Sierra Leonean athlete Ibrahim Turay, 19, who competed in the 200 meters yesterday Tuesday August 7th 2012 in the ongoing London Olympic Games, has failed to qualify to the semi-final stage of the competition when he finished 8th position with a time of 21.90.

He was placed in heat two alongside Christophe Lemaitre of France who emerged as winner in the group with a time of 20.34 and was followed by Anaso Jobodwana of South Africa with a time of 20.46. In third position was Aaron Brown of Canada - all of them have qualified to the semi-final stage of the competition

Turay, whose personal best time before the competition was 22.00, said he was not happy with the position as he was expected to do better but however reckoned there was some improvement in his time, which according to him, he hopes to improve on in the coming months.

Turay before the Games was in Senegal undergoing high level training sponsored by the Olympic Solidarity in collaboration with the National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone, which was very instrumental in ensuring the athlete's training dream becomes a reality.

Coach Abu Barthalomew Kamara aka Abu Whyte - who accompanied Turay to the Games - said the athlete has the potential to be one of the best in the next Olympic Games in four years' time in Brazil if he continues with his development and trains well.

According to Coach Abu Whyte, he only took over coaching Turay less than a month to the Games and that he would have put up a better performance had he had enough time to prepare him for the Games.

He said four years ago in the Beijing Olympic Games Solomon Bayoh, who represented the country in the 200 meters, clocked a time of 22.16; meaning there has been an improvement this year on the event.