Top SA athletes near peak form for Olympics
Nationals results point to promising Tokyo returns
Looking at the performances of SA’s top athletes at the SA Senior Track and Field Championships which concluded at the weekend, there are indications that athletics can produce a couple of medals for SA at the Olympics.
Team SA returned from the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, empty-handed following a dismal performance on the world stage.
However, at the three-day championships at the University of Pretoria’s Bestmed Athletics Stadium, the big guns showed some signs of improvement.
With three months to go before the Games in Tokyo, Japan, big-name stars such as Akani Simbine, Wayde van Niekerk, Ruswahl Samaai, Wenda Nel, Victor Hogan and Caster Semenya, to mention a few, lived up to expectation.
There were no Olympic qualifying times or national records but Team SA can take heart from the display of its stars after the return of the SA championships from a one-year absence due to the Covid19 pandemic.
The athletes will now move abroad to take part in the European season as the Olympic Games edge closer.
In the men’s discus throw final, Hogan best throw of 61.25m won the national title. Semenya, the two-time Olympic 800m women’s champion, defended her 5000m title when she ran the 12-and-half laps in 15:52:28 on the first day. Semenya needs to run the qualifying time of 15:10:00 to qualify for the Olympics.
Simbine, who is targeting a double in the 100m and 200m at the Olympics, dipped under the sub-10 seconds when he won the men’s 100m final, clocking 9.99 seconds to become SA champion.
“I came here to be SA’s number one, so I am happy with my run,” said Simbine.
He will leave for the World Relays Championships in Poland on May 1-2 and then go to Italy for his training camp on his return from the world relays.
Reabetswe Moloi won the women’s 100m final, stopping the clock in 11.55 sec.
Olympic 400m record holder Van Niekerk ran 20.38 to win the men’s 200m ahead of his trip to the US, where he will train with 200m world champion Noah Lyles ahead of the European season.
African champion and 2017 world championship bronze medalist Samaai secured the gold medal with a leap of 8.16m to become SA champion for the third time.
Precious Mashele won the men’s 5000m title in a time of 13:42.31, while Glenrose Xaba took the women’s 10000m title in a time of 33:35.23.
Samaai was not happy with his jump but hopes to improve in Europe.
“It is my season opener, I will get over it and improve going forward,” said Samaai.