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Based on African athletes performances via records broken, medals won, and historic feats attained, here is a countdown of Pulse Sports Top 10 African athletes in 2022.
The exceptional input of African athletes in World Athletics cannot be over-emphasized, as they have proven each year that they are world beaters in their various events and can rub shoulders with the world's best.
This season was particularly fruitful for African athletics in so many ways, as some historic World Record (WR) winning feats were attained, and new youngsters sprouted up as the future, while the established ones proved again they can hold their own against the world’s best in their events.
Based on their performances via records broken, medals won, and historic feats attained, here is a countdown of Pulse Sports Top 10 African athletes in 2022.
10. Chioma Onyekwere
The established Discus thrower spread her throwing tentacles outside being a dominant force in the continent, by winning an international medal this season.
She began her Gold medal-winning season at the African Championships in Mauritius, where she inspired a 1-3 finish for Nigeria in the women’s Discus final. She threw a distance of 58.19m to defend her title - her fourth African Championships medal since 2016.
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Consequently, she had a first-time master stroke at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, becoming the first Nigerian woman in history to win a Commonwealth Gold medal in the Discus event, throwing a Season’s Best (SB) of 61.70m.
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Her medal-winning format of 1-3 finish at the African Championships was the same in Birmingham, as Obiageri Amechi also got on the podium, clinching the Bronze medal. Having won multiple continental titles, it was the first title Onyekwere won outside Africa.
9. Marie-Josée Ta Lou
The petite Ivorian sprinter has been one of Africa’s most consistent female sprinters in the past ten years.
Her performance of the season, came at the Diamond League Herculis Meeting in Monaco, where she blazed to a new 100m African Record (AR) of 10.72s to finish 3rd, as World Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce blasted to a superb 10.62s for the win, with Shericka Jackson following in 10.71s.
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Ta Lou ended the year as the fastest sprinter in the continent with her 10.72s, which is joint seventh on the women’s 100m all-time list.
8. Letsile Tebogo
A true discovery for his country Botswana, Tebogo has grown in leaps and bounds since winning the 100m title and 200m Silver medal at the World U20 Championships in Nairobi last year.
This season, the teenage sensation became the first man from his country to break the 10s mark as he clocked 9.96s at the Gaborone International Meet, setting a new World U20 Record (WU20R).
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A record he would later reduce to 9.94s in the 100m heats at the World Championships in Oregon and further to 9.91s on his way to successfully retaining his 100m title at the World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.
In the 200m, Tebogo claimed his first senior continental title at the African Senior Championships in Mauritius, cruising to victory in a time of 20.26s (3.0m/s) - again becoming the youngest winner of this event in the history of the championships. He also won Silver in Cali, clocking an African U20 Record of 19.96s.
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His performances this year have seen him tipped as the next Usain Bolt in the 100m.
7. Ferdinand Omanyala
Kenyans are known for their dominance in middle and long-distance events. However, Omanyala is changing that narrative after being crowned Africa’s and Commonwealth’s fastest man.
The 100m AR holder made his African Championships debut in Mauritius, where he sped to the African title, clocking an impressive 9.93s, thereby defeating defending champion South Africa’s Akani Simbine in the process.
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His win gave Kenya its first men’s 100m African Championships Gold in 32 years! Not resting on his oars, he afterward anchored the 4x100m team to Gold in a National Record (NR) of 39.28s.
Then at the Commonwealth Games, Omanyala cemented his name as the best sprinter in the continent when he won the Gold medal, again ahead of defending champion Simbine, clocking a fast 10.02s.
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It was a historic medal for Kenya, as it was their first 100m Gold medal in 60 years at the Commonwealth Games after Seraphino Antao won the event in 1962 when the race was 100 yards.
6. Favour Ofili
Regarded as the next big name in Nigeria athletics after Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume, Ofili rose to the elite league this season, churning out her best career performances in the college circuit and internationally for Nigeria.
The Louisiana State University (LSU) sophomore student was unbeaten outdoors before the NCAA Championships, clocking record-breaking times as she won the 100m and 200m titles at the SEC Conference Outdoor Championships.
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Afterward, the speedster ran a then 200m Collegiate Record of 21.96s a few weeks later, becoming the first college, Nigerian, and second African athlete in history to run under the 22s mark. She also ran a Personal Best (PB) of 10.93s in the 100m plus won a 200m Silver medal at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, clocking an outstanding 22.05s.
Internationally, Ofili competed at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games, where the highly rated youngster got to the World Championships 200m semifinals and ran a fantastic leg in the back straight to help the women’s 4x100m relay team earn a fourth-place finish clocking an AR of 42.22s.
