Fahnbulleh makes history as the first man to complete a sprint double at the African Championships in 10 years

Joseph Fahnbulleh has become the first Liberian and the first man in 10 years to successfully complete a sprint double at the African Athletics Championships.

The 22 year old achieved the feat after storming home first in the men’s 200m final on the final of competition at the 23rd African Athletics Championships in Douala, Cameroon

The Liberian had won the 100m on the second day of the championships when he sped to a 10.13 finish.

He has now added the 200m title with a 20.25 (+0.1) finish to win ahead of Tapiwanashe Makarawu of Zimbabwe who clocked 20.51 with home boy, Emmanuel Eseme third in 20.66.

Fahnbulleh is the first African since Hua Wilfried Koffi of Cote d’Ivoire in 2014 and the fifth man after Joseph Gikonyo of Kenya (1990), Victor Omagbemi of Nigeria (1992) and the great Namibian and Olympics double sprint silver medalists, Frankie Fredericks to complete a sprint history in the history of the Championships.

Nigeria’s Alaba Akintola finished sixth (21.02) in the race to further extend Nigeria’s search for a 200m gold at the championship by another two years at the least.

The last Nigerian to win the half lap gold in the competition was Uchenna Emedolu who ran 20.61 to win at the 15th edition of the Championships held in Mauritius in 2006.