By Mark Etheridge

Simon Magakwe won South Africa’s fourth medal of the 17th African Athletics Championships in Nairobi, Kenya on Thursday.

Magakwe ran a personal best 10.14 seconds to win bronze in the men’s 100-metre final. That boosted South Africa’s medal tally to four following a clean sweep of all three medals in the men’s shot-put final on Wednesday.

The short sprint gold went to Ivory Coast’s Ben Youssef Meite, who clocked 10.08 for a personal best. Runner-up was Ghana’s Zakari Azizin 10.12.

Magakwe, 25, won the sprint title at the South African championships in Stellenbosch in 2009, his winning time of 10.21 that day still his personal best until this latest win. He made the headlines in Stellenbosch for arriving at the championships with borrowed track shoes in a  plastic shopping bag.

There was drama in the men’s 800m semi-finals when our world champion, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, failed to line up for the first of two races. On Wednesday Mulaudzi had squeezed into the semis after finishing as one of the slowest qualifers and complaining of a thigh and heel injury. Honours in the first heat went to Jackson Kivuva in 1:49.48.

In the second semi-final our Windy Jonas progressed to the final with a fourth placed finish of 1:48.56. The semi-final went to Kenya favourite David Rudisha in 1:46.58.