Llewellyn Herbert, 26-year-old South African record holder and Olympic medal winner, is back on the main stage of global athletics.
He was the pick of the South African competitors at the prestigious 2004 Athletissima IAAF Super Grand Prix in Lausanne on Tuesday evening when he clinched an excellent second place in the 400m men’s hurdles behind world champion Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic.
Herbert even gave Sanchez a fright when he moved up to the world number one, driving him to 47,86 seconds for the world’s fastest time of the 2004.
Herbert himself had all reason to be totally satisfied with a time of 48,03 seconds that rocketed him into third place on the world list behind Sanchez and another South African, Ockert Cilliers, who had been leading the world list since March with his best of 48,02 seconds.
A delighted Herbert said afterwards that he knows now that he has it in him to reach the top and that Sanchez can be beaten.
Manager Peet van Zyl said Herbert was still a little slow over the first two hurdles while he also seemed to hesitate slightly in the closing stages.
His coach, Nico van Heerden, said in Pretoria that all was not perfect yet but added that he was very happy with the performance.
”Llewellyn ran very well and I am convinced that if he can shed another 3kg he should be at his very best in Athens. He runs another race in Finland on the 14th before flying to Brazzaville for the African Championships.
”After the Golden League meeting in Paris he will return home to take stock and get ready for Athens.”
The meeting produced various upsets and one of the major ones was the defeat of double world champion Hestrie Cloete in the high jump.
The consistent Yelena Slesarenko, world indoor champion from Russia, who had recorded three 2m jumps in the past two weeks, added another 2,03m jump, inflicting a huge defeat on the South African star who had to settle for 1,95m and a rare joint third place with Viktoriya Styopina (Ukraine) on the day. Blanka Vlasic of Croatia finished second with 1,98m.
In the men’s 800m the South African record holder, Hezekiel Sepeng, did not do as well as on Friday in Rome but he still clocked one minute and 45,11 seconds in fourth place after he had been boxed in for most of the race. Joseph Mutua of Kenya won in one minute and 44,5 seconds.
Another of the major upsets occurred in the 800m for women where the almost invincible Maria Mutola suffered one of her few defeats. She seemed tired over the last 20m and settled for second place behind Russia’s Svetlana Cherkasova who clocked one minute and 58,91 seconds, winning by 0,13 seconds.
Heide Seyerling, the South African champion who was desperately hoping for an Olympic qualifying time, paid the price for stopping after the gun — apparently under the impression that it was a false start — and could not catch the other runners, finishing eighth in a time of 52,42 seconds.
The race was won by Russia’s Olga Kotlyarova in a fast time of 50,10 seconds. Leigh Julius, the South African senior and junior sprint champion, was outclassed in a very fast 100m that was won by Jamaica’s Asafa Powell in 10 seconds. Like his Port Elizabeth club mate in the 400m, Julius also finished eighth, clocking 10,48 seconds.
Okkert Brits cleared 5,4m in the pole vault but then withdrew with an apparent foot injury. The nature of the injury was not certain. — Sapa