Van Niekerk looks for fast 100m

LOOKING to conquer all the sprint events, world 400m record-holder Wayde van Niekerk will tonight line up in his first international 100m in Velenje, Slovenia.

Van Niekerk has demonstrated incredible versatility in the 100, 200, and 400m and is the only man to have gone sub10, -20, and -44 seconds over all three distances.

The sprinting sensation will go into the race with a season’s best 10.04s, posted at the national championships in Potchefstroom where he finished second behind Akani Simbine.

Van Niekerk has been ripping up the track in the 200m this season, boasting a world-leading time of 19.84s.

He has been flying below the radar in his specialist one-lap sprint this season and will get into the blocks in the 300m at the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting at the end of the month before lining up in his first international 400m race of the season Lausanne in July.

Tonight, Van Niekerk will line up in a heat with fellow South Africans Emile Erasmus and former national record-holder Henricho Bruintjies.

Bruintjies seems to be coming into form after he posted a season’s best of 10.06 seconds in Turku, Finland a week ago – his fastest since he set a South African record of 9.97 in Switzerland in July 2015.

Women’s 100-200m champion Alyssa Conley will open her international campaign with Tamzin Thomas joining her in the short sprint.

Meanwhile, South Africans will be waiting with bated breath on news that the long jump phenom Luvo Manyonga did not seriously injure himself on his final jump at the Stockholm Diamond League meeting on Sunday evening.

Manyonga landed awkwardly on his final attempt, clutching his ankle in pain, and he is expected to be assessed back in South Africa.

The Olympic long jump silver medallist’s agent Lee-Roy Newton said in a statement that they expected to get news of the injury by Wednesday.

“At this stage, I will certainly hesitate to use the word injured. I have spoken to him afterwards and although he is in slight pain I am confident that it is nothing serious,” Newton said.

“However, when he is back at Tuks/HPC he will definitely go for a scan just to make a 100 percent sure.

“We certainly don’t want to be taking any chances before the World Championships in London as our main goal for the season is to win a medal, preferably gold.”

Manyonga won the competition with an opening jump of 8.36m, and fellow South African Ruswahl Samaai claimed silver with a best attempt of 8.29m.