Ajayi, Ashe face tough field in men’s 100m semis

Nigerian sprinters Kanyinsola Ajayi and Favour Ashe have their work cut out, facing a strong field in the semifinals of the men’s 100m event of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Sunday (today), PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

Making his Olympics debut, the 19-year-old Ajayi, put everyone on notice, running through to win heat 5 in a time of 10.02s (-0.3) on Saturday morning and will further prove his mettle in the semifinals, facing off with class acts Espinosa Reynaldo of Cuba, Liberia’s Matadi Emmanuel, Blake Ackeem of Jamaica, Tebogo Letsile of Botswana, South Africa’s Simbine Akani, Bednarek Kenneth of USA, Italy’s Jacobs Lamout Marcell, and Hartmann Joshua of Germany.

To reach this stage, Ajayi defeated the Olympic champion, Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs, who finished 2nd in 10.05s, with Ghana’s Abdul-Rasheed Saminu coming in 3rd in a time of 10.06s.

The Ikorodu-born African Championships silver medallist left Lagos in January this year to go to school in the United States (Auburn University), and now he will be competing in the semifinals of men’s 100m at the Olympics.

Ashe qualified by grabbing one of the fastest non-automatic spots after placing 4th in heat 4 with a time of 10.16s, placing behind Oblique Seville (9.99s), Hakim Sani Brown (10.02) and Puripol Boonson (10.13s).

Also making his Olympic debut, Favour Ashe also qualified but wasn’t too pleased with how he executed his race. He is  however happy to have qualified for the semis, as this gives him another opportunity to execute his race as he would love to.

“I came into today’s meet with a plan of running the perfect race…but during this heat, I didn’t execute well,” he said as per Making of Champions.

Noah Lyles, Kishane Thompson, and Marcell Jacobs all progressed to the semi-finals as a handful of outside contenders made statements in the heats on Saturday.

The fastest overall time was posted by the United States’ Kenneth Bednarek and Fred Kerley (both 9.97), and the pair will be out to upset compatriot Lyles on Sunday.

Reigning world champion Lyles was the 12th fastest overall (10.04), and beaten in his heat by Great Britain’s Louie Hinchliffe (9.99), the 22-year-old Brit trained by Olympic legend Carl Lewis.

Thompson of Jamaica, meanwhile, is the fastest man this year and ran exactly 10 seconds to win the first of eight heats.

Only Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme (9.98) and Jamaica’s Oblique Seville (9.99) joined the U.S. pair and Hinchliffe in going sub-10 at the Stade de France, while just 0.1 second split the top 18 sprinters.

Ashe has been drawn in heat 1 of men’s 100m semifinals on Sunday. He will be going up against Lyles, Seville, Hinchliffe, Eseme and Ghana’s Benjamin Azamati for a place in the final.

Ajayi has been drawn in heat 2 and will be facing off with Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, South Africa’s Akani Simbine and USA’s Bednarek.