Updated: 19 June 2020

I used some of my downtime during the Covid-19 lockdown to finally process the rest of the images I shot at the 2018 African Athletics Championships in Asaba, Nigeria, which I covered for World Athletics. Some notes and links to the coverage can be found below after the images.

Ninety-three photos are posted below. Given the dire financial circumstances that many media outlets around the world are currently facing, particularly those in Africa, I’m making all of these photos available free-to-use for editorial purposes. At the very least, perhaps they’ll be of use as to help put a face to a name or fill a gap in a news piece or feature.

A few mandatory conditions:
– images may not be resold or redistributed
– credit must be provided as follows with a link embedded back this website: (c) Bob Ramsak/bobramsak.com. Simply copy and paste this html embed code where you usually place your photo credit:

<A href="https://www.bobramsak.com/">&#169; Bob Ramsak/bobramsak.com</a>

And finally, a quick and brief email that they will be used and where would also be most appreciated.

To download, right-click the image, expand it and save.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

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Feel free to spread the word.

https://twitter.com/BobRamsak/status/1291075206069583874

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Originally published on 8 August 2018 on my blog PiranCafe, which is no longer being updated, and moved here on 28 May 2020.

I was in Asaba, Nigeria, last week to cover the 21st African Championships in Athletics, my first time covering these continental championships.

Local organisers in the capital of Nigeria’s Delta State, who agreed to host the event after Lagos pulled out in March of 2017, were beset by numerous logistical and transportation challenges, all amplified in the days leading in to the event. When the five-day championships began on Wednesday, August 1, the opening day’s competition timetable was reduced to just three events in total to allow time for the last remaining athletes who were stranded in Lagos Airport –some for nearly three days– to be transported the final 450 kilometres to Asaba.

Despite the widely-reported initial challenges, many of which were remedied over the championships’ first few days, competition, playing out before capacity crowds at the newly-refurbished Stephen Keshi Memorial Stadium, was fierce.

My reports for the IAAF: [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ]

Results, as complete as they likely will be, are here. Due to various technical irregularities with the track, performances do not appear on official lists.