Ivory Coast became the 12th African country to appear on the Paris Olympic Games medals table when their celebrated taekwondo player Cheikh Sallah Cisse (pictured) won a bronze in men’s +80kg division.
Cisse, the first ever Ivorian to win an Olympic gold in 2016 in Rio, lost in the semi-finals to Britain’s Caden Cunningham but gritted his teeth in the bronze medal match to beat Mexico’s Carlos Sansores.
It was the fifth Olympics medal for Ivory Coast since making their Olympic debut in 1964 in Tokyo. Sprinter Gabriel Tiacoh won the first ever Olympic medal for the West African country – a silver – in the 1984 Los Angeles Games in the 400m. Ruth Gbagbi added two bronze medals at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics in taekwondo.
With Cisses’ bronze, Ivory Coast are now in eighth position jointly with Zambia and Cape Verde among the 12 African countries on the medals table.
Botswana’s 200m gold medallist Letsile Tebogo ran a blistering anchor leg to enable his country win silver in the 4x400m relay and set a new African record (2:54.53) on the penultimate day of the Paris Olympics.
The valuable relay silver hauled them to joint sixth position with Uganda and 55th overall each with a gold and silver.
Saturday belonged to the dominant Kenyan athletes who put up a splendid and a memorable show to win four medals – two gold, a silver and bronze – in just one day. Fabulous Faith Kipyegon made history becoming the first athlete to win three 1500m gold medals in the Olympics, Emmanuel Wanyonyi scooped gold in the 800m, silver by Ronald Kwemoi in 5000m and Benson Kipruto’s marathon bronze.
The Kenyans, 17th overall, have widened their lead atop the other African countries with four gold, two silver and four bronze medals. Algeria (37) is a distant second with two gold and bronze while third-placed South Africa (42) have one gold, three silver and two bronze.
Ethiopia (49) are fourth on one gold and two silver, Egypt and Tunisia at 51st overall are joint fifth each having a gold, silver and bronze.
Uganda (55) are joint sixth with Botswana each with a gold and silver followed by seventh-placed Morocco (60) on a gold and bronze.
Zambia, Ivory Coast and Cape Verde, at 81st overall position, are eighth jointly each one of them with a bronze to show when they return home.
Credit: Nenez Media Service
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