Can Tebogo, Omanyala, Simbine and Richardson end Africa’s wait for first Olympic gold in the 100m?
Since 1996 when Frankie Fredericks of Namibia won the second of his two Olympic Games silver medals in the men’s 100m, African sprinters have failed to make it to the podium.
The nearest any African sprinter has come was Akani Simbine’s fourth place finish three years ago in Tokyo, Japan, five years after he ended up in fifth place in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Three other African sprinters have made attempts at podium appearances but without success.
Cote d’Ivoire’s Ben Youssef Meïté came in sixth behind Simbine in 2016 while the duo of Aziz Zakari of Ghana and Nigeria’s Enoch Adegoke failed to finish despite making it to the final albeit all three made history as the Games.
Meïté became the second sprinter to make it to the final of the blue ribband event after Gaoussou Koné in 1964 while Zakari became the first Ghanaian to run in the final of the event and the first sprinter in Games history not to finish in two successive Games.
Adegoke also made history as the first Nigerian to run in the final of the event in 25 years, after Davidson Ezinwa last did in 1996 as well as the third Nigerian after Ezinwa and Olopade Adeniken to make it to the last eight at the Games.
With the athletics event of the Paris Olympics starting next month, Africans are looking up to their sprinters to rewrite the history of the continent’s participation at the quadrennial event.
Like it was last year when the duo of Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya and Lestile Tebogo of Botswana battled to get African sprinters on the World Athletics Championships 100m podium with the latter eventually making with his silver medal finish, African sprinters will be aiming for not just a podium appearance but the ultimate prize.
The quintet of Omanyala, Tebogo, the South African duo of Benjamin Richardson and Akani Simbine as well as Favour Ashe of Nigeria are among the top 15 fastest men so far this year, with Omanyala and Richardson in the top five, African athletics watchers are convinced the wait should be over at Paris 2024.
The Kenyan is the second fastest man in the world pre-Games and many are of the opinion the 27 year old has learnt from his underwhelming performance last season when he raised hopes of a podium finish only to fade out at the crucial moment.
Richardson, the reigning world U20 champion showed he can compete with the best when he posted an incredible 9.86 lifetime best at the Stade de La Charrière meeting in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland on Sunday, July 15, 2024.
The duo will be joined by the experienced Simbine who will be keen to turn one fourth and one fifth place finishes to a podium appearance in his third appearance at the Games, Tebogo who finally announced his arrival with a silver medal finish at the World Athletics Championships last year in Budapest, Hungary and of course Ashe who dampened hopes with his 10.31 finish on Friday in a meeting in Kortrijk, Belgium on Saturday.
