Athletes compete at the All Africa Games. AFP

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Africa's top athletes were inducted in a new African athletics Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, on the eve of the opening of the 16th African Athletics Championships.

Some 40 out of 75 inductees, that included old stalwarts like Haile Gebrselassie, Frankie Fredericks and Maria Mutola as well as newcomers Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar, attended an evening gala in the Ethiopian capital and received awards for their achievements in track and field.

"I'm very happy to be named among the continent's elite. It's an incredible honour to be here," Namibia's former world 200m champion Fredericks told AFP.

Two-time world 5000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba expressed her delight over being selected in front of her home crowd.

"I'm extremely happy to be named among those athletes. The fact that such a major event was held in Ethiopia was exciting enough, to be awarded was simply unbelievable," Dibaba said.

Dibaba, also known as the "baby-faced assassin", twice won the world 10 000m championships and is, along with compatriot Meseret Defar, a favorite to sweep both distances in the Addis Ababa championships.

Last year, the Confederation of African Athletics chose 75 former and reigning Olympic and world champions and world record holders for its inaugural induction.

But Somalia's Abdi Bile, who became the war-torn Horn of Africa nation's first (and last) world champion after winning the 1500m in 1987, said Africa lagged behind other continents in paying tributes to its track heroes.

"It was really wonderful, but these awards are long overdue. It's good to finally see Africa honour its athletes like the rest of the world," Bile said shortly after the conclusion of the event.

"I hope young athletes will be inspired and follow our footsteps the same way that Abebe Bikila inspired us 40 years ago," he added.

Jacques Freitag, South Africa's former world high jump champion also joined the chorus of voices expressing delight over being acknowledged.

"It does a lot of justice to the sport to see people that have achieved so much be acknowledged in such a way," he said.

Ethiopia's twice Olympic 10 000m gold medallist Derartu Tulu took heart that such tributes would help inspire young athletes.

"When we were young, we ran for pleasure. We achieved a lot through hard work and commitment without any significant prizes offered on the table. I hope such recognition will provide newcomers with the motivation to go all the way," Tulu told AFP.

The CAA, the continent's governing body of the sport, also paid a special tribute to Abebe Bikila, Africa's first ever Olympic gold medalist who won back-to-back marathon titles in 1960 and 1964.

The Ethiopian died in 1973 and a posthumous award was handed out to his son Yetinayit Abebe.

The African Championships get underway on Wednesday with Ethiopia expected to dominate the middle and long-distance events. Nigeria and South Africa are tipped to share the medals on offer in the sprint and field events.

AFP