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SA athletes win African Champs

Brad Morgan

7 May 2008

South Africa's athletics team proved to be the continent's best when the African Senior Championships concluded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Sunday, by topping the medal standings with a haul of 22 medals that included 12 golds.

Only three other countries managed double-figure hauls of medals as South Africa finished in first place, ahead of Nigeria, hosts Ethiopia, and Kenya.

The SA men comfortably topped the points' standings with 132, followed by Kenya on 109 and Ethiopia on 106. The women's team finished second behind Nigeria, who scored 137 points to SA's 127, with Ethiopia in third on 112.

Olympic qualifiers

Following the championships, the number of South African athletes to have achieved a qualifying standard for the Beijing Olympic Games has increased to 14 and Athletics South Africa expects that number to go up when the country's athletes head north for the European athletics season.

South Africa's 12 gold, two silver, and eight bronze medals were an improvement on the last African Championships held in Mauritius in 2006, which pleased the team's management. Had big guns, such as 800 metres star Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, javelin ace John Robert Oosthuizen, and World Indoor long jump champion Khotso Mokoena, been in action, the Rainbow Nation's medal haul would, no doubt, have been even more impressive.

The performances of some of the younger members of the SA squad were especially encouraging; with a number of veteran stars forced to miss the championships because of injury, the newcomers fared well in their places.

Sprinting success

In recent times, at continental level, South Africa has dominated in the field events, but has been less impressive in the sprints on the track; that is why the showings of the two young sprinters, Isabel le Roux and Thuso Mpuang, were cause for excitement.

Le Roux won the women's 200 metres in 22.69 seconds, which took her well within the Beijing qualifying mark of 23 seconds flat. It was also the fifth best time ever by a South African. Mpuang, who had already qualified for the Olympics, claimed the men’s 200 title in 22.53, beating the experienced Mauritian star Stephan Buckland into second place.

LJ van Zyl, the Commonwealth Games champion in 2006, won the 400 metres hurdles title with ease in 48.91 seconds, while Chris Harmse won the hammer title for the fifth time in succession, but fell just short of the Olympic qualifying standard.

More winners

Further gold medals in men's competition went to Hannes Hopley in the discus, Hennie Kotze in the 110 metres hurdles, the 4 by 400 metres relay team, and the 4 by 100 metres relay quartet.

The 4 by 100 team's time of 38.75 was the fifth fastest in the world this year, but they will have to wait to see whether it remains that way, or more pertinently whether it is among the 16 fastest in the world when the cutoff date for the Olympic Games is reached, which would secure the quartet a place in the relay in Beijing.

Apart from Le Roux in the 200 metres, the rest of the women's gold medal winners came in field events.

SA 1-2-3

There was a South African 1-2-3 in the high jump, which Anike Smit won with a leap of 1.88 metres, followed by Marcoleen Pretorius and Marizca Gertenbach on 1.84 metres, in second and third respectively.

Elizna Naude easily claimed gold in the discus by almost six metres over second placed Suzane Kragbe of the Ivory Coast. SA's Simoné du Toit finished third.

Janice Josephs won the long jump with a leap of 6.64 metres, which eclipsed the Beijing "B" qualifying mark, but was just shy of the "A" standard of 6.72 metres.

Sunette Viljoen added another win in the javelin with a best of 55.17 metres.

No medal but Beijing qualifier

Tsholofelo Thipe finished fourth in the women's 400 metres, but her time of 51.49 seconds was inside the Olympic qualifying requirement.

Silver medals were won by Willem Coertzen in the decathlon - he finished exactly 200 points behind Algeria's Larbi Bourada, who won with a total of 7 574 – and the aforementioned Marcoleen Pretorius in the women's high jump.

Janus Robberts took bronze in the shot put, but his distance of 16.44 metres was poor, especially when one considers that his best is the African record of 21.97 metres, over five-and-a-half metres more. His best of distance 2008 so far is 19.15 in March in Pretoria.

Bronze medals

Hannes Dreyer finished third in the 100 metres in an impressive 10.24 seconds, Simoné du Toit's 47.10 metre distance won her third in the women's discus, and the women's 4 by 100 relay team finished third behind Nigeria and Ghana.

Veronica Abrahamse added a further bronze by taking third in the shot put for women. The final bronze came in the men's 1 500 metres when Juan van Deventer followed the Kenyan duo of Haron Keitany and Gideon Gathumba across the finish line.

Sibusisho just missed out on a medal in the men's 400 metres when he finished fourth, while Ockert Cilliers filled the same position in the 400 hurdles. His time of 49.93 was some way off his season's best of 49.13.

The form of South Africa's top women's 100 metres sprinter, Geraldine Pillay, is of some concern. She managed only sixth place in the final in a below par time of 11.53 seconds.

MEDAL STANDINGS

South Africa
• 8 gold, 2 silver, 8 bronze, 22 total
  Nigeria
• 7 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze, 19 total
  Ethiopia
• 6 gold, 6 silver, 3 bronze, 15 total
  Kenya
• 5 gold, 5 silver, 6 bronze, 16 total
  Algeria
• 2 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze, 7 total