Bayanda Walaza wins 200m to claim first men's sprint double in 26 years

Bayanda Walaza struck down his rivals with his trademark lightning start to win the 200m in Lima, Peru, on Friday night (Saturday morning SA time) to claim the first men’s sprint double at the under-20 world championships in 26 years.

Walaza, a member of the South African 4x100m relay team that won Olympic silver in Paris, built up a massive lead as he bounded around the bend to give himself a massive cushion heading into the home straight.

And the Pretoria-based matric pupil needed it, holding off fast-finishing 16-year-old Australian Gout Gout to cross the line first in 20.52sec. Gout was second in a 20.60 personal best and Jake Odey-Jordan of Great Britain was third in 20.81.

The 18-year-old Walaza, who had taken the 100m crown earlier in the week using the same bullet-out-the-blocks technique, became the first man since Briton Christian Malcolm to bag the 100m and 200m titles at a single age-group championships.

He is only the fourth man to achieve this double after Nigerian Francis Obikwelu at Sydney 1996 and Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago at Seoul 1992.

With countryman Udeme Okon winning the 400m the night before, South Africa also became the first country to win the men’s sprint treble in the history of this age-group competition, which kicked off in 1986.

But Walaza’s hopes of landing a third medal in the 4x100m relay final on Saturday night crashed in the morning heats on Friday with his team disqualified for failing to complete the handover in the zone at the first change-over.

Walaza had sat out the race but his teammate from Paris, Bradley Nkoana, was present, although the damage was done before he received the baton at No3.

In other action Temoso Masikane had to settle for fourth in the men’s long jump, landing on 7.74m to miss the podium by 6cm.

South Africa had three gold, one silver and a bronze to lie fourth on the medals table going into the final day on Saturday, when they will have a few more pushes for silverware.

Discus-thrower Juan Marais and 400m hurdler Njabulo Mbatha are both seeded third in their events while the men’s 4x400m outfit, starring king Okon, are fourth.

Also in action are Hannah van Niekerk in the women’s 400 hurdles and Johannes Morepe in the men’s 1,500m.