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In the years leading to the 2007 All Africa Games, Nigerian athletes had established themselves as the team to best in Africa, having ended every continental event the country has participated in, in the top-four cluster. The 9th All Africa Games staged in Algiers, Algeria, would be no different; Nigeria finished the competition with a medal tally of 159 (50 gold, 55 silver and 54 bronze) medals, only behind South Africa, Egypt and host team, Algeria.

Track And Field

The athletics competition at the 2007 All Africa Games was held on the Stade 5 Juillet 1962 in Algiers, where Nigeria emerged the most successful nation of the competition with nine golds and 24 medals in total. South Africa was a close second with seven golds and also a total of 24 medals overall.

100m Event

Nigerian athletes in both the male and female category performed exceptionally well in the 100m event. The athletes who also shared the podium at the 2006 African Championships.

In the men’s class, Olusoji Fasuba won gold for Nigeria with a time of 10.18s, while Uchenna Emedolu settled for the bronze medal with 10.37s. Three Nigerians qualified from the heats in first three:

Uchenna (10.37s, wind: -0.4m/s)
Isaac Uche (10.40s, wind: -1.1m/s)
Fasuba (10.45s),

At the end of the semifinals, Fasuba, Uche and Uchenna were ranked number 1st, 2nd and 6th respectively, with Uche hitting a Personal Best (PB) of 10.32s. At this point, chances were that Nigeria could emerge all-round winners at the final event, however that was not the case as Ghana’s Eric Nkansah beat Uchenna to the silver medal by 0.02s. Uche, on the other hand, finished the race in 7th position in 10.53s. In the women’s class, Damola Osayemi won the gold medal for Nigeria with 11.20s on the clock. She also won gold in the women’s 200m event.