ZAMBIA’S Saviour Kombe helps his team to win the 4×400 metres relay race

ZAMBIA’S Saviour Kombe put up an impressive performance to help his African team win the highly competitive 4X400 metres relay race during the InterContinental Cup Athletics Championship held in Marrakech, Morocco.
And not only did the African team win the race and leave the America and Europe stunned, the team set a new personal best time in the 4X400 metres relay after clocking 3:00.02 minutes.
The new time chipped away some time from the previous held record of 3:00.88 minutes to get Africa 15 points.
Despite the 15 points that Kombe helped Africa win, the continent still finished overall third with 339 points, 108.5 points behind winners Europe and 51 behind second placed America. In all, the two Zambians helped Africa with 27 points.
In Sunday’s race, Africa started on lane three where Boniface Mucheru started for the team and passed the button to Isaac Makwala as leader but the gap reduced when Kombe picked up the button.

Kombe put up a good showing and managed to create some space between him and second placed runner before handing the button over to Wayde Van Niekerk who raced to the finish line and give Africa the much needed victory.
In the women 4X400 metres relay, Zambia star runner Kabange Mupopo anchored the African team in the race and despite finishing poor in third place coupled by a poor showing by the third runner Ada Benjamin, the team also came off with a new personal best time of 3:25.51 minutes.
The previous time stood at 3:26.84 minutes with the Zambia Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) expressing excitement that the Zambian pair helped Africa to get their best ever performance in the 4X400 metres relay for both men and women.
This amazing run from the two Zambians came just a day after Mupopo lit up the gloomy African team and despite finishing fourth, the Shepolopolo captain managed to set a new national record in the 400 metres race.
Her progression over the last one year has shocked the athletics realm as in her first 12 month in the sport, Mupopo has managed to be African champion and reduced her time in 400 metres by amazing three seconds to 50.57 seconds.

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