Young guns set the pace at champs
CLARENCE Munyai and Gift Leotlela are just the tip of the iceberg that is South Africa’s hot new generation of sprint stars.
Munyai, 18, yesterday won the South African 200m under-20 crown in 20.36sec, the second time in a matter of weeks that he has dipped below the 20.50 qualifying standard for the Rio Olympics in August.
That makes him SA’s third-fastest over that distance so far, behind world championship bronze medallist Anaso Jobodwana and 100m star Akani Simbine.
Add 400m world champion Wayde van Niekerk and it’s clear that South Africa is quickly making ground on nations like Jamaica and the US.
The results of the national agegroup championships in Germiston over the past three days showed there was plenty more talent coming through.
Leotlela, second behind Munyai in 20.56, won the 100m crown in his maiden under-20 season, clocking 10.21. He and Munyai were the only athletes to achieve A qualifying times for the world junior championships in Poland in July.
Athletics SA (ASA) earlier this year imposed A and B qualifying standards.
The B standards are the official international qualifying marks. ASA’s A standards, which guarantee selection, are based on 10th top performances in the world in 2015.
In total, 17 under-20 athletes achieved B standards in the three sprints, while in the men’s under-18 100m final, all eight competitors dipped below ASA’s tough 10.73 qualifying time for the Southern African championships in Lesotho at the end of the month.
The dominant province was Gauteng North, home of the Tuks athletics academy.
The academy, funded by an anonymous benefactor in the wake of the London 2012 Games, is based at the TuksSport High School and pupils have access to the nearby High Performance Centre.
“I improved a lot since I got there,” said Leotlela, who was scouted from a school in Bloemfontein.
“Everything is well organised and we have access to what we need.”
Would he have been as fast if he hadn’t made the switch? “Not necessarily. In the Free State, I was the only fast one.”
Munyai, Leotlela and new SA under-18 100m and 200m champion Malesela Senona are all products of the academy, which focuses on sprints and middle distance.
The donor had initially wanted Olympic medals as early as 2016, but he was told that that would be too soon. Still, the academy might have one or two athletes in Rio, Brazil.