August 03, (THEWILL) – Once again, it was heartbreaking for Nigeria’s sprinter and medal hopeful, Divine Oduduru in the semi-finals of the men’s 200m on Tuesday as he raced competitively to a third-place finish with a time of 20.16 seconds.
It was the first of the semi-final races and 17-year-old Erriyon Knighton from Team USA demonstrated a quick pair of legs to cross the line in 20.02s to qualify for the final ahead of the entire field. Knighton kept checking on his opposition the whole way to the line, looking sideways repeatedly.
That means if he puts all his focus on his sprint and gives his legs extra push, he can finish faster. He may be saving that for the final where the best will compete. Joining him in that final from this semi-final was Jamaica’s Rasheed Dwyer, who finished in 20.13s.
As in Oduduru’s qualification from heat 1, his time of 20.16 fell well short of his personal best of 19.73s at the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas two years ago. The third place finish was not enough as only the top two go through automatically to the final. It means he loses out and cannot hope for medals in Tokyo in his strong suit of the 200m.
He was hoping to earn a podium finish to make his promising run in the 100m heat before he got disqualified for a false start a bit more bearable, but his time was not good enough to see him reach the final for that chance.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
