African took part in race, carrying baton (7)
I believe the answer is:
rwandan
'african' is the definition.
(Rwandan is an example)
'race carrying baton' is the wordplay.
'race' becomes 'ran' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'carrying' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'baton' becomes 'wand' (wand is a kind of baton).
'ran' placed around 'wand' is 'RWANDAN'.
'took part in' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rwandan that I've seen before include "From a central African country" , "Kigali native, perhaps" , "African chap" , "Eg, a native of Kigali" , "African native" .)