| Sport | Marathon running |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1994 |
| Continent | Africa (CAA) |
The African Marathon Championships was a biennial marathon running competition between athletes from Africa. A short-lived event, it was first staged in 1994 and held for a second and final time in 1996. The inaugural event was held on 4 December in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and the ultimate event on 1 December in Soweto, South Africa. [1] The 1996 race was incorporated into the Soweto Marathon. [2]
The marathon is a long-distance race with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres, usually run as a road race. The event was instituted in commemoration of the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, who reported the victory. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair divisions.
Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent, being behind Asia in both categories. At about 30.3 million km2 including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states (countries), nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere.
Abidjan is the economic capital of Ivory Coast and one of the most populous French-speaking cities in Africa. According to the 2014 census, Abidjan's population was 4.7 million, which is 20 percent of the overall population of the country, and this also makes it the sixth most populous city proper in Africa, after Lagos, Cairo, Kinshasa, Dar es Salaam, and Johannesburg. A cultural crossroads of West Africa, Abidjan is characterised by a high level of industrialisation and urbanisation.
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The championships was created as a result of changes to the African Championships in Athletics programme in 1990, which removed the men's marathon from the regular list of events. [1] Prior to that, the men's marathon had featured since the debut of the main championships in 1979, bar an interruption in 1984. The discrete African Marathon Championships marked the introduction of a men's team marathon format and a women's individual marathon – neither of which had been contested by athletes from the continent, nor since the championships dissolution. [3] The team format was scored by combining the finishing positions of a country's top three athletes, with the lowest score winning the event. Teams of fewer than three finishers were ineligible for medals.
The African Championships in Athletics is a continental athletics event organized by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), the continental association for the sport in Africa. Since its inaugural edition in 1979 it was at first organised intermittently with nine editions held in fourteen years until 1993. Following the tenth edition in 1996 it has been organised biennially on even years, and is always held in the same year as the Summer Olympics. The 21st edition was held in Asaba, Nigeria in August 2018.
South Africa proved to be the most successful nation during the competition's lifetime, winning both of the men's individual titles, the first men's team title, and the last women's individual title. Ethiopia was the next most successful, having won the remaining men's team title and the first women's title – it had a medal sweep in the first women's race. Nine African nations reached the podium across the tournament's two editions. [1]
Andries Pilusa and Adam Motlagale were the men's race winners and Motlagale's 1996 time of 2:21:09 hours proved to be the best of the championships. Ethiopia's Elfenesh Alemu won the 1994 women's title in 3:08:05 hours – a time which was beaten by Sarah Mokgotla, whose win in 2:56:53 hours made her the only woman to dip under the three-hour mark at the event. [1] The championships pre-dated Kenyan dominance of the road distance and 1996 bronze men's medallist Geoffrey Kinyua remains the only Kenyan to have won an African-level medal in the marathon (covering this event, the main athletics championships and the All-Africa Games). [1] [3] [4]
Elfenesh Alemu is an Ethiopian long-distance runner, who specializes in the marathon race. She represented Ethiopia at the Summer Olympics in 2000 and 2004. She also competed in the marathon at the World Championships in Athletics four times consecutively from 1997 to 2003.
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in Africa with 47 semiautonomous counties governed by elected governors. At 580,367 square kilometres (224,081 sq mi), Kenya is the world's 48th largest country by total area. With a population of more than 52.2 million people, Kenya is the 27th most populous country. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi while its oldest city and first capital is the coastal city of Mombasa. Kisumu City is the third largest city and also an inland port on Lake Victoria. Other important urban centres include Nakuru and Eldoret.
The event was the fourth discrete continental marathon championship to be established after the European Marathon Cup (1981), [5] Asian Marathon Championship (1988), [6] and the South American Marathon Championships (April 1994). [7]
The European Marathon Cup is a quadrennial team marathon competition between European countries. Initially a stand-alone championship race inaugurated in 1981, the race has been held in conjunction with the European Athletics Championships since 1994. Individual medallists are now included in the European Championships medal table, while team medals are awarded separately from the main championships.
The South American Marathon Championships is an annual Road running competition organized by CONSUDATLE for athletes representing the countries of its member associations. The event was established in 1994 as South American Marathon Cup following its removal from the main South American Championship programme after 1991. Discontinued after 2002, the event was reestablished under the current name in 2009.
