Nairobi - Kenya hauled in the highest number of medals among her African peers at the just concluded Olympic Games in Rio, finishing with a total of 13 medals.
Kenya finished ahead of South Africa which ranked 30th overall with a 10-medal haul and Ethiopia with eight medals which placed 44th.
Kenya was ranked 15th overall as its athletes brought home six gold, six silver and one bronze. Only nine African countries bagged medals at the Rio Games, for a total of 43 medals for the entire continent, a paltry sum compared to USA's 46 gold medals out of a total of 121.
Kenya's last gold medal was clinched on the closing day of the games on Sunday by Kenyan marathoner Eliud Kipchoge who romped to the finish line, winning in 2:08:44.
Kenya's 15th-placed finish on the Rio medal table was 13 places up from its performance at the 2012 London Olympics when it finished 28th with 12 medals, but of which only two were gold.. In the 2016 Olympics “Placing Table”, Kenya ranked second overall with 131 points, with the US topping the standings with 310 points.
The Placing Table is different from the Medal Table as the former also captures other positions after bronze, that is, positions four to eight.
Kenya's Rio performance was commendable considering the scandals the team had endured in the build-up and even the Games itself, with two of its sports officials being expelled from the Olympic Village for alleged involvement in doping scandals.
Kenya also lost a medal after 3 000m steeplechase maestro Ezekiel Kemboi was disqualified last Wednesday following a protest by a French athlete who had claimed that Kemboi had stepped off the track.
The International Federation of Athletics Associations (IAAF) investigated and confirmed the allegation as true and stripped Kemboi of the bronze medal.
“It was Kenya's most successful Olympics in medal count, but worst in management,” said Elias Makori, the Kenyan veteran sports journalist and IAAF Press and Media Operations Advisory Group member.
Makori singled out Jos Hermens as a superb coach/manager, as he swept to Olympic glory through marathoner Kipchoge and also won Kenya track gold through Faith Kipyegon in the women's 1 500m.
Makori said that Hermens' athletes had won a total six golds in Rio through Eliud, Kipyegon, and fellow Olympic winners Liu Hong (walk), Almaz Ayana, Katerine Ibarguen (triple jump) and Zheng Wang (walk).
Kenyans on twitter were active throughout the Games, expressing general satisfaction with Team Kenya's performance in Rio. Some even speculated that the visit to the Kenya camp in Rio by no less than the Deputy President William Ruto may have contributed to the high morale and outstanding performances displayed by Team Kenya.
Kemboi also took to Twitter and Facebook to announce that he had withdrawn his retirement plans, claiming that he could not finish his athletics career on a “protest”.
Said Kemboi: “I had opted to retire right after the Olympics only if I had come home with this medal....now I feel that I have to bring back this medal not by protesting again but right on track. Kemboi is not retired. I will be coming to London 2017 to re-claim my medal from France. No limits.”
Google reported that during the entire Olympics in Rio, searches for world records reached an all-time high on their Google Trends.
African News Agency