National 100m record holder Maximilla Imali on Monday eased through to the semi-finals of women’s 100m, while African Games 100m silver medallist Eunice Kadogo fell off as athletics got underway at the African Games in Rabat, Morocco.
Imali got off well the blocks but her endurance seemed to deep midway to let the 2011 Maputo African Games 100m champion Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria to beat her to the finishing line.
Imali clocked 11.73 seconds, while Okagbare timed 11.53 to all qualify alongside Mariam Bance from Burkina Faso, who romped home third in 11.76 in the third heat.
Gambia’s Gina Bass recorded the fastest time, winning the fifth heat in 11.38, edging out Nigerian Alphonsus Aniekeme (11.67), Yacoba Ama Acheampong (11.83) from Ghana to all sail through to the semi-finals.
Marie Josee TA Lou from Ivory Coast launched her 100m and 200m title defence strongly winning the second heat in 11.48, while South African Mamathu Tebogo won the first semi-final heat in 11.55.
Kadogo finished sixth in 12.68 in the sixth heat that was won by Egyptian Basant Hemida in 11.86. Kadogo won silver during the 2015 edition held in Congo Brazzaville in a National Record time of 11.47, before Imali broke it with a new time of 11.38 at the Kenya Police Championships in 2018.
At the same time, men’s national 100m record holder, Mark Otieno finished sixth in the men’s 100m third heat in 10.80 and failed to qualify for the semi-finals. Nigerian Adeseye Akinola Ogunlewe won the heat in 10.36 to qualify.
Raymond Ekevwo ran the fastest time of 10.20 to prevail in the fifth heat as Ebrahima Camara claimed the sixth heat in a second best qualifying time of 10.21.
Kenya will expect medals later in the opening day of the athletics event in men’s 3,000m steeplechase and women’s 5,000m finals.
The African Games is the only title missing from Consenslus Kipruto’s collection.
Kipruto, who made a return from injury at the Paris leg of the Diamond League on Saturday, won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2017 World Championships.
He went on to clinch the Commonwealth, Africa and Continental Cup titles in 2018. He will team up with Benjamin Kigen and Joash Kiplimo Rop.
Kipruto, who had not competed this year in the Diamond League after he fractured his leg, finished fifth in 8:13.75 in Paris, where the current world leader Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali reigned supreme in 8:06.64, beating Kiben to second place in 8:07.09. All three will run in Monday’s final.
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