Wind robs Roto from becoming 5th SA sprinter to dip under 10 seconds
A strong wind had robbed local sprinter Thando Roto from becoming the fifth South African sprinter to record an official time of less than 10 seconds in the 100m.
Thando Roto from TuksAthletics showed this weekend that he has what it takes to become a member of South Africa’s elite sub ten second sprint club when he won the 100 metres in a time of 9.98s at a league meeting at the University of Johannesburg.
Roto has become the fifth South African sprinter to dip under ten seconds. The others are Akani Simbine (9.89s), Henricho Bruintjies (9.97s), Wayde van Niekerk (9.98s) and Simon Magakwe (9.98s).
Unfortunately for Roto the wind from behind was far too strong for his time to be officially recognized. The wind speed was recorded at +2.9m/s.
Saturday was not the first time that Roto got “robbed” from a good time by the wind. Last year in Salamanca, Spain he won the 100 meters in a time of 10.15s which should have qualified him for the Rio Olympic Games was it not for the fact that the wind from behind was measured at +2.6m/s. Officially his best time is still 10.27s.
Roto is not too worried that his first sub ten effort is not recognized.
“It was still amazing to finish a race and see that I have managed to dip under ten seconds. I now know that on any good day I will be able to do so again,” he said.
Hennie Kriel, who coaches Roto, predicted earlier in the week that Roto is ready to run a sub ten second race. However he did not expect it to happen on Saturday as Roto had a slight niggle.
Sprinting is really Roto’s passion. Often in his free time he would go to Kriel’s house to study video clips of sprinting greats in action.
“I like to watch what the former sprinters did and then compare it to what we are doing now. You learn a lot doing so.”
Roto certainly will surprise a lot of people when asked who he considers to be a hero. He will answer Ben Johnson the Canadian who disgraced international athletics during the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. Johnson won the 100m in a world record time of 9.79s but was disqualified a day later when he tested positive for the misuse of steroids.
“Don’t get me wrong, there is no way that anybody can condone the use of banned substances in sport, but having watched a lot of videos on Johnson racing I still admire him,” said the strongly built the athlete.
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