Aziz Zakari is a Ghanaian athlete specializing in the 100 metres. He was born in Accra

Accra

Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...

, Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

.

Participating in the 2000 Summer Olympics

2000 Summer Olympics

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

, he made it to the final of the 100 metres, but failed to finish after becoming injured at about the 35m mark.

Also participating in the 2004 Summer Olympics

2004 Summer Olympics

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...

, he achieved second place in his 100 metres heat, thus making it through to the second round. Heading into the second round, he was victorious in a tough sprint, before achieving qualification from his semi-final. This good form was not able to continue, as he failed to finish in the final, staged on August 22, renowned as possibly the fastest collective 100 metre race in history, where six of the seven finishing athletes completed the race in ten seconds or less.

He finally, for the first time, achieved a sub-10 second run

10-second barrier

The 10-second barrier is a term used in track and field athletics which refers to the physical and psychological barrier of completing the men's 100 metres sprint in under ten seconds...

 on June 14, 2005 in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 when he ran 9.99 seconds in Asafa Powell

Asafa Powell

Asafa Powell C.D is a Jamaican sprinter who specialises in the 100 metres. He held the 100 m world record between June 2005 and May 2008, with times of 9.77 and 9.74 seconds respectively. Powell has consistently broken the 10-second barrier in competition, with his personal best of...

's world record breaking race. The Ghanaian record currently belongs to Leonard Myles-Mills

Leonard Myles-Mills

Leonard Myles-Mills is a Ghanaian athlete specializing in the 100 metres.He has won a gold medal at the 1999 All-Africa Games, a silver medal at the 2003 All-Africa Games and a bronze medal at the 1998 African Championships. In 1999 he set a new African indoor record in 60 metres with 6.45 seconds...

 with 9.98 seconds.

In July 2006, Zakari was reported to have failed a drugs test for the banned substance stanozolol

Stanozolol

Stanozolol, commonly sold under the name Winstrol , Tenabol and Winstrol Depot , was developed by Winthrop Laboratories in 1962...

. The test was conducted In-Competition on 29 April 2006 at the IAAF Grand Prix Meeting in Dakar

Dakar

Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...

. On 25 September 2006 the IAAF suspended him for two years. After his suspension Zakari participated at the 2008 Summer Olympics

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

 in which he ran the fourth time in his 100 metres heat, behind Richard Thompson

Richard Thompson (athlete)

Richard "Torpedo" Thompson is a sprinter from Cascade, Trinidad and Tobago who specializes in the 100 metres. He was the silver medalist in the event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, running a personal best of 9.89 seconds....

, Martial Mbandjock

Martial Mbandjock

Martial Mbandjock is an a French sprinter who specializes in the 100 metres. His personal best time is 10.06 seconds, achieved in July 2008 in Albi....

 and Simone Collio

Simone Collio

Simone Collio is an Italian sprinter who specializes in the 60 and 100 metres. His personal best times are 6.55 seconds in the 60 metres and 10.06 seconds in the 100 metres, the second all time best performance in the Italian ranking of 100 meters, after the 10"01 in altitude of Pietro...

. His time of 10.34 was the third losing time after the 10.25 of Nobuharu Asahara

Nobuharu Asahara

is a Japanese former athlete who specialized in the 100 metres and long jump. He won the 100 m at the Japanese national championship on five occasions in 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2002, and he took part in the Olympics four times in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008...

, advancing him to the second round. There he improved his time to 10.24, but was only finishing in fifth place of his heat, causing elimination.

Outdoor

Distance	Time	Wind	Location / Date
100 m	9.99 s	+ 0.5 m/s	Rieti Rieti Rieti is a city and comune in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of c. 47,700. It is the capital of province of Rieti.The town centre rests on a small hilltop, commanding a wide plain at the southern edge of an ancient lake. The area is now the fertile basin of the Velino River...  / 28 August 2005
200 m	20.23 s	+ 0.2 m/s	Algiers Algiers ' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...  / 14 July 2000

Indoor

Distance	Time	Location / Date
60 m	6.63 s	Boston Boston Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had... / 1 February 2003