By Emmanuel Okogba
Nigeria’s duo of Kayinsola Ajayi and Israel Okon, the nation’s only two representatives in the 100 metres men event at the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Tokyo have qualified for the semi-final billed for Sunday.
While Ajayi ran a Personal Best sub 10s time of 9.88 (+0.3) in Heat 1 and finished second, Okon did 10.04 (-0.6) to win Heat 6.
Ajayi’s effort earned him the second overall best finishing time, only behind South Africa’s Gift Leotlela who also ran a PB of 9.87 (+0.3) and ahead of defending World and Olympic Champion, Noah Lyles who ran 9.95 (-1.1) and finished overall fourth.
For the semi-final, Ajayi will run from lane 7 in Heat 1 alongside two Olympic 100 metre champions, Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs and United States’ Noah Lyles.
Okon will also run from lane 7 in Heat 3 that includes 200m Olympic champion, Letsile Tebogo, Canada’s Andre De Grasse and Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, who will hope to improve on how he started in the first round.
Other African representatives, Ferdinand Omanyala (Kenya), South Africa’s Akani Simbine and Ghana’s Abdul-Rasheed Saminu also made it to the semi final.
The first 2 of each heat (Q) plus 2 fastest times (q) will qualify to the final
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