Africa: How Continent's Olympians are Faring

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allAfrica.com

12 August 2008
Posted to the web 12 August 2008

Aliou Goloko

AllAfrica's Aliou Goloko rounds up the African action at the Olympics in Beijing.

Swimming: Silver medals for Zimbabwe

Four days after the opening of the Beijing games, only two African countries – Zimbabwe and Algeria – were on the list of medal winners, and none of them appears in the top 20.

Zimbabwe was the first African country to win a medal – a silver won by swimmer Kirsty Coventry, who finished second in the 400m individual medley with a time of 4:29.89s, behind the Australian, Stephanie Rice (4:29.45s) and ahead of American Katie Hoff, a former world record holder.

Coventry went on to win another silver medal on Tuesday, in the 100m backstroke.

Judo: Algerian Soraya Haddad wins bronze

Soraya Haddad of Algeria became Africa's second medal-winner in the under-52 kg class of women's judo. It was bittersweet victory, given that she had to defeat a fellow African, Binta Diedhiou of Senegal, before losing to Xian Dongmei of China, who went on to win gold.

Women's soccer:  Nigeria eliminated

The Nigerian women's team is out of the Olympics after a second loss, this time against Germany (0-1). They had earlier lost to a courageous South Korean team. It was a disappointing end for a team that reigned unrivalled on the continent but faced an uphill battle on the global scene.

Women's Handball: Second defeat for Angola

After a 21-32 loss to France, Angola's women lost again, this time against Norway, 17-31. Despite the losses, Angola still has a chance – its next adversaries include China, Romania and Kazakhstan.

Men's handball: Draw for Egypt

The Egyptian men's handball team began its Olympics campaign with a draw against Denmark (23-23), after trailing by one goal (11-10) at half-time. The team now stands in fourth place in its group, which also includes Germany, Iceland, Denmark, Russia and South Korea.

Men's basketball: Angola outclassed by Germany

Angola's men, who are in a very challenging group B, will have to play for honour, because their chances of advancing to the next stage appear very slim. Their adversaries include the world champions Spain, the American Dream Team, Greece and hosts China, led by their star player, Yao Ming.

Largely dominated by the Germans during all four quarters of their game (25-21, 29-13, 24-18, 17-14), the Angolans couldn't prevail, despite 24 points by Mingas and 14 by Morais. They lost 66-95.

The setback highlights the weaknesses of African basketball. Teams seem unable to close the gap between them and the major nations, unlike in other team sports such as football.

Women's  basketball: Mali loses against New Zealand

The reigning champions of Africa, Mali, met their match in New Zealand, despite an on-form performance.

New Zealand secured victory by scoring 24 points against 15 for Mali in the second quarter. The West Africans never caught up and the final score was 72-76.

Mali still has a chance to advance to the next stage, even though their next competitors include the U.S., China, Spain and the Czech Republic.

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