Togo has been competing in the Summer Olympics since 1972. Not until this week, though, did the small West African nation finally win a medal, when Benjamin Boukpeti took home the bronze in the men’s single kayak slalom. His achievement was unexpected; going into the event, Boukpeti was ranked only 56th in the world. But as he reached the finish of the white-water course, the crowd loudly cheered him on and he paddled into third place with a combined time of 173.45 seconds. The victory so excited Boukpeti that he snapped his paddle in half. “I’ve got a massive party ahead of me,” he said.

Source: The Week

Kenya is leading the African medal tally today, with 8 medals all up (2 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze - all in track and field), followed by Zimbabwe (4); Ethiopia (3); Algeria (2) and Cameroon, Tunisia, South Africa and Togo (1 each).