Akins, who switched allegiance from the United States to Nigeria earlier this year, clocked 13.57sec to claim gold to make up for a disappointing performance at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, where he failed to qualify for the final.

Elsewhere on the fourth day of action in Marrakech, three Championship records were set in the field events.

South African pole vaulter Cheyne Rahme took the gold medal after breaking compatriot Okkert Brits' Championship record by one centimetre with an effort of 5.41 metres.

Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sunette Viljoen was in impressive form as she secured another gold and Championship record for South Africa in the women's javelin.

Viljoen, winner of a bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships, claimed her fourth African title, making her the most successful javelin athlete in the history of the evnet, with an effort of 65.32m to finish well clear of Ghana's Mary Nartey.

In the men's hammer Egyptian Mostafa Hicham Al-Gamal threw 79.09m to take the gold medal, well clear of South Africa's defending champion and six-time winner Chris Harmse.

Al-Gamal claimed his first continental title but his effort was still short of his African record of 81.27m set earlier this year.

Sunette Viljoen became the most successful javelin athlete in African Championship history with a fourth title in Marrakech ©AFP/Getty Images




Fresh from claiming the men's triple jump gold medal in Glasgow, there was further success for South Africa as Godfrey Khotso Mokoena repeated the result from Hampden Park with a jump of 17.03m to finish ahead of Nigeria's Tosin Oke.

Another Commonwealth Games champion, Kenya's Joyce Chepkirui, continued her success by taking the women's 10,000m title in 32min 45.27sec.

Chepkirui once again finished ahead of compatriot Emily Chebet, just as she had done in Glasgow, but this time the margin was only 0.01.

Ethiopia's Belaynesh Oljira replicated her bronze medal from last year's World Championships in Moscow by coming in third.

Algeria's defending champion Yasmina Omrani was the victim of some bad luck as an injury forced her to withdraw from the heptathlon competition, ending her hopes of a second successive title.

Omrani had held a healthy overnight lead in the event but pulled up in the warm-up for the long-jump competition leaving the way clear for Burundi's Marthe Koala to storm to the African crown.

Koala set a season's best of 6.03m in the long jump, before personal bests in the javelin of 37.41m and the 800m, where she clocked a time of 2:31:61, saw her secure gold with a national record of 5,454 points.

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