Namibian sprinter Christine Mboma broke Allyson Felix’s under-20 world and Olympic record in the heats of the women’s 200m on day ten of the Tokyo Olympics.
Her compatriot Beatrice Masilingi set a new personal best to progress to Monday evening’s semi-finals, both athletes were forced to withdraw from their preferred 400m heats when they were ruled in July to have high levels of testosterone.
Late on Sunday there was good news for Botswana’s 2012 silver medallist Nijel Amos when he was reinstated into Wednesday’s final of the men’s 800m after he fell in his semi-final.
Athletics morning session
Namibian teenager Christine Mboma broke the under-20 world and Olympic record in her heat of the women’s 200m to progress to Monday evenings semi-finals with the fastest time.
The 18-year-old’s time of 22.11 seconds eclipses the time set by the USA’s six-time Olympic champion Allyson Felix, as she won silver at the Athens Games in 2004.
Her compatriot Beatrice Masilingi also set a personal best to progress to the semi-finals, along with Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou, Niger’s Aminatou Seyni, The Gambia’s Gina Bass and Nigeria’s Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha.
Both Mboma and Masilingi were informed in July by World Athletics that their testosterone levels were beyond the allowed limit for female athletes wanting to run their preferred distance of 400m unless they medically lower their testosterone for a period of at least six months
Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan became the third African to finish just outside the medals in a sprint event in Tokyo as she finished fourth in the women’s 100m hurdles final. The race was won by Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn.
Ivory Coast’s Ta Lou and South Africa’s Akani Simbine both finished just outside the medals in the women’s and men’s 100m finals respectively.
In the women’s 1500m reigning Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon started her title defence by sailing through to Wednesday’s semi-finals with a comfortable win in her heat.
“It was hot today and at least I made it to semi-finals. We used a lot of ice because it was hot and we had to stay in normal temperatures, going to the track it was better it was not like we were warming up,” she said after her race.
Uganda’s Winnie Nanyondo finished second behind Kipyegon to progress along with two more Kenyans – Winny Chebet and Edinah Jebito – as well as Ethiopia’s Lemlem Hailu and Freweyni Gebreezibeher.
Jebito was awarded a place in the semi-finals despite finishing 12th in her heat after she fell alongside Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan, who managed to recover and win the heat.
In the men’s hammer Egypt’s Mostafa Elgamel failed to progress to the final after a managed a throw of 72.76m.
Basketball
Nigeria women’s campaign came to and end with a third straight defeat this time losing 102-13 to hosts Japan.
The Nigerians, who also lost to the USA and France, finish bottom of Group B
Source: BBC
