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Nadia wins gold for Ghana at 2016 African Athletics Champs
Nadia (middle) poses with Joelle Mbumi and Patience Ntshingila.

Nadia wins gold for Ghana at 2016 African Athletics Champs

Triple jumper, Nadia Eke, grabbed Ghana’s first gold medal at the 20th African Seniors Athletics Championships when she leapt 13.42m to clinch victory on the final day of the competition held at the King Park Stadium in Durban, South Africa last Sunday.

Camerounian Joelle Sandrine Mbumi(13.37m) and Patience Ntshingila of South Africa won silveer and bronze respectively.

Not long after her heroics, John Ampomah added another silver medal to Ghana’s collection in the men’s javelin competition.

Nadia’s golden jump was her third major international medal for Ghana in three years after winning silver at the 2014 African Senior Championships in Morocco and bronze at the 2015 All African Games in Brazzaville, Congo.

It was a significant moment for Nadia, when Ghana’s national anthem was played for the first time at the five-day event, after the President of the Ghana Athletics Association, Prof. Francis Dodoo, had handed a gold medal to the fast improving US-based athlete on the podium. Ahead of the competition, she had set a new national record of 13.82 metres.

Nadia’s heroics was believed to have inspired Ampomah to finish second in the men’s javelin with a throw of 75.22 metres. It was his third medal for Ghana in six years, having won silver at both the 2012 African Senior Championships and the 2015 All African Games in Brazzaville.

However, Amponsah’s mark of 75.22 metres fell below the Rio 2016 Olympic automatic qualifying standard of 83 metres.

Before the competition came to an end last Sunday, Ghana’s team had won four medals with two silver medals by the women’s 4x100m relay team and decathlete Atsu Nyamadi, while heptathlete queen, Elizabeth Dadzie and pole vaulter Jordan Yamoah won bronze medals in their respective events. 

 

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