(Photo: Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP)
By Michael Horovitz - August 5, 2022
Israeli sprinter Blessing Afrifah won a surprise gold medal in the men’s 200-meter race at the under-20s World Athletic Championships in Colombia on Thursday, setting a new championship record.
Afrifah, 18, beat Letsile Tebogo of Botswana — the favorite to win — by six-thousandths of a second, finishing the race in 19.96 seconds and winning the second gold medal ever for Israel at the championship.
The victory marks a new championship record and only the fourth time in history that a sprinter under the age of 20 has finished a 200-meter race in under 20 seconds. It was also the first race in which two under 20 athletes both finished under 20 seconds.
Read More: Times of Israel