Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 99, October 2017 | Page 28

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Eight years ago at the South Africa Youth and Junior Championships in Germiston, Antonio Alkana failed to progress to the
semi-finals in his specialist 110m hurdles race. Naturally, he was bitterly disappointed… but fast forward to 2017 and he is
now the African and SA Record Holder, a 2016 Rio Olympic Games semi-finalist, and recently got engaged. And he’s all smiles
these days. – BY REGGIE HUFKIE
A
Then in May 2016, at the Diamond League Meeting
in Rabat, Morocco, he clocked a 13.28, taking 0.04
seconds off his best, and only just missing Lehann
Fourie’s African and SA Record by 0.04 seconds. A
month later, at the 20th CAA African Championships
in Durban, Antonio was once again in the spotlight
as he flew over the hurdles to win the title in a new
championship record of 13.43, and that led to one of
his lifelong dreams coming true, being included in the
2016 Rio Olympic Games team.
In Rio, he went on to make it to the semi-final round,
but his 13.55 on the day was only good enough
for seventh position in his heat, thus bringing his
Olympic journey to an early end, but having picked up
invaluable experience of racing at the highest level. “I
went into the Olympic Games with a time that could
have put me into the final, but in competition it just
didn’t work,” he says. “I didn’t perform as well as I
would have liked, but I have been a bit inconsistent,
so the main goal is to be more consistent, and that
t the 11 th African Games (formerly known as
All-Africa Games) in Brazzaville in Congo in 2015,
Antonio Alkana, or Tony as he is known to close
friends, introduced himself to world hurdling when he
snatched the gold medal in a personal best time of 13.32
seconds, winning his first major title, with a new Games
record for good measure. Later that same year, he
competed at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing,
only just missing out on a spot in the semi-finals, but it
was a clear indication that he was on the right track.
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ISSUE 99 OCTOBER 2017 / www.modernathlete.co.za