Sport

World Athletics Championships: Can African Sprint Stars Secure Medals?

African athletes are expected to be successful over middle and long distance at this month's World Athletics Championships, but the continent's sprinters have been turning heads before the track action begins in Eugene.

Ivory Coast's Marie-Josee Ta Lou was the only African medalist in races up to 400m in Doha in 2019, but things look set to change in Oregon.

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Ferdinand Omanyala is Africa's fastest man with a personal best of 9.77 seconds - with Olympic silver medalist Fred Kerley and Trayvon Brommel the only two people to have run faster than the Kenyan this season.

However, the 26-year-old faces a race to line up after delays obtaining his American travel visa.

Ghanaian pair Benjamin Azamati and Joseph Paul Amoah, Botswana's world Under-20 champion Letsile Tebogo, Liberia's Emmanuel Matadi and Nigeria's Favour Ashe complete a list of six African men who have run under 10s going into the World Championships.

Akani Simbine was beaten by Omanyala by just 0.003 seconds at last month's African Championships and the South African says African sprinters - "on the rise" - are ready to challenge for top medals.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, meanwhile, says the continent's talent is "not a storm that is going to blow away".

"What we're beginning to witness is the emergence of world-class sprinters plying their trade and training in Africa," Coe added.

"They will go to Eugene with confidence high and expectation they could easily come back with medals.

"If somebody in Africa wins an Olympic or World Championship sprint title, it will have the same impact as David Rudisha winning the 800 meters. It will really inspire more young athletes, particularly to recognize that the sprints are something that's for them."

In the 200m, South Africa's Luxolo Adams and Liberia's Joseph Fahnbulleh have a real chance of getting to the podium.

Adams won last month's Paris Diamond League in a huge personal best of 19.82s, handing reigning Olympic champion Andre de Grasse a shock defeat, and Fahnbulleh made headlines by winning the NCAA title in 19.83s, the year's sixth-fastest time.

South Africa's Wayde Van Niekerk took 200m silver at the 2017 Worlds, but the 400m world record holder will be concentrating on the longer distance in Eugene.

But it is not just the male sprinters looking to shine.

Nigerian 100m hurdler Tobi Amusan set a new African record at the Paris Diamond League and narrowly missed out on a medal when finishing fourth at both the 2019 World Championships and the Tokyo Olympics.

"Getting to the podium will be a dream come true," the African champion told BBC Sport Africa.

"It will be a reward for all the hard work in training; my sweat, tears, and everything just to make my mum proud because she has sacrificed so much."

Namibia's Christine Mboma took silver in the 200m at the Tokyo Olympics but travels to the Championships pretty much untested this season.

She will be competing for the first time since sustaining a thigh injury in May but Mboma is still the third-fastest woman this year.

 

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