• South Africa retain title
One of the Tunisian athletes involved in a road accident on Saturday night, Saai Imen, rose from her sick bed, yesterday, to win a gold medal at the ongoing third CAA African U-18/U-20 Championships in Abeokuta.
Saai Imen was among the five Tunisian athletes (one male and four female) that were involved in the road accident on Saturday evening while returning to the Games village at the Redeemed Camp along the Lagos- Sagamu expressway.
The athletes were initially stabilised at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Abeokuta, before being moved for further and more advanced treatment at a specialised medical facility in Lekki, Lagos.
While on the hospital bed, Saai Imen kept telling those around her that she needed to return to the MKO Abiola Sports Arena in Abeokuta for the 10km Walk, held in the early hours of yesterday.
At the end of the 10km Walk event, Saai Imen emerged winner in a time of 48.54.54 seconds, followed by Zenkhri Aya of Algeria (51.34.94 seconds) and Mona Ali Hussein of Ethiopia in 51.54.58 seconds.
The news of Saai Imen’s victory less than 10 hours after the road accident has been described as “miraculous”.
The chairman of the Local Organising committee of the championships and Director General of the National Sports commission, Bukola Olopade told journalists just before the closing ceremony of the event yesterday that he was surprised by Imen’s success from hospital bed to the podium.
“You need to see her situation last night,” Olopade said. “But despite her situation, she kept telling us that she is the African champion, and she needed to go and defend her title. I was shocked when I was told that the Tunisian actually won the gold medal. I thank God for saving the lives of the five athletes and I commend the role played by Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, and others.
“The governor was commuting nearby at the time of the accident; he arrived at the scene shortly after and provided first-response assistance, coordinating emergency services and ensuring swift evacuation to FMC Abeokuta. He later joined us in personally overseeing the athletes’ care,” Olopade stated
Meanwhile, South Africa has lived up to its pre-championships boast by topping the medals table and retaining its title as Africa’s best in youth athletics.
The South Africans won both the first and second editions of the championships held in Cote d’Ivoire (2019) and Ndola, Zambia in 2023.
Even before the closing ceremony in Abeokuta, yesterday evening, the South Africans were sitting comfortable on the medals table, followed by Nigeria and Kenya.
The Rainbow nation added more gold medals in the hurdles events (both male and female) yesterday and also won the 200m gold in the U-18 final.
Team Nigeria swept all three medals at stake in the girls U-18 200m final, and also made it one, two, three in the women’s U-20 event. Nigeria lost the gold to South Africa in the U-18 boys’ 200m and to Botswana in the boys U-20 200m event.
