Wilson Chipangura, Guest Reporter
TOKYO – It was a good day in office for a number of African athletes in the 100m track event at the Tokyo Olympics as they led charge for medals at the global sports gala.
A total of seven athletes from South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Kenya made it to the 100m semifinals after finishing their round 1 heats in qualification time.
In Round 1 Heat 1, Nigerian Usheoritse Itsekiri qualified for the semifinals on third position in 10.15 seconds.
The Heat was won by USA sprinter Ronnie Baker (10.03s) while Jimmy Vicaut from France on 10.07s came second.
Heat 2 had another Nigerian Enoch Olaoluwa Adegoke who led the pack with 9.98s ahead of Femi Ogunode (Qatar) 10.02s , Zharnel Hughes (Great Britain) 10.04s and Trayvon Bromell (USA) 10.05s.
Heat 3 saw South African sprinter Shaun Maswanganyi settling for third place with a time of 10.12s after Italian athlete Marcell Jacobs who took first position in 9.94s while Jamaican Oblique Seville 10.04 came second.
Heat 4 was led by South African athlete Gift Leotlela with 10.04s ahead of China’s Su Bingtian at 10.05s and Jason Rogers from Saint Kitts and Navis at 10.21s.
Heat 5 saw another African athlete from Kenya, Ferdinand Omurwa qualifying for the 100m semifinals after finishing third with a time of 10.01 seconds.
Fred Kerley from USA (9.97s) and Canadian Andre De Grasse (9.91s) were the other ones to qualify from this Heat.
Heat 6 event was won by South African athlete Akani Simbine who managed to finish earlier in 10.08s while Arthur Cisse from Ivory Coast was second on 10.15s.
Brazilian prospect Paulo André de Oliveira Camilo sealed the last semifinal berth after clocking 10.17s and settled for the 3rd position.
Heat 7 had no African athlete qualifying for the semifinals. It was won by Australian Rohan Browning who managed at time of 10.01s ahead of gold medal favorite Yohan Blake (Jamaica) who clocked 10.06 seconds.
The other one to qualify to the semis from this Heat is Great Britain sprinter Chijindu Ujah who finished at 10.08s.
Ghanaian Benjamin Azamati-Kwaku came agonizingly close on fourth position with 10.13s which was outside the qualification mark.
