Kip Keino Classics: Sprinters, Itoungue, Angounou register promising showings in Nairobi.

The Kip Keino Classics Continental Tour series is ranked among the second biggest international one-day competitions organised by World Athletics.

Itoungue and Angounou emerged as two of the biggest stars in the 2026 edition. The showpiece brought together other global athletics stars, three-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas of the United States of America, USA, and Africa’s fastest man in Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala. 

Angounou who was competing internationally for the first time this year, placed fifth in the women’s 400m hurdles event while Itoungue ranked third in the men’s 200m series of Friday’s showdown.

Itoungue secured the placing after covering the distance in 20.51 seconds. The race was dominantly won by South Africa’s Sinesipho Dambile ahead of Jamaica’s Bryan Levell. 

Dambile who bagged gold for South African in the men’s 4x100m category at the 2025 World Relays, did the race in 19.77 seconds, strongly marking his return to the same ground where he bagged gold in the men’s 4x100m series at the 2021 World Under20 Championships. Levell completed the race in 19.93 seconds. 

The third-place finish in Nairobi adds to the multiple impressive results that Itoungue has registered in major national and international competitions this year. 

The exploit came just a month after the athlete’s storied run to the semifinals of the 2026 World Athletics Indoors Championships in Poland late last month and a week after the Islamic Solidarity Games bronze medalist ranked fourth in the highly challenging 400m event at the Addis Ababa Grand Prix in Ethiopia. 

The 24-year-old finished the Addis Ababa showdown sitting just behind a stellar trio that was led by three-time World Under20 Championships gold medalist and reigning men’s 4x400m World Relays bronze medalist, Botswana’s Justice Oratile.

Angounou placed fifth in her women’s 400m hurdles series in Nairobi in Friday’s competition after doing the race in 56.41 seconds in a race that was won by Danish-Norwegian sensation, Amalie Iuel in 54.12 seconds. The race marked the first time Angounou was featuring in an official competition since the start of the year.

Solid foundation for African Championships

Angounou and Itoungue are expected to be one of Cameroon’s headliners at the forthcoming 2026 African Athletics Championships which will run at the University of Ghana Stadium in Accra from May 12 to 17. 

The Kip Keino Classics event was designed to serve as one of the pre-championships preparatory grounds for the two athletes.

Itoungue will enter the Accra event seeking to claim his third major career distinction. He bagged his first major distinction after securing a silver medal in the men’s 200m series of the 2024 African Games in Accra in the same ground. 

Angounou will jet to the Ghanaian capital looking to further fill up her already impressive trophy cabinet with eyes particularly on securing her first ever gold medal in the continental event. 

In a short statement after her race in Nairobi, the 33-year-old said she had failed to meet the target that had established for herself for the Nairobi competition.

She, however, promised to build on the promising display to attain her dream of winning a gold medal for Cameroon in Accra. 

“See you from May 12 to 17 at the African Championships. This time we are coming to make history and bring back the gold.  The countdown has begun,” the athlete stated on her official Facebook page after Friday’s race in Nairobi. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3773 of Monday April 27, 2026