Prior to the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing, Making of Champions came up with our list of 5 Young Sprinters to watch out for at the event. Just like we predicted, four of the five athletes we featured made the podium in China. These youngsters make up our exclusive list of Top 6 Breakout Athletes in 2015. They are joined by two others who weren’t even factored in as medal contenders, but showed up at just the right moment to stake their claim to fame. Here they are:
6. ANASO JOBODWANA
Year 2015 turned out to be a defining moment in Jobodwana’s career. The youngster’s consistency paid off big time, resulting in a medal in Beijing. The South African sprinter is no stranger to the world stage having participated in the London 2012 Olympics and 2013 World Championships in Moscow. He was quite impressive too, getting to the final in both events, considering that he was barely 20 years of age at the time.
Jobodwana was on an entirely different level at the World Championships in Beijing, and his zeal for a medal couldn’t be terminated by his disqualification in the 100m after beating the gun. The mishap only fuelled his determination to make the podium in his major event, the 200m. He won his heat in 20.22s, and went on to finish 2nd behind Bolt in the semis where he set a PB of 20.01s.
While the rest of the world focused on the Bolt/Gatlin rivalry in the final, the 23-year old did not allow the opportunity of a lifetime slip through his fingers; he made the most of running against two of the world’s fastest men EVER by racing to a National Record (NR) of 19.87s to take Bronze behind the pair as Bolt clocked a World Lead (WL) of 19.55s, while Gatlin followed in 19.74s.
Jobodwana competed in several Diamond League meetings this year where he held his own, never finishing outside the Top 3 in each race. He was in contention for the Diamond Trophy but eventually lost out to Alonso Edward of Panama. However that is not enough to take the shine off what has been an outstanding season for the sprinter.
