Twenty five-year-old South African javelin thrower Hardus Pienaar recorded one of his best performances on the international scene when he finished second in the 10th IAAF World Cup meeting in Athens on Sunday with a throw of 83,62m.
The event was won by Andreas Thorkildsen, Norway’s world number one, with a throw of 87,17m.
While Pienaar became the second SA javelin thrower to win a medal at the meeting, the five-race winning spree of 800m star Mbulaeni Mulaudzi came to an end with him finishing third. He led for a short while in the final straight only to be passed by former Kenyan, Yousef Saad Kamel of Asia, who won in 1:44,98 followed by European champion Bram Som (1:45,13).
The only other SA athletes to reach the rostrum were LJ van Zyl, with his excellent second place in the 400m hurdles, and Paul Gorries in the long relay. Gorries surprised with a brilliant leg in the 4x400m relay and will return home with a bronze medal and a cheque of about R20 000 in his pocket.
He ran the opening leg and was the first runner to hand over the baton.
Gary Kikaya (Democratic Republic of Congo) then increased the lead with Young Talkmore Nyangani (Zimbabwe) continuing to maintain the leading position before handing to Malik Louahla (Algeria). He was only passed about 40m from the finish.
The United States (3:00,11) and the team of the Americas (3:00,14) concluded the race in that order. The African team clocked a time of 3:00,88.
Okkert Brits, who competed in his first World Cup meeting in 1992, finished joint fifth in the pole vault with a 5,50m clearance while SA high jumper René van der Merwe (1,83m) shared 7th place.
The African men’s team finished third in the team contest while the women finished in sixth place. The European men and the Russian women won the trophies. – Sapa