BY DANIEL ETCHELLS.

Titus Ekiru made history as the first Kenyan to win the half marathon at the African Games, as the country claimed six athletics gold medals in Rabat.

Ekiru clocked a time of 1hour 1min 42sec to clinch the gold medal at the Olympic Stadium in Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex.

He saw off a strong challenge from two Moroccan athletes, with Reda Elaaraby finishing second in 1:02:44 and Hamza Sahli third in 1:02:45.

It was the first of six victories for Kenya in athletics, moving them up to second in the sport’s final medal standings with 10 golds, seven silvers and three bronzes.

Four of their other five triumphs came on the track, thanks to Vanice Kerubo Nyagisera in the women’s 400 metres hurdles in 56.95, Robert Kiprop in the men’s 5,000m in 13:30.96, Quailyne Jebiwott Kiprop in the women’s 1,500m in 4:19.33 and George Meitamei Manangoi in the men’s 1,500m in 3:38.27.

There was also success for Kenya in the men’s javelin, courtesy of Julius Yego’s throw of 87.73m.

Egypt secured seven gold medals across archery and fencing to top both sports’ medal standings.

Their archery titles came via Sherif Mohamed in the men’s individual recurve, along with their men’s, women’s and mixed team recurve sides.

The one other archery crown went the way of Ivory Coast’s Esmei Anne Marcelle Diombo in the women’s individual recurve event.

There were also three more team wins for Egypt in fencing.

They beat Morocco in the men’s épée and women’s sabre finals, and Tunisia in the men’s foil gold-medal match.

Egypt wrapped up their domination of weightlifting by adding a further four overall titles to their collection.

There were victories for Halima Abbas in the women’s over-87kg category, Ragab Abdalla in the men’s 102kg, Gaber Mohamed in the men’s 109kg and Abdelrahman El Sayed in the men’s over-109kg.

The only overall weightlifting crown not going to Egypt was in the women’s 87kg division, won by Cameroon’s Clementine Meukeugni Noumbissi.

South Africa capped off an impressive performance in canoeing by adding another three gold medals to their tally.

Chrisjan Coetzee won the men’s K1 200m event in 34.091 before joining forces with Jarryd Gibson to take the men’s K2 200m crown in 31.926.

Esti Van Tonder also claimed victory for South Africa, with a time of 42.180 in the women’s K1 200m, as the country ended with eight gold medals at the summit of the canoeing standings.

In shooting, Morocco’s Mustapha Neblaoui and Ibtissam Marirhi took the men’s and women’s skeet gold medals, respectively.

-insidethegames