Drama in the pole-vault cast a pall over the second Absa series meeting in Potchefstroom on Friday night when Stellenbosch athlete Fanie Jacobs was rushed to hospital after injuring his lower back in dangerous competition conditions.
”We have been warning about something like this happening because of below-standard pole vault facilities,” said Africa record-holder and Commonwealth Games champion Okkert Brits after the event was cancelled in wet conditions.
This, after Brits got the fright of his life when a hammer thrown by Africa record-holder Chris Harmse flew through the air and landed on the mat during his run-up.
Had Brits been a few seconds earlier, he would have been struck by the hammer.
Riaan Botha had posted a warning earlier in the week that the pole-vault facilities were too dangerous at Potchefstroom and decided against travelling up from Stellenbosch to compete.
His clubmate, Jacobs, should have heeded the warning. He took strain in the wet conditions and hit the corner of the mats with the small of his back while trying to clear 5,05m.
Brits immediately called a halt to the competition.
”No ways,” he told the officials. ”We cannot continue in these dangerous conditions — not in an Olympic year,” he said.
Jacobs was rushed to a local hospital, accompanied by Brits and a group of pole-vaulters.
”He has serious back-injuries,” said Brits afterwards.
”This is just not on,” said a livid Jakes van Vuuren of Rentmeester-Tuks. ”In Secunda last week, the mat was far too small and the slot for the pole was the wrong distance from the mat, which made conditions dangerous. There were eight deaths in the world in pole-vault last year and it’s about time this problem was addressed,” he said.
”The only venues that are right for pole-vault in the country are Pilditch, Bloemfontein and Stellenbosch.”
On the track, Okkert Cilliers showed early-season class with a personal-best 48,47 seconds to hold off a strong challenge from Alwyn Myburgh (48,84) down the main straight to generate an exciting 400m hurdles race and cut under the Olympic qualifier for Athens for the second time this year.
Racing in the absence of Llewellyn Herbert, who is competing on the indoor circuit in Europe, Cilliers surged to the fastest time of the year in beating his previous best of 48,61 seconds.
”I was very happy with that, but I’m not that surprised by such a fast time so early,” said Cilliers, who races for Pukke. ”It’s more or less on course for where I want to be. I hope it’s a sign of better things to come.”
He and Myburgh said that they have sub-48 second performances in their sights over the next two years.
Once again, the 17-year-old Wouter le Roux impressed to claim third in 49,87 seconds to become only the third junior in South Africa to have cut less than 50 seconds for the 400 hurdles. The others were Herbert and world junior champion LJ van Zyl, who, with Le Roux, are set to race in the IAAF world junior championships in Italy in July.
World high-jump champion Hestrie Cloete was happy with her 1,9m win.
”I like a slow build-up to the climax of my season,” she said. ”And I’m spot on. Anything higher at this stage would be a bonus.”
Harmse threw the hammer 79,86m for an Athens Olympic qualifier, but once again the big man from the Vaal Triangle will miss out on going for an Olympic medal because the hammer-throw final takes place on a Sunday.
Harmse is a devout Christian and refuses to compete on Sundays for religious reasons. He was ill last year and missed out on selection to the IAAF world championships in Paris where the final happened on a Saturday. He also withdrew from the team to the Sydney Olympics because of the Sunday final.
”It’s great to have thrown well here,” he said, ”but although it’s an Olympic qualifier, I cannot compromise my faith.”
Heide Seyerling continued to impress with her 23,38 seconds 200m win.
”I’m a bit stiff,” she said. ”We’ve been training very hard down in PE [Port Elizabeth].”
World student 200m champion and junior Leigh Julius (10,43 seconds) upstaged favourite Sherwin Vries (10,44) in the 100m, which he followed up with a win in the 200m (20,69), while Shaun Bownes ran an Olympic B qualifier of 13,56 seconds in the 110m hurdles.
Athletes who showed early-season promise were Adri Schoeman who ran 53,51 seconds for the 400m, Geraldine Pillay (11,55 seconds for 100m) and Marcus la Grange (45,83 seconds for 400m). — Sapa