South Africa’s junior athletes proved that they are ready to take over from their senior counterparts in future when they excelled at the African Junior Championships in Tunis, Tunisia.
The South African team returned home on Wednesday with 25 medals (10 gold, nine silver and six bronze) and the honour of topping the medals table ahead of Kenya (16 medals) and Sudan (13). Eighteen African countries were represented at the championships.
They follow on the heels of the South African youth team who in July in Marrakech, Morocco, bagged five medals at the IAAF World Youth Championships and finished sixth on the medals table out of almost 200 countries.
To underline the fact that this was the best junior team yet sent to an international event, the team members also set one new African junior record and two South African junior records at the championships. In addition, several athletes had personal best performances.
Marli Knoetze produced a star performance when she won gold medals in both the shot-put and discus events. She also set new African and South African junior records of 16,93m in the shot put.
Tinus de Bruin, who set a new national junior record in April at the South African Junior and Youth Championships in Germiston, was in outstanding form in the decathlon event in Tunisia. He earned a silver medal with a new South African junior record total of 6 355 points, which underlined the fact that he is a talent to look out for in future decathlon events.
Anika Smit finally broke through in the high jump, improving her previous personal best by 3cm with a jump of 1,89m. This height is the fourth-best by a junior and the fifth-best to date among senior women high-jumpers in South Africa.
Heike Kotze, who only recently took up heptathlon, improved her personal best to 4 541 points. Other personal best performances came from Robert Oosthuizen (javelin, 75,94m), Riatha Jacobs (javelin, 47,29m), Arista Hefer (200m, 24,15 seconds) and Lehann Fourie (110m hurdles, 14,23 seconds). — Sapa