That is Deji Ogeyingbo’s first preview of the 2022 World Athletics Outside Championships, to be held in Eugene, Oregon on the model spanking newly constructed Hayward Area, July 14-25, 2022.
Can an African male sprinter lastly get on the rostrum on the World Championships?
For the reason that inception of the World Athletics Championships in 1983 in Helsinki, Finland, the race to be topped the quickest man on this planet has at all times been judged by who wins the boys’s 100m.
It has at all times been the barometer for fulfillment for any sprinter. Win that race and also you get the tag of world champion for the following two years. Within the seventeen editions of the championships holding the boys’s 100m, there have been ten totally different winners with america and Jamaica having essentially the most, whereas Carl Lewis, Maurice Greene and Usain Bolt gained the title 3 times of their profession.
Fairly unusual is the truth that now African sprinter has made the rostrum of this occasion in all of its editions, however all that would doubtlessly change when the world’s greatest sprinters converge at Hayward discipline for this yr’s version of the championships.
Contenders
Ferdinand Omanyala (Kenya)
Ferdinand Omanyala’s rise to the highest of worldwide sprinting has been reasonably fascinating. In simply 18 months, the cumbersome Kenyan has set the cat amongst the pigeons within the males’s 100m and would possibly simply be the primary African sprinter to buck the pattern of not making the rostrum within the blue riband occasion.
After an extended battle with Athletics Kenya about his eligibility to symbolize the East African nation, he lastly sorted that out. In 2021, Omanyala started to put a stranglehold of the boys’s dash.
After breaking the Nationwide document, he grew to become the primary Kenyan to achieve the semifinal of the boys’s 100m on the Olympics, clocking 10.00s. Omanyala’s instances after the Olympics was startling. 9.86 in Austria, and a 9.77s clocking on the Kip Kieno traditional in September 2021 moved him into the record of the highest 10 quickest males of all time.
Extra importantly, was how Omanyala began this yr’s outside season like a home on fireplace. After a few races in Kenya, the previous rugby participant defeated Africa’s no 1 sprinter, Akani Simbine with out having to achieve second gear in a time of 9.98s.
A couple of month later, Omanyala destroyed the U.S. sprinter, Fred Kerley within the males’s 100m profitable a then world lead of 9.85. Regardless of having the tag of the quickest man in Africa, Omanyala made certain he grew to become the African Champion within the occasion when he pipped Simbine to the title in Mauritius by three thousand of a second, profitable in 9.93s.
Omanyala appeared primed to alter the established order. He’s a fighter, each on and off the observe. However most significantly, he has the mindset to problem the very world’s greatest sprinters.
Akani Simbine (South Africa)
Simbine has been known as the close to man all by his observe profession as he has narrowly missed out on the rostrum on the final 4 main championships. Possibly it’s his time to pounce after so many close to misses.
Fifth on the 2016 Rio Olympics, fifth on the 2017 London World Championships, fourth on the 2019 Doha World Championships, and fourth on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Simbine will look to proper so many wrongs in Eugene when he strains up in opposition to a few of the world’s greatest sprinters.
Additionally, within the span of a yr, his title because the quickest man in Africa and the African title over the gap was taken off him by Omanyala, however nonetheless, the Commonwealth Video games Champion remains to be essentially the most skilled amongst the heaps in Africa to problem the perfect.
Simbine’s season began slowly, however he appears to be peaking on the proper time forward of the worlds. Regardless of dropping his African title to Omanyala, the South African has picked as much as items as he completed third and first on the Diamond League in Oslo and Stockholm.
Alongside Jamaica’s Yohan Blake, Simbine is essentially the most skilled amongst all the present sprinters which were entered within the males’s 100m, and he stays to be seen if he can lastly finish his unhealthy spell at main championships.
Outsiders
Lesile Tebogo (Botswana)
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo has grown in leaps and bounds in lower than a yr. The 19-year-Outdated is the present World Junior Champion within the males’s 100m after he made his worldwide debut for his nation on the World U20 Championships in Nairobi final August.
Since then, Tebogo has dipped inside 10s within the 100m, operating 9.96s, whereas additionally going to say the 200m title on the African Championships in Mauritius. The teenager has additionally raced on the Prefontaine Diamond League this yr the place he completed fifth in 10.12s. So, he has garnered useful expertise on this brief timeframe.
Together with his operating fashion likened to that of Usain Bolt, Tebogo would possibly simply spring up a shock in Eugene.
Joseph Fahnbulleh (Liberia)
One other African sprinter that would but upset the apple carts in Eugene is Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh. The 20-year-old has among the finest top-end speeds on the grid of the boys’s 100m.
That a lot he proved on the NCAA division one last in June when he stormed to victory in a brand new Private Better of 10.00s. Additionally, Fahnbulleh completed fifth over the 200m on the Tokyo Olympics final yr.
A lot has been mentioned about him engaged on his begin, one that may preserve him inside touching distance of his opponents in a race earlier than launching his bullet velocity on the finish.
Benjamin Azamati (Ghana)
Ghana’s Benjamin Azamati was one time the world chief within the males’s 100m after he clocked 9.90s in March. It made folks discuss how he’s now left the shadows of the Ghana relay workforce and will stand out individually on his personal.
Since then, Azamati has turned Skilled chalking up races in Oslo and Paris, ending first within the latter. He has additionally run a wind-aided 9.86s this yr too.
Favour Ashe (Nigeria)
It may appear too early for Nigeria’s Favour Ashe to get on the rostrum in Eugene, however for people who have adopted this teenager’s rise within the final six months, it’s higher suited to not underrate him.
After having a really respectable indoor season, the place he clocked 6.51s for his private greatest, Ashe ran a really quick 9.79s (+3.0) in April. Additionally, the Nigerian completed second behind Fahnbulleh on the NCAA finals.
Ashe lastly bought to run a sub-10 on the Nigerian trials final month the place he clocked 9.99s.
