Thando Roto (TuksAthletics) showed yesterday that he has what it takes to become a member of South Africa’s elite sub ten-second sprint club when he won the 100 metres in a time of 9.98s at a league meeting at the University of Johannesburg on Saturday.

Roto has become the fifth South African sprinter to dip under ten seconds. The others are Akani Simbine (9.89s), Henricho Bruintjies (9.97s), Wayde van Niekerk  (9.98s) and Simon Magakwe (9.98s).

Unfortunately for Roto, the wind from behind was far too strong for his time to be officially recognised. The wind speed was recorded at +2.9m/s. 

Saturday was not the first time that Roto got “robbed” of a good time by the wind. Last year in Salamanca, Spain he won the 100 meters in a time of 10.15s which should have qualified him for the Rio Olympic Games was it not for the fact that the wind from behind was measured at +2.6m/s. Officially his best time is still 10.27s.

Roto is not too worried that his first sub-ten effort is not recognised. "It was still amazing to finish a race and see that I have managed to dip under ten seconds. I now know that on any good day I will be able to do so again,” said the TukAthletics athlete.

Roto made it clear that he will never allow himself to become obsessed with running sub ten seconds.

“Naturally I want to run a sub 10 but I am not one to make predictions as to when and where it is going to happen. I will let my legs do the talking. If you are prepared to put in the hard work you will eventually reap success.”

His next race will be to the VarsityAthletics Meet in Potchefstroom.

Hennie Kriel, who coaches Roto, predicted earlier in the week that Roto is ready to run a sub ten-second race. However, he did not expect it to happen on Saturday as Roto had a slight niggle.

Sprinting is really Roto’s passion. Often in his free time, he would go to Kriel’s house to study video clips of sprinting greats in action.

“I like to watch what the former sprinters did and then compare it to what we are doing now. You learn a lot doing so.”

Roto certainly will surprise a lot of people when asked who he considers being a hero.

He will answer Ben Johnson the Canadian who disgraced international athletics during the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

Johnson won the 100m in a world record time of 9.79s but was disqualified a day later when he tested positive for the misuse of steroids.

“Don’t get me wrong, there is no way that anybody can condone the use of banned substances in sport, but having watched a lot of videos on Johnson racing I still admire him,” said the TukAthletics athlete.