Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 107, June 2018 | Page 8

N EW S
I n
t h e
Compiled by Reggie Hufkie
While the horrendously cold and wet
weather conditions saw many of the
elite runners drop out of the Boston
Marathon in the USA on 16 April, 10-time
Boston wheelchair champion Ernst
van Dyk showed that he still has the
speed to compete with the best as he
finished second behind Marcel Hug of
Switzerland.
Top 10 for Nolene in Vienna
Fresh on the heels of winning the Old Mutual Two
Oceans Half Marathon and qualifying for IAAF Gold
Label status at the World Half Marathon Champs,
in-form Nolene Conrad finished 8th at the Vienna
Marathon in Austria on 22 April, clocking 2:38:17 for the
fastest time thus far in 2018 by a South African woman.
Team SA shine at Southern
Regional Champs
Team SA’s effort at the CAA Southern Region
Under-18 and Under-20 Champs on 27 and 28 April in
Boksburg saw the men’s u/20 4x100m and u/18 4x400m teams produce SA Record
performances of 39.33 and 3:13.72 respectively,
showing off the depth of the current sprinting
generation. Also, fresh on the heels of her new SA
u/18 Record in the 400m hurdles, Gontse Morake
became the first u/18 SA woman to jump over 13m
in the triple jump. Her gold winning jump was 13.10m
long. Other stand-out performances included Kyle
Blignaut stretching his still relatively new u/20 shot
put SA Record from 20.91 to 21.65m, Dané Roets
winning the women’s u/18 shot put with a heave of
17.46m, and u/18 jumper Sifiso Miya winning both
the long jump and triple jump with leaps of 7.77m and
15.46m respectively.
Elana Meyer honored by
President Cyril Ramaphosa
On 31 April, at the annual National Orders Awards,
President Cyril Ramaphosa bestowed the Order of
Ikhamanga in the silver class on former Olympic
silver medallist and athletics legend Elana Meyer.
This order
recognises South
African citizens who
have excelled in the
fields of arts, culture, literature, music, journalism
and sport. Another athletics recipient was Masters
race walker Elsa Meyer, rewarded with the Order of
Ikhamanga in the bronze class for her world record
performances in the 70-74 age category.
Carina, Caster Shatter Barriers in Doha
Sprinter Carina Horn became the first South African woman to dip under 11 seconds
in the 100m at the Doha Diamond League on 4 May. She clocked 10.98 seconds,
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ISSUE 107 JUNE 2018 / www.modernathlete.co.za
just weeks after clocking 11.03 to
finally eclipse Evette de Klerk’s 1990
SA Record of 11.06, which Carina
had equalled in 2015. At the same
meet, Caster Semenya became the
first South African woman to run the
1500m in under four minutes, as she
recorded a new SA Record of 3:59.92.
This also came just weeks after she
claimed the SA Record with a 4:01:72 at the Commonwealth Games in Australia to
finally beat Zola Pieterse’s even older 1984 record of 4:01:81.
Walking Records
Rewritten in China
At the IAAF World Race Walking Team
Championships on the first weekend of May in
Taicang, China, Natalie le Roux clocked 4:48:00
to shatter her own African 50km women’s record
of 4:54:33. She finished 23 rd . At the same meet,
SA Under-20 10km Champion Francois Jacobs
set a new National Record of 44:37, shaving
16 seconds off the record set by Marthinus
Esterhuizen in Oudtshoorn in July 2004.
Wings for Life World Run Raises R17-million
More than 100,000 athletes from all over the
world took to the streets at the same time
on 6 May to raise more than 17-million for
spinal cord injury research, by participating
in the Wings for Life World Run. The South
African leg, run in Pretoria with some 5000
entrants, saw Admire Muzopambwa outrun
the ‘catcher car’ for 67km, while Dominika
Stelmach of Poland reached 49.4km before
being caught by the car.
Kesa Dominating Spar
Series Again
Defending champ Kesa Molotsane retained her
Spar Women’s Challenge PE title, and the lead in
the 2018 Spar Grand Prix competition, by winning
in PE on 5 May in a time of 33:46, hot on the heels
of her win in Cape Town in March. Glenrose Xaba
was second, 15 seconds adrift of the winner.
Luvo Jumps World Lead in
Shangai Diamond League
Luvo Manyonga soared to a new world leading mark for 2018 of 8.56m in the
last round of the men’s long jump
at the IAAF Diamond League in
Shangai on 12 May. Fellow South
African Wenda Nel was fourth in
the women’s 400m hurdles (55.63),
while javelin thrower Sunette
Viljoen took sixth with a best
throw of 60.79m, and Rynardt van
Rensburg crossed the line eighth in
the men’s 800m (1:46.57).
Roger
Ernst Finishes Second
at Boston Marathon