Ghana’s Elizabeth Dadzie and Atsu Nyamadi won the heptathlon and decathlon respectively for the Middle Tennessee State University at the Conference USA Track & Field Championships in Murfreesboro, TN last week.
Atsu Nyamadi opened the decathlon competition at the Dean A. Hayes Stadium by placing fourth in the 100m in 11.30 seconds for 796 points.
He then rattled off four-straight first place finishes in the long jump (7.17m), shot put (14.07m PB), high jump (2.01m PB) and 400m, tallying 2,400 points on Thursday (12).
On Friday, Nyamadi continued his pace from the first day of competition with a blazing pace in the 110m hurdles, finishing first in 14.73 seconds.
He went on to winning two more events: men’s discus with 43.29m; javelin with a throw of 61.50m; while also placing second in the 1,500m to close competition.
The Ghanaian finished the two-day competition with 7,588 points, while UTSA’s Adrian Riley was second with 7,064 points.
In the heptathlon, Elizabeth Dadzie notched a career-best 5,599 points in the seven-event competition, a new career-high for the Ghanaian, whose point total beat UTEP’s Luola Mokrasova by 18 points.
Dadzie enjoyed a successful first day of competition, as she concluded the day at second overall through four events with 3,301 points.
She started the competition off by winning the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.49 seconds, which earned her 1,052 points.
After a high jump of 1.56m, Dadzie held the lead after two events with 1,762 points. The Kumasi indigene notched the fourth best toss in the shot put, with a mark of 11.63m.
Dadzie finished the first day winning the 200m with a time of 24.61 seconds, which narrowly missed her personal-best time of 24.50 seconds.
She then won the long jump with a distance of 6.20m, threw 34.28m to finished fifth in the javelin, and held on to fourth place in the final 800m in a time of 2:19.70 to clinch the title.
Ghana‘s Agnes Abu, also of Middle Tennessee State University, won the women’s 800m and 1500m, contributing 20 points for her school.
In the 800m, Abu controlled the race from the beginning and finished in 2:06.93, while Uganda‘s Susan Aneno, the 2016 C-USA Indoor Championship Freshman of the Meet, placed second in 2:07.58.
Abu also controlled the 1,500m, clocking 4:22.90 for victory over Rice’s Elsa Racasan (4:24.48) and Abigall Cartwright (4:39.52).
Ghana’s John Ampomah broke his own Conference USA Championship meet record, which he set last season, to win the men’s javelin with a throw of 77.53m.
Ampomah, the 2015 NCAA Runner-Up in the javelin, needed only one legal throw to conquered the field on his home turf, and to earn the C-USA individual title.
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