Summary: A claim by Spoon TV that Liberian athlete and Olympian Joseph Fahnbulleh is Africa’s fastest man, is incorrect. We have fact-checked this looking at relevant sources.
On August 8, Spoon TV, a Facebook page owned by Spoon Communications, claimed in a Facebook post that Joseph Fahnbullah, who is currently representing Liberia at the 2024 Paris Olympics, is Africa’s fastest man.
Fahnbulleh finished 7th in the Men’s 200m at Paris Olympics with 20.15 seconds. Letsile Tebogo claimed the gold medal after emerging as a winner.
The Liberian sprinter finished 7th in the 200m Men’s final but is hailed by many of his compatriots for his outstanding performances at the 2024 Olympic Games
Nevertheless, Fahnbullah had qualified for the final with a 20.12 record on August 7 after winning Heat 1 of the 200m Men’s category with 20.20 on August 5.
The Claim
Spoon TV claimed in its Facebook post before the final: “Africa’s fastest man, Joseph Fahnbulleh has qualified for the grand final of the 200M track field event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.”
Spoon TV made the post before the 200m final in Paris
Rating Justification
To verify this claim, we viewed the ranking of sprinters on the African continent as published by the World Athletics on its website.
The latest ranking shows that the title of Africa’s fastest man is currently being held by Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya.
Omanyala ranks #1 as the fastest man in Africa in the 100-meter men’s category, with a time of 9:88 seconds, followed by Letsile Tebogo of Botswana.
For the 100m, Liberia’s Emmanuel Matadi is ranked at 5th place while Joseph Fahnbulleh is ranked 10th.
We also viewed an article published on the official website of the Paris 2024 Olympics on May 3, 2024, titled “Fernand Omanyala, Africa’s Fastest Man Ever: ‘I want to be the person who came and changed Kenya running” states that Omanyala set the record in the 100m with a time of 9.77 seconds.
Further research found a VOA article dated August 1, 2024, titled “Africa’s fastest man, Omanyala carries Kenya’s hopes for first Olympic gold in 100 meters” which confirms Omanyala’s status as the fastest man in Africa.
Conclusion
This report is produced with funding from the USAID Media Activity. The funder has No say in the editorial decisions leading to the production of this content