Athletics: who are the 3 best African sprinters of the season?

Africa has long impressed the world in the middle- and long-distance events, but Letsile Tebogo, Ferdinand Omanyala and Muzala Samukonga have shown the continent can shine in the sprints too. Sport News Africa looks back at the performances of the three African sprinters who made their mark in the 2024 season.

Letsile Tebogo, hero of a whole continent

Tebogo is unquestionably the best African sprinter of the season. On 8 August 2024, the Botswanan became the first African ever to win Olympic gold in the 200m. Letsile Tebogo won in masterful style in 19''46, an African record, just 26 hundredths off the world record held by the great Usain Bolt (19''19). And yet nobody had foreseen this outcome for the Kanye native, who was up against the Americans Kenny Bednarek (19''62) and Noah Lyles (19''70).

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Resilient and blessed with the mental strength of an elite athlete, Letsile Tebogo, who lost his mother a few weeks before the Paris Olympics, found extra strength in her loss to deliver this historic performance at the Stade de France. “It's important for the African continent, people are starting to realise who we are”, he said after this monumental achievement.

Read also: Olympics 2024: Tebogo makes history, Morocco among the big boys

Back home, Tebogo was celebrated, along with his team-mates, with whom he won silver in the 4x400m, by the country's authorities in a manner befitting their achievement. The Botswanan government declared a day off to celebrate his gold medal and the silver, laying on a feast at the stadium. The world number 1 is now a role model for all of Africa's young people.

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Ferdinand Omanyala, world number 2

When it comes to the 100m, it is impossible not to think of Ferdinand Omanyala. The fastest man in Africa in the event, the 28-year-old Kenyan finishes the 2024 season second in the World Athletics world rankings with a time of 9"79. Omanyala is two hundredths behind Jamaica's Kishane Thompson (9"77). However, the Commonwealth Games 2024 gold medallist will end the year with the disappointment of the Olympics, where he finished eighth in his semi-final and missed out on the final.

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Muzala Samukonga, the rising star of the 400m

Muzala Samukonga will celebrate his 22nd birthday (on 9 December) with enormous pride. A bronze medallist at the Paris Olympics in 43"74 (Zambia's first Olympic medal in 28 years), the Lusaka native finished behind Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith (43"44) and the American Quincy Hall (43"40) and enjoyed a fine 2024 season. Samukonga completes the world 400m podium. And to round off the campaign, he won gold at the Diamond League in Rome (44"30) in late August. Another reliable performer for African athletics. And you, who are your three best African sprinters of the season?