Kanyinsola Ajayi missed out on a medal at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo after finishing sixth in the 100m men’s final on Sunday.
The 21-year-old clocked 10.00s, falling well short of a podium finish in a race won by Jamaica’s Oblique Seville in a personal best time of 9.77s.
Kishane Thompson completed a Jamaican double with a silver medal in 9.82s, while Noah Lyles settled for bronze with a season’s best 9.89s.
Ajayi could not replicate his semi-final exploit, where he grabbed automatic qualification and made history as the first Nigerian athlete in the men’s 100m final in 18 years.
The sprinter was, however, the second-best of the four Africans in the race, finishing ahead of South Africa’s Akani Simbine and Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo.
Simbine posted 10.04s while Tebogo did not feature due to a false start that disqualified the 22-year-old.
Gift Leotlela, who clocked 9.95s, was the highest placed African, but the South African finished in fifth place overall.
Ajayi is only the second Nigerian athlete to have advanced into the final of an event at Tokyo 2025.
Eleven of the country’s 15-athlete contingent have ended their participation in the tournament.
Udodi Chudi Onwuzurike (men’s 200m), Ezekiel Nathaniel (men’s 400m hurdles), Charles Godfred (men’s long jump), and Tobi Amusan (women’s 100m hurdles) are the four representatives still active in Tokyo.
