African Games: Djabli Karim, riding "Boheira" Endurance winner

Reuters: Kenyans win five Paralympic golds at All Africa Games

Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:40 AM IST136

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Kenya raked in five gold medals in Paralympic athletics to put pressure on the medal leaders at the end of the fifth day of the All Africa Games on Sunday.

Two Kenyan gold medals from Samuel Muchai (1,500m) and Abraham Tarbei (5,000m) put the east African nation renowned for its distance running prowess in a good position with a total of six golds in all events combined.

Algeria, South Africa and Tunisia were runaway leaders at the end of the previous day with 16 gold, 11 silver and 16 bronze, 15-10-11 and 11-11-14 respectively.

Muchai led a Kenyan medal sweep in the race for the totally blind in 4:15.16 as Henry Wanyoike, who won the 5,000m the previous night, added silver in 4:22.01. Francis Thuo, second to Wanyoike the previous day, completed the haul in 4:22.51.

Tarbei added Kenya's second Sunday gold in the 5,000m for the partially blind in 15:25.45. He finished ahead of Ethiopia's Tesfalem Gebru (15:29.30) and Tunisia's Fauzai Mohamed (15:46.16).

Algeria's Abiza Amine won the 1,500m for the partially blind in 3:59.96 ahead of Kenya's Henry Kirwa who timed 4:00.50.

In Blida, Algeria's horse-riding team snatched two gold medals on Sunday, one in the individual event and the other in the team event, as well as a silver medal in the endurance event. Algeria's Djabli Karim, riding "Boheira", won gold in the individual event.

Nigeria beat Egypt 3-0 to win the women's team's table tennis gold at Rouiba. In a women's group B soccer match, Ghana beat Senegal 3-0 at the Stade Omar Hamadi Bologhine to join Nigeria in the semi-finals.