by Ben Ayuko
{image by Ken Browne (Olympics.com)}
Former 100m sprint world champion, Christian Coleman, narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2024 summer Olympic Games in Paris.
The American, who holds the record for the 60m indoor sprint word title, was one of the favourites to go through to represent the United States at the Olympics.
He had a strong semi-final performance, which he won comfortably in a time of 9.86sec, setting up yet another final showdown with his compatriot and current world champion, Noah Lyles (Who had won his own semi-final). He took his place on the starting blocks alongside a relatively quick field with every competitor having gone through with a sub-10sec sprint time, including the 18-year-old high schooler, Christian Miller.
As the gun fired, Coleman shot out the quickest and he was well clear of the track up to the 50m mark. However, this seems to have come at a cost as he appeared to gas out pretty early in the race giving the other competitors the opportunity to reel him in, which they did. First came, Noah Lyles in 9.80sec followed by Kenny Bednarek (9.87) and Fred Kerley (9.88). Coleman was next in 4th with a time of 9.93sec and misses out as only the top 3 athletes would qualify for the Olympic games. The 18-year-old, Christian Miller, was 5th with a time of 9.98sec.
This means that this is the first time in 7 years Coleman has failed to book a seat to represent his country.
This could be something to ponder for Omanyala, because did Christian Coleman- his nemesis- miss out simply because he wasn’t quick enough or because the rest of the field was just that much faster?