Akani Simbine led a three-pronged SA sprint attack on the 100m heats at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday‚ with the trio all advancing to Sunday’s semifinals.
World No.2 Simbine‚ after enduring a false start‚ had to push hard after a slow start to win his heat in 10.08 sec.
Gift Leotlela eased up to win his heat in 10.04 while Shaun Maswanganyi had to work all the way to end third in his heat in 10.12.
But both SA’s long-jumpers‚ Ruswahl Samaai and Cheswill Johnson‚ crashed out in the qualification round‚ failing to land among the top 12 who advanced to the final.
Samaai‚ the 2017 world championship bronze medallist‚ managed a best jump of only 7.74m‚ 22cm behind the shortest qualifying distance.
Johnson failed to record an official distance after two no-jumps.
