Samuel Francis (athlete)

Samuel Francis

Francis at the 2013 World Championships
Personal information
Nationality	Qatar
Born	(1987-03-27) 27 March 1987 Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Sport
Sport	Running
Event(s)	Sprints
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	100 m: 9.99 s (Amman 2007) 200 m: 20.61 s (Sofia 2008)
Medal record Competitor for  Qatar Men's athletics Asian Indoor Games Gold Macau 2007 60 metres Asian Athletics Championships Gold Amman 2007 100 metres Silver Amman 2007 4×100 m relay Asian Indoor Athletics Championships Gold Doha 2008 60 metres Gold Tehran 2010 60 metres

Samuel Adelebari Francis (born 27 March 1987) is a Nigerian-born Qatari sprinter who specializes in the 100 metres.^[1] He was born in Port Harcourt. He became a naturalized Qatari in April 2007, and competed for his new country from July 2007. His personal best of 9.99 seconds is the current Asian record for the 100 m.

At the 2007 Asian Championships he first set a new championship record of 10.18 seconds during the heats. In the final he ran in a new Asian record, breaking the 10-second barrier with a time of 9.99 seconds, bettering Koji Ito's mark of 10.00 seconds at the 1998 Asian Games.^[2] He also went onto to win the silver medal as part of the 4×100 metres relay team for Qatar. At the 2007 World Championships held one month later, his goal was to reach the final.^[3] He did not finish the race, however, exiting in the first round.

At the 2008 Olympic Games he competed at the 100 metres sprint and placed 1st in his heat before Marc Burns and Matic Osovnikar in a time of 10.40 seconds. He qualified for the second round in which he improved his time to 10.11 seconds. Normally, finishing fourth in one's heat in the Olympics would see one eliminated, but because his time was the fastest of those who didn't automatically qualify for the semi-finals, he also advanced to the semi-finals. However, in the semi-finals, he had the slowest time (10.20) of that round and was eliminated.^[1] He ran at the next major championships, the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, but although he ran one of the fastest times of the first round, he was knocked out at the quarter-finals stage.

Francis has also competed indoors over 60 metres with much regional success. At the 2007 Asian Indoor Games he won with a Games record time of 6.54 seconds. The following year at the 2008 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships he also won in championship record time. He competed at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games, but withdrew from the final due to injury, also missing the 2009 Asian Athletics Championships as a result. He rebounded soon after, winning another gold at the 2010 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in February and improving his own championship record to 6.58 seconds.

Personal bests

• All information taken from IAAF profile.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Samuel Adelebari Francis.

• Samuel Francis profile at IAAF