Gontse’s big hurdle

THE SOUTH African team left the country on Tuesday for the third edition of the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires between October 6 and 18 hopeful of improving on their previous effort four years ago.

The team returned from the 2014 Games in Nanjing, China with only one medal courtesy of Gezelle Magerman’s golden performance in the 400m hurdles.

The country’s medal hopes could once again fall on a one-lap hurdler with Gontse Morake rated among the top athletes in her specialist event in her age group.

But her chances could be thwarted thanks to an administrative blunder that has her entered for the triple jump instead of the 400m hurdles. Although she is equally talented in the hop-skip-and-jump she stands a better chance in the running event.

The Prestige College pupil broke the 400m hurdles Under-18 record at the South African Youth and Junior Championships in Paarl in April clocking 57.81 seconds.

Morake shaved 0.1 off the previous record Magerman posted to win the gold medal in Nanjing.

Her time ranks her fourth in the world with very little separating the top girls in the event while her personal best jump of 13.10m is the 14th best.

Morake is confident she would be able to return with the gold medal in the 400m hurdles should she get a lane.

“They’ve told me that I would be there for the triple jump but I had initially planned to do the 400m hurdles,” Morake said. “I asked whether there was an opportunity for me to do the 400m hurdles. I will know once I see confirmation in black and white but I’ve brought both my spikes. I would really love to go for that gold.”

South Africa produced an 11-medal harvest at the inaugural 2010 Games in Singapore where Chad le Clos was the star performer by contributing four individual medals to the tally.

Bishops Diocesan College matric learner and rising swimming star Michael Houlie was named the South African team’s flag bearer.