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December 2006

• South Africa's government has disclosed its "Project excellence" which will deliver monthly stipends to the country's top sportsmen until the start of the 2008 Olympics. In athletics, the recipients will be
  • category A : Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, LJ van Zyl, Alwyn Myburgh, Hendrik Ramaala, Khotso Mokoena and Justine Robbeson (10,000 Rand per month / around 1400 $)
  • category B : Hardus Pienaar, Janice Josephs, and Geraldine Pillay (7000 rand per month/ around 1000$)
  • category C : Ter de Villiers, Janus Robberts, Hannes Hopley, Ramsay Carelse, Ofentse Mogawane, Paul Gorries and Elizna Naudé (4000 rand per month / around 560$)
  • category D : Ruben Ramolefi and Anika Smit (2000 Rand per month / around 280$)
  
  
  
• Former South African runner Laban Nkete: (7th of 2000 Boston marathon with a time of 2:12:30) was murdered by people who fled in his car. He was 36.

November 2006

• New doping cas in South Africa's road running. Following his victory at Nedbank race in George on October 14th, Zolani Ntongana failed a test for metandienone, a steroid used in horse medicine.

October 2006

• We just hear about it a year later: the winner of the 400m hurdles at the last World Youth (!) Championships, Abdulagadir Idriss of Sudan, was suspended for two years until October 2007 after failing a drug test for norandrosterone during that same event.
  
  
• Two South-African ultramarathoners Ephraim Malaza and Themba Lamane have been suspended until May 2008 after failing a drug test for norandrosterone at Loskop Marathon and Two Oceans marathon respectively.
  
  
• Guylène Duval (36), a former Mauritius cross-country and middle-distance champion at the end of the 90ies, died accidentally during a weightlifting session.
  
  
• Cameroon's hurdler Carole Kaboud underwent surgery to both knees.

September 2006

• Cameroon's thrower Inès Meka (13.20m in the shot put and 42.43m in the discus in 2004) passed away in September, aged 26.
  
  
• Former Kenyan runner and marathon coach for Japan's Omokawa Lumber Company Joseph Otwori was killed in a traffic accident in Kenya at age 37.

August 2006

• African championships news: Mauritius 2006
  
  
• Ghana's long jumper Ignisious Gaisah has become a father : son Miguel was born on August 27th.
  
  
• At the Central African masters championships held in Yaounde (cameroon) on August 25 and 26, the head of sports affairs for Chad's prime minister, almost aged 49, cleared a bar at 1.90m in the high jump. He's no other than Paul Ngadjadoum - born on 20 October 1957m, 1.98m tall- winner of the 1978 All-Africa Games (2.16m) and still a co-holder of Chad's national record (2.17m set in 1993).
  
  
• A few weeks after the scandal of age cheating among Kenyan-born Bahraini athletes, Kenya has to clean up its own house. Two "false" juniors were excluded from the team about to leave for the world junior championships in Beijing : both 10.000m runners Thomas Longosiwa and Emmanuel Chamer. The former, whose case was unveiled by Kenya's immigration services, will have a case to answer in justice while the latter was let free after admitting his fault on his own initiative.

July 2006

• Ghana's heptathle Margaret Simpson gave birth to a baby boy on June 17th.
  
  
• Algeria's high jumper Abderrahmane Hammad underwent light surgery to treat a heel injury.
  
  
• Ghana's sprinter Aziz Zakari failed a drug test for stanozolol at Dakar Grand Prix. He is the second athlete of American Steve Riddick's training group to be involved in a doping case after Léonie Mani of Cameroon.
  
  
• Three or four Kenyan-born Bahraini athletes, suspected of falsyfing their age when then changed citizenship, were detained for several hours by Kenya's immigration services at the beginning of July. They are Belal Mansoor Ali (John Kipkorir Yego) and Taher Tarek Mubarak (Dennis Kipkurui Keter), whose victories at 2005 World Youth championships had already raised controversy, and Hosea Kiplagat Kosgei.

June 2006

• According to the June 13th's issue of the Daily Champion, Nigerian sprinter Mercy Nku allegedly failed a dope test for ephedrine at the National Sports festival held in April.

May 2006

• Algerian triple jumper Baya Rahouli seriously injured her ankle during a training camp in Brazil, according to daily El Watan.
  
