Fast SA 21s in Overseas Action
On 11 November, US-based Letitia Saayman clocked a PB 1:15:14 for fourth place in the women’ s field at the Markel Richmond Half Marathon. The race was won by Ethiopian Firegenet Mandefiro in 1:14:05 and all four top women posted new PBs. Just over a week later, SA Cross Country Champ Precious Mashele joined a competitive elite men’ s field in the Boulogne-Billancourt Half Marathon in France on 19 November and came home in an impressive 1:01:48 to claim sixth place. The race was won by Eritrea’ s Hiskel Tewelde, in 1:01:13.
Three PBs in Two Weeks for Smith
At the Western Province Open Track and Field Meeting in Cape Town on 17 November, Ashley Smith won the men’ s 5000m race in a PB 13:55.19, the second-fastest time in SA in 2017 behind Jeromy Andreas’ 13:52.13. Two weeks later, at a Boland Athletics meeting in Paarl on 2 December, Ashley proved that his performance was no fluke when he won the men’ s 1500m race in a PB 3:45.88, one of the fastest 1500m times in the country in 2017, and also broke his 800m PB at the same meet.( In September he also ran a 10km PB of 28:51 in Cape Town.)
Tito Continues Record Streak
Jason Tito continued his South African record-breaking streak when he leapt to a 7.48m victory and South African under-15 best performance in Pretoria on 18 November. He shattered the previous under-15 best of 7.27m for the first time on 16 September, when he jumped 7.36m, and followed that up with 7.38m and 7.48 jumps at later meets.
SA Women Smash PBs in Spain
Seasoned campaigner Nolene Conrad raced to ninth place and a personal best at the Trinidad Alfonzo Valencia Maraton in Spain on 19 November. Her time of 2:35:21 was the fastest marathon time by a South African woman in 2017, and took a massive 12 minutes off her previous best, which she ran at the 2015 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon. Fellow South African and 2017 Comrades gold medallist Gerda Steyn also made her mark by clocking 2:37:19, finishing 12 th and breaking her previous best of 2:51:31 by more than 14 minutes!
Tannie Ans Recognised for Contribution
World & Olympic 400m Champion Wayde van Niekerk narrowly missed out on the Male Athlete of the Year Award at the annual IAAF Awards ceremony in Monaco on 24 November, but his 76-year-old coach, Tannie Ans Botha, was given the
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ISSUE 102 JANUARY 2018 / www. modernathlete. co. za
NEWS
I n t h e
Compiled by Reggie Hufkie
Coaching Achievement award. She has been coaching since the late 1960s and has been head athletics coach at Free State University for 27 years, but she really shot to fame when Wayde began dominating the world stage in recent years.( The Male Athlete of the Year Award went to Qatar high jumper Mutz Essa Barshim, with Belgian heptathlete Nafissatou Thiam winning the women’ s award.)
Khumalo Retains Ultra- Trail Title
Prodigal Khumalo clinched his second consecutive Ultra-trail Cape Town 100km win on 2 December, seeing off the challenge of Ryan Sandes as he won South Africa’ s first World Trail Tour event in 9 hours and 51 minutes, a massive 49 minutes faster than Eric Ngubane’ s course record set in 2014. Ryan crossed the line five minutes later. Australian 21-year-old sensation Lucy Bartholomew finished 11 th
Sanders Wins African Cup Tri in Morocco
Two-time Olympic triathlete Gill Sanders wrapped up her 2017 season with victory in the ATU Sprint Triathlon African Cup on 2 December in Dakhla, Western Sahara. She came out of the water in the top three, threw in several surges to break up the lead group on the bike leg, then outsprinted the Czech Republic’ s Petra Kurikova to win in 1:07:02 and bank valuable ranking points ahead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
ASA Launches Athletix Series
overall in an impressive 11:21 to claim the women’ s title, with local athletes Robyn Owen and Kerry- Anne Marshall finishing second and third.
On 6 December, Athletics South Africa( ASA) launched the ASA Athletix Grand Prix Series, where R1.365 million in prize money will be on offer in three track and field meetings that will take place in March 2018. The meetings will take place in Johannesburg on Thursday 1 March, Tshwane on Thursday 8 March, and Paarl on Thursday 22 March. Each meet will feature a tight programme of 90 minutes to keep spectators and viewers on their toes, especially given that the meetings will be used as preparation by many athletes for the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April.
Images: Nick Muzik, Roger Sedres, Tobia Ginsberg, YouTube & courtesy Nolene Conrad & Gill Sanders