BY ADRIAN MWANZA –
THE Federation of International Athletics Associations (IAAF) has scrapped the 9.88s that Zambia’s budding runner Sydney Siame recorded in a 100m dash three months ago at Heroes Stadium.
According to the IAAF website, the 9.88s that stood on Siame profile had been removed and his older time of 10.18 restored as rumours that the world body is investigating the time recorded in April.
On April 8 this year, during the ZAAA All-Comers Meet at Heroes stadium in Lusaka, Siame ran an astonishing 9.88 second, which became Zambia new record and the first sub-10 seconds by a Zambian runner in the 100m race.
That went in as the leading time for this year and was only beaten by former world champion Justin Gatlin at the Diamond League last month.
But a check on the IAAF website yesterday showed that Siame’s personal best had been taken back the previous 10.18seconds ran in 2015 also in Lusaka.
And it remains to be seen whether the 19-year-old will still be part of the London world athletics championships in August as the time in question was what qualified him to the world games.
And in his preparations for the London Games next month and in response to the IAAF move, Siame on Friday put up a stunning performance in the 100 heat at the IAAF Madrid Championships where clocked 10.06 seconds to make it to the final.
He finished third in that heat but with the race being wind assisted, by a staggering 4.4m/s, it is unlikely his time will be considered as a new personal best by the IAAF.
In the 100m and 200m events, the maximum legal wind assisted speed is 2.0m/s otherwise, this time would have qualified him to the world championship whose threshold is 10.16 seconds.
But in the final at the Madrid Meet, Siame finished in fourth place, marginally missing out on a medal and also saw his time fall to 10.22 seconds but was justified as it was against the head wind of 0.8m/s.
He was beaten by Cuba’s Yunier Perez who minted gold with a time of 10.09 seconds and was followed by China’s Zhenye Xie who clocked 10.11 seconds while Jamaica’s Ryan Shields was third with 10.20 seconds.
He was however, happy with the outcome saying he was merely preparing for the big one which was the World championships in London next month.
Siame said he will be taking part in another championship today in Finland before heading to England where the Zambian team will be camped.
“I’m not disappointed with the outcome here, it is more like preparation for me for the London Championships which will be huge,” Siame said from Madrid.