ASK any Namibian and they’ll tell you Christine Mboma is that plug that never disappoints.
Mboma again proved to be a class apart, winning the women’s 200m at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Zagreb, Croatia on Tuesday.
Namibia’s Olympic silver medallist and Diamond League winner scorched to a new Boris Hanzekovic Memorial meeting record of 22,04 seconds, which by the 18-year-old speedster’s recent high standards was a modest time. But it was still good enough to beat Shericka Jackson of Jamaica, who was second in 22,30 seconds, for the third race running.
Both athletes displaced American legend Allyson Felix’s old meeting record mark of 22,35 seconds.
The supporting cast was led by Bahamian Anthonique Strachan who crossed the finish line a distant third in 23,05 seconds. Another Jamaican, Shashalee Forbes, was fourth in 23,37 seconds.
Following Tuesday’s dominant victory, the novice Mboma has incredibly won all five of her races over 200m on the European circuit this season.
“She beat Jackson once again. Christine is the queen of Europe,” Mboma’s coach Henk Botha declared.
Botha was particularly pleased with how Mboma is gradually refining her technique, noting that she “ran the bend excellently”.
Mboma too was delighted with her final European performance for the season, saying it was her best so far.
“All my races in Europe were great and it was a great experience,” she said.
“I’m happy to improve on my technique. I’m happy with how I ran the race. It was my best race even though I didn’t run a personal best.”
Reacting to the result on its Facebook page, Athletics Namibia said: “We are over the moon for her. History is being written!…she just started. Congratulations Christine and Tt. Henk.”
In a classy touch, Jackson leapt to the defence of Mboma who, along with compatriot Beatrice Masilingi, has been the subject of vile and disparaging comments on social media.
World Athletics and her detractors perceived Mboma to “have an unfair advantage” over her rivals due to her naturally elevated testosterone levels.
WA used its controversial rules over testosterone levels from her preferred 400m distance because of this condition.
However, since being forced to compete at 200m two weeks before the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Mboma’s irrepressible talent has shown through.
“Thanks for all the love and support. However you can tell me congratulations without criticizing another athlete,” Jackson said on her Facebook Page following the Zagreb race.
The 27 year-old Jamaican’s signature event is also 400m but she has successfully dabbled with the shorter distances recently.
She has gold and bronze medals in the 100m and 4x100m sprints from Tokyo. Jackson earned also a gold medal in the 4 x 100 m relay at the 2019 World Championship.
“Please I’m asking don’t come on this page with any form of negativity. If there is any, it will simple be removed and if I go on another post and see the same person with the negativity, I’ll simply block you from this page. Thanks for understanding. See you all in 2022,” said the Jamaican.
Meanwhile, Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba stole the headlines in Zagreb after taking more than two seconds off Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba’s world 2 000m record with a brilliant run of 5 minutes and 21,56 seconds. The Burundian star shares Mboma’s rare physiology deemed to give her an unfair competitive advantage in track events ranging between 400m and one mile.
Niyonsaba, who won the silver medal over 800m at the 2016 Rio Olympics before moving up in distance due to the World Athletics rules, has had an astonishing year – winning the Diamond League title at 5 000m and running the fifth-fastest outdoor 3 000m time ever.
“I am feeling seriously wonderful. I didn’t realise I could run a world record, but it was my first time here. I came here to do what I have to do,” Niyonsaba told reporters.
“I did it. It’s wonderful and it’s fabulous. The pacing was really perfect. I want to thank all the people who came to cheer us.”
