Golden medal haul for SA

DESPITE there being a paucity of the continent’s top athletes attending last week’s Confederation of African Athletics Championships in Durban, particularly those of Kenya and Nigeria, who preferred to remain in Europe, those who did come to the party managed to set 12 new championship records (eight women’s and four men’s).

Grace Wanjiru (Kenya) bagged the only African record to fall, winning the women’s 20km walk at first light on the penultimate day.

There was also a South African record set for the women’s 4x400m relay, which saw Jeanelle Griesel lead the team out followed by Wenda Nel, with Justine Palframan taking the baton for the third leg.

She kept the South African team in the mix in a desperate effort to hand over the baton for the last 400m to anchor woman Caster Semenya, who immediately set about overtaking the fourth Kenyan woman in second place and then the final Nigerian woman as she entered the home stretch.

Semenya really put the hammer down in the closing stages, with the crowd on their feet, and overtook the Nigerian 20m from the finish line in a new South African record time of 3:28.49, nipping 1.63 seconds off the old record of 3:30.12 and winning by 1.45sec.

There was nothing but praise for the refurbished Kings Park track, with IAAF president Sebastian Coe particularly impressed with the ambiance and the punctuality, with the event running to the minute.

The record entry of 48 nations beat the previous record of 44, also set in Durban in 1993.

South Africa raked in a total of 33 medals, which included 16 golds, nine silvers and eight bronzes.

Kenya were second, winning 24 medals (8-8-8), with Nigeria third with 16 (4-5-7).

Even the weather played its part, with sunshine for most of the week and little wind to bother the athletes.

The South African women’s 4x100m relay team also won the gold medal in 43.66sec from Ghana (44.05) and Ivory Coast (44.29).

Semenya led the South African women’s individual gold medal hunt with victory in both the 800m and 1 500m races, the ones she will focus on in Rio at next month’s Olympics.

The two hurdles finals were dominated by South African women, Claudia Heunis winning the 100m in 13.35 and Wenda Nel the 400m in 54.86.

Sunette Viljoen continued her run of success to win the javelin with a throw of 64.08m.

The men’s relay teams had mixed fortunes, winning the 4x100m from Ivory Coast and Zambia, but could only come third behind Botswana and Kenya in the 4x400m.

Other South African gold medallists included Wayde van Niekerk (200m in 20.02), Stephen Mokoka (10 000m in 28:02.97), Antonio Alkana (110m hurdles in 13.43, a new championship record), Philmar van Rensburg (javelin in 76.04m), Jaco Engelbrecht (shot put in 20.00m) and Fredriech Pretorius (decathlon with 7 780 points).