Hosts Zambia claimed a first ever African Under-20 Championships crown with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Senegal in the deciding match of the 2017 tournament played at the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka on Sunday.

COSAFA side Zambia became just the ninth country to lift the title and are deserved winners after a tournament in which they rarely looked trouble, bar perhaps their semifinal with regional rivals South Africa.

It is the second tournament in succession in which the Senegalese have had to settle for silver, while Guinea took the bronze medal with a 2-1 victory over the South Africans earlier in the day.

Patson Daka handed Zambia the lead after 16 minutes when he converted after teammate Fashion Sakala’s shot had been spilled by Senegal goalkeeper Lamine Sarr.

And it was 2-0 on 35 minutes in slightly fortunate circumstances when Sarr attempted a clearance on the edge of the box and it deflected off Edward Chilufya and into the net.

That goal left Chilufya, Daka and South African Luther Singh all tied for the tournament’s Golden Boot with four goals.

Zambia managed to see out the remainder of the game with some ease, to the delight of the 60,000 crowd in the stadium.

Earlier, Guinea claimed the bronze medal with a come-from-behind victory over South Africa in the third-place play-off.

Liam Jordan had given South Africa in the sixth minute with his second goal of the campaign, but two minutes later Guinea were level when Amajita defender Katlego Mohamme headed past his own goalkeeper.

Both sides had chances to win it after that, but when South Africa captain Tercious Malepe was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box, Naby Bangoura netted the winner from the penalty-spot five minutes from time.