African Athletics: 3 medals for Cameroon already

Joëlle Mbumi and Sarah Ngo Ngoa enabled Cameroon to get its first championship medals at the 20th African Championships in Durban.

Cameroon won’t go back home empty handed from the 20th African Athletics Championships vying in Durban (22-26 June 2016).

The country of Françoise Mbango now appears on the ranking of medals in a little more than 24 hours to the closing of the competition.

The day of Friday, June 24 was indeed beneficial for Team Cameroon, which won three medals.

Eagerly awaited in the long jump, Jöelle Sandrine Mbumi, already a bronze medalist in 2015 in Morocco in the same event, grabbed the silver this time with a jump of 6.39m.

Satisfaction still measured since Mbumi failed to achieve the minimums for the Olympic Games (6.78m). Marilyn Sarah Ngo Ngoa too, did not achieve the minimums for Rio de Janeiro. But the jumper gripped the bronze in the same event with a 6.34m leap.

A good performance for one that has gone through difficult months.

The last medal of Cameroon for the day was won by a man Fernand Djoumessi in the high jump with a performance of 2.15m. If he can be pleased to have brought his country a metal, Djoumessi was somehow disappointed.

First, because he has not achieved the performance to go to the Olympics (2.30m), and second because, last year, it’s a silver medal had obtained.

The other Cameroonian involved in the final of the long jump finished only fifth. Raoul Matogno made a jump of 2.05m. A disappointment for him, as for Auriol Dogmo, who finished in 7th place of the ladies disc with a throw of 47m.

Cameroon can still hang two continental titles before the close of the competition on Sunday. It will continue on Saturday 25 June, the finals of the triple jump and the women’s weight.

In the first test, Sandrine Mbumi already qualified for Rio, will look to retain her title acquired in 2015. It is also the ambition of Auriol Dogmo will try to get the minimal (18.80m).