First gold for Cameroon at Commonwealth Games

Cameroon has won its first gold medal at the ongoing 20th edition of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow-Scotland. The gold medal which happens to be the first for Cameroon since the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester was won by Marie Fegue in the 69kg weightlifting category.

She lifted a total weight of 234kg; 102kg snatch and 132kg in the clean and jerk. She was followed by Itohan Ebireguesele who claimed silver after lifting a total of 222kg; 100snatch and 122 clean and jerk. Canada's Marie-Josee Ares-Pilon won bronze this time around with a total of 214kg.

"A hard year of work has paid off by winning the gold. That was my only goal," said Fegue after her victory. Fegue’s medal brings to three the number of medals won by Cameroon at the Glasgow Games after the silver and bronze medals won by Helene Wezeu Dombeu and Hortense Mballa Atangana in the judo 63kg and 78kg respectively.

However despite the increase in the booty, Cameroon dropped one place on the general medal classification table to the 15th position. The last gold medal won in the games was in gold and was won by Madeleine Yamechi in Manchester 2002.

Cameroon stands a chance of winning another medal in wrestling through the country’s flag bearer at the London 2012 Olympics, Ali Annabel Laure who is engaged in the preliminary round of the competition in the 75kg category. She will face England’s Sophie Edwards, Canada’s Erica Wiebe and India’s Jyoti to clinch a place in the next round of the competition.

Meanwhile, it has been the end of the road for Claude Kouamen Mbianga eliminated by England’s Chinu in the round of 16 in the men’s 125kg category. Romeo Djoumessi was also butted out at the round of 16 by England’s Mike Grundy. Rebecca Muambo succeeded to attain the quarter final in the women’s 48kg category.

Meanwhile, Australia is still leading on the general medal classification table, followed by England and Scotland. South Africa has made the most significant progress on the medal tally, moving from the 7th to the 4th position with a total of 24 medals.

Canada has dropped from the 4th to the 5th position while Nigeria remains stagnating at the 10th position. Kenya the third African country is in the 12th position while Cameroon remains the 4th country on the continent appearing on the 15th position generally.