Expect something special

JOHANNESBURG: All the talk this season has been directed at the race horses of South African athletics but there is plenty to be excited about elsewhere on the track and on the field.

The championships will be the first time South Africans will get to see the newlycrowned Olympic medallists in action with champions Caster Semenya and Wayde van Niekerk stealing the limelight.

Olympic long jump silver medallist Luvo Manyonga has been the best so far this season to wrest the attention away from the country’s top male sprinters.

Leaping to a new South African and continental record of 8.62 metres in Pretoria last month, got the world taking serious notice of Manyonga’s potential.

The distance launched him to joint 12th place on the world all-time list, edging him closer to American Mike Powell’s world mark of 8.95m from 1991.

“I just want to be the first person to jump over nine metres, and I am going to do it. I will be knocking on the door of nine metres this weekend,” Manyonga, pictured, said.

Fellow Olympic silver medallist Sunette Viljoen has also made a strong statement at her first meeting of the year when she qualified for the world championships with a heave of 62.82m.

Like Manyonga, Viljoen has made clear her intentions of breaking Czech javelin thrower Barbora Spotakova’s world record of 72.28m.

With a personal best of 69.35m it has always been Viljoen’s dream to breach the 70-metre mark and she believes it is closer than it has ever been.

Every time Semenya lines up in a race one can expect something special from the Olympic gold medallist and running in front of her home crowd in Potchefstroom may just be another opportunity for her to shine once again.

Although she has only raced in a 3000m and a 300m this season, she could be providing some fireworks in the 400m and 800m.

National women’s 100m record-holder Carina Horn will be looking to exact revenge on fellow Olympian Alyssa Conley, who won the 100-200m double at last year’s championships.

Hammer thrower legend Chris Harmse is on the cusp of winning his 20th consecutive national title at the age of 44.