Ghana’s Men’s 100 Metre record holder Abdul-Rasheed Saminu has qualified to compete in the semifinals of the 2025 World Athletics Championship in Tokyo, Japan.
The 27 year old finished second in the last of seven heats in the preliminary round of the event in a time of 10.09 seconds to qualify automatically as one of the top three finishers in his race.
Saminu had a solid start and delivered a strong finish to inch past Africa’s record holder Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya who finished third in a time of 10.12 seconds.
Africa’s former record holder Akani Simbine of South Africa finished first in the heat to complete a clean sweep of the top three spots by African sprinters. Simbine clocked 10.02 seconds to win the heat.
Saminu, who smashed Benjamin Azamati’s Ghana record (9.90 seconds) this year by running a time of 9.86 seconds and further lowering that mark by running a time of 9.84 seconds a few weeks later, will compete against the likes of Letsile Tebogo, Noah Lyles, Kishane Thompson and Kenny Bednarek in the semifinals on Sunday, September 14 at 11:43 GMT.
Abdul-Rasheed Saminu has delivered and has qualified to the semifinals of the World Athletics Championships. Semifinal Heats will take place tonight at 8:25 @CitiSportsGHA pic.twitter.com/rWtotdIdUo
— Yaw Adjei-Mintah (@YawMintYM) September 13, 2025
Azamati finished sixth in his heat to miss out on progressing to the semifinals. (Click highlighted text to read full story)
