Ajayi, Ashe bow out of 100m

Nigeria’s duo Kayinsola Ajayi and Favour Ashe fell short of the qualifying spots in the men’s 100m semi-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday with both men finishing sixth in their respective races, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

After progressing through the heats on Saturday, all eyes were on both men inside the Stade de France as they lined up in the star-studded event, with the hope of seeing Nigeria making back-to-back Olympic finals in the event after Enoch Adegoke reached that stage in Tokyo 2020.

Ashe, who picked the last non-automatic spot into the semis started very well in the race, but he couldn’t match the finishing of the rest of the field as Jamaica’s Oblique Seville won the first semi-final with a new personal best of 9.81s while world champion Noah Lyles was second in a time of 9.83s.

He has been beaten for the second time at the Games as he hopes to win the Olympic title.

The 19-year-old Ajayi who stunned the field in his heat on Saturday produced a time of 10.16s in the second semi-final but it wasn’t enough to get him through.

South Africa’s Akani Simbine ran a fantastic race to win the heat in a time of 9.87s while Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo grabbed the second automatic spot in 9.91s for an African dominance.

Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs, whom Ajayi beat in the heats on SaturdayCame third in an equal season’s best of 9.92s but it wasn’t good enough for an automatic qualification to defend his title.

Ajayi is the newly-crowned Nigeria men’s 100m champion, having won the title at the National Trials before the Olympics.

The Auburn man ran his season’s best and new personal best of 10.00s at the end of the Olympics automatic qualifying window to win the men’s 100m at the Luzern Athletics Meet in Switzerland in July.

He had hoped to break the 10s barrier in the event in Paris.

In his debut NCAA season, Ajayi’s accomplishments include winning the South-Eastern Conference (SEC) 60m title in his first college year and securing a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

The 19-year-old became the third Tiger SEC Champion in the last four years in the men’s 60m dash, claiming gold in a time of 6.60s on the final day of competition at the Randal Tyson Track Centre in February.

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