Sprinter Sherwin Vries pulled off an amazing sprint double at the South African Senior Track and Field Championships at King’s Park Athletics Stadium in Durban on Saturday, showing he is on track to go to the World Championships in Japan later this year.
It was a fifth national title for Vries, who also did the double in 2003, was injured in 2004/05 and won the 100m in 2006.
The championships served as the last domestic trials for the 600 athletes from Athletics South Africa’s 17 provinces to qualify for a place in the South African team to compete at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, in late July.
In the 200m final, one of the last to be run in a programme of 24 events, Vries slaughtered the opposition in the home stretch when he pulled out all the stops to win in a convincing 20,79 seconds despite the negative 2,4m/s headwind.
Morne Nagel (GN) ran second in 21,12 and KwaZulu-Natal’s Lee-Roy Newton third in 21,24.
Vries had earlier just pipped Christiaan Krone (GN) in the 100m final after running neck and neck with him all the way to the tape, with even the announcer getting it wrong when he gave Krone as the winner.
The official result gave Vries the verdict in 10.54 running into the stiff headwind measured at -1,3m/s, with Krone also on 10,54 and Snyman Prinsloo (CG) third in 10,71.
Vries, who hails from Walvis Bay and who turns 27 next week, said that the wind had been ”a huge problem” and that he had a slight technical problem at the start of the 100m final when he stumbled after his third step out of the blocks. ”I thought I had pulled a muscle,” he said, ”but it turned out to be a pinched nerve.
”It put me off my stride and I had to battle to get up front of Christiaan at the finish.”
Vries said this had prompted him to give it all he could in the 200m. ”I’ve been struggling a bit for consistency but I know I am on my way to a 20,20 200m time, and I want to run both sprints in Japan.”
Alwyn Myburgh (GN), the fastest man over the 400m hurdles this year, excelled by improving on his previous best time of 49,16 in Potchefstroom by 0,19 seconds to win in 48,97 from Ter de Villiers (GN, 49,2) and Ockert Cilliers (CNW, 49,69).
Disabled athlete Oscar Pretorius (GN) sent out a wake-up call to some of the able-bodied athletes when he ran second in the men’s 400m final after winning his heat on Friday.
Ruan de Vries again missed out on the qualifying time for the world championships when he ran a 14,45 in the men’s 110m hurdles final, 0,66 seconds outside his season-best 13,79.
The men’s 400m hurdles final was a triumph for Alwyn Myburgh (GN) who took the title for the first time after seven years of trying. ”I’ve always been the silver medallist,” he said, ”and last year I was only the bronze-medal winner. So you can imagine how pleased I am to finally take the gold.”
Myburgh’s 48,97 eclipsed his 49,16 in Potchefstroom, making it the second time he has qualified for Osaka. He said he used a 13-stride pattern down the back straight for the first time and was pleased with the result as it was all part of his preparations for the world championships.
Ter de Villiers (GN) was second in 49,20, which equalled the AQT (A qualifying time), and former champion Ockert Cilliers (CNW) third in 49,69, which got him a BQT.
Khotso Mokoena achieved his goal of a sub-8,2m world championship A qualifying distance in the men’s long jump when he leaped to a brilliant 8,16m, only 23cm outside his own national record of 8,39m set last July and his personal best for this year.
National men’s 3000m steeplechase champion Ruben Ramolefi (CG) easily retained his title but not in as good a time as he had planned, winning this time in 8:28,93 from rival Emmanuel Makhabela (FS, 8:40,78) after the pair had been on stream for a record run at the halfway mark.
But the heat, a strong headwind in the home straight and Makhabela falling back all conspired to slow the 28-year-old Ramolefi down. He has already qualified for the world championships after his 8:20,18 achieved earlier this month in Stellenbosch and says he will aim to go better than this at the Sassu Championships in Durban at the end of this month before he heads for the All Africa Games and the world championships in July.
As expected, the statuesque Geraldine Pillay retained the women’s sprint double titles, winning the 100m in 11,59 and the 200m in 23,45. Pillay is in a class of her own following her four-month training spell in Jamaica. Despite this, she failed to make the respective world championship qualifying times of 11,30 and 23,10 for the 100m and 200m respectively, the negative wind speed of -2,3m/s doing her no favours.
Amanda Kotze took the women’s 400m hurdle title as expected following her 57,59 performance in Pretoria two weeks ago.
Namibia’s Agnes Samaria showed up the barefoot Phalula twins from Gauteng in the women’s 800m final, showing them a clean pair of spikes as she romped to victory in 2:02,70, with Lebogang second in and Lebo third in.
The extreme heat around midday was also a factor in the women’s steeplechase when 27-year-old Tebogo Masehla ran 10 seconds outside her own national record time of 9:57,17 set in Stellenbosch on March 2.
Poppy Mlambo retained her 10 000m title with a slower time than last year, but winning comfortably by almost two minutes from Smangile Mabusa (VT) in 35:20,07.
Elizna Naude (FS) was spot-on when she perfectly matched the world-championship qualifying distance of 61m in the women’s discus, but was disappointed not to throw the 65m she had hoped for. — Sapa