Mulaudzi aims high in Osaka
Brad Morgan
24 August 2007
The world number one ranked 800 metres athlete, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, spearheads South Africa's challenge at the eleventh IAAF World Championships in Athletics at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 25 August to 2 September.
Taking a measured approach to the 2007 season, Mulaudzi, who first attained the world number one ranking in 2004, showed he is on course to challenge for World Championships gold by running the fastest time of the year in Monaco in late July. Up against a world-class field, he timed his sprint perfectly to win in 1:43.74.
Only a week earlier, Mulaudzi was surprised by Sudan's Abubaker Kaki in the final of the 800 metres at the All Africa Games in Algiers. The 18-year-old, sixth at the World Junior Championships in Beijing in 2006, passed the South African star in the final 20 metres to capture gold, with Mulaudzi relegated to the silver medal position.
Overcoming an injury
Despite not
recording an expected victory, the Mulaudzi didn't appear to be disappointed, explaining that a quadriceps injury he had suffered in May had left him short of speed training. He said he was pleased with his endurance, adding that he expected to be ready to challenge for gold in Osaka.
His victory in Monaco then showed the world number one will rightly be among the favoured athletes to win 800 metres gold in Japan.
At the DN Galan Stockholm Super Grand Prix earlier in August, Mulaudzi showed that he is in good shape in terms of both endurance and speed when he established his first South African record in the seldom run 1 000 metres.
He finished second in a time of 2min 15.86sec to break Danie Malan's previous mark, set in Munich in 1973, and the oldest South African record on the books.
Thrilled
Mulaudzi's coach, JP van der Merwe, was thrilled with his runner's performance. He said the time could have been even faster had
Mulaudzi been familiar with the distance.
Mulaudzi has, in the past, enjoyed success in major events. At the previous World Championships in 2003, he claimed bronze. He was Commonwealth champion in 2002, world indoor champion in 2004, and the silver medal winner at the Athens Olympics in the same year.
While Mulaudzi is the most obvious South African medal contender set to contest the World Championships in Athletics, there are a number of other South Africans whose world rankings and performances indicate that they, too, could be in with a shot at a podium finish.
400 metres hurdles
South Africa is blessed with great depth of talent in the men's 400 metres hurdles, and it is in this event that SA has another strong shot at a gold medal.
Commonwealth champion LJ van Zyl is in second place in the world rankings, fractionally behind world number one Periklis Iakovakis, and he will spearhead South Africa's challenge. He is,
realistically, a huge gold medal threat.
This season, Van Zyl has beaten the world's best and lowered his personal best time to 48.24 seconds. It came at the IAAF Golden Gala meeting in Rome in mid-July as he staved off the challenge of a powerful field, including American champion Kerron Clement and James Carter, the owner of the fastest time in the world this year.
Depth
Other South Africans high in the rankings include Alwyn Myburgh in tenth place, Pieter de Villiers in twentieth, and Pieter Koekemoer in thirty-fifth spot.
Myburgh has been in good form in 2007, recording an excellent 48.64 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens. De Villiers has also cracked the 49-second barrier, with a best of 48.89.
South Africa's two prime medal contenders, Mulaudzi and Van Zyl, will be trying to write history by winning individual World Championships gold on the track, a feat not yet achieved by a South African.
Three South Africans have
recorded individual victories at the World Champs – Marius Corbett in the javelin in 1997, Hestrie Cloete in the high jump in 2001 and 2003, and Jacques Freitag in the high jump in 2003 – but they all came in field events.
The country won gold on the track in Edmonton in 2001, but that came in the men's 4x100 metres relay.
Long jump
Long jump is an event in which two South Africans, one man and one woman, have been producing quality performances in 2007.
Khotso Mokoena occupies sixth place in the men's world rankings. His performances include a brilliant leap of 8.34-metres in Pretoria in March.
Mokoena has been around a while and has established himself as one of the world's premier long jumpers. Karen Mey, on the other hand, has been raising eyebrows in women's competition, making her mark as a relative unknown on the world circuit.
Only five athletes have bettered her season's best of 6.93 metres which she jumped in Bad
Langensalza early in July. That performance suggests she is a dark horse medal contender for Osaka.
The world's seventh ranked javelin thrower, Justine Robberson, will not be competing in Osaka, leaving SA somewhat short on contenders in women's events.
A crack at the big time
However, in field events, South Africa's top hammer thrower, Chris Harmse, will finally get a crack at the big time in a major event.
In the past he has missed a number of big championships because the hammer throw was scheduled for a Sunday, which clashed with his religious beliefs. This time around the schedule has been kinder to him.
Harmse holds down the world number nine ranking. However, his season's best of 75.11 metres places him a long way off the best performances recorded this year.
Marathon
The top marathon performances are liberally sprinkled with Kenyan athletes. South Africa's best performer in the
42.2-kilometre race, Hendrick Ramaala, is not far off the world's leading time. His 2:07:56 in the London Marathon in April is only 37 seconds behind Mubarak Hassan Shami's 2:07:19, which he recorded in Paris in April.
Shami is running for Qatar, but was formerly known as Richard Yatich when he ran for Kenya.
Of all the races, the marathon is probably the most difficult to predict. After all, few people - South Africans included - had heard of Josiah Thugwane before he won the marathon at the Olympic Games in 1996; it is the kind of event that can produce a surprise winner.
The marathon gets the championships under way early in the morning on 25 August.
| 
