IN THE NEWS
South African athletes making headlines
Wayde’ s Awards Pile Up
Olympic 400m gold medallist and World record holder Wayde van Niekerk had multiple reasons to celebrate in November. On the 16 th he was named Best Male Athlete of the Rio Olympics at the Association of National Olympic Committees Awards in Doha, Qatar, and then on the 27 th he took home not only the SA Sportsman of the Year award at the South African Sports Awards, but also the coveted overall SA Sports Star of the Year award, for the second year in a row. Wayde was also able to celebrate with his coach, Ans Botha, as she won the SA Coach of the Year award, and amongst the other winners was fellow Olympic gold medallist, 800m star Caster Semenya, who won SA Sportswoman of the Year. Unfortunately, on 3 December Wayde lost out to Usain Bolt for the IAAF Male World Athlete of the Year Award. The Jamaican sprinter’ s third Olympic gold treble in Rio gave him the edge over Wayde and British distance runner Mo Farah.
Rio Medallists in World Champs Squad
Unsurprisingly, all four of South Africa’ s Rio Olympic medallists were included in the 38-member‘ preparation squad’ for the 2017 IAAF World Championships next August in London, announced by Athletics South Africa on 14 November. Wayde van Niekerk, Caster Semenya, Luvo Manyonga and Sunette Viljoen are all on the list of athletes that already met the international qualifying standards during 2016 for the 2017 showpiece.
Puma Launches School of Speed in SA
In November, Puma launched the South African branch of the School of Speed, a sprinting academy and series of clinics and events to develop young athletics talent in South Africa. The international School of Speed is headed by the World’ s Fastest Man, Usain Bolt, who has appointed reigning SA 100m champion Henricho Bruintjies as his Vice Principal in SA. The first meet took place in Pretoria on 2
December, with under-16,-18 and-20 athletes competing over 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m. The innovative series then moves to Cape Town( Green Point Stadium, 18 January), Roodepoort( Ruimsig Stadium, 1 February), Durban( Kings Park Athletics Stadium, 18 February) and Paarl( Dal Josafat Stadium, 28 February).
Masters Medal at World Champs in Australia
Team South Africa returned from the IAAF World Masters Athletic Championships in Perth, Australia in November with four world records, 22 national records, 45 medals and an overall eighth place ranking on the medals table. In the women’ s 70-74 age group, Alette Ungerer set a World Record of 1:13.97 in the 400m sprint, bettering the old mark of 1:15.81, and Else Meyer achieved a new 20km walk standard of 2:10:58( previous mark 2:12:27). Another walker, Vey Hildegard, shattered the 75-79 global standard in the 20km race in 2:33:39, taking more than six minutes off the previous world best, and Burton Haupt, competing in the Men’ s 54-59 age group, achieved a Throws Pentathlon World Record of 4 800 points, adding 23 points to the previous international standard. Team SA brought home 19 gold medals, 17 silvers and nine bronze medals.
Big Payday for Tri’ s Richard
Commonwealth bronze medallist and Olympic fourth-place finisher Richard Murray cashed in as he claimed top spot on the podium for the three-day season-ending Island House Triathlon in the Bahamas in November. The prize purse includes a $ US60,000 cheque for the winner – roughly R800,000 at the time – in triathlon’ s biggest payday. Only the top 10 athletes after the first two days’ competition qualify for the third and final day, and Richard eventually emerged the winner with a margin of 39 seconds over Australian Cameron Dye.
Images: IAAF, Wikimedia, Reg Caldecott, Janos Schmidt / ITU & Courtesy Burton Haupt
10 ISSUE 90 JANUARY 2017 / www. modernathlete. co. za