Aprot's gold adds to Kenya's medal tally

Alice Aprot gave Kenya her fifth gold medal at the All Africa Games here on Wednesday evening, in a dramatic night for Kenya in which Job Kinyor also won a bronze medal.

Aprot won the 10,000m race so decisively, clocking 31:24.18, that she overlapped a third Kenyan in the race, Agnes Chebet, who finished fifth in 32:55.41. Gladys Kiptagelai out sprinted Ethiopia's Gelete Burka with about 30 meters to finish to bring home Kenya's eight silver medal in 31:36.87.

Another Ethiopian Wuda Ayalew, who was among the early pace setters, in the first half of the race, was fourth in 31:39.81, while Rwanda's Clementine Mukandanga, who did the first pacing in the first five laps, was sixth in 33:15.54. If the sprint between Kiptagelai sent the packed Concorde Complex terraces into a frenzy, it was Aprot's manner of triumph that caught the imagination of the crowd. After being among the front runners in the first half,she started exchanging the lead with Burka and Netsonet Gudeta, the third Ethiopian who did not finish the race. With four laps to finish, she took the lead, which she widened with the laps to go. The gap between Aprot and the following group reached 50 meters with one and half laps to go and reached almost 100 meters by the time she was done with her business.

"I am happy to have won. It was not tough race though, I still feel fresh," she said as she disappeared into the abdomen of the Concorde Complex for dope testing.

The athletics coaches burst into wild celebration while others shed tears of joy.

Kinyor, the scion of former 400m hurdler Barnaba Kinyor and marathon legend, was third in 800m in 1:50.79 after Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi beat him to the tape to claim silver in 1:50.72. Timothy Kitum was fourth in 1:50.93 and Jackson Kivuva, who was the favourite, fifth in 1:50.98. Commonwealth Games champion, Nijel Amos from Botswana won the race in 1:50.45.

A former world half marathon champion, Zersenay Tadesse from Eritrea, won the half marathon on Thursday morning, beating Kenya's Kanda Luka to silver medal position. The Eritrean timed 1:03:11 and Luka 1:03:27, followed by two Eritreans - Hizkel Tewelde and Samson Gebreyohans. Three Ethiopians followed then Kenya's James Rungau, who was eighth in 1:05.49. Ethiopians swept the women's half marathon medals, with Janet Rono and Jane Moraa finishing sixth and seventh in 1:17.02 ans 1:18.09 respectively.