After winning four medals (two silvers and two bronzes) at the 13th African Games held in Accra, Ghana, in March of this year, team Liberia continues to show impressive performance at the 23rd African Athletics Championship in Douala, Cameroon.
This time, Ebony Morrison triumphed in the women’s 100-meter hurdles after missing out on an individual medal at the African Games.
Morrison made history by winning Liberia’s first-ever gold medal at the African Championship on Saturday, June 22, surpassing her own national record of 12.74 seconds set at the 2020 Summer Olympics with a time of 12.70 seconds.
Morrison edged out South Africa’s Marione Fourie, who won silver.
Saturday’s result also secured Morrison’s ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
At the previous edition of the African Championship, Morrison won Liberia’s first-ever silver at the championship after clocking 12.86 seconds behind South Africa’s Fourie, who finished in 12.82 seconds.
Later on Saturday, Joseph Fahnbulleh—Liberia’s first-ever Olympic finalist—won the country’s second gold medal at the competition.
In the men’s 100-meter final, Fahnbulleh finished first ahead of Emmanuel Eseme, the home favorite, in 10.13 seconds to 10.15 seconds to win his first African title.
South Africa’s Benjamin Richardson scooped the bronze with 10.17s.
Before Fahnbulleh won Liberia’s second gold of the competition, Maia McCoy announced herself in the championship with a silver in the women’s 100m, carrying on from where she left off at the African Games.
Gina Bitaye of the Gambia finished first with a time of 11.14, followed by McCoy with a time of 11.16.
After winning the first at the African Games in Accra, this was her second individual silver in four months.
Destiny Smith-Barnett, McCoy’s compatriot, was unlucky to finish fourth in 10.34 seconds during the women’s 100-meter final.
However, prior to the championship, Smith-Barnett booked her ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics when she clocked 10.99 in the Last Chance Sprint Series heat to set a national record.
The African Championships in Athletics is a continental athletics event organized by the Confederation of African Athletics, the continental association for the sport in Africa. Since its inaugural edition in 1979, it has been organized intermittently, with nine editions held in fourteen years until 1993.
Prior to this year’s edition, Liberia had won five medals, a silver and four bronzes.
Source: Liberian Observer