From ELIAS CHIPEPO In Brazzaville –
AFRICAN women 400m champion, Kabange Mupopo says winning gold at the Congo Brazzaville 2015 All-Africa Games (AAG) has set the tone for the Rio Olympic Games next year.

. Mupopo

The multi-talented Mupopo became the first Zambian athlete since the 2007 Games to struck gold after winning the 400m final on Tuesday night.
Zambia last won gold at the 2007 AAG edition in Algeria through boxer Hastings Bwalya.
The Shepolopolo captain said it was a big achievement for her to win gold, a sign that her hard work had paid off but was quick to add that her aim was to drop into the 49 seconds mark.
“Winning the first gold for Zambia means a lot to me and it is because of my hard work that I achieved what I did. I will continue working hard to reach where I want to be in my career but I am very happy to have won gold.
“The race was not difficult as I just needed to keep my concentration and hard work towards the end. My aim is to run below 50 seconds and that is what I will start working on but I am happy with my performance,” she said.
With the Rio 2016 Olympic Games coming up, Mupopo believes that her triumph at the AAG has sent a strong statement to other athletes but that she will need to work hard to win a medal in Brazil.
“Winning gold takes me higher in my career, it gives me a lot of challenges that I will need to overcome not only in Africa but in Europe also. I will need to compete with the very best to become the best,” Mupopo said.
Mupopo, who won all her qualifying heats up to the final, managed to set a new national record after timing 50.22 seconds ahead of Okon George of Nigeria and Botswana’s Tjipekarpora Herunga.
But Saviour Kombe spoiled the party in the men’s 400m after finishing eighth in the finals, clocking 46.65 seconds.
Isaac Makwala of Botswana went away with the gold after timing 44.35 seconds followed by Kenyan Boniface Mweresa and Onkabetse Nkobolo of Botswana in second and third place on 45.01 and 45.50 seconds, respectively.
Coach Douglas Kalembo said it was expected that Mupopo would win gold going by the way she performed at the tournament and expressed confidence that the Shepolopolo captain would reduce her time further ahead of the Olympic Games.
“Mupopo trained very hard for this and I had no doubt she would win us gold. But we have to continue working hard so that she can reduce her time below 50 seconds,” he said.
Director of sport, Bessy Chelemu commended Mupopo for winning gold.
Chelemu said Mupopo’s performance had clearly showed that good investment paid off well and praised the runners for putting up a good performance on the tracks.
“I am happy that this is the first gold we are winning in athletics and you all saw how Mupopo performed in all her races. Her performance has shown that everything is possible so long as investment is put in a certain sport to do well,” she said.
On the overall performance of the Zambian teams, Chelemu said it was disappointing, especially judo which was one of the sports on the Podium Performance Programme (PPP).
She said the competition had shown that the levels of play were high and that there was need for Zambia to step up in all the sporting disciplines.
“Generally I am happy with the performance of the Zambian athletes. The performance here should set benchmarks for the associations to beat at the upcoming events so that we can perform even better,” she said.