Sade Olatoye’s African Championships debut took off on a winning note as she overcame the threat posed by Algeria’s Zouina Bouzebra to win the women’s Hammer throw on Day 4 of the 22nd African Senior Athletics Championships in Mauritius.
It was a close contest between the Nigerian and Algerian as the latter’s first two throws of 59.86m and 59.66m landed farther than the former’s throws of 57.78m and 57.98m respectively.
However, Olatoye who has a Personal Best (PB) of 69.89m in the event, dug deep to produce her winning mark of 63.67m at her third attempt and Bouzebra eventually had to settle for Silver with 63.48m. Egypt’s Rawan Barakat claimed Bronze with a mark of 62.67m.
Olatoye’s GOLD medal was enough to keep Nigeria in joint 3rd place (alongside Algeria) on the medals table with a total of seven medals: four GOLD, two Silver and a Bronze medal.