Ethiopian distance runners and Nigerian sprinters dominate – Afro-Asian Games – Last day.

Hyderabad, IndiaThere was no stopping Nigeria’s sprinters or for that matter the Ethiopian distance runners as the Athletics competition of the inaugural Afro Asian Games concluded at GMC Balayogi Athletic Stadium, Gachibowli in Hyderabad today.

The Nigerians Adetonunbo Oloji Fasuba and Endurance Ojokolo were respectively crowned the fastest men and women over 100m. The duo led the African challenge on the third and final day as the Asians won just six gold medals of the 17 on offer in the finals contested.

In the men’s 100m, Fasuba did not get the best of starts but recovered during the middle and accelerated quickly in the last 40m to win in 10.15. His team mate Tamunosiki Atorudibo was just 0.05 seconds behind him, but ahead of Japan's Shingo Suetsugu (10.36) who took bronze.

It was Nigeria again in women's 100m thanks to Endurance Ojokolo but she did not have the things that easy in a hotly contested women's short sprint. It was exciting to watch with the silver and bronze medallists being separated in a photo finish. The Nigerian got off the blocks neatly and simply took up the challenge to win in 11.45. She was closely followed by Lyubov Perepelova (Uzbekistan) and Delphine Bartile Atangana (Cameroon) - 11.49. As well as the two individual short sprints, Africans won both the men's and women's 4 x 400m relays too.

The men’s 10,000m, fell to a double hit by the East African long distance maestros from Ethiopia just as had happened in the men’s 5000m earlier this week.

World championships bronze medallist Sileshi Sihine may have been without his Paris medal podium colleagues Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie, but this did not stop Ethiopia’s dominance of the men’s 10,000m final in Hyderabad. Running with a more than adequate replacement in World cross country bronze medallist Gebre Gebremariam, Sihine dominated the race winning in 27:48.40, with his Ethiopian colleague finishing a distant second (28:08.79) but still ahead of Uganda’s Boniface Toroitich (28:12.67).

There was some surprise in the women’s 5000m when Ethiopia’s World Champion and World Junior record holder Tirunesh Dibaba was beaten by her compatriot Meseret Defar.

Defar, 19, the double World Junior champion who recently took the All-Africa Games title produced a decisive finishing kick to win after an intriguing duel with Dibaba, who at 18 years of age was the youngest of the World champions to be crowned in Paris. The finishing times were 15:47.69 for Defar and 15:48.21 for Dibaba. It is not the first time that Defar had shown her sprint prowess this year having unleashed a similarly devastating kick to win the distance at the Rome Golden League in July.

The men's 10km walk did not produce the close finish that had been expected. Algerian Moussa Aouanouk took a sweet convincing win in 43:33.58. Indian Sitaram Basat (45:09.40) and Thai Sakghai Samuthao (45:54.04), who won the silver and bronze respectively, could offer much of a challenge to Aouanouk.

Asian sporting giant China proved that they have not lost their class in field events. The two athletes who took part in women's Shot dominated the event totally. Meiju Li cleared 17.61m to take the gold medal while her team mate Fengfeng Li (17.21) took the silver, ahead of Thailand's Juthaporn Krasaeyan (16.63).

China won its second gold medal on the final day when Kai Cui bagged the men's High Jump gold. But the standard he achieved was far bellow expectations. Incidentally, the height he cleared - 2.18m, would at best have only gained him 6th equal place at the last World Junior Championship.

China narrowly missed yet another gold as Yuehua Yao (56.29) finished second behind Natalya Torshina of Kazakhstan (55.81) in women's 400m Hurdles Final. In fact, Asian made a clean sweep in women's 400m Hurdles as the bronze too was won by Thailand - Wasana Winatho (57.09).

Olympic medallist Frank Fredericks will remember the inaugural Afro-Asian Games for long as it brought him two gold medals. Having won men's 200m and 4 x 100m gold medals for Namibia on Wednesday, Fredericks said it was nice to win medals at a Games of this nature. But he said he did not get the challenge he was expecting. "I expected the Kazakh sprinter to do better. They had obviously not prepared hard enough.'' Fredericks said. He was down to compete in today's men's 100m dash but opted to stay out.

Dinesh Weerawansa for the IAAF

RESULTS:

Men:
100m men: 1.Adetonunbo oloji Fasuba (Nigeria) 10.15, 2. Tamunosiki Atorudibo (Nigeria) 10.20, 3. Shingo Suetsugu (Japan) 10.36.
800m: 1.Ismail Ahmed (Sudan) 1:46.92, 2. Peter Deshak abaih (Sudan) 1:47.48, 3. Samuel mwera Chegere (Tanzania) 1:47.98.
10,000m: 1. Sileshi Sihine (Ethiopia) 27:48.40. 2. Gebre Gebremariam (Ethiopia) 28:08.79, 3. Boniface Toroitich (Uganda) 28:12.67.
110m hurdles: 1.Todd matthews Jouda (Sudan) 13.68, 2. Masato Naito
(Japan) 13.71, 3. Tae-Ryong Park (Korea) 13.83.
Triple jump: 1. Takashi Komatsu (Japan) 16.65m, 2. Olivier Sanou (Burkina
Faso) 16.16, 3. Khotso godfrey Mokoena (South Africa) 15.92.
High jump: 1. Kai Cui (China) 2.18m, 2. Samson Okoruwa Idiata (Nigeria) 2.15, 3. Jude Antoine Randy Sidonie (Seychelles) 2.10.
Shot putt: 1. M.A. Shakti  (India) 19.05m, 2. Burger Lambrechts (South
Africa) 18.97, 3. Navpreet Cheema (India) 18.81.
Hammer throw: 1. Christiaan J.H. Harmse (South Africa) 75.67m, 2. Dilshob Nazarov (Tajikistan) 69.72, 3. Samir Haouem (Algeria) 69.37.
4 x 400m relay: 1. Africa - 3 mts and 04.61 sec., 2. Nigeria - 3:05.09, 3. Zimbabwe - 3:05.35.
10km walk: 1. Moussa Aouanouk (Algeria) 43:33.58 sec., 2. Sitaram Basat (India) 45:09.40, 3. Sakghai Samuthao (Thailand) 45:54.04

Women:
100m: 1. Endurance Ojokolo (Nigeria) 11.45, 2. Lyubov Perepelova
(Uzbekistan) 11.49, 3. Delphine bartile Atangana (Cameroon) 11.49.
800m: 1. Lwiza msyani John (Tanzania) 2:01.68 sec, 2. Yuanping Wang (China) 2:04.36, 3. Erpassa Berhane (Ethiopia) 2:05.31.
5000m: 1. Meseret defar Tola (Ethiopia) 15:47.69, 2. Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) 15:48.21, 3. Dorcus Inzikuru (Uganda) 16:33.71.
400m Hurdles: 1. Natalya Torshina (Kazakhstan) 55.81, 2. Yuehua Yao
(China) 56.29, 3. Wasana Winatho (Thailand) 57.09.
Shot Putt: 1. Meiju Li (China) 17.61m, 2. Fengfeng Li (China) 17.21, 3. Juthaporn Krasaeyan (Thailand) 16.63.
Discus throw: 1.Neelam Jaswant Singh (India) 61.94m, 2. Yanfeng Li (China) 60.42, 3. Aimin Song (China) 58.41.
4 x 400m relay: 1. Nigeria - 3mts and 29.75, 2. Africa 1 - 3:32.16, 3. Kazakhstan - 3:32.41.