Paris 2024: Can Simbine, Tebogo, Omanyala, End Africa’s Wait For First 100m Gold?

Former African record holder, Akani Simbine and reigning World U20 champion, Letsile Tebogo, believe they are on the right track as far as their preparations go for the Paris 2024 Olympics after impressing at the London Diamond League meeting last Saturday.

Simbine ran 9.86, just two hundredth of a second off his lifetime best (9.84) while Tebogo set a new 9.88 personal best.

“I’m happy with today’s performance, I’ve run a season’s best. I think we’ve got the time right now and so it’s just time to fix up a little bit of the race ahead of the Olympics. It feels good and I’m happy with my race.

“This is a huge confidence ahead of the Games, knowing the shape I’m in right now and knowing what we need to work on just in the last week. I’m feeling good going into the Games and I’m really excited for it,” says Simbine who has finished fourth and fifth in the event at the last two Olympics.

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Tebogo is also feeling great ahead of the Games and will feel confident he can make the final and win a medal like she did last year at the World Athletics Championships.

“I’m feeling great, we’re on the right track for the Olympics. Now I’m heading back to the camp in Paris to work out the final touches for the Olympics,” said the 21 year old Tebogo.

The duo and Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala will be seeking to deliver Africa’s first Olympic 100m gold in the history of the Games.

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 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 ay 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.

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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 2024 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 Omanyala and Tebogo battled to get African sprinters on the World Athletics Championships 100m podium with the latter eventually making do with his silver medal finish, African sprinters will be aiming for not just a podium appearance but the ultimate prize.

The trio of Omanyala, Tebogo, and Simbine (as well as Nigeria’s Favour Ashe and South Africa’s Benjy Richardson) are among the top 15 fastest men so far this year, with Omanyala 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 that 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.
He will be joined by the experienced Simbine and Tebogo who put down a marker in London last Saturday.

By Dare Esan