Several top athletes look ready for big season
While a University of Johannesburg athlete set an impressive new triple jump record this past weekend at a club event in Pretoria, there were also several local athletes who showed at the same event that they are ready for big things in the 2020 season.
Several top local athletes showed at the weekend during a league meeting at Tuks that athletics lovers can expect a season of exciting action in the next two months.
Caster Semenya set a new personal best by winning the 200 metres in a time of 23.81s. There are some rumours that she might try and qualify in the longer sprint for the Tokyo Games. To do so, she needs to improve at least a second.
The exiting young sprinter Clarence Munyai from the Tuks-Nike team was impressive winning the 100 metres in 10.22s and the 200m in 20.35s. Afterwards, he made it clear that he is capable of running faster times.
“As it is still early in the season, I am happy for now,” said Munyai.
Rikenette Steenkamp from the Tuks-Puma team won the 100m-hurdles in a time of 13.19s. Sharona Bakker (Netherlands) finished second in a time 13.43s. It was the first time this season that Steenkamp competed in the 100m-hurdles.
Last month Steenkamp set a new South African indoors record running 8.17s in the 60m-hurdles.
Tuks’s Taylon Bieldt was also impressive. During the morning she won the 400m-hurdles running 58.08s. In the afternoon she set a new personal best in the 400m winning in a time of 52.81s.
Over the previous seasons, Bieldt mainly focussed on competing in the 100m-hurdles. Her best time is 13.35s. She has however decided that from now to compete in the longer hurdles event.
However, the highlight of the event was the performance of Zinzi Chabangu from UJ, who set the first South African senior athletics record for the season when she won the women’s triple jump with a 14.02 metres effort.
It is the first time that any South African athlete has gone past the 14 metres barrier. Chabangu’s winning jump is 13 centimetres further than the national record (13.89m) set by Patience Ntshingila in 2012. The UJ student’s previous best was 13.65m.
The current South African and USSA champion is confident of improving on her own record but realises the biggest mistake she could make as being obsessed to jump certain distances.
However, Chabangu is confident that can jump the 14.32m, which is the qualification standard for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
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