South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk, world record holder of the 400m, is eagerly awaited today during the 8th day of the world championships taking place in Eugene in the United States. He will try to do better than Niger’s Aminatou Seyni and the Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh who missed out on the 200m podium.
Niger’s Aminatou Seyni and the Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh indeed suffered the same fate by failing at the foot of the podium in women's and men's 200m finals of the "Oregon World championships" on the night from Thursday to Friday. Through the fault of Jamaica and the United States, which deprived the African sprint of a feat on American land...
USA's Noah Lyles and Jamaica's Shericka Jackson both destroyed their rivals with career-best performances with times of 19.31 and 21.45 respectively. Aminatou Seyni (4th in 22''12) passed ahead of "Stars" like Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson, Swiss Mujinga Kambundji and America’s Abby Steiner and Tamara Clark. The first place went to Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson (21''45), who was not far from equaling the world record held by America’s Griffith-Joyner (21''34). Her compatriot Fraser-Pryce won Silver in 21.81. Britain's Dina Asher-Smith takes Bronze with a time of 22''02. Aminatou Seyni, is the first Niger athlete to reach a final in the World Championships. "I hope this experience will help me a lot to aim for a world title," she said.
Joseph Fahnbulleh could not do better than 4th place in the men's final with a time of 19.84. As in the 100m final, it was the Americans who monopolized the podium with Noah Lyles (19''31), Kenneth Bednarek (19''77) and Erriyon Knighton (19''80). South Africa’s Luxolo Adams finished 8th in 20.47.
The other Africans competing on this 7th day have had various exploits. Thus, the men's triple jump qualification saw Pedro Pichardo from Portugal (17.16m) and Hugues Fabrice Zango from Burkina Faso (17.15m) announce the color in the quest for Gold. On the other hand, Kenya’s Julius Yego did not manage to qualify for the Javelin final. Alone, the Egyptian ensured his qualification thanks to a throw of 83m41. For the men's 5,000m semi-finals, Africa played its part well by qualifying 6 athletes from Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. In the 800m (Men and Women), Africa also intends to play the big roles in the finals. The day 8 of the competition will be marked for Africa by the 400m final. Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori and South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk are in the race for the medals.
Program of the day
Friday July 22 to Saturday July 23 (GMT)
1:15 p.m.: 35 km women's race walk
12:05 a.m.: Men's pole vault qualifications
12:40 a.m.: Women's 4x100 m heats
01h05 a.m.: Men's 4x100m heats
1:20 a.m.: Women's javelin final
1:35 a.m.: Women's 800m semi-finals
2:15 a.m.: Women's 400m final
2:35 a.m.: Men's 400m final
2:50 a.m.: Women's 400m hurdles final
