Ghana sprinter Benjamin Azamati has missed out on qualifying to compete in the Men’s 100 Metre Finals at the 2024 Olympics in Paris after finishing ninth in Heat One of the penultimate stage of the top rated event.
Azamati clocked a time of 10.17 seconds which was slower than his time in the previous heat that qualified him to the semifinals (10.06 seconds). At the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Azamati didn’t progress to the semifinals.
The first of three heats was won by Jamaica’s Oblique Seville with a time of 9.81 seconds which is his personal best. Reigning World champion Noah Lyles finished in second place with a time of 9.83 seconds with Louie Hinchliffe of Great Britain finishing third with a time of 9.97 seconds.
The top two finishers in each heat automatically qualify to the finals with the sprinters with the best times across all three heats picking up the remaining two non-automatic qualification slots.
In Heat Two, Akani Simbine of South Africa and Letsile Tebogo of Botswana qualified automatically after finishing first and second respectively. Scroll down to see the qualification times of the first two Heats.
Benjamin Azamati finishes ninth in semis; misses out on progressing to finals pic.twitter.com/RtE915v3s0
— Yaw Adjei-Mintah (@YawMintYM) August 4, 2024
Letsile Tebogo makes finals so happy for the African lads pic.twitter.com/5knPUysvh4
— Yaw Adjei-Mintah (@YawMintYM) August 4, 2024