Ghanaian sprinter Benjamin Azamati
Ghana’s Benjamin Kwaku Azamati failed to reach the semi finals stage of the 100m men’s event at the ongoing Olympic Games in Tokyo-Japan.
The West Texas A&M University student ran in the 100m dash at the 2020 Olympic Games earlier on Saturday morning. The freshman sprinter, who’s one of the fastest men in the world, ran in Round 1 of the men’s Heat 7.
Azamati placed fourth in the race, clocking in a time of 10.13 seconds .
He made a slow start to the race but superbly recovered midway through, although it still wasn’t enough to see him advance to the next round.
This was the Olympic debut for the 23-year-old, who went into the heat saying he wants to break Jamiacan sprinter Usain Bolt’s record of 9.63 seconds. In an interview with TV3, Azamati explained that the dream of every athlete is break records and set them.
“The ideal time I want to run in my career is, you know I’m an athlete,” he said. “A 100-meter sprinter, and everyone looks at breaking records, so, of course, I’m looking at breaking Usain Bolt’s record.”
Australian sprinter Rohan Browning finished first in the heat with 10.01 seconds, followed by Jamaica’s Yohan Blake and Great Britain’s Chijindu Ujah.
Blake recorded a time of 10.06 seconds to finish second, while Ujah finished third with a time of 10.08 seconds.
Only the first three runners in each heat and the three fastest losers in other heats qualified for the semi-finals.
Azamati is the latest Ghanaian athlete to be eliminated from the Games following the exit of triple jumper and Nadia Eke and swimmer Abeiku Jackson.
The 23-year-old will, however, compete again in the 200m event and will also join compatriots Joseph Amoah, Joseph Manu and Sean Safo-Antwi to represent Ghana in the 4x100m relay.
Azamati turned a lot of heads when he broke the 38-year-old NCAA Division II 100m record as well as Ghana’s national record, running a smoking 9.97 at the Texas Relays in Austin back in March. Later in the season, he ran the number 2, 3, 4 and 5 best times in NCAA Division II history, including a 10.02 to win the Division II crown.