MZANSI’s athletes rose to the occasion at the Confederation of African Athletics Senior Championship in Durban at the weekend in style.
SA’s big athletics names such as Akani Simbine, Wayde van Niekerk, Caster Semenya, Luvo Manyona (silver in men’s long jump – 8.20m) and Stephen Mokoka (gold in men’s 10 000m – 28.02.97) just to mention a few, lived up to expectations ahead of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, starting on 5 August.
Rising sprinter Gift Leotlela, who is going to the IAAF World junior championships in Poland from 15 to 24 July, also put in a sterling performance, while SA’s golden girl Semenya came within a whisker of breaking SA’s long-standing 1 500m women’s record to become the second fastest SA athlete in the event in history.
Semenya clocked 04.01.99, just under two tenths of a second off Zola Budd’s record of 04.01.81, set back in 1984 in Port Elizabeth.
The SA 4x100m relay teams also completed a double in the men’s and women’s events to put themselves in a good position to qualify for the Olympics.
Only the top 16 ranked relay teams in the world will be chosen to compete at the showpiece in Rio.
The deadline for the relay team selection is on 11 July and SA’s teams now have to race in Europe to boost their chances of making the cut.
The women’s team, made up of Carina Horn, Alyssa Conley, Tebogo Mamatu and Tamzin Thomas were fastest to the finish line clocking 43.66 sec, while the men’s team consisting of Simbine, Van Niekerk, Leotlela and Emile Erasmus claimed their gold with a time of 38.84 sec.
The surprise of the week by an SA athlete was Jacob Rozani who secured an Olympic qualifying time in the men’s 800m final when he finished second to bag a silver medal behind African and Commonwealth Games champion Nijel Amos of Botswana.
Rozani registered 1:45:38 to finish behind Semenya’s training partner Amos (1:45:11).
The local athletes will in the next week be going overseas to fine tune their Olympic preparations. Mokoka is off to London while Simbine and Van Niekerk are heading to Italy, with Leotlela going to Poland, Carina Horn off to Austria and Semenya set to run in France.
Semenya, who has been balancing her exams and track duties, said there was every reason for fans to be optimistic ahead of Rio.
Semenya said: “I’m happy with my time and now I just have to work on my speed. I will run the 800m and 400m in Rio. I can’t do 1 500m as well – it will be too much for me.”
