Ace Sprinters Makanakaishe Charamba and Tapiwanashe Makarawu made history by becoming the first two Zimbabweans to reach the final of the men’s 200m final at the Olympic Games together on a memorable night in Paris on Wednesday.
The Zimbabwean duo initially missed out on automatic qualification for Thursday’s final after they both finished third in their respective semifinal races.
Charamba gave himself a chance after clocking 20.31 seconds to finish behind Botswana sprint sensation Letsile Tebogo, who came first in 19.96 and American Noah Lyles 20.08.
A landmark victory has been secured for Zimbabwe as Makanaishe Charamba and Tapiwanashe Makarawu qualified for the final of the men’s 200m at the Paris Olympics 2024.
Makarawu finished third in the third semifinal, crossing the line in 20.16s behind American Erriyon Knighton, who came first in 20.09s and Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh, who finished second in 20.12s.
After narrowly missing out on automatic berths, both Charamba and Makarawu secured two landmark qualifications for their country, getting the next fastest times from their semifinal heats.
It marked a historic moment for Zimbabwe, as the nation has never before had two athletes in an Olympic sprint final.
Its also the first time Zimbabwe will be represented in the men’s 200m final at the Olympics since Brian Dzingai achieved the feat at the Beijing Games in 2008.
The men’s 200m final will have a huge African representation with four athletes from the continent progressing to the sports showpiece event for the first time in history.
American three-time world champion, Noah Lyles who won the 100m by five-thousandths of a second from Jamaican Kishane Thompson in 9.79 seconds, will be one of the favourites to clinch gold on Thursday’s final despite finishinh second in his semifinal behind Botswana’s Tebogo.
Tebogo, also a finalist in the 100m, struck a psychological blow to Lyles, crossing the line in 19.96sec, while Lyles timed 20.08sec.
America’s Kenny Bednaraek, the second-fastest in the world this year over the distance, clocked 20.00sec to edge out Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic in the first semi-final.
Erriyon Knighton of the US, a silver and bronze medallist over 200m at the past two world championships, qualified first from the third semi-final, clocking 20.09, ahead of Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh.