Edwin Too settles for bronze as Kenya bags first medals at Africa Championships

Kenyan Decastar Edwin Too faced stiff competition in his discipline at the 23rd Africa Senior Athletics Championships, ongoing in Douala, Cameroon, settling for bronze. 

The national champion was hoping to improve on his Africa Games silver medal but, to his admission, the event was competitive and he was happy with his performance. 

"Getting bronze with 7132 is a good performance, even if the plan was to get gold and upgrade my silver from February in Ghana (at the Africa Games)," said Too who missed out on his national record by 11 points. 

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The 29-year-old six-time national champion picked his highest points in long jump, winning the event. 

"I managed to post some good results in some of the other events too. I improved my performance in discuss with a personal best throw that gave me 620 points. In long jump I had bagged over 900 points. I managed a personal best in 400m, breaking the 47 seconds mark for the first time. 

I believe that the good performance in some of the events that are normally not a strong point for me helped. In runs, I excel in 100m and 400m, while long and high jumps are a plus for me. The 110m/h is also a favourite," Too explained. 

Meanwhile, Roncer Konga joined Too in handing Kenya her first medals at the ongoing championship as he also settled for bronze in the men's 10,000m. 

He clocked 28:59.94 to finish behind Ethiopian duo of Nibrat Melak, who won the race in 28:52.26 and Gemechu Dida who setrled for silver 28:52.78.

Two other Kenyans, Joseph Kiptum and Francis Abong settled for fourth and fifth places respectively.

Elsewhere Rebecca Mwangi was the first Kenyan to cross the finish line, in the women’s 5000m on Friday, settling for fourth-place as Ethiopians dominated.