African Sports Monthly Mar, 2015 | Page 12

Africa’s best opens the 2015 Track & Field season with a blast … The African Junior Championships is underway in Addis Ababa Ethiopia and the Indoor season is coming to a close and with the 2015 IAAF World Outdoor Athletics Championships in Beijing China, looming on the horizon and the 2016 Rio Olympics nipping on its heels, little will be left to chance this next two years by most Track and Field Athlete who are seeking to make a mark in the sport for themselves and their nations. As the 2015 Season gets underway with the indoor campaign winding down the need to turn on the after burners is more urgent than ever as athletes seeking to meet the World Championships and Olympic qualifying standards go all out to stand out and make the cut. As indicated above the indoor season has been underway for a while and is now winding down and some of Africa’s best are already scorching the track with spectacular times and eye opening performances . Muriel Ahoure of the Ivory Coast has begun her 2015 campaign with a spectacular performance clocking the fastest 60 meters time for women in the world for the year at the New York Millrose Games; she won the race with an eye popping performance of 7.05 seconds. Taking off where she left off in 2014. Last year (2014) she put up one dominating performance after another in the indoor circuit which eventually culminated in a Silver Medal performance at the IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships in Sopot Poland, Ahoure is off again to another fast start in 2015. Muriel Ahoure of the Ivory Coast Sally Kipyego of Kenya set the fastest time for women in the 3000 meters with a time of 8:41.72 at the same meet as Ivory Coast’s Ahoure, sending a message to her competitors worldwide that she is ready to have a banner year. Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia is on a tear once again breaking a world record, something she did twice last season. Returning to familiar territory in Stockholm Sweden on February 19th 2015 Genzebe Dibaba shattered the women’s indoor 5000 meters mark setting a new one of 14:24.37. She is well on her way to another nomination at the IAAF as athlete of the year. She is our Athlete of the Month for that spectacular performance. The CAA (Confederation of African Athletics) Junior African Championships is underway in Addis Ababa Ethiopia and the continents young talent are going at each other for continental honors. Stay connected with African Sports Monthly for your latest analysis and reports in Track & Field 1 1