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More medals for SA, Ivorians rule 100m

Durban - Ivory Coast won the men's and women’s 100-metre titles on the second day of the African Athletics Championships in Durban Thursday as hosts South Africa continued their overall dominance.

African record-holder Murrielle Ahoure won the women's sprint final in 10.99sec with countryman Ben Youssef Meite claiming the men’s title in a wind-assisted 9.95sec.

South African Carina Horn finished behind Ahoure in 11.07sec with Ivorian Marie Josee Ta Lou third in 11.15 sec.

"This is the African Championships and at the end of the day it is another title under the belt," Ahoure said.

"I’ve never been African champion in the 100m and it is something I’ve always wanted to accomplish.’’

Winning his third African title, Meite beat local favourite Akani Simbine in the men’s 100m dash.

Lesotho’s Mosito Lehata bagged the silver medal in 10.04 sec with Simbine crossing the line one hundredth of a second behind him to collect the bronze medal.

South Africa won four of the eight finals on the second day of the championships at Kings Park, adding to the two titles they won on Wednesday.

Blustery conditions affected most events with South African long jumper Ruswahl Samaai winning his specialist event with a wind-assisted leap of 8.40m.

Compatriot Luvo Manyonga shared the podium with Samaai thanks to a best jump of 8.23m with Botswana’s Ruru Rammkolodi third with a leap of 7.90m.

The women’s 100m hurdles, men’s discus and decathlon gold medals were also won by South Africans.

Claudia Heunis won the short hurdles with a time of 13.35sec, Victor Hogan won the discus with a best attempt of 61.44m while Frederich Pretorius amassed 7 780 points to take the decathlon title.

Kenya claimed their first gold medal of the championships with Sheila Chepkirui winning the women’s 5 000m in 15:05.45.

Compatriot Margaret Chelimo followed her to finish second in 15:07.56 and Ethiopian Dera Dida Yami was third in 15:15.26.

The women’s pole vault was Tunisian affair as Syrine Balti and Dora Mahfoudhi won gold and silver with heights of 4m and 3.80m respectively. Nisrine Dinar of Morocco completed the podium with a height of 3.60m.

Stars from African athletics powerhouses Kenya and Ethiopia skipped the championships to prepare for national trials ahead of the Rio Olympic Games during August.

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