This Cameroonian shot put athlete has just entered his name in the athletics record books, with his performance of 17m28 achieved in Douala, on May 22, 2021.
The economic capital of Cameroon hosted from May 18 to 23, 2021, a major international athletics meeting. The Japoma omnisport stadium opened its doors to athletes from 11 African countries. The competition had high stakes for the more than hundreds of athletes coming, the qualifications for the African championships, and the minimums to qualify for the Olympics. Organized by the Cameroonian Athletics Federation and under the supervision of the African Athletics Confederation, all the conditions were met for the direct validation of performances. Between the challenges of qualifying for the biggest events, there is always the personal struggle of the athletes to improve their own performances. Cameroon came out with a new record broken, that of the shot put.
Since May 18, 1997 and the performance of 17m07 achieved by Quentin Soné Ehawa in France for the Cameroon shot put record, we had not approached this performance. 24 years and four days later, it is Jospen Billy Takougoum, this physical education and sports teacher who came to shake up the hierarchy. Born January 10, 1997 in Bamougoum in the West Cameroon region, it was when he was only five months old that Cameroon’s shot put record was broken. He will adopt athletics as a discipline, and will focus on making an entry as a student at the INJS in 2016. Released in 2019, he will return to obtain a certified teacher diploma.
The athlete from the National Institute of Youth and Sports who has been training six days a week for three years without interruption achieved a performance of 17m28, to the delight of his team and his trainer and the athlete him – even: “we have been working for this record for three years, a relentless effort which culminates on a day of solemn competition like the Grand Prix. This will not stop us, there is still room for the Tokyo Olympics, ”said the new record holder in the shot put. After Raphael Nganguele who has just broken Cameroon’s 200m record, here is a new record broken this year. Performances which confirm that the discipline is on the move.
