By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
INDISPOSED Youth Olympics gold medalist, Sydney Siame on Sunday defied illness when he forced himself to compete in the 200 metres final at the Africa Junior Championships in Ethiopia but faired poorly.
After initially pulling out of the 200m final because he was unwell, Siame, a 100m gold winner at the 2014 Nanjing Olympic Games, made a shocking appearance at the starting line but ended up finishing last.
Athletics Africa tweeted that “Nanjing2014 YOG 100m champion Sydney Siame had pulled out of the men’s 200m final here in Addis Ababa”after the Zambian indicated that he was ill.
But to everyone’s surprise, Siame popped up with six other runners at the starting point after Ivorian Chan Aurel Tchan Bi also pulled out of the race.
Siame’s performance was so poor that he timed 22.21seconds which is one of his worst times in this category in two years.
The same @athleticsafrica then tweeted after the race about Siame’s surprise turning up and seemed sympathetic with his performance.
“Zambia’s Sydney Siame eventually came out to run the 200m final, but placed last with 22.21 seconds. Obviously not 100 per cent, may be forced (to),” they tweeted.
He had got to his second final from the two races he was competing in at the just-ended Africa Junior Championships with a semi-final time of 22.02 seconds.
The semi-final time was a surprise drop from the impressive time he recorded in his heat where he timed 21.58 seconds but this was also not close to his personal best of 21.27seconds achieved in Lusaka in April last year.
Amidst despair, Siame was left comforted as he had already minted a bronze medal in the 100m race.
Nigerian Divine Oduduru, who won the gold in the 100m race, also struck gold in the 200m race by timing 21.22 seconds while the silver medal went to compatriot Victor Peka on 21.53 seconds.