Usain Bolt has a new SA rival — and it’s probably not who you expect
Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin head into the world championships in London this week sharing identical 100m season’s bests of 9.95 seconds with one other athlete. Can you name him? Well done if you were thinking South African‚ but it’s neither of the usual suspects‚ Akani Simbine or Wayde van Niekerk (who are actually ranked higher). No‚ the third local speedster in the mix is University of Pretoria (Tuks) student Thando Roto‚ who is looking to pull off a surprise or two in this event. Roto‚ who flies out with the SA-based members of the team on Monday evening‚ is scheduled to line up in the 100m heats in the opening session of the showpiece on Friday night (9.20pm SA time). And he’s planning to stick around for the semifinals and final‚ both scheduled for Saturday. "I’m expecting to make the final‚" said Roto‚ 21. When Simbine flew into the top eight of the 100m at the Rio Games last year‚ he became the first South African to grace an Olympic final in 84 years. No South African has r...
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