Farm boy books a spot at world champs in China

A WONKY timing system at the SA Open athletics championship in Potchefstroom nearly denied a teenaged farm boy the chance of qualifying for the world championships in China later this year.

Berend Koekemoer, the son of farmworkers in Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape, won the 400m in 45.42sec, narrowly beating veteran Ofentse Mogawane, a member of SA’s silver-winning 4x400m relay team at the 2011 world champs, as well as Botswana’s 800m Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos.

“He [Mogawane] pushed me the last 100m,” said the matric pupil, who was 0.08sec inside the international standard to book his Beijing spot in August. “He made me run that time.”

But the 19-year-old had been inexplicably omitted from the semifinal lineup the day before despite having won his heat earlier in the day. The official results showed him finishing seventh in his heat.

“I had to launch an appeal,” said his coach Paul Gorries, a former SA sprinter. “Luckily there were lanes open in the semifinals so he could run.

“I don’t know what they [the organisers] would have done if all the lanes were full.”

An Athletics SA (ASA) official said he had demanded a report on the technical problems.

The temporary clock rigged up on the finish line was also temperamental — to the point that when 400m hurdler Wenda Nel spotted what would have been a 54.80 personal best, she knew not to celebrate.

“I wanted to get excited but I knew the clock was not accurate,” said Nel, nearly three seconds faster than her nearest rival, Tuks teammate Anneri Ebersohn.

Nel’s official time turned out to be 54.90, her best effort on home soil.

“It was a nice race, I felt comfortable,” said Nel, who had already qualified for the world championships.

Caster Semenya won the women’s 800m, but her 2min 04.58sec was way off the 2:01.00 qualifying mark.

“I’m happy,” Semenya said afterwards. “I only started speed work in training last week. There’s still a lot of work to do.”

She went through the bell in just under a minute, but battled to keep up the pace at the end.