Pretoria welcomes SA’s best cross country athletes for national trials
The cream of South Africa's best senior and junior cross-country athletes will be in action at the University of Pretoria on Saturday in the national trials.
Aiming to secure their places in the national team for the upcoming IAAF World Cross Country Championships in two months’ time, some of South Africa’s top distance runners will battle it out at the ASA Cross Country Trials in Pretoria this weekend.
The trials event, starting at 06:30am at the Tuks sports grounds on Saturday, will feature four races, with senior men’s 10km and women’s 10km contests on the programme, as well as junior men’s 8km and women’s 6km events.
The entry lists include 22 athletes invited by ASA, who all achieved the required criteria at last year’s ASA Cross Country Championships, as well as 41 individual athletes who have been entered by their provinces.
An exciting battle is on the cards in the senior men’s race, with national champion Precious Mashele turning out against the likes of versatile athlete Elroy Gelant, rising star Ryan Mphahlele and track specialist Jerry Motsau.
In the senior women’s race, USA-based athlete Dominique Scott-Efurd will line up as the favourite, though she is expected to face a strong challenge from a field which includes consistent performers Kesa Molotsane and Cherise Sims.
“We gave the athletes a stern warning to go all out and prepare themselves because we don’t want to send a team just for the sake of it. When we go to the IAAF World Cross Country Championships we need to improve on what we did in 2017, so we want them to prove to us that they are fit,” said ASA President, Aleck Skhosana.
Following the ASA Cross Country Trials, a national squad will be announced ahead of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships to be held in Aarhus, Denmark on 30 March, 2019.
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