Sports Features of Sunday, 20 September 2015

Source: basil k. mbuye

2015 All Africa Games: Medal count for Cameroon

Cameroonian Auriole Dongmo (Centre) Cameroonian Auriole Dongmo (Centre)

The 285-man delegation that left the country for the 11th edition of the All Africa Games 2015 in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, won a total of 16 medals and is ranked at the eighth position.

With 174 Cameroonian athletes engaged in 12 sporting disciplines out of 22 in the competition: athletics, basketball, boxing, weightlifting, handball, feminine football, judo, karate, wrestling, powerlifting, Taekwondo and volleyball, won 4 medals in gold, two in silver and 10 in bronze.

Although they secured the same position (8) like in the 2011 edition in Maputo, the number of medals won this year was half the one won in the previous edition.

During the All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique 2011, Cameroon won 33 medals with eight in gold, five in silver and 20 in bronze. This record is far better than this year in Brazzaville.

In athletics, Cameroon won a total of five medals: three in gold and two in silver. Cameroon is ranked eighth in Elite Athletics and 12th in para-sport athletics. Here, Auriole Dongmo won gold in shot put after throwing for a distance of 17.13m. In the Triple jump, Joelle Mbumi Nkouindjin jumped a distance of 13.75m edging Nigeria’s Ibukun Ibrahim Blessing (13, 52 m) and Ghana’s Eke Nadia (13, 40 m) to claim the gold medal.

In para-sport, Rene Gobe Christian won gold after a distance of 9.75m in Shot Put 54/55. Cameroon’s lone silver and bronze in athletics will come from Joelle S Mbumi Nkuindjin in Long jump and Charles Christol Atangana Ntsama in para-sport 100m T11 respectively.

Also, in Boxing, Cameroon is ranked at position number 3 after claiming one gold, one silver and two bronze. The lone gold in this discipline is won by Seyi Ntsengue in Men's Middleweight -75kg. On his part, Salif Msangou Njikam got silver in Men's Welterweight -69kg. The two bronze medals were won by Yannick Azengue in Women's Middleweight -75kg and Ulrich Yombo in Men's Light Heavyweight -81kg.

In football, it was a bad outing for the Lionesses who failed to defend their title as they were beaten by the Black Queens of Ghana whom they defeated previously in Ghana. The Lionesses lost 0-1 to Ghana. They had to settle for a silver medal.

Also, in judo, team Cameroon is ranked at the 4th position with a gold medal and four bronze medals. Hélène Wezeu Dombeu in Women's 63 kg won the lone gold for Cameroon in judo. Cameroon also won other four medals all in bronze. These are Dieudonne Dolassem in Men's 90 kg, Seidou Nji Mouluh in Men's 100 kg, Nadine Wetie Diodjo in Women's 78 kg and Hortence Vane Mballa Atangana in Women's 78 kg.

Meanwhile, in karate, Cameroon occupied the 5th position with four medals: 1 gold and three bronze. In the Men's Kumite -84 KG, Innocent Yves Andegue Mbia bagged home gold while bronze medals were won by Sylvie Viviane Ambani in Women's Kata, Rosine Joelle Tchuako in Women's Kumite -61 KG and Etienne Martial Nonagni Bayomog in Men's Kumite +84 KG.

In volleyball, the volleyball Lionesses were unable to break the jinx this time again as they failed to grab gold for the third time at the competition. They lost to Kenya 1-3 and could only settle for silver medal.

It should be noted that Team Cameroon’s failure this year has been linked to poor preparations, huge delegation of officials who had nothing to contribute to the athletes' performances.

The competition ended with Egypt, South Africa and Algeria occupying the first three positions with 199, 117 and 125 medals respectively.