Louis Van Zyl led a medals sweep for South Africa in the men’s 400m hurdles at the All Africa Games on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Algeria and Egypt tied for golds at the top of the medals table with just two days to go.
The 22-year-old Van Zyl won in 48,74 seconds. Pieter De Villiers was second in 48,91, while Alwin Myburgh was awarded the bronze despite running the same time as De Villiers in a photo finish.
Van Zyl said he was in form ahead of the world championships in Osaka, Japan next month.
”I think it’s important, because it’s a step to the world champs, to run two rounds in two days,” said Van Zyl. ”It’s a good exercise.”
”My confidence is good, I beat all the top guys in the world, I must just keep my form,” he said, referring to his victory last week at the Golden Gala meeting in Rome.
In the women’s 10 000m, Ethiopia’s Mestawet Tufa beat Kenya’s triple world cross-country champion Edith Masai to win gold. Masai (40) couldn’t hold on as Tufa accelerated with two laps to go, and trailed by more than five seconds as Tufa won in 31:26,05.
In field events, South Africa won three golds. Janice Josephs won the women’s long jump, Elizna Naude the women’s discus and Chris Harmse the men’s hammer.
Hatem Ghoula won for Tunisia in the men’s 20km walk in a time of 1:22,33. David Kimutai of Kenya was second and Mohamed Ameur of Algeria took third.
Angola beat the Democratic Republic of Congo 35-22 to claim the women’s handball gold. In the men’s final, Egypt beat Algeria 29-21, following a string of good results in chess, wrestling, and shooting.
But Algeria won five from 11 golds in boxing.
Late Saturday, both countries had 68 golds, though Egypt was just ahead with 58 silver medals to Algeria’s 55. – Sapa-AP