Team SA’s Paris 2024 4x100m silver medallist Bayanda Walaza (10.02) and his training partner Gift Leotlela (9.95, wind-aided) were the two fastest semi-finalists in the men’s 100m at the 2025 Athletics South Africa Senior Track and Field Championships on Thursday in Potchefstroom.
Teenage sensation Walaza ran the fastest wind-legal time in the semi-finals to cross the line first in the second heat, coming home a full two-tenths clear of Karabo Letebele.
But then his Athletics Gauteng North teammate Leotlela made the most of a strong +2.6m/s tailwind in the third semi-final heat to blitz to a 9.95, finishing as the top qualifier for the final (set for 4:30pm).
Paris 2024 semi-finalist Benjamin Richardson is also in that final, having run a 10.09 to finish second in the first semi-final.
Richardson, who agonisingly missed out on the Paris final by just 0.02 seconds having competed in the French capital with an injury, was earlier comfortably the fastest qualifier from the morning heats.
His 10.08 to win heat 2 was a full tenth of a second faster than the next-best time, run by Walaza in the opening heat of the morning.
Walaza’s 10.18 was good enough to win that first heat, while his Paris 2024 relay teammate Bradley Nkoana took heat 5 in 10.24 seconds. Nkoana would later miss out on the final as he finished third in his semi-final behind Walaza, but the other two semi-final heats had strong tailwinds which pushed other athletes ahead of him on time.
Meanwhile, Wayde van Niekerk will not run at this week’s Championships, his agent Peet van Zyl confirmed.
Words courtesy Olympics.com
