IN THE NEWS
South African athletes making headlines
Young Sprinters Sponsored
Early in December PUMA announced that as part of its School of Speed initiative , it has signed up two of South Africa ’ s young rising sprinting stars on endorsement contracts , 19-year-old Youth Olympic Games 400m girl ’ s gold medallist and former SA Junior Champs 400m hurdles title holder , Gezelle Magerman , and 17-year-old boy ’ s under-18 SA Champion Malesela Senona . The international PUMA School of Speed is headed by the World ’ s Fastest Man , Usain Bolt , with the South African initiative headed by local Olympian Henricho Bruintjies , who will help to mentor the next generation of South African sprinters through training clinics and track meets .
Dom Runs Unique Mile in Hawaii
Olympian Dominique Scott-Efurd finished third woman and fifth overall at the inaugural Kalakaua Merrie Mile in Honolulu on 10 December , a fun new handicap event where the elite women were given a 27-second head-start over the elite men , with prize money for the top three overall finishers . Edwin Kiptoo took line honours after catching the leading women just before the finish , with Nicole Sifentes and Shannon Osika rounding off the podium . Second man Nate Brennan took fourth after narrowly out-dipping Dominique on the line .
by Kyle Blignaut ( gold and silver ), Morne Brandon ( silver and bronze ), and Ignatius Marais ( bronze and gold ) respectively .
More Global Honours ( and bells ) for Wayde
Oympic 400m champion and World Record Holder Wayde van Niekerk continues to feature prominently in world awards and rankings following an incredibly successful 2016 . He was named as the Best Male Athlete in all sports at the Rio Olympics by the Association of National Olympic Committees , and was named World Athlete of the Year by the world ’ s leading athletics magazine , Track & Field News , which also gave him the Performance of the Year award . Added to that , he was voted Male Athlete of the Year by the readers of Athletics International magazine .
Strangely , the IAAF named Usain Bolt its male Athlete of the Year , after Wayde had been awarded the best Olympic award . Now Wayde has also been nominated for the Breakthrough of the Year award at the Laureus World Sports Awards , which will take place in Monaco on 14 February . In the meantime , Wayde had another reason to celebrate . On 29 December , he proposed to girlfriend Chesney Campbell and she said yes !
Images : Jonathan Cross , Reg Caldecott & Courtesy IAAF , PUMA
Juniors Dominate in Angola
SA juniors dominated the athletics segment at the AUSC Region 5 Games in Luanda , Angola , in mid-December , earning an impressive 22 gold , 9 silver and 12 bronze medals , including three silver and three bronze from the para-athletics events . Sprinter Marli Viljoen led the way with four medals , claiming gold in the women ’ s 200m and silver in the 400m , as well as helping the 4x100m and 4x400m teams to win gold . Carien Sander also brought home four medals from the same events , with two individual bronze medals and two relay golds . Velmien Hendriks earned three golds in the 100m , 100m hurdles and 4x100m , while Renate van Tonder ( long jump , triple jump and 4x100m ) and Tharina van der Walt ( shot put , discuss and hammer throw ) also earned three gold medals each .
Amongst the men , sprinter Malesela Senona claimed the 100m and 200m double gold , and anchored the 4x100m team home for a bronze , while Silusapho Dingiswayo won the 110m hurdles and added silver in the 4x400m and bronze in the 4x100m . Another highlight was a cleansweep of the medals in the men ’ s shot put and discus competitions
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