NEWS
I n t h e
Compiled by Sean Falconer
Medal Haul at African Champs
The CAA African Senior Championships in Asaba , Nigeria in the first few days of August saw Team South Africa bag 30 medals ( nine gold , 13 silver and eight bronze ) to finish second behind Kenya on the final medals table .
Commonwealth Games champion Akani Simbine added the African men ’ s 100m title to his honours list , winning in 10.25 seconds , while former SA Record-holder Simon Magakwe recovered from a poor start to grab the bronze medal in 10.35 . In the 200m , Ncincilili Titi charged over the line in 20.46 , with Luxolo Adams bagging bronze in 20.60 . Thapelo Phora set a personal best of 45.14 to grab silver in the men ’ s 400m final .
Antonio Alkana retained his African crown by winning the men ’ s 110m hurdles in a dominant 13.51 , while Cornel Fredericks took silver in the 400m hurdles to cap a superb comeback from injury . Continuing the form that saw her break the SA Record , Rikenette Steenkamp earned a silver medal in the women ’ s 100m hurdles , clocking 13.18 , while Wenda Nel added a bronze in the women ’ s 400m hurdles with her 57.04 effort .
The men ’ s 4x100m relay team took gold in 38.25 , only just missing the SA Record by 0.01 seconds , with Akani and Simon joined in the final by Emile Erasmus and Commonwealth silver medallist Henricho Bruintjies . Meanwhile , the men ’ s 4x400m team took silver with their 3:03.50 effort .
Caster Semenya smashed Heide Seyerling ’ s nearly 18-year-old SA Record in the 400m , storming across the line in 49.96 to become the first SA woman to dip under 50 seconds . She then added a second gold by winning the 800m in 1:56.06 .
In an exciting men ’ s long jump event , Ruswahl Samaai retained his continental title with a best jump of 8.45m to beat countryman and World Champion Luvo Manyonga by 2cm , while Lynique Beneke added a long jump bronze in the women ’ s competition with her 6.38m leap . In the men ’ s triple jump , Khotso Mokoena snatched silver with a final leap of 16.83m , while Zinzi Chabangu took silver in the women ’ s triple jump with 13.59m . Delivering yet another medal double , men ’ s high jumper Chris Moleya bagged silver after clearing 2.26m , and Mpho Links took bronze with 2.15m . In the men ’ s pole vault , Valco van Wyk grabbed the runner-up spot with a clearance of 5.10m .
In the men ’ s discus , Victor Hogan and Werner Visser added another gold-silver double , Victor winning with a 60.06m heave and Werner finishing second with 58.82m . Meanwhile , World Junior Champ Kyle Blignaut took bronze in the men ’ s shot put with a 19.05m heave . Ischke Senekal earned bronze in the women ’ s discus with a best heave of 53.82m , then was part of another medal double as she won the shot put with a 17.24m effort , with Mieke Strydom taking bronze ( 15.99m ). The javelin throwers added two more silvers , with Phil-Mar van Rensburg reaching 76.57m in the men ’ s competition , and former women ’ s World Junior Champs medallist Jo-Ane van Dyk reaching 53.72m .
Two more silvers were added by Fredriech Pretorius , who finished second in the decathlon ( 7733 points ), while Lebogang Shange clocked 1:25:24 in the men ’ s 20km race walk to complete his African Champs collection – he won gold in Morrocco ( 2014 ) and bronze in Durban ( 2016 ).
SA Tri Duo in Top 10 in Montreal
Triathletes Richard Murray and Henri Schoeman both finished in the top 10 at the ITU World Triathlon event in Montreal , Canada on 26 August . Richard took fourth place , covering the 1.5km swim , 40km cycle and 10km run in 1:48:36 , with Commonwealth Games gold medallist Henry coming home sixth a further 34 seconds back . Henry dominated the swim , but has only recently returned from a three-month lay-off due to injury and illness , and thus didn ’ t quite have the speed to stay with the leaders on the bike leg . Meanwhile , Richard only just lost out on third position when Australian Jake Birtwhistle caught him at the line .
Diamond League Wins for SA Stars
Caster Semenya and Luvo Manyonga added to the growing list of international honours won by SA ’ s track and field athletes when they clinched the overall 2018 Diamond League series titles in their events at the IAAF Diamond League finals in Zurich , Switzerland on 30 August .
Caster led from start to finish in the women ’ s 800m , clocking 1:55.27 to win by a clear two seconds , and clinching her third consecutive Diamond League series title . She remains unbeaten over 800m for the past three years ! Just three days later Caster shattered her own SA Record for 1000m at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Berlin , improving the mark from 2:31.01 to 2:30.70 . And still she was not done : Six days after that , she broke the SA women ’ s record for 400m for the second time in just over a month at the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava , Czech Republic , crossing the line in 49.62 to improve on the 49.96 she ran at the African Champs in Nigeria .
Back in Zurich , the men ’ s long jump competition saw Commonwealth Games
Images : Craig Kolesky / Red Bull Content Pool , Roger Sedres / ImageSA , Trevlyn Mayo Palframan , BackTrack Sports & courtesy IRunFar . com , Cape Town Marathon
8 ISSUE 111 OCTOBER 2018 / www . modernathlete . co . za