SA relay team warm up for World Champs in style

A QUARTET consisting of Akani Simbine, Henricho Bruintjies, Gift Leotlela, and Clarence Munyai proved their potential in the 4x100m relay when they clocked the joint second fastest South African time at the Speed Series meeting in Germiston.

The four sprinters stopped the clock on 38.47 seconds, 0.12 short of the national record of 38.35 set by Simon Magakwe, Simbine, Ncinci Titi and Bruintjies at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

While hopes of South Africa sending a 4x100m relay team to the World Relays in the Bahamas are waning, the focus will now turn to the IAAF World Championships in London.

“I think we are all pretty happy with the outcome of the race, the important thing was just to get the baton around, run our marks and run to the best of our abilities,” Simbine said.

“We all executed well, we could see with the time, and the little bit of training we’ve done so far, we’ve done quite a good job.”

Simbine has opted out of racing at the World Relays – which clashes with the national championships in Potchefstroom – instead setting his sights on giving South Africans what could be one of the fastest 100m races on home soil.

Bruintjies and Thando Roto, who became the second fastest South African with his time of 9.95, have also decided to race in Potchefstroom.

“I’ve decided to stay in South Africa for nationals because I feel I owe it to the locals to watch us race and us giving them a good time,” Simbine said.

“We have a vast amount of athletes running really quick and for me personally we need to be here and give them a show.”

Athletics South African (ASA) has held only one relay training camp a few weeks ago with the athletes getting little time to practice their changeovers.

Simbine said the team believed that with more training, they could become a force to be reckoned with on the global stage.

The national championships in Potchefstroom next month will give them the ideal opportunity to take a realistic stab at breaking the national record.

“If we get more training in the build-up to the World Championships, we can get sharper and make sure the times get slower,” Simbine said.

“We can definitely do better, it will be warmer in Potch, and for us as sprinters we love heat, and by that time we should be sharper, faster, and it will be quite exciting for us to be running together at SAs.”

Bruintjies said his changeover with junior national 100m record holder Leotlela was flawless, while Munyai was worried about handing the baton over to anchor Simbine.

Earlier world 200m bronze medallist Anaso Jobodwana continued to battle with his start, as he gets his sprinting back on track after a topsy turvy 2016 due to injury.

Jobodwana won the 100m race clocking a time of 10.36, finishing ahead of Le Roux van Tonder in second place with 10.51 and Ethan Noble with 10.61.

“I don’t want to come into a race and make excuses, it was just my start, I would have to look back at my race again,” Jobodwana said.

“My last 40 metres is really good, but still I am not getting the intensity in the first 20 metres.”