23rd African Athletics Championships Medal Table: Nigeria retains third spot for fourth time in a row

Nigeria finished third on the medal after the curtains were drawn on the 23rd edition of the African Athletics Championships Wednesday in Douala, Cameroon. The country won five gold, six silver and four bronze medals behind South Africa who topped the table with seven gold, five silver and eight bronze medals, followed by defending champion, Kenya who bagged five gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals.

This is the fourth edition in which Nigeria has placed third despite going to the championships with most of our top athletes while South Africa and Kenya, in particular, have also sent their ‘B’ team to the Championships.

The last time Nigeria topped the medal table was in 2012 in Port Novo, Republic of Benin with 10 gold, six silver and four bronze medals. Since then, the country has come second once (2014) and third in the following four editions.

Nigeria has topped the medal table eight times viz 1979, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1996, 1998 and 2012 in 23 editions of the championships, one more than South Africa and five more than Kenya who won the last two editions prior to the event in Douala.

Interestingly, Kenya is the most successful African at the world stage and the east Africans were also crowned the best in the world in 2015 when they won seven gold, six silver and three bronze medals at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing, China.

The Kenyans have won a total of 65 gold, 58 silver and 48 bronze medals, second only to the USA in the all-time medal table at the Championships with Ethiopia, Morocco, South Africa, Uganda, Algeria and Mozambique all ranked higher than Nigeria.

At the Olympics, the Kenyans also towered above all other African countries with a total of 34 gold, 41 silver and 31 silver medals against Nigeria, ‘the giant of Africa’ with 2 gold, 5 silver and 7 bronze medals.