Semenya leads SA’s charge
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 event will have an extra incentive with winners in each individual event earning a place at the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava, Czech Republic, next month.
Middle-distance queen Caster Semenya will spearhead SA’s charge at the biennial showpiece eyeing a 400/800m double.
Semenya will look to continue her domination the twolap event which will extend to three years if she reclaims the African title.
The 27-year-old has been on fire in her specialist event, dipping below 1min 55sec twice this season. She posted the fourth fastest time of all time at the Paris Diamond League meeting in July in 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 in Nigeria.
At the previous championships in Durban, she won the 800, 1 500 and the 4x400m relay titles.
The men’s long jump should also provide fireworks as compatriots Luvo Manyonga and Ruswahl Samaai continue their arm-wrestle. World champion Manyonga will look to relieve 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 will be buoyed by some really consistent jumping at recent meetings.
He won the London Diamond League with a jump of 8.58 metres with Samaai second with a season’s best leap of 8.42m.
Olympic javelin silver medallist Sunette Viljoen may not be in the best shape but is expected to win her sixth African title and seventh medal since the Brazzaville championships in 2004.
SA 100m record holder Akani Simbine lines 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 9.93sec at the recent Diamond League meeting in London, Simbine is hellbent on being crowned African champion.
Long jump legend Khotso Mokoena will behunting for his seventh medal at the continental championships, while 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.