/ 4 August 1997

SA progress in Athens

MONDAY, 1.00PM:

SOUTH AFRICA’S Llewellyn Hebert has qualified for the 400m hurdles final on Monday night at the World Athletics Championships in Athens. Hebert qualified for the finals after finishing second in the semi-final on Sunday night.

He clocked in a time of 48,31sec behind Frenchman Stefane Diagana’s 48,14sec. “I held back a bit. All that matters is that I’m in the final. I’ve treated both my qualifying races as a final and there’s no need to stop that trend now,” he said.

Meanwhile, national 200m champion Adri de Jongh will not contest the 200m event after it was revealed that she was suffering from a virus infection. The virus was discovered after she collapsed during the 400m race on Saturday. “I was feeling dizzy even before I went to the track. During the race I felt good for the first 150m and then it just all went black. The next thing I knew I was in the medical area,” she said.

South African javelin Champion Marius Corbett has qualified for the men’s javelin finals. Corbett threw 80,72m to qualify for Tuesday’s final.

Corbett follows fellow South African Burger Lambrechts, who became the first to qualify for the finals. Corbett’s coach Tersius Liebenberg said: “It was tough for the guys, but it just goes to show you the value of consistency.”