Ghana’s national 100m record holder, Benjamin Azamati, achieved a season’s best time of 9.98s in California, securing qualification to the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo at the McNabb Sprint Series.
This performance marks a season best for the sprinter and places him tied for 17th on the official men’s 100m qualification list for the global event.
It is Azamati’s fourth career sub-10s performance under legal wind conditions.
As Ghana’s fastest man over 100 meters, Azamati is also a key member of the national 4×100m relay team.
He previously ran the back straight when Ghana set the current national record of 38.07s during the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
The 26-year-old reached the semi-finals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and recently opted out of Ghana’s relay team for the Guangzhou World Relays to focus on qualifying in the individual 100m event—a goal he has now achieved.
Azamati’s qualification marks a historic milestone, becoming the first Ghanaian to qualify for the World Championship.
This season, Azamati has consistently improved his performance: 10.12s, 10.07s, 10.02s, and 9.93s (2.9m/s) in his previous meets, culminating in his 9.98s performance.
Ghana has recorded nine wind-legal sub-10s performances in history, with Azamati accounting for four, while Leo Myles-Mills and Aziz Zakari each have two, and Joseph Paul Amoah has one.
