SA’s high-flyers have lofty ambitions at World Championships
The 17th edition of the IAAF World Athletics Championships gets under way on Friday in Doha, Qatar, at the renovated multi purpose Khalifa International Stadium. David Isaacson assesses the chances of the South African contingent
● South Africa’s medal run at the world championships in Doha could begin and end on Saturday.
The showpiece, which kicks off on Friday and runs until October 6, has lumped the nation’s best podium chances on the same day — in the men’s long jump and men’s 100m.
The pressure will be on sprinter Akani Simbine and his jumper colleagues, Luvo Manyonga and Ruswahl Samaai,
For the under-strength SA contingent of 30 athletes doing battle in Qatar, Saturday offers the only realistic hope for individual medals.
Simbine will first have to advance past the 100m heats on Friday, while the leaping duo must advance beyond their qualifying rounds.
Then Simbine has to negotiate the semifinals at 7.40pm (SA time) on Saturday and hopefully the final at 9.15pm.
Simbine, the Commonwealth Games champion from Gold Coast 2018, has been consistent over the past four seasons to date — almost too consistent.
He has ended fifth in every major race he’s competed in. He was fifth at the Rio Olympics in 2016, fifth at the last world championships in London in 2017 and he was fifth in the Diamond League finals in 2018 and again this year.
His gap behind the third-placed runner has varied from three-hundredths of a second to nine-hundredths.
Glory is within his grasp. He shares the fourth-fastest season’s best of the field alongside Ivorian Arthur Cisse on 9.93sec.
Above them are defending champion
While Manyonga, the defending champion, appears to be SA’s best chance of a gold, his form suggests he’ll fight for a minor placing at best
Justin Gatlin of the US (9.87), Nigeria’s Divine Oduduru (9.86) and world No 1 Christian Coleman (9.81).
The American is fresh from beating a drugs charge.
The long jump final kicks off at 7.40pm, and while Manyonga, the defending champion, appears to be SA’s best chance of a gold, his form suggests he’ll be fighting for a minor placing at best.
He hasn’t beaten his nemesis, Cuba’s world No 1, Juan Miguel Echevarria, once this season.
Manyonga’s 8.37m season’s best positions him only fourth of the jumpers who will be in action.
Echevarria has been 8.65m. Japan’s Shoutarou Shiroyama, who is gearing up for a home Olympics next year, has been 8.40m and America’s Olympic champion Jeff Henderson is on 8.38m.
Samaai, 14th on the list on 8.21, also faces a challenge to replicate the bronze he took two years ago.
Zarck Visser, who was named in the SA team this week, wasn’t on the provisional entry list released by the IAAF, the world governing body for the sport.
Marc Mundell will end off Saturday’s action in the 50km race walk, which kicks off at 10.30pm because of the desert heat.
However many medals SA have amassed by then is probably going to stay the same for the duration of the championships, unless the two men’s relays do something.
Simbine will return for the 4x100m, with the final set for October 5.
The 4x400m heats are on October 5 with the final on the last day of the showpiece.
While winning medals is nice, there is a more important element to this competition — making top eight will qualify relay teams for the Olympics.
Likewise, there are two former world
The overwhelming favourite in the 200m is US sensation Noah Lyles, who could threaten Usain Bolt’s world record
championship medallists in the SA squad, Sunette Viljoen, runner-up at the Rio Olympics, and sprinter Anaso Jobodwana.
Based on form neither are likely to make the podium, so building confidence ahead of 2020 could be critical.
Javelin exponent Viljoen, with championship medals from Daegu 2011 and Beijing 2015, has struggled with back pain the past few seasons. Of the 28 entrants in her event, she is third from the back. Jobodwana, the 200m bronze medallist in 2015, is in the second half in his field of 55 competitors.
Clarence Munyai is SA’s form 200m runner, but the overwhelming favourite is American sensation Noah Lyles, who could threaten Usain Bolt’s 10-year-old 19.19sec world record.
Of SA’s upcoming stars, 400m hurdler Zeney van der Walt is worth watching. The world under-20 world champion won’t medal, but is at the start of a special career.