100m, 200m and 400m: African sprinters on the rise

Could this be the dawn of a bright new era for African sprinting? The start of something that lasts a very long time? This weekend was certainly a wild one for plenty of them, and most are still so young. On Saturday evening in Botswana in front of their home crowd, Letsile Tebogo, a two-time world junior champion, showed he is already ready to shake up the senior order and put the American, Canadian and Jamaican sprinters on notice. The 20-year-old clocked 19s87 in the 200m, becoming the first athlete to go under 20 seconds over 200m this year. But that world lead would last only a few hours.

Thousands of kilometres from Gaborone, in Texas (United States), Ghana's James Dadzie tore up the clock. The 22-year-old won his 200m race in 19s79, smashing the Ghana record of 20s08 held by Joseph Amoah. Two young Africans under 23 now occupy the top two places in the world rankings over the distance.

It is the same story over 400m. South Africa's Wayde Van Niekerk, the world record holder over one lap of the track, had set the year's best time on 1 April (44s17). At the Gaborone meeting yesterday, he was knocked off top spot by Zambia's very young Muzala Samukonga. African 400m champion last year at 19, he ran 43s91 on Saturday to become the only athlete under 44 seconds in 2023.

Finally, in the 100m, the two fastest times of the year were both run by Ferdinand Omanyala. But the Kenyan has been unlucky. His 9s78, set yesterday at the Gaborone meeting, will not be ratified because the following wind (+2.3m/s) exceeded the permitted limit (+2m/s). The same happened a few weeks ago with his 9s72 in South Africa.

9.78 👀

🇰🇪's @Ferdiomanyala sets the track on fire at the @GrandPrixBW with a huge world lead in the men's 100m 🙌#ContinentalTourGold pic.twitter.com/MiA6uQQbUw

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) April 29, 2023