第18届非洲田径锦标赛在贝宁首都波多诺伏落幕。尼日利亚队以10金、6银、5铜的成绩位居金牌榜首位。其中有7项世界纪录终于被打破。

Nigeria won 10 gold medals to emerge overall winners at the 18th Africa Athletics championships in Porto-Novo, Benin. It was an event that saw 7 new African records set on the track but left a lot to be desired off it. With complaints ranging from poor accommodation to transport issues, the organizers seemed ill-prepared for the event.
The road to Benin 2012 began two years ago at the closing ceremony in Nairobi, the host of the 17th edition of the championship. Over 800 athletes from 50 countries participated in 44 medal events at the sea-side city of Porto-Novo between June 27th and July 1st.
Oscar Pistorius, 400m African Silver Medalist, said, "The event was rusty in the beginning but it picked momentum and turned out great."
Theophilus Montcho, President of Athletics Federation of Benin, said, "We tried with all the logistic problems we had but now the athletes heading to London have had good championship practice."
Some teams were however more brutal in their assessment as the logistics problems seemed to give team managers a headache.
Kebaitse Legojane, Botswana Team Manager, said, "The event was badly organized we had to change hotels."
Theophilus Montcho also said, "We didn't have an athletes village and the hotels we put athletes in didn't deliver as promised but such problems happen and we can only say forgive the organizer."
With the competition held close to the Olympics there was concern that the event wouldn't be up to par in terms of quality of athletes with many left out to focus on London. However after five days it was concluded the event was a success on track. Seven African records were broken with Nigeria’s 10 gold medal haul meaning they emerged top in the medal standings and the host nation now have a lasting legacy.
Theophilus Montcho said, "Athletics in Benin now has a start people know what pole vault and other field events are and also we have the infrastructure to host a top notch event."
Many African athletes were also chasing qualifying times for the Olympic Games but for the host nation their focus wasn't on London 2012 rather this was but the first steps to ensure they take a huge athletics team to Rio 2016. For those competing in London however focus now turns to sports largest multi sport event each one hoping to build on the performance from the African championships.