The year started with a major bang for Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba, when she blazed down the track on two occasions to break world records in the indoor 1500 meters and the 3000 meters races, eclipsing the old marks to seal her place in history as a world record holder. She set the 1500 meters indoor mark in Germany at a meet in Karlsruhe where she ran 3:55.17 and would later go on to take the 3000 meters with a time of 8:16.60 in Stockholm Sweden. Her performance in 2014 was so dominant it garnered her a nomination, as Women’s World Athlete of the Year by the IAAF. She came close as she was shortlisted as one of three finalists but Valerie Adams of New Zealand would spoil it for her as she was the eventual winner. But 2014 was indeed Genzebe’s year.
A Look back at Africa on the Track in 2014
The World was invited to the Bahamas for a grand party as the Track loving nation hosted the Inaugural Edition of World Relays. It proved to be quite an event where a few records fell on both the men’s and women’s side with the Jamaican men’s 4 x 200 meters relay team of Nickel Ashmeade, Warren Weir, Jermaine Brown anchored by Yohan Blake took the records off the books setting a new time of 1:18.63 seconds
In a year that was without a major global event save for the World Indoor Championships and the Commonwealth Games. Godfrey Mokoena took the world by storm upon his return from injury to take the Triple Jump crown at both the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow Scotland and the African Athletics Championships in Marrakech Morocco putting the South African among the upper echelon of the top performers of in the world for the year.
Cont'd on Page 55
By Leslie Koroma