Maswanganyi leads the charge in 200m

SHAUN Maswanganyi belied his youthfulness and inexperience to finish as South Africa’s leading 200m runner at the Tokyo Olympics yesterday.

The 20-year-old sprinter – who hails from Soweto and attended St Alban’s College in Pretoria – is now under the tutelage of former 100m legends Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell at the University of Houston in Texas.

And that kind of specialist training and intense competition on the college circuit is reaping dividends, as Maswanganyi qualified for the 200m semi-finals with a solid time of 20.58 seconds in his heat, and then went significantly faster in his semi-final.

Racing against world-class athletes such as Canada’s Andre de Grasse and Kenny Bednarek of the United States, Maswanganyi faced a tough task to reach the final. But he gave it everything he got, going toeto-toe with De Grasse over the first 100m, before the 100m bronze medallist from Sunday put on the heat to take the lead.

Maswanganyi was not put off by that surge, and kept going to the line, with Bednarek and Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards edging ahead.

De Grasse won in a sparkling time of 19.73, followed by Bednarek (19.83) and Richards (20.10). Maswanganyi came home in fourth place with a time of 20.18 – which was just shy of his personal best of 20.10.

He missed out on a final place to Richards, but can be delighted by finishing in 10th place overall, to go with his 14th spot in the 100m, where he also reached the semi-finals.

The fact that he was unable to race in Europe before the Games makes his performances even more remarkable, and bodes well for Team South Africa in the 4x100m relay, which begins tomorrow with the heats at 4.30am and 4.39am.