Ahoure hopes for Ivory Coast dominance

World Indoor 60 metre champion Murielle Ahoure of Ivory Coast is hoping that her country will dominate sprinting in the years to come. At the recently concluded World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, England, Ahoure led compatriot Marie-JosÈe Ta Lou to an Ivory Coast 1-2. The result has encouraged Ahoure to think big."It's huge to get gold and silver," she told reporters in Birmingham. "The Ivory Coast is on top. We're so happy and hopefully, soon we'll be able to take over the whole podium," Ahoure said. She won the gold in 6.97 seconds, with Ta Lou timed at 7.05 seconds, the same as the Swiss Mujinga Kambundji, who took the bronze ahead of Jamaica's double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson.

Ta Lou echoed Ahoure's sentiment. "I was happy to see Murielle in gold," she exulted, "and I'm happy to see two girls representing us on the podium."

Twice a World Indoor runner-up in the past, the 30-year-old Ahoure was Ivory Coast's top track and field athlete for several seasons. She was second to Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the 2013 World Championships in both the 100m and 200m.

Ivorian emergence

The emergence of Ivorian sprint power continued with Ta Lou getting two silver medals of her own at the 2017 World Championships a year after she had twice been fourth behind a regal Olympic sprint double by Thompson.

The Birmingham triumph had emotional significance for Ahoure, who recently lost her father, the former head of the Ivorian armed forces, to cancer.

"I knew he was watching from up there", she confessed. "I was talking to him before the race, saying, 'Please Dad, help me in the race'."

The Ivorians have a fine male sprinter as well in Ben Meite, who was a 100m finalist at the 2016 Olympics.