South African sprinter Bayanda Walaza broke the meet record at the Rovereto International Meeting in Italy on Tuesday 9 September 2026 with a stunning 9.91 seconds to win the men’s 100m, his second international 100m victory in Italy in eleven days. Image: Supplied
South African sprinter Bayanda Walaza broke the meet record at the Rovereto International Meeting in Italy on Tuesday 9 September 2026. He clocked 9.91 seconds to win the men’s 100m. The Bayanda Walaza Rovereto meet record came just days after he won the 100m at the Grand Prix Brescia in 10.00 seconds on 29 August 2026. Furthermore, Walaza beat Ghanaian Abdul-Rasheed Saminu who ran 10.01 seconds and Canadian Eliezer Adjibi who took third in 10.09 seconds. As a result, Walaza won back-to-back international 100m titles in Italy within eleven days.
The 9.91 second time is the fastest of Walaza’s career. It broke the existing Rovereto meeting record with a wind reading of +0.5 metres per second. Jamaican Kadrian Goldson finished fourth in 10.12 seconds. The field confirmed Walaza was not beating weak competition. Saminu, Adjibi and Goldson are all competitive international sprinters. Furthermore, nearly a tenth of a second separated Walaza from second place. As a result, the 9.91 second run is the most significant performance of his career to date.
Only a handful of South Africans have ever run 9.91 seconds or faster. The South African 100m record stands at 9.89 seconds, set by Akani Simbine at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Walaza is now just two hundredths of a second from that record. That gap is almost nothing at elite sprinting level. The difference between 9.91 and 9.89 is roughly the time it takes to blink. Furthermore, 9.91 seconds ranks among the fastest times run anywhere in the world in the 2026 season. As a result, Walaza is no longer just a promising South African sprinter. He is one of the fastest men on the planet right now.
The significance of the wind reading cannot be overstated. A wind reading of +0.5 means the wind was at the athletes’ backs, helping them run slightly faster. However, it was well within the legal limit of +2.0 metres per second that World Athletics sets for record purposes. Walaza’s 9.91 is therefore a fully legal and fully ratified time that counts for all records and rankings purposes. Furthermore, to compare this to his Brescia performance ten days earlier where he ran 10.00 seconds into a -0.2 headwind, the improvement is enormous. Running 10.00 into a headwind and 9.91 with a light tailwind in the same fortnight shows a sprinter in the best form of his life. As a result, the question is no longer whether Walaza can break the South African record. It is when.
The Rovereto International Meeting is one of Italy’s top athletics events. It draws some of the world’s best track and field athletes every year. The meeting has a long history of producing fast times because of its quality fields and its timing in the athletics calendar. It falls at the end of the European athletics season when sprinters are in peak condition after months of competition. Furthermore, breaking the meeting record at Rovereto carries real prestige on the international circuit. As a result, Walaza’s name is now in the Rovereto record books alongside some of the greatest sprinters who have competed there.
Walaza’s two wins in Italy this September follow a strong 2026 season where he made himself a consistent sub-10 second performer. Earlier in the year three South African sprinters won international 100m titles on the same day, a moment that announced South Africa’s sprinting generation to the world. Walaza has been at the forefront of that generation all season. His progression from promising talent to genuine world-class sprinter has happened faster than almost anyone predicted. Furthermore, his coaching team deserves enormous credit for the technical and physical development that has produced performances like this. As a result, South African athletics is watching a complete sprinter emerge, one who can win in any conditions against any field.
The timing of Walaza’s peak is perfect. The 2027 World Athletics Championships take place in Tokyo, the city where Simbine set the South African record of 9.89 seconds in 2021. The 2028 Los Angeles Olympics follow a year later. Both events represent the biggest stages in world athletics and both are now realistic targets for a sprinter running 9.91 seconds in September 2026. Furthermore, if Walaza breaks Simbine’s national record before those championships, he will go into them as one of the most talked-about sprinters in the world. As a result, what South African athletics fans are watching right now is not just great performances. They are watching the beginning of what could be one of the most exciting chapters in the history of South African sport.
Walaza’s September 2026 performances belong alongside the greatest moments in South African sprinting history. Wayde van Niekerk’s 43.03 second world record in the 400m at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Akani Simbine’s years of consistency at the top of world athletics. The 2026 generation of South African sprinters who won international 100m titles on the same day. Walaza’s 9.91 second run at Rovereto belongs in that conversation. Furthermore, he achieved all of this while winning two races in eleven days in a foreign country against international competition. As a result, South African athletics fans have every reason to be proud of and excited about Bayanda Walaza.
You may also be interested in: Bayanda Walaza Wins Men’s 100m at Grand Prix Brescia With 10.00 Seconds.