Bayanda Walaza mows down African king Omanyala in back yard

Zakithi Nene dipped under 44 seconds for the first time in his career as he clocked a 43.76sec world lead to win a low-key 400m race in Nairobi by more than a second yesterday.

That effort confirmed him as a medal contender for the world championships in Tokyo in September, and also lifted him to 16th on the all-time list.

In the main event, however, Bayanda Walaza overcame another false-start scare to down Ferdinand Omanyala in the Kenyan’s backyard.

Australian Lachlan Kennedy, the 60m silver medallist at the world indoor championships in China earlier this year, won the 100m in a 9.98 personal best, with Walaza second in 10.03 and African record-holder Omanyala third in 10.07.

On this occasion the time wasn’t as important as the scalp for 19-year-old Walaza, who was given a green card after being recalled following the first start. His start second time around seemed a little subdued.

With his green-carded twitch in the blocks in the 4x100m final at World Relays and his disqualification from the 200m final at the national championships, Walaza is going to give South African fans some heart-stopping moments in years to come. 

The 9.94 Walaza produced in Zagreb last weekend underlined a meteoric rise that started less than 10 months ago. 

Walaza went to the Paris Olympics as a reserve, getting into the 4x100m team through injury but he still helped them to silver. Then he conquered the world’s best juniors over 100m and 200m and became the ninth South African to dip under 10 seconds in the 100m.

Now he’s blowing away world-ranked stars.

Omanyala, who set his 9.77 African record in 2021, ran the second-fastest time in the world last year, but yesterday he looked like a mule alongside the teen sensation.

Walaza has defied the critics who predicted his head-bobbing and arm-flailing at top speed would hamper his progress, and has developed a technically superb start that is probably his strongest weapon right now. 

He is fourth on the world list for 2025, topped by countryman Akani Simbine. 

It’s too early to get too excited about the standings because the Americans, Jamaicans and Europeans have yet to stage their national championships. But still, one has to wonder if Walaza can continue improving between now and the Tokyo showpiece. Will his rate of acceleration ease up or will he burst through like a meteorite ready to hit the podium with shuddering impact?

A sobering statistic is that only 26% of South Africa’s junior world championship medallists have won silverware at the Olympics or senior world championships. However, when measuring only the country’s age-group champions, the conversion rate is almost double at nearly 50%.

Junior world champions often take years to achieve success as seniors, however.

The quickest transition was probably the 25 days it took for Nigel Amos of Botswana to win the junior 800m crown and the 2012 Olympic silver.

A small band of athletes have straddled individual junior and senior podiums across one year, notably Botswana star Letsile Tebogo, Kirani James of Grenada, Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie, Kenyan Moses Kiptanui and British hurdler Colin Jackson.

All of them were 20 when they won their senior silverware, with the exception of James, who was two days short of his 19th birthday. The youngest world championship 100m medallist was Darrel Brown of Trinidad and Tobago, who claimed bronze in 2003 at the age of 18 years and 318 days.

And even if Walaza doesn’t make the podium this year, it’s no disgrace, with many world junior champions taking three years to make the transition, like Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago and Noah Lyles of the US.

Usain Bolt’s journey from junior gold to a global senior podium took five years and LJ van Zyl, holder of the 47.66 South African 400m hurdles, needed nine years.

There is one hoodoo statistic standing in Walaza’s way: no South African junior world sprint medallist has reached a senior global podium. 

But you can bet that will change — it’s just a matter of when.