Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 122, September 2019 | Page 50

TRACK & FIELD
Luvo Manyonga
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Bubble Abo
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South Africa enjoyed a massively successful 2017 World Champs, and thus hopes are naturally high for a similar medal haul
at the 2019 World Champs, but has the country built on that success of 2017, or will the bubble burst this year?
– BY MANFRED SEIDLER
W
e are just weeks away from the second-
biggest athletics show in the world, with
the IAAF World Athletics Championships
taking place from 27 September to 6 October in Doha,
Qatar, in the Middle East. In the last World Champs,
held in London in the UK in 2017, Team SA brought
home its richest medal haul in South Africa’s World
Championship history, winning three gold, one silver
and two bronze medals. As a result, South African
athletics was on a massive high, across the full
spectrum of the sport, from coaches and athletes to
the national federation and the media.
The Sprints
100m: In the men’s division, Akani Simbine is our
best shot at a medal. The 25-year-old won the
Commonwealth Games and Africa Championships
100m titles in 2018, and finished fifth in both the 2016
Rio Olympics and the 2017 World Championships.
There are serious doubts that 2019 world number
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2018, and a final should be well within her reach after
her season’s best of 11.01 in Madrid on 25 August,
which means she is coming into form at the right time.
That ranks her 11th on the world rankings for 2019 (as
of 26 August). She will, however, need to run her best
ever time if she wishes to be a medal contender, given
that the fifth-best time for 2019 stands at 10.93.
Sadly, Team SA has been hit by the loss of Alyssa
Conley to Rugby 7’s, but Tebogo Mamatu ran an
incredible 11.04 in La Chaux De Fonds, Switzerland
this year. On paper that is good enough to make a
final, but not a medal. Also, Tebogo’s next best legal
time is 11.33, and her times have been consistently
around the 11.40 mark. Expect no medal in the
women’s 100m.
one, Christian Coleman, will be on the start line come
October, having missed three doping tests. World
Number two, Noah Lyles, has opted to focus on the
200m only, which leaves Akani as the third-fastest in
the world this year, behind Nigeria’s Divine Oduduru
(9.86 seconds) and the defending Champion, Justin
Gatlin (9.87). Akani has clocked 9.92 this year, but the
South African will need to be at his best if he hopes to
get onto the podium in Doha. That he has the ability to
win a medal in Doha, even the gold, is not in dispute.
However, this is not a medal you can bank on.
On the women’s front, Carina Horn is still South
Africa’s fastest ever 100m sprinter with her 10.98 from
ISSUE 122 SEPTEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
200m: Clarence Munyai is South Africa’s fastest
200m athlete this year with his 20.04 run in Heusden
on 20 July. He is a classy athlete and has huge
potential – after all, he ran 19.69 in 2018 – and the
21-year-old has been very consistent in 2019. In five
races on the international circuit this year, he has won
The question now is whether Team SA can repeat that
success in 2019. Can our athletes build on the impetus
of 2017? With no Caster Semenya in the women’s
800m and no Wayde van Niekerk in the men’s 400m
at these World Champs, our medal prospects have
dimmed somewhat, but there are possible medals
in other events, so let’s take a look at Team SA’s
prospects. (Note: At the time of writing, Team SA was
in the middle of the African Champs in Rabat, Morocco,
and the final team for the World Champs had not yet
been confirmed. Therefore, the athletes listed in this
article have not yet been named as being part of the
team that Athletics South Africa will be sending.)
Akani Simbine