Former Nellie adds more gold to her collection at SA champs
Ashley Erasmus, a former Hoërskool Nelspruit learner, has won her second national title by earning gold in shot put at the SA championships, to go along with her bronze medal in the discus event.
Local up-and-coming shot put star Ashley Erasmus has added yet another gold medal to her growing collection of accomplishments. This young Lowvelder won gold in the senior women’s shot put event at the 2024 ASA Senior Track & Field National Championships, as well as a bronze in the discus event.
This gold medal marks the second time she’s won the senior women’s title at the senior SA championships, having won the same event last year too. It was, however, a much-improved win this year as she threw 17.27m to claim the gold medal. This placed her just above Miné de Klerk (17.14m) and Colette Uys (16.58m).
Erasmus and De Klerk had a great battle for the gold medal, consistently trading the top spot until Erasmus secured the gold with her final throw.
“I’m not entirely happy with my distance, because I’d been regularly throwing over 17.6m in training, but I am still overjoyed at winning gold and getting my second SA senior title,” she said.
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Furthermore, Erasmus and De Klerk continued their battle in the discus event. There De Klerk just edged Erasmus out to a silver medal, though, throwing 52.55m compared to Erasmus’s 52.14m to secure the bronze medal.
Yolandi Stander took home the gold in the discus event.
Erasmus is chuffed with her recent performances, but is determined to keep improving.
“I feel positive about my performances, because after every competition, I’m able to identify what exactly I need to work on in my technique and what I need to do to improve,” she said.
She was positive about her discus performance in particular.
“I had a no-throw in the discus that landed past the 55m marker, but it was just out of the right-hand sector, so unfortunately it didn’t count, but I’m still positive because I know a big PB lies in wait for me in the discus, too.”
Erasmus will now turn her attention to two upcoming Athletics Gauteng North meets in May and June as she continues to pursue her goal of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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She needs to either meet the Olympic qualifying distance or rack up enough qualifying points to climb up the rankings and place among the top athletes in the world to earn her spot.
