Emily Ngii secured Kenya's first gold medal by defending her 20km walk race title at the ongoing African Games in Accra, Ghana.
Ethiopia’s Teshager Masire placed second with Azzi Soud of Algeria settling for bronze. Silvia Kemboi missed out on a podium finish, placing fourth.
The official times of the athletes at the finish line was not recorded prompting the organisers to use the times recorded at the 19km mark.
“This situation is not the responsibility of the athletes but of the lap counters. With the transponder timing system that was used, rankings after each km are available. To arrive at a fair decision, the technical team decided to consider the ranking at 19 Km for all the competitors,” the statement read in part.
Ngii clocked 1:37:34 at the 19km mark with Masire and Soud clocking 1:38:07 and 1:45:42 respectively.
This was Ngii's second title after winning the 2019 edition in Rabat, Morocco in 1:34:41.
Ngii is also a silver (1:38:12) from the 2014 African Championships in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Meanwhile, Samuel Gathimba fell short in his title defence, settling for silver in 1:28:06 behind Ethiopia’s Misgana Fekansa, who timed 1:28:05.
Algeria’s Ismail Benhammouda claimed third place in 1:31:12, while Dominic Ndigiti secured fourth place in 1:34:51.
