Caster is leading SA’s charge in Nigeria
SOUTH AFRICA will be looking to be crowned the top nation at the African Athletics Championships in Asaba, Nigeria for the third consecutive edition by the end of this week.
SA topped the medals table in Durban two years ago winning 33 in total – 18 gold, nine silver and eight bronze.
The championships will have an extra incentive for athletes with winners in each individual event earning a place at the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava next month.
Middle-distance queen Caster Semenya will be spearheading SA’s charge at the biennial showpiece eyeing a 400-800m double gold medal haul.
Semenya will be looking to continue her outright dominance in the two-lap event which she would extend to three years if she reclaims her African title. The 27-year-old has been on fire in her specialist event, dipping below 1:55 twice this season.
Semenya posted the fourth fastest time of all time at the Paris Diamond League meeting in July posting a new national record of one minute, 54.25 seconds.
Semenya has been equally good in the 1 500m breaking the SA record twice, but will instead focus on the 400m at the African championships.
At the previous championships in Durban, She won the 800m, 1 500m and the 4x400m relay titles.
The men’s long jump should also provide some fireworks as compatriots Luvo Manyonga and Ruswahl Samaai continue their arm-wrestle in the sandpit. World champion Manyonga will be looking to usurp Samaai of the title he won at the continental championships two years ago.
Manyonga may have lost his air of invincibility thanks to Cuban Juan Miguel Echevarria, but he will be buoyed by some fabulous consistent jumping at recent meetings.
He won the London Diamond League with a best jump of 8.58m, with Samaai finishing second behind him with a season’s leap of 8.42m.
Olympic javelin silver medallist Sunette Viljoen may not be in the best shape, but she is expected to win her sixth African title and seventh medal since the Brazzaville championships in 2004.
SA 100m record-holder Akani Simbine will be lining up in the short-sprint on the first day of the championships hoping to finally get the African title behind his name.
Buoyed by a season’s best of 9.93 seconds at the recent Diamond League meeting in London, Simbine is hellbent on being crowned African champion.
Long jump legend Khotso Mokoena will be hunting for his seventh medal at the continental championships.
High jump ace Chris Moleya is feeling bullish about his chances of earning the continental title after a recent breakthrough performance at an IAAF World Challenge meeting in Madrid.