by Larry Eder
These are my four takeaways from the 22nd African Athletics Championships, held in Mauritius from Jun 8-12, 2022. RunBlogRun was fortunate to have Deji Ogeyingbo in Mauritius, providing stories, social media, and photos. He wiped himself out. Justin Lagat sent us stories remotely from Kenya.
These are RunBlogRuns’ four takeaways from the 22nd African Athletics Championships:
- The African Athletics Champs get little attention. Outside of EME News, Deji Ogeyingbo, and our coverage on RunBlogRun outside of the African continent, it gets little or no appreciation.
- The stars of Africa shine in this Championships. From Ferdinand Omanyala to Tobi Amusan, great athletes showed their stuff in Mauritius, with few fans and what looked like little commercial support.
- This championship should be the next big thing. The biggest response that RunBlogRun received all summer from WCOregon22, Commonwealth Games 2022, and European Champs was from Mauritius. It was photos and FB posts on Ethiopian men in the 10,000m, with 958,000 views the first time and 558,000 on the second time with two more photos. That tells me that a strong streaming program and the audio program could blow this meet-up! The audience desperately wants information, story-telling, and context! RunBlogRun would love to team up with another media organization to make this happen.
- The African Championships need sponsors. The African continent is growing richer, and its athletes, from South Africa to Kenya, to Nigeria, to Morocco, to Ethiopia, are continuing to make global statements. Brands like Schneider Electric, adidas, PUMA, Nike, Apple, and Brooks could all get behind support for these championships in the future. RunBlogRun would love to help any sponsor.
