Bruintjies bounces back in Turku event
FORMER national 100m record-holder Henricho Bruintjies bounced back with his best run in two years on Tuesday night as he clocked 10.06sec to finish second at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland.
Bruintjies had not been that fast since striking 9.97sec in Switzerland in July 2015 to claim the South African record.
His feat in Turku on Tuesday matched his previous fastest from Prague a month before his SA mark‚ and ironically both 10.06 efforts came with a 1.5m/second tail wind.
Bruintjies’ 9.97 SA record was equalled a few days later by Akani Simbine while winning the 2015 World Student Games title‚ but since then‚ the two sprinters have travelled vastly different roads.
Simbine has dipped below 10 seconds 11 times since then‚ taking his career tally to 13.
He has lowered the SA record to 9.89‚ finished fifth at the Rio Olympics and scored a maiden Diamond League victory earlier this season.
During that time Bruintjies had not been below 10.1. Until Tuesday night.
His 10.06 places him the fourth-fastest South African this year‚ behind Simbine (9.92)‚ Thando Roto (9.95) and Wayde van Niekerk (10.04).
The US and Jamaica are the only other nations with four faster sprinters on the world rankings so far.
Bruintjies’ run on Tuesday saw him leapfrog Emile Erasmus‚ who ended third in the same race in 10.13.
Erasmus set his 10.08 personal best in Pretoria recently.
Bruintjies had gone 10.16 in the heats in Turku, and Erasmus 10.21.
The South African pair were beaten in the final by Turkey’s Ramil Guliyev who clocked 10.02.
Also competing in Turku‚ Antonio Alkana ended third in the 110m hurdles‚ clocking 13.35 after posting the fastest time of the heats‚ 13.38.
Olympic silver medallist Sunette Viljoen was third in the women’s javelin with 61.54m‚ behind Tatsiana Khaladovich of Belarus (65.03) and Australian Kelsey-Lee Roberts (64.06).