South Africa will have one last chance to end their eight-year medal drought at the World Athletics Championships, after the national men’s 4×100 m relay team failed in their solo bid to reach the final in Tokyo this morning.

The Citizen reports that following a collision between Shaun Maswanganyi and former Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy during the first changeover in the opening round, the SA quartet were given a lifeline when they won their appeal.

They were given an opportunity to run a solo time trial in the early session this morning, needing to run 38.34 seconds or faster to earn a lane in the final.

However, Maswanganyi, Sinesipho Dambile, Bradley Nkoana and Akani Simbine circled the track in 38.64, and they were eliminated.

Their time was more than a full second slower than the 37.61 the national team ran to win gold at the World Athletics Relays earlier this year and the slowest performance by the SA squad since 2016.

4×400 m relay final

This meant the SA squad has only one more opportunity to earn the nation’s first medal at the World Championships since 2017.

The men’s 4×400m quartet – Gardeo Isaacs, Udeme Okon, Leendert Koekemoer and Lythe Pillay – won their heat yesterday in 2:58.51.

With options to strengthen the team by bringing in the likes of individual 400m finalist Zakithi Nene and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk, they are set to turn out among the medal contenders in the final at 13:25 SA time.

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