He was always up against it as it was his first race this year, but Anaso Jobodwana will be disappointed after going out in the first round of the 200m at the Rio Olympics.
Jobodwana won the bronze medal in thrilling fashion at last year’s world championships in Beijing in a new South African record of 19.87, but has been hampered by injuries throughout 2016, which have kept him sidelined for the entire year.
He was still selected for Rio based on his world championships performance, but the lack of competition showed on Tuesday as he ended fourth in his heat in 20.53.
The 24-year-old from King William’s Town had high hopes of doing well, and told Independent Media a few days ago that he had been timed at “20.0” during simulation races in training.
But things didn’t work out for the man who stunned the athletics world at the 2012 London Olympics when he made it all the way to the final to finish eighth as a 20-year-old.
There is no doubt that he has the talent to become a real force in the 200m, especially with Bolt set to retire after next year’s world championships. But Jobodwana needs the injuries to stay away to fulfil his undoubted promise.
The performances of the other two South African entrants in the 200m, 18-year-old pair Clarence Munyai and Gift Leotlela, seriously calls into question Athletics South Africa and Sascoc’s selection policies after Akani Simbine was controversially left out of the three-man group.
Leotlela ended fourth in his heat in 20.59 and Munyai third in 20.66 to miss out on the semi-finals, with the last two “fastest losers” spots going to American Ameer Webb and Greek Likourgos-Stefanos Tsakonas in 20.31.
National 100m record-holder Simbine had clocked the second-fastest 200m time by a South African this year – behind Wayde van Niekerk’s 20.02 – by running 20.29 in March, and had a then-personal best of 20.23 he achieved in reaching the semi-finals of last year’s world championships in Beijing.
He was keen to do the 200m as well in Rio, but strangely the powers-that-be chose Munyai (20.36) and Leotlela (20.47) instead when the team was announced in mid-July after Van Niekerk decided to do just the 400m.
A few days later, Simbine exposed the foolishness of his exclusion by running a new personal best of 20.16 on the same day he improved his 100m record to 9.89 at a meeting in Hungary.
And after finishing fifth in the 100m final in 9.94, Simbine would’ve felt confident of at least reaching the semi-finals and possibly even the final if he could improve his personal best, which was possible due to his good form.
Meanwhile, Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt began his quest for a final individual Olympic gold medal by strolling to victory in his 200m heat in 20.28.
The fastest qualifiers were 100m bronze medallist Andre de Grasse of Canada (20.09) and Spain’s Bruno Hortelano (20.12), while Yohan Blake was third in 20.13.
Veteran Americans LaShawn Merritt (20.15) and Justin Gatlin (20.42) also won their heats comfortably. The semi-finals take place on Wednesday night (Thursday 3am SA time), with the final the following evening (Friday 3.30am SA time).
@ashfakmohamed - Independent Media