Sinesipho Dambile carries South Africa’s final medal hopes in Budapest

Sinesipho Dambile will be South Africa’s last opportunity to claim a medal at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships when he runs in the 200m in Budapest today.

Dambile is seeded second behind American Kenny Bednarek, who won the men’s 100m title on Saturday, while Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo is also among the leading contenders.

The South African finished second behind Bednarek in the 200m at last weekend’s Diamond League Final. A place in the top three would cap a breakthrough season in which he has lowered his personal best to 19.74 and won a race on the Diamond League circuit.

South Africa’s other medal hopes in the 100m, Gift Leotlela and Akani Simbine, finished sixth and eighth respectively in the final, having placed fifth and seventh at last year’s world championships.

Bednarek took the title in 9.85 seconds, ahead of Jamaica’s world champion Oblique Seville in 9.90 and American Ronnie Baker in 9.93. Nigeria’s Kayinsola Ajayi was the quickest of the four Africans in the race, finishing fourth in 9.93.

Leotlela and Simbine had both narrowly reached the final after finishing fourth in their respective semi-finals. Leotlela edged Australia’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist Lachlan Kennedy by two-hundredths of a second in the opening heat, while Simbine eliminated Commonwealth Games champion Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon by six-hundredths.

Dambile is currently South Africa’s second-most prolific sprinter in terms of sub-20-second 200m performances during a season. He has recorded seven, although one came with an illegal tailwind.

Simbine leads the national list with nine sub-performances across the 100m, 200m and 400m. He ran under 10 seconds eight times and under 20 seconds once in 2017.

Wayde van Niekerk recorded six in 2017, including three sub-44-second 400m runs, two sub-20-second 200m performances and one sub-10-second 100m. Leotlela achieved five legal sub-10-second times last year and recorded his sixth of 2026 in Saturday’s final.

Kebinatshipi and Kitaguchi claim titles

Botswana’s world champion Collen Kebinatshipi ended his international season unbeaten by winning the 400m in a national record of 43.39 seconds.

He led from the start but missed the world-leading 43.38 set by Nigeria’s US-based Samuel Ogazi.

Japan’s Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi won the women’s javelin with a national-record throw of 68.92m. She finished ahead of China’s 18-year-old favourite Ziyi Yan, who reached 68.05m, while Colombia’s Flor Hurtado was third with 64.84m.

South Africa’s Jo-Ane du Plessis, an Olympic silver medallist, would have needed a personal best to finish in the top three had she been fit to compete.

Switzerland’s Audrey Werro won the women’s 800m in 1min 55.88sec, ahead of British Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson in 1:56.26 and the Netherlands’ Femke Bol in 1:56.74.

Prudence Sekgodiso, who failed to progress beyond Friday’s semi-finals, has a best of 1:56.83.

Luvo Manyonga’s season-best 8.35m would have shared first place in the men’s long jump, but the 35-year-old, who has battled drug addiction on and off since 2011, did not qualify for the championships.