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Two weeks later in Birmingham, she won the 200m Silver medal behind Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson - her first senior international medal, while she was part of the 4x100m quartet that further took down the AR to 42.10s, winning the Commonwealth Gold medal.
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Her exceptional performances this season have seen her nicknamed ‘Star Girl' being the poster girl of Nigerian athletes in the NCAA.
5. Ese Brume
The Long Jumper proved again why she's the most consistent medal-winning Nigerian athlete in the past few years.
She was the country's only medallist at the World Indoor Championship in Belgrade, where she leaped to a Season Best (SB) of 6.85m to win the Silver medal. Doing this, she became Nigeria’s first World Indoor medallist in fourteen years since Olusoji Fasuba last won the 60m title in 2008.
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At the World Outdoor Championships in Oregon, she added another shining Silver medal with a brilliant SB of 7.02m in the final.
Consequently, she made history as the first African (male or female) to win two Long Jump medals at the World Championships, in addition to her Bronze medal from Doha 2019. Furthermore, she’s the second Nigerian and African woman after Blessing Okagbare to make the event's podium at the championship.
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Brume capped off her exceptional season at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, as her last leap in six-jump attempts took down the previous Games Record (GR) of 6.99m with a new 7.00m to regain her Commonwealth title from 2014.
This season, she became the first African woman to jump four legal marks over 7.00m. She hit the 7m twice, jumping 7.02m to finish second in Oregon and her victorious GR mark in Birmingham.
4. Soufiane El Bakkali
The Moroccan’s trademark event is the 3000m Steeplechase, where he stayed undefeated throughout the 2022 season, also running a world-leading time of 7:58.28 at Rabat Diamond League.
The reigning Olympic Champion, added World Championships Gold in Oregon, completing his collection of medals having won Silver and Bronze medals in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
At the Diamond League final in Zurich, he claimed his first Diamond Trophy. Three days later, he capped his fine season with an African best in the 2000m steeplechase, running 5:14.06 at the Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb to move to third on the all-time world list for the event.
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For his unbeaten form this season, El Bakkali was among the five finalists for the World Athletics Male Athlete of the Year.
3. Faith Kipyegon
Another unbeaten athlete in her event this year, the 1500m runner, won the World Championships title convincingly with a time of 3:52.96, which made her the first female athlete to win four global titles over the distance.
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Then at Diamond League meet in Monaco, Kipyegon set a new NR of 3:50.37s, the second-fastest performance of all time, and 0.3s off Genzebe Dibaba's WR. She holds six of the thirteen fastest women's 1500 m performances ever.
The Olympic Champion ended yet another successful season with a clear victory in Zürich to earn her third 1500m Diamond League title.
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Kipyegon won all her six 1500m races of the season and was nominated for the World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year Award but did not make the eventual five finalists.
2. Eliud Kipchoge
Kipchoge competes in the long-distance and marathon events and won the 2022 Berlin Marathon with a time of 2:01:09, which surpassed his previous WR by 30 seconds, set on the same course in 2018.
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His victory in Berlin is his fourth in his career, and he also won the Tokyo Marathon.
Kipchoge was a finalist for the 2022 World Athletics Male Athlete of the Year but lost to Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis.
1. Tobi Amusan
When you talk about an athlete's dominance in an event, you talk about Amusan. She dominated the 100mH event at the African Championships in Mauritius with a wind-aided time of 12.57s (4.0m/s). It was after running 12.53s (2.5m/s) in the heats, both times surpassing the CR of 12.77s but for the excessive wind.
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Then her moment of glory came in Oregon, where she broke her AR of 12.41s with a new 12.40s time to win her 100m Hurdles heat.
However, this record became insignificant when she came back in the semis and stunned not just herself but the whole world by breaking the WR of 12.20s set by USA’s Keni Harrison in 2016 with an incredible 12.12s. She bested the time in the final with another magnificent 12.06s (2.5m/s) to win the title and become Nigeria’s first outdoor World Champion and WR holder.
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Less than two weeks after this historic moment, Amusan went to the Commonwealth Games and successfully retained her Commonwealth title, running a GR of 12.30s, then followed it up by running the lead-off leg of the Nigerian 4x100m Gold medal-winning relay quartet.
She wrapped up her long and outstanding 2022 campaign at the Zürich Diamond League final, running an MR of 12.29s to retain her title, becoming the first Nigerian athlete in history to attain this feat.
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Amusan became the first Nigerian athlete in history to be nominated for the prestigious World Female Athlete of the Year Award, in which she finished as second runner-up.
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