African record holder in the 100m, Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, and young Zambian Muzala Samukonga, in the 400m, made an impression on Saturday at the meeting in Gaborone, Botswana, where the exuberant American Sha’Carri Richardson was beaten over 200m.
While the summer season is just taking off, Omanyala has already come within a hundredth of his African record set in 2021 (9.77), winner of the 100m in 9 sec 78, with a wind however a little too much favorable (2.3 m/s) to register at the top of the world assessments.
Omanyala (27) won ahead of young Batswana Letsile Tebogo (9.91) and American Kenny Bednarek (10.02). The performance of the day – which Noah Lyles did not fail to notice on social networks – is to the credit of the young Zambian Muzala Samukonga, only 20 years old, on the lap. The 2022 Commonwealth champion set a canon time of 43 seconds 91, a personal best lowered by 75 hundredths. It is also a new national record and the best world performance of the season.
Above all, to take the measure of it, it is a faster time than that which had won world gold for the American Michael Norman last summer (44.29). Behind, the Grenadian Kirani James, triple Olympic medalist in the distance and vice-world champion 2022, did not keep up the pace (2nd in 44.76). In the 200m, Tebogo, a year younger than Samukonga, also improved his personal best by winning in 19 sec 87 (against 19.96) and took the lead in the world record. For his comeback, the Canadian Andre de Grasse, reigning Olympic champion, ranked seventh in 20 seconds 41.
On the half-lap, Richardson, author of a super fast but much too windy 100m at the beginning of the month (10.57), was beaten by another American, Kayla White (22.38 against 22.54, wind: -0.5 m /s). The Diamond League, the elite circuit of world athletics, resumes in less than a week (May 5) in Doha.
