal 8.24m.

"I know Mokoena improves as the contest progresses so I skipped the fifth jump to ensure a maximum effort in my final effort," says Gaisah.

The World Indoor and Commonwealth Games champion went on "If it was not for the strong wind behind me I would have set the Africa record today. I want to assure Africa that I will give my all at the World Cup," says Gaisah. Not all is lost for Mokoena as he will be in action in the Triple Jump.

Other Results

Link to full results
 
Leading results
NR denotes National Record
PB denotes Personal Best
 
Men
5000m
1 Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) 14:03.41
2 Mike Kigen (Kenya) 14:05.12
3 Moses Kipsiro (Uganda) 14:05.20
 
Long Jump
1 Ignisious Gaisah (Ghana) 8.51 (+3.7)
2 Khotso Mokoena (South Africa) 8.45 (+4.2)
3 Issam Nima (Algeria) 8.22 (+2.4)
4 Gable Garenamotse (Botswana) 8.02 (3.1)
 
Shot Put
1 Ibrahim Yassar (Egypt) 18.93
2 Janus Robberts (South Africa) 17.88
3 Mohammed Medded (Tunisia) 17.87
 
Women
Hammer Throw
1 Marwa Hussein Arafat (Egypt) 62.16
2 Hayat Elghazi (Morocco) 59.33
3 Blessing Egwu (Nigeria) 51.77
 
Medal Table
 
Gold  Silver  Bronze
 
Egypt  2  0  0
Ethiopia  1  0  0
Ghana  1  0  0
South Africa 0  2  0
Kenya  0  1  0
Morocco  0  1  0
Algeria  0  0  1
Nigeria   0  0  1
Tunisia  0  0  1
Uganda  0  0  1