Team Nigeria continues to make great strides in the athletics event at the ongoing 13th edition of the African Games, as Kemi Francis-Petersen claimed the silver medal after the last event of the women’s heptathlon that lasted for two days.
The 31-year-old gathered an overall score of 5268 points, which was only bettered by Ahouanwanou Odile of Benin Republic, who totalled 5616 points in the seven-event competition.
SILVER for Kemi Francis-Petersen!!!????????
Over the course of two days, she fought hard in the women’s heptathlon, scoring a total of 5268 points to win the Silver medal at the African Games in Ghana!
She finished behind Ahouanwanou Odile ???????? who totalled 5616pts.#AfricanGames… pic.twitter.com/xZRs8WWKed
— Making of Champions (@MakingOfChamps) March 21, 2024
In the 100-metre hurdles, which opened the heptathlon at this year’s African Games in Accra, Ghana, Francis-Petersen finished second with a time of 14.49s (+1.5), behind Odile, who clocked a time of 14.18s.
In the next event, which was the high jump, the Nigerian finished fourth, having cleared 1.64m. She managed a distance of 9.53m in the shot put event before finishing in first place in the 200m race with a time of 24.74 s (-1.6) to finish Day One. The sprint event was the only one in which Francis-Petersen finished above Benin’s Odile on the first day.
Normalcy returned on Day two as the Beninois returned to the top and finished ahead of her in both the long jump and javelin throw events, where Francis-Petersen finished third and second, respectively.
However, in the 800m race, the final event of the heptathlon, the Nigerian finished third in a time of 2:23:89 and got the better of Odile, who, although fourth, had done enough to clinch the gold medal.
Tenkeu Adele Mafogang of Cameroon won the 800m race in 2:17:76 but could only settle for a third-place finish on the podium, winning the bronze medal with a total point of 5181.
