Lockdown frustrations being taken out on the track and field?
A number of South African athletes have already indicated that it could be a memorable season.
Former junior world shot put champion Kyle Blignaut is showing good early season form. Picture: Roger Sedres/Gallo Images
The top-flight domestic track and field campaign will be launched next week, a year after the sport was placed under lockdown, but athletes haven’t waited for the first leg of the ASA Athletix Invitational in Roodepoort on Tuesday to start tearing up the track.
Having showcased their form at lower-tier events, a number of South African athletes have already indicated that it could be a memorable season.
Better known as a 200m runner, Lux Adams clocked a wind-assisted 10.07 seconds in Potchefstroom earlier this month, flaunting his potential over the 100m distance, while 20-year-old Phatutshedzo Maswanganyi (who set the SA junior 100m record of 10.06 last year) opened his campaign with a solid 10.18 in Houston, Texas.
In the 400m sprint, 18-year-old prospect Lythe Pillay took another big step forward in the early stages of his elite career by covering the one-lap sprint in 45.53 in Boksburg last week, setting the fastest outdoor time in the world this year.
In distance running events, teenager Renier de Villiers clocked 1:46.98 over 800m in Potchefstroom earlier this week, and Precious Mashele has set promising times of 13:38.50 (5,000m) and 28:20.99 (10,000m) in Durban.
In the field, long jumper Cheswill Johnson set a personal best of 8.26m in Pretoria last month, which is tied as the best leap in the world this season.
Jason van Rooyen (20.97m) and former world junior champion Kyle Blignaut (20.99m) have been equally impressive in the shot put, though South Africa has lost Zane Weir, who has switched allegiance to Italy after setting a personal best of 21.11m in Potchefstroom earlier this year.
Elsewhere, former world youth champion Werner Visser has also turned some heads with a 61.99m personal best in the discus throw.
And while there has been less depth among the country’s top women (which is becoming an increasingly alarming norm) there have been some significant performances.
In the shot put, 17-year-old prodigy Mine de Klerk launched a 17.55m heave in Potch last month, just 33 centimetres short of the long-standing national record, and it seems only a matter of time before she shatters that mark.
Though she remains well off her best, 37-year-old Olympic silver medallist Sunette Viljoen also impressed after landing her javelin at 60.60m earlier this week, producing her biggest throw since 2019.
Despite the lengthy break, local athletics looks set to explode once again, and some fireworks could go off at Ruimsig next week.
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