Moroccan Nezha Bedouane takes gold in World Athletics Cup

Moroccan woman athlete Nezha Bedouane won Friday the 400 m hurdle gold at the eighth World Athletics Cup currently being held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Bedouane covered the distance in 52.96 seconds (a new World Cup record). The silver medal was grabbed by Deon Hemmings of Jamaica while the bronze was captured by American star Kim Batten (400 m hurdle world record holder)

Nazha Bedouane, running for the African team, secured the African continent's first gold medal.

Another Moroccan woman runner, Zahra Ouaziz, is also member of the African team. She will take part Sunday in the 3,000 m race, her favorite distance.

The African team is composed of 39 athletes (21 men and 18 women) who excelled at the 11th African Athletics championships held lately in Senegal.

After the first day of the IAAF-World Athletics cup, Africa tops the men's standings board gleaning 39 points. The Americas ranked second with 36 points followed by USA with 34 points.

In the women's standing board, Europe holds the lead with 43 points, followed by Russia (38 points) and the USA (36 points).

Winners of the Golden League-IAAF Grand Prix, Moroccan Hisham El-Guerrouj (1500 m world record man and champion) and Ethiopian Haile Gebereselassie (10,000 world champ) were not invited by the African Confederation to join the African team because of their absence at the African championships.