Louis van Zyl (RSA) wins gold at 400m Hurdles in Kingston 2002 (© Getty Images)
Three talented throwing specialists are among South Africa’s main contenders for medals at the fourth World Youth Championships to be held in Marrakech in July.
Topping the list is a powerful left-handed 17-year-old scholar, Jan (JP) Hoffman, from Pretoria, who is currently leading the world best performance list with a distance of 20.42m in the Shot Put while two 16-year-old girls, Simoné du Toit and javelin thrower Ynthie Coetzee, are also expected to do well.
Hoffman, du Toit and Coetzee have best chances for medals
JP Hoffman, who has also been selected for the shot and discus, is perhaps South Africa’s main prospect for a gold medal. He already made his mark in 2004 and at the end of the year had occupied second spot on the world youth list with a distance of 20.15m. This year, after adding another 27cm at the national Youth Championships in April, he had been in the number one position. It is still early days and with the best Europeans only moving into top gear anything can still happen with new stars coming to the fore during the next five weeks. In 2004 Hoffman also set a personal best of 17.58m with the 6kg shot.
Du Toit has had an interesting career to date and made her first mark in the global arena on 7 September 2002 - 20 days before her 14th birthday - when she set a world 13-year-old age group best of 14.34m. Since then she had improved by leaps and bounds and also got two wonderful opportunities to gain experience at the 2003 and 2004 World Youth and Junior Championships. This year she will be up against opponents of the same age with a good chance to finish in the top three in both the shot and the discus. In these two events, with best performances of 16.04m and 52.72m she rates amongst the best in the world.
Ynthie Coetzee, who only turns 17 on the last day of 2004, caused a major surprise at the South African senior championships in April when she won the javelin title with a huge throw measuring 57.29 metres. Two weeks prior she had only finished second at the national youth meeting with a modest 45.83m behind Gerlize de Klerk who had also been included in the team for Marrakech.
Amazing improvement of over 13 metres in one competition
In the senior meeting Coetzee really excelled and went past the 50m mark for the first time in her career with all six throws. Apart from the winning distance, two more throws exceeded 54 metres while she had improved on her 2004 best by 13.33 metres. The performance in the senior meeting had inspired her school’s superiors at Zwartkop Hoërskool in Pretoria to such an extent that they decided to start a javelin academy under her coach, Leon Rheeder at the school.
One of the male javelin members of the team, Janneman Espach, is also a scholar at the same school. He and the SA junior champion, Noel Meyer (70.58), are also expected to reach the final in Morocco. In Sherbrooke South African athletes won the silver and bronze medals in the men’s javelin.
400m Hurdles tradition will be respected
South Africa always produces good hurdlers and this year is no exception. Wiekus Jonck leads the world 400m Hurdles list at the moment with a personal best of 51.84 with countryman Pieter Botha (52.46) hot on his heels. In 1999 Marnus Kritzinger won the gold medal at the inaugural World Youth meeting in Poland; in 2001 South Africa had one finalist and in 2003 the SA team had two finalists with Wouter le Roux winning silver. In the high hurdles Louw Smit (13.88) is also capable of something special while the star in the women’s division, Mariska van Driel, has a chance of reaching the finals of the 100 and 400m Hurdles.
Keenan Watson is a developing young long jumper who has not really been tested to the full. At the end of the local season he had a best of 7.61m and at a subsequent meeting in neighbouring Namibia he improved by 2 cm. Whether he will follow in the footsteps of local global star, Godfrey Khotso Mokoena, who won silver and gold medals in the long and triple jump in Grosseto last year, will have to be seen but he will definitely make his presence felt.
Around 40 athletes in the team
While it is still unknown to what extent Kenyan and other East African youngsters will once again dominate proceedings in the running events from 800m upwards, South Africa will have a few fine new prospects whose capabilities in international level are awaited with great interest. De Wayne Mouries has shown promise in the 2000m Steeplechase with a fast time of 5:44.54 while Jan Masenamela (800m) and Dumisani Hlaselo (1500m) are equally well equipped to do well.
South Africa will be represented in most events in Marrakech by a team of about 40 athletes.
Coaches workshop and Youth Competition planned this weekend
The strength of youth athletics in Southern Africa will be witnessed at Pilditch Stadium, Pretoria on 4 and 5 June when 200 athletes from 12 countries will be in action at the region’s youth championships. With the exception of Angola all member countries in the area will be represented. Athletics South Africa announced earlier in the week that a coaching workshop for coaches of youth athletes will be held in conjunction with the Championships. It will be hosted by Ms Giovanna Rousseau, of Seychelles, President of the AAC Southern region.
The competition will take place during the mornings of Saturday and Sunday while the coaches will assemble in the afternoon. .
Gert le Roux for the IAAF
