Olympic silver medallist Bayanda Walaza became only the second South African to dip under 9.90sec twice when he won the 100m at a meeting in Belgrade, Serbia, on Wednesday. The 20-year-old matched the 9.89 personal best he clocked in Slovakia in July to join Akani Simbine as the only men to have made multiple forays into sub-9.90 territory. Simbine has been there five times — first in 2016, second in 2021 and then on three occasions in 2024, two of which were at the Paris Olympics, in the semifinals and final, setting his 9.82sec South African record, finishing fourth by one-hundredth of a second. Gift Leotlela went 9.87 at the world championships in Tokyo last year, and Benjamin Richardson, who is now racing for Ireland, was timed at 9.86 at La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland in 2024. Walaza’s feat also means he is only the second South African after Simbine to run two sub-9.90sec in a season. Walaza, the double sprint champion at the 2025 World University Games and the 100m-200m gold medallist at the 2024 under-20 world championships, beat some decent names on Wednesday. Behind him were American Ronnie Baker, a member of the US team that won the 4x100m world title in Japan last year, and Canadians Jerome Blake and Aaron Brown, both members of the team that won Olympic 4x100m gold in Paris.The South African team, starring Simbine and Walaza, ended second. Walaza’s victory came too late to boost his ranking points to secure automatic qualification for the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest later this month, missing the qualifying window by one day.His total of 1,272 points is 17 behind American Baker, the lowest qualifier on world rankings points. Simbine and Leotlela have qualified for that and the Diamond League final in Brussels on Friday night, where the winner will also earn a spot at the new competition, which runs from September 11 to 13.