The third meet of Potchefstroom on Wednesday night produced some stunning result with one of the best performances coming from pre-programme, where schoolboy Brian Raats won the men’s high jump in 2.26m, placing him tied seventh on SA’s all-time list.
Then came Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori, a member of the Olympic silver medal-winning 4x400m relay team at the Tokyo Games, who surged to scotching 44.88s to win the 400m. The time qualify him for the world championship coming up later this year.
Kenya Ferdinand Omanyala won the men’s 100m in 10.11s to beat Clarence Munyai, second in 10.20s. Omanyala, holder of the 9.77s African record, will take on Akani Simbine in the 100m in Germiston next week.
Munyai, who recently posted a 100m best of 10.04 sec, said he didn’t put his race together as he’d planned. “I didn’t execute properly. I was running with the African record-holder and it was a little scary.”
Luxolo Adams, one of his main rivals in the longer sprint, easily won the men’s 200m in 20.28s, with 100m ace Simbine finishing a distant seventh in 21.08s. Simbine, fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, will have some work to do before he does the 100m in Germiston next week. But he said he wasn’t concerned, pointing out he was comfortable with where his training was so early in the season.
Deline Mpiti won the women’s 400m in a respectable 51.73s.
Caster Semenya won the women’s 2,000m in 5 min 50.39 sec, Jovan van Vuuren took the men’s long jump in 8.12m, Soks Zazini finished first in the men’s 400m hurdles in 49.84s and Kyle Blignaut won the men’s shot put with a heave of 20.13m.
Carina Horn returned after a two-year gap to snatch a narrow victory in the women’s 100m with a time of 11.50s.
DiscernSport 