Wayde Van Niekerk is nicely gearing up for the 200m at the World Championships in London, giving a glimpse of what to expect from him after racing to a new Personal Best (PB) of 19.90s to win the South African title at their National Championships in Potchefstroom.
In what was a rematch of sort having lost to Akani Simbine in the 100m yesterday, the 400m World Record holder go his revenge and not only won the title, but now has the World Lead (WL) incidentally taking over from Simbine who led coming into the race with a time of 19.95s.
https://twitter.com/lsabre/status/855810240167772161
Simbine who was the fastest qualifier for the final, finished 2nd with a time of 20.15s, although it must be noted that he stumbled at the start but still put up a good challenge. Promising youngster Gift Leotlela finished 3rd, running a new PB of 20.20s
Just last week, the South African Athletics Federation announced that Van Niekerk will be doubling at the World Championships in London, with the IAAF scheduling the events to enable him compete in both events.
With Usain Bolt retiring this year, there’s no doubt that he could be scratching his head on the challenge Van Niekerk poses on his aspiration to bow out on a high. If Niekerk gets better as the season progresses, there’s every possibility that he would finish up on the podium, and possibly even surpassing Anaso Jobodwana’s 19.87s National Record (NR)
Meanwhile there were other big performers on the day just like Van Niekerk. Olympic champion Caster Semenya could have a big season in the coming months after claiming in both the women’s 800m and 400m titles, and has now qualified for both events at the Championships in London.
Although she is still mooting the idea of competing in both events, she will no doubt contend for medals if she makes up her mind to.
Her first win of the day came in the 400m, racing to a Season’s Best (SB) of 51.60s, with Justine Palframan finishing 2nd in 52.57s and Sonja Van Tonda 3rd in 54.66s.
To some athletes, 400m would have been exerting enough, but not for Semenya who came back later to cement her double. She clocked another SB of 2:01.03 to win the 800m title. Gena Lofstrand finished 2nd in 2:03.32 and Anuscha Nice 3rd in 2:05.88
One thing is sure, Semenya is as good as any event she lines up, and if in London the schedules of the events suits her, don’t bet against her giving other quarter-milers a run for their money.
Luvo Manyonga was another standout performer at the South African Championships that couldn’t have been missed. We are still coming to terms on how good the Olympic silver medallist is.
If there was still any doubt, surely there would have been a rethink after seeing Manyonga smash both the African and Commonwealth Record in the men’s Long Jump Record, setting a new one of 8.65m.
https://twitter.com/lsabre/status/855793128292454401
Manyonga who last month recorded the farthest jump in the world, taking over from his countryman Khotso Mokoena by leaping a distance of 8.62m, is now showing that he will be the man to beat this year, having narrowly missed winning GOLD in Brazil last year.
What’s more interesting about Manyonga’s recent feat is that he achieved that mark today with his first and only jump, after withdrawing from the remaining five jumps on a ‘precautionary measure’. All other podium finishers equally jumped over 8m. Ruswahl Samaai finished 2nd with 8.49m and Zarck Visser was 3rd with 8.03m.
