Team SA medal hopes extinguished as relay team drops the baton

Team South Africa's last realistic chance of a medal at the World Championships in Budapest were finally extinguished when the 4x100m relay team failed to finish in Saturday night's final after dropping the baton.

The South African relay side, made up of Shaun Maswanganyi, Benjamin Richardson, Clarence Munyai and Akani Simbine, suffered a case of de ja vu from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, dropping the baton in the changeover between Richardson and Munyai in a race won by the United States (37.88sec), with Italy (37.62sec) and Jamaica (37.76sec) rounding off the podium places.

Having finished fourth-fastest in the heats with a season's best time of 37.72sec on Friday night, the South Africans will be disappointed not to finish as that time would have snuck bronze ahead of the Jamaicans.

The result means Team SA, who last won a medal at the 2017 World Champs, now place all their hopes on marathoners Melikhaya Frans, Simon Sibeko and Tumelo Motlagale.

In the morning session, marathoner Irvette van Zyl finished 45th in a season's best time of 2:38.32, which was well off her personal best of 2:26.11.

Shot putter Ischke Senekal failed to advance into the final from the qualifiers, her distance of 16.20m more than three metres short of the automatic qualifying standard and only good enough for 16th place in a field of 18.