Double gold for history-making Pretoria teenage athletics sensation

Pretoria’s teenage sensation on the athletics track has done it again and made history in the process.

Two days after winning the gold medal in the 100m at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima, Peru, the world’s fastest teenager, Bayanda Walaza, followed it up with another gold when he won the 200m final in a time of 20.52s.

Walaza was the favourite to win this race, having also set the fastest time in the heats.

The lightning-quick matriculant from Pretoria made history with this achievement, becoming the first athlete in 26 years to win double gold at this global junior athletics spectacle. In addition, he is only the fourth male athlete in history to achieve this feat.

Christian Malcolm of Britain last managed it in 1998, while Francis Obikwelu of Nigeria (1996) and Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago (1992) are the other athletes who could accomplish this exceptional feat.

Unfortunately, Walaza will not get the opportunity to win a third medal. He would probably have been part of the South African team that participated in the 4x100m relay, if the team had been able to qualify for the final. However, without Walaza (who had to concentrate on the 200m), the team was disqualified in the first heat due to a technical violation, after the baton was not released in time at the first change-over.

Walaza’s performance also made history in another way, after another South African athlete, the University of Johannesburg student Udeme Okon, won the 400m final.

This means that South Africa’s young men’s athletes dominated the sprint events at the World Athletics U20 Championships by taking the gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m.

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