Can Tebogo and Simbine end Africa’s wait for first 100m and 200m Diamond League titles?

Letsile Tebogo made history as the first African man to win the gold medal in the 200m at the Olympics and will be looked at as one to also deliver the continent’s first in the history of the Wanda Diamond League, athletics premiere one day series.

The Botswana sprinter will return to Diamond League action on Thursday at the Athletissima in Lausanne, Switzerland with all eyes on him to punch his ticket to the final in Brussels next month.

The 21-year-old sits eighth in the 200m rankings with the eight points he garnered from winning the event at the EBS Herculis in Monaco last month and a victory in Lausanne will move him up the ladder and confirm his place in the final albeit he could also enjoy a wild card into the event.

Tebogo, who won Africa’s first 100m medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary last year, could be in for a hat-trick of historic achievements in just a little over a year.

In the 100m, the African duo of Emmnauel Eseme and Akani Simbine will fly the African flag in Brussels as they have all but confirmed their ticket to the final with just one qualifying race remaining and that is the Diamond League meeting in Rome, Italy at the end of the month.

Eseme tops the ranking with 28 points, helped by wins in Marrakech in Morocco and Stockholm in Sweden while Simbine is second with 23 points, also winning twice on the road, as it were, in Suzhou, China in April and Oslo in Norway the following month.

Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala is 11th with seven points, just one point below Olympic champion, Noah Lyles.

Only two of the finalists at the Paris 2024 Olympics are in the top eight ranking viz Simbine and Fred Kerley.