Featured image: Gators Track and Field Twitter (Fahnbulleh in semi-finals)
The 2022 World Athletics Championships is halfway over, as day six begins, and Liberia has much to look forward to.
Joseph Fahnbulleh, who made history as the first athlete to represent Liberia in an Olympic finals, has done it again. Now, he will become the first runner to represent Liberia in a World Athletics Championships final. Here are the race recaps for day four and five.
Fahnbulleh breezes through day four
On day four, Fahnbulleh appeared to effortlessly clench a spot in the semi-finals. The top-ranked runner breezed through the first round of the men’s 200m World Championships placing first in his heat. He ran 20.12 to automatically advance to the next race.
Fahnbulleh’s round-one time was the sixth fastest time of the evening. Kiki Ueyama of Japan and Jerome Blake of Canada came in second and third to automatically qualify for the semi-finals as well.
“It’s anybody’s game,” Fahnbulleh told FloTrack in a post-race interview. “Anything could happen, so be on your ‘p’s and ‘q’s and just execute.”
Onto the finals, we go
Fahnbulleh repeated his success and made history on day five. The national record holder automatically qualified for the finals after placing second in his semi-finals heat. He ran 19.92.
Even though Fahnbulleh makes his races look easy, his performance in the World Championships is quite impressive. This is the first World Championship for the 20-year-old runner and he has made it to the finals where anything is possible.
At the finals, Liberia will take on South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican Republic, Canada and three runners from Team USA.
The men’s 200m finals will take place on Thursday, July 21. Here are the finalists:
🇺🇲 Noah Lyles 19.62
🇺🇲 Erriyon Knighton 19.77
🇺🇲 Kenny Bednarek 19.84
🇹🇹 Jereem Richards 19.86
🇩🇴 Alex Ogando 19.91
🇱🇷 Joe Fahnbulleh 19.92
🇿🇦 Luxolo Adams 20.09
🇨🇦 Aaron Brown 20.10— Go Team Liberia (@goteamliberia) July 20, 2022
The World Athletics men’s 200m finals will take place on Thursday July, 21 at 7:50 p.m. PT or Friday July 22 at 2:50 a.m. GMT. Fahnbulleh will be running in lane seven. LNTV is scheduled to replay the race on Friday at 8:40 p.m GMT.