Gift Leotlela and Akani Simbine finished fifth and seventh, respectively, in the final of the men’s100m on the second day of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sunday. It was a Jamaican 1-2 as Oblique Seville beat home Kishane Thompson in 9.77sec, with Olympic champion Noah Lyle in third. Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo was DQ’d for a false start.
The world’s fastest man over one lap, South Africa’s Zakithi Nene, won his heat in a comfortable 44.74, where he bossed the race to set himself up for Tuesday’s semi-finals, along with Lythe Pillay.
In men’s 1500m heats action, favourite Jacob Ingebrigtsen was a surprise casualty, failing to reach the semi-finals, while South Africa’s Ryan Mphalele was also unable to get out of the heats. In the men’s 10000m final, Adrian Wildschutt was 10th, with gold going to France’s Jimmy Greisser in a major upset.
This is how South Africa fared on Sunday.
DAY 2 RESULTS
MEN
100m, semi-final: Akani Simbine finished 3rd in his semi-final in 9.96 and qualified 7th fastest for the final as a “lucky loser”
100m, semi-final: Gift Leotlela finished 3rd in his semi-final in 9.97 and qualified 8th fastest for the final as a “lucky loser”
100m, FINAL: Gift Leotlela finished 5th in 9.95 and Akani Simbine was 7th in 10.04 as Jamaica’s Oblique Seville took gold in 9.77
100m, semi-final: Gift Leotlela finished 3rd in his semi-final in 9.97 and qualified 8th fastest for the final as a “lucky loser”
400m, heats: Zakithi Nene won his heat in 44.74 to qualify for the semi-finals
400m, heats: Lythe Pillay finished 2nd in his heat in 44.73 to qualify for the semi-finals
1500m, heats: Ryan Mphahlele finished 13th in his heat in 3:45.22 and didn’t progress to the semi-finals
10,000m FINAL: Adrian Wildschutt finished 10th in 28:59.47, with gold going to France’s Jimmy Gressier in 28:55.77
WOMEN
100m hurdles, heats: Marione Fourie finished 2nd in her heat in 12.86 to automatically qualify for the semi-finals. She was 18th fastest from the heats summary
400m, heats: Shirley Nekhubui was unable to move through to the semi-finals after finishing 6th in her heat in 51.82
OVERALL PERFORMANCES
MEN
100m: Akani Simbine and Gift Leotlela both came through the heats and semi-final to reach the final, but Retshidisitswe Mlenga fell out in the heats. Leotlela finished 5th in 9.95 in the final, with Simbine 6th in 10.04
400m: Zakithi Nene and Lythe Pillay both progressed from the heats into the semi-finals
Men’s shot put: Aiden Smith and Chris van Niekerk were eliminated in qualification
1500m: Ryan Mphahlele finished 13th in his heat and didn’t progress to the semi-finals
WOMEN
400m: Shirley Nekhubui was eliminated in the heats
100m hurdles: Marione Fourie finished 2nd in her heat to qualify for the semi-finals
Long jump: Danielle Nolte was eliminated in qualification
35km race walk: Jessica Groenewalt finished 34th in the final
MIXED
4x400m: Team SA (Gardeo Isaacs, Miranda Coetzee, Leendert Koekemoer and Zeney van der Walt) ran an African record 3:11.16 in the heats and then Isaacs, Nekhubui, Koekemoer and Van der Walt finished 6th in the final
