A very strong case can be made for considering 2024 one of the biggest years for African sprinting, and that momentum carried seamlessly into 2025. From seasoned veterans to rising stars, the continent’s finest sprinters broke records, claimed medals, and made history.
Here is Part 1 of our countdown, highlighting the athletes we’ve ranked 10–6 on the African Top 10 Male Sprinters of the year!
10. Abdul-Rasheed Saminu
Abdul-Rasheed Saminu powered through a demanding 48-race season that ultimately elevated him into Ghanaian sprinting history, finishing the year as the fastest Ghanaian man ever in both the 100m and as part of the 4x100m. Indoors, he swept the American Conference short sprints for South Florida and later finished 4th in the 60m at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a Personal Best (PB) of 6.53s.
He opened his outdoor campaign with a slightly windy 9.87s in Florida, and although a disqualification denied him a Conference double in the 100m, he peaked at the NCAA Preliminaries, where he stormed to a massive PB of 9.86s, breaking Benjamin Azamati’s Ghanaian Record and briefly becoming the fastest man in the world for the year. He also posted a windy 19.95s over 200m and helped South Florida set a School Record of 38.05s in the relay.
The NCAA Championships proved challenging, as he narrowly missed the 100m final and placed 8th in the 200m, but Saminu rebounded emphatically at the Last Chance Qualifier in Georgia with a stunning 9.84s, improving his own 100m National Record (NR) and becoming the 3rd fastest African man in history.
At the World Championships, he reached the 100m semifinals and anchored Ghana’s 4x100m team to a brilliant heat win and National Record of 37.79s. The quartet went on to finish 4th in the final.
9. Tapiwanashe Makarawu
Tapiwanashe “Carlie” Makarawu entered 2025 as one of Zimbabwe’s most exciting sprinting prospects after making the Olympic 200m final the previous year. However, his season was anything but smooth, testing his resilience on a different level.
Despite early physical challenges, he dazzled indoors, setting four NRs, culminating in a sensational 20.13s to win the NCAA Indoor 200m title, a mark that made him the joint 7th fastest indoor performer in history alongside compatriot and rival Makanakaishe Charamba.
Disaster struck outdoors when a hamstring injury at the Tom Jones Memorial forced him out for a month. Many feared his season was over, but Makarawu regrouped, rebuilt, and returned just in time for the NCAA Championships, where he surged to a stunning 19.84s NR to claim the 200m title and complete the rare indoor-outdoor double.
At the Tokyo 2025 World Championships, he delivered a very fine 19.91s in the heats before finishing 7th in the final, an extraordinary comeback for a season that began in uncertainty.
8. Gift Leotlela
Gift Leotlela’s 2025 season was undoubtedly the finest chapter of his career. After first emerging on the global stage as an U20 medallist in 2016, the South African sprinter, who made his global senior debut at the Tokyo Olympics, returned to Tokyo with renewed purpose, sealing a season that validated his long-standing promise.
After a few indoor stints, he kicked off his 2025 campaign in March with a 10.17s run in Pretoria, one of his best season openers before clocking near-PBs of 20.22s over 200m in Botswana, and 9.95s over the 100m in the semifinals of the South African Championships.
In the final, Leotlela went head-to-head with his training partner Bayanda Walaza, edging him out to claim his first national 100m title in 9.99s!
That momentum carried into the World Championships, where he clocked a stunning 9.87s to win his heat ahead of eventual champion Oblique Seville. The performance elevated him to the second-fastest South African ever and the 9th fastest African in history.
Leotlela crowned his breakthrough season by making his first senior global final and finishing a creditable 5th in Tokyo, more than enough to make him one of Africa’s best sprinters.
7. Kayinsola Ajayi
Kanyinsola Ajayi’s ascent has been one of the most compelling sprint narratives in recent years. Now Nigeria’s highest-ranked 100m athlete under the World Athletics ranking system, his move to Auburn University in 2024 laid the foundation for an explosive 2025 campaign.
He equalled Deji Aliu’s long-standing Nigerian 60m National Record with a 6.48s run at the NCAA Indoor Championships before claiming silver in the final.
Outdoors, he broke the 10-second barrier for the first time in his career with a 9.96s in his 100m season-opener in Florida, immediately making him the 10th fastest Nigerian man in history. He lowered that to 9.92s in the NCAA Championships semifinal before finishing 4th in the final. A subsequent mini European tour saw him win all of his races against professional athletes.
Ajayi made his World Championships debut largely under the radar but left Tokyo as the sixth fastest man in the world. He opened with a new PB of 9.88s, becoming the third fastest Nigerian ever and the 10th fastest African in history. He then finished 2nd in his semifinal against Noah Lyles, securing an automatic spot in the final and becoming the first Nigerian man to make a 100m World Championships final in 18 years, since Olusoji Fasuba.
His season closed with records for the most sub-10s in a single year and the highest legal sub-10 counts (six) in Nigerian history.
6. Akani Simbine
Akani Simbine may not have checked every box in 2025, but he certainly had a year to be proud of. The South African patriarch of sprinting has made every global final since 2016, from the Olympic Games to the World Championships, with the exception of Budapest 2023, when a marginal false start ended his run.
The only global stage he had yet to grace was the World Indoor Championships, and this year, he finally did. With the South African summer arriving early, his decision to compete indoors made perfect sense. In Nanjing, Simbine, a six-time global fourth or fifth-place finisher, finally earned the first major international individual medal of his career, clocking 6.54s for Bronze in the men’s 60m.
That medal meant everything. It was not only his long-awaited podium finish, but also Africa’s first medal in the event since Olusoji Fasuba’s GOLD in 2006.
Outdoors, he was in early imperious form, winning five consecutive Diamond League races and defeating Olympic Silver medallist Kishane Thompson along the way. He also anchored his country’s men’s 4x100m team to GOLD at the World Relays in 37.61s, thereby helping South Africa top the medals table in the historic moment for an African nation.
After a brief mid-season pause, Simbine returned strongly, securing 2nd place at the Diamond League final. At the Tokyo World Championships, he once again reached the global final, his eighth in total, continuing a level of consistency unmatched on the continent.