  
• South African runner Themba Lamane tested positive for norandrosterone after he came 4th at the Two Oceans marathon on April 15th.
  
  
• Leading Kenyan coach Mike Kosgei signed a two-year contract to coach Bahrain's national team.

April 2006

• South Africa's record holder in the marathon Gert Thys tested positive for the steroid norandrosterone after his victory in the Seoul marathon in March. The runner has asked for the B-sample to be analysed.
  
  
• The Nairobi meet, that was supposed to be part of the African Confederation Grand Prix circuit has been cancelled. Besides there's nothing to be heard about the match Africa vs United States that was supposed to be held on April 14-15 in Stellenbosch. This is the third time that a match announced by the AAC won't take place after the matches Africa/United States and Africa/Europe announced for 2005.
  
  
• Mauritius quartermiler Eric Milazar had to withdraw from Mauritius meet after contracting chikungunya.
  
  
• Sani Biao, the best local sprinter in Cameroon, is among the sportsmen who didn't go back home after the Commonwealth Games.

March 2006

• They are injured at the time of the world indoor championships and the Commonwealh Games
  • Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (RSA) who received severql stitches in his ankle after being badly spiked in the final of the World indoor championships
  • Okkert Brits, pole vault (RSA), emergency appendicitis surgery in February
  • Hennie Kotze, 110H (RSA), stress fracture
  • Jonathan Chimier, long jump (MRI) muscle pull
  • Agnes Samaria, 800m (NAM), stress fracture in the foot
  • Berlioz Randriamihaja, 110H (MAD)
  
  
  
• Olympic triple jump champion Françoise Mbango is pregnant according to a Cameroonese newspaper.
  
  
• The Kenyan federation has dropped two runners (Robert Ndiwa and Gideon Ngatunyi) from the junior team who is to compete at the world cross-country championships in Fukuoka because they are no longer juniors.
  
  
• Nigerian Ibifuro Tobin West, winner of the long jump at the Nigerian championships in February, failed a drug test during the event (detail on substance not communicated) and risks a two-year suspension, according to the daily This Day. She is based in Spain where she trains with Rafael Blanquer.
  
  
• The South African federation announced that two of its athletes failed an out-of-competition test (testosterone). The first one is 800m runner Isaiah Nkuna, who was already suspended for two years (2003-2005) and can now expect a life suspension. More details are expected in the case of Surita Febbraio, the best African in the women's 400m hurdles, to determine whether the positive result was indeed caused by the use of banned products.
  
  
• Former Nigerian sprinter Mary Onyali has launched her sports wear products Yali Yali in Nigeria
  
  
• High jumper Arielle Brette, a student in textile fashion designing, designed the officiel dress of team Mauritius for the Commonwealth Games.
  
  
• Ethiopia is campaigning to host the African championships in 2008, an important year since 2008 will be 2000 in the Ethiopian calendar.
  
  
• Kenyan runners James Theuri Kibocha and Simon Munyutu, who have been in the French army for four years, were granted French citizenship in February.

January 2006

• Ghana's heptathlete Margaret Simpson, a bronze medallist at Helsinki world championships, is expecting her first child for July. Ethiopian runner Werknesh Kidane is also pregnant and will marry fellow runner Gebregziabher Gebremariam in a close future.
  
  
• Weddings: Malawi's runner Catherine Chikwakwa recently got married to Remus Chunda. Cameroon's sprinter and long jumper Joséphine Mbarga Bikié is to be named Joséphine Kinang-Mbarga since her marriage to fellow countryman high jumper Silas Kinang.
  
  
• Kenyan runner David Njuguna - Joseph Kamau's brother and John Ngugi's cousin - took his life in Canada on December 31st.
  
  
• Senegalese triple jumper Ndiss Kaba Badji has been suspended for two years after testing positive for "Tribulus 400" (a testosteron by-product) in an out-of-competition test performed in Dakar on March 14th 2005. All his results following this date will be cancelled. As a consequence, the national record of the triple jump returns to Mansour Dia who had reached 16.77m in 1972.
  
  
• In December, the Kenyan federation had decided to keep only 12 registered agents and not to renew the licence of 19 of them (see December news). January brought some change : a name has been withdrawn of the list of 12 (?) et and six agents have been reinstated (Jos Hermens, Tom Ratcliffe, Hussein Makke, Ian Ladbrooke, Derek Froude and Khellil Benhalima).