Wanjiru rounds up Africa’s scramble for supremacy

The scramble for Africa’s supremacy at the Beijing Olympics was decided Sunday when Ethiopia’s Deriba Merga slowly wilted in the morning heat...

The scramble for Africa’s supremacy at the Beijing Olympics was decided Sunday when Ethiopia’s Deriba Merga slowly wilted in the morning heat and Kenyan runner Samuel Wanjiru surged through to win the marathon.

Going into the final day of the Olympics, the neighbouring rivals had been deadlocked at four gold medals apiece, although Ethiopia had the two biggest stars on the track with both Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba getting 5,000-10,000 long-distance doubles.

Then came Wanjiru to win Kenya’s first gold in the marathon, one where Ethiopian great Haile Gebrselassie was supposed to excel had he not decided against competing in the event he dominates because of concerns about Beijing’s pollution.

Making history

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Instead, it was a Kenyan who thrived under clear blue skies, winning his nation’s first gold over the distance in an Olympic record of 2 hours, 6 minutes, 32 seconds.

“It feels good to make history here,” Wanjiru said. “It feels good to make history for Kenya.”

Overall, Kenyans won 14 medals, double the total from the 2004 Athens Games. Ethiopia ended up with seven overall.

The team’s best-ever Olympic showing came despite civil unrest and riots which killed hundreds and disrupted Kenya’s preparations over the past year. And with many athletes leaving Kenya to take up citizenship in oil-rich Arab nations or the United States, the abundance is even more surprising.

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Teenager Pamela Jelimo set the tone with an overpowering victory in the 800 metres early in the Olympics, the first gold for a Kenyan woman, and one which Wilfred Bungei matched in the men’s event on Saturday. “Kenya was kind of saying, ‘Hey guys, it’s your turn now,”’ Bungei said. “At the end of the day, we are happy for what we got.”

It left Kenya in third place in the overall standings for track and field behind the United States and Russia. And now ahead of Ethiopia, which was No. 1 among the African nations in Athens and four years earlier in Sydney.