Juan van Deventer cut it fine, but was helped to qualify for the 1 500m final by the speed of his A semifinal at the Bird’s Nest on Sunday night.
On the sunniest day so far of the Olympics Games, South African fortunes took a turn for the better.
Asafa Powell edges the 100m world record-holder in Stockholm as SA’s Juan van Deventer set his first South African record at the meet.
Mbulaeni Mulaudzi started his international campaign on a high note at the IAAF Golden league meeting in Berlin on Sunday when he clocked a fast time of 1:44,68 in the 800m. Mulaudzi was narrowly beaten by Kenya’s Abraham Chepkirwok who won the race in 1:44,53 but his performance will give his confidence a major boost for the rest of his European campaign.
South African athletes continued to dominate the 16th African Athletics Championships on another windy day in Addis Ababa on Saturday. Three more gold medals by Chris Harmse, Hennie Kotze and Sunette Viljoen, in the hammer throw, 110m hurdles and javelin respectively, brought the team’s golden haul to nine.
The pressure of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics for world indoor long-jump champion Khotso Mokoena is over after he carded a leap of 8,24m with his first dash at the board on the first day of the South African Track and Field Championships at Coetzenburg on Friday.