Mixed fortunes for SA at African Championship
South Africa’s men’s 4x100m relay team missed the mark completely, but a number of gold medals for other events helped soften the blow.
|||Durban - South Africa’s hopes of entering a men’s 4x100m relay team for the Rio Olympic Games is for all intents and purposes dead in the water after they missed the mark in the heats of the African Athletics Championships in Durban on Wednesday.
Once a serious medal prospect for the Games purely based on the caliber of sprinters to their disposal, the team will have to break the South African record by a long way to earn a place among the top 16 countries in the world.
A quartet consisting of Emile Erasmus, short hurdles specialist Antonio Alkana, and juniors Gift Leotela and Clarence Munyai advanced to Thursday’s final with a time of 40.04 seconds.
They needed to run at least a time of 38.75s over an aggregate of two races to stand a chance of qualifying.
South Africa’s fastest time over the last year is the 39.44s from the World Student Games in South Korea which means the team would have to post a time of 38.06s.
The quartet of Simon Magakwe, Akani Simbine, Ncinci Titi, and Henricho Bruintjies hold the national record of 38.35s they posted at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The team was first struck a blow when Wednesday’s 100m finalist Roto pulled out due to an Achilles injury while national record-holder Simbine was suffering from jet-lag after arriving back in the country from Boston on Monday evening.
Simbine still managed to win the bronze medal in a time of 10.05 seconds finishing behind Ivorian Ben Yousseff Meitte, who won in a wind-assisted +2.4m/s time of 9.95s with Mosito Lehat of Lesotho taking silver in 10.04s.
‘’I am not happy, it is just not coming together but I am still hopeful and still positive for the Olympics,’’ Simbine said.
‘’African champs was a buildup event for the Olympics and if I am in this type of form after the travelling then I am good.’’
Junior sprinting sensation Gift Leotlela finished behind Simbine with a time of 10.24s and also featured in the relay race later in the evening.
Joint South African women’s 100m record-holder Carina Horn produced another sterling performance in the short sprint finishing second behind African record-holder Ivorian Murielle Ahoure.
Ahoure dipped below 11 seconds clocking a blistering 10.99s with Horn crossing the line in 11.07s, one hundredth of a second short of her national mark. Marie Josee Ta Lou of Côte d’Ivoire claimed third place in 11.15s.
‘’I don’t think the perfect race exists even if you post a record, you will still find something to improve on so it is never good enough but I am happy with the result,’’ Horn said.
‘’My start wasn’t that good, it was a bit on me and I had to work hard towards the end to keep it together.’’
Long jump extraordinaire Ruswahl Samaai continued his rise in international athletics winning his continental title with a +2.9m/s wind-assisted jump of 8.40m.
It was a close tussle between Samaai and countryman Luvo Manyonga, who finished in second place with a best leap of 8.23m with Ruri Rammkolodi of Botswana bagging the bronze with 7.90m.
‘’I live for competition, I love competition, competition brings out the best in me, and I need to boost myself every single time,’’ Samaai said.
South African 100m hurdles champion Claudia Heunis claimed South Africa’s third gold medal of the championships winning her race in a new personal-best time of 13.35s.
Heunis stopped the clock 0.01s short of the personal best she posted last year to claim her first major title.
She was followed by Yasmin Koala of Burkina Faso in second place with 13.36s with South African Maryke Brits taking bronze with a PB of 13.47s.
South African youth record holder Taylon Bieldt equaled the national junior mark held by Arnell Jacobs, clocking 13.47s but missing out on a podium spot by photo finish.
‘’It is my first African title, my first major title, so I am thrilled,’’ Heunis said.
‘’There was no time to think during the race, I just had to focus on my own race and every hurdle in front of me.’’
Discus throw ace Victor Hogan won his third continental title with good a best heave of 61.68m with fellow South African Russell Tucker taking silver in 61.44m with Nigeria’s Stephenn Mozia winning bronze with 59.16m.
Decathlete Fredrich Pretorius won South Africa’s fourth gold medal after compatriot and favourite Willem Coertzen retired from an ankle injury after the javelin throw, the penultimate event.
Pretorius posted a total of 7780 points with Atsu Nyamadi of Ghana winning silver with 7501 points and Coertzen rounding off the podium despite missing the 1500m earning 7196 points.
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