Louis van Zyl runs a personal best 44.86 400m in South Africa (© mark Ouma)
African 400m Hurdles champion Louis van Zyl of South Africa stole the lime light at the Yellow Pages Inter provincial Championships at the Germiston Stadium in Ekurhuleni South Africa on Saturday (26 March).
The Gemiston Stadium track lived up to its reputation of being a venue where sprinters break new ground in their careers. Besides van Zyl, Hannes Dreyer (100) sparkled, and between them Namibian Tjipekapora Herunga and Mosito Lehata (Lesotho) set three national records.
Personal Best Smashed
Van Zyl switched from his specialty the 400m Hurdles, and was successful in his pursuit of a career best in the 400m flat. His winning time of 44.86 seconds was way beyond his expectation.
Runner-up Wille de Beer (45.68) and third placed junior sprinter Jacque de Swart (46.14) followed with career best performances. Offentse Mogawane was fourth in a season best of 46.34, ahead of Namibian Basilus Karupu (47.20) and hurdler Piet Beneke (47.90).
“My target was to improve my 400m personal best from 45.82 to about 45.2 seconds. A sub 45 seconds was way beyond my wildest dreams,” said a delighted van Zyl.
“On the back straight Offentse who was in the immediate inside lane next to me, was rapidly catching up so I had to work hard. When I reach where normally the eighth hurdle is placed in 400m hurdles, I felt strong and made my move,” Van Zyl narrated
“I am also grateful to Willie (de Beer) and Jacques (de Swart) who were running in the outer lanes for setting such a fast pace. We need stiff competition to improve our times, Van Zyl explained.
Now Van Zyl is the fastest athlete in the world this year in both the 400m hurdles (47.66) and 400m flat. “Now I have to sustain and improve this form all the way up to the World Championships in Daegu,” van Zyl declared.
Herunga over Semenya
Namibia’s youthful Herunga showed remarkable improvement in her 400m form from the 54.40 effort at the previous Yellow Pages meet in Belville near Cape Town on 10 March. This time she led all the way to stop the clock in 52.32 seconds. In the process, South African runner up and World 800m champion Caster Semenya set a life time best of 52.54
Herunga has improved her Namibia record of 52.46 which she set when she finished fourth at the 2009 All Africa Games in the Algeria capital Algiers. “I did not expect this at all. We have been doing some intense speed work over the last week. I hope to improve as the season unfolds,” says Herunga.
Two national records
South African Hannes Dreyer achieved the unexpected when he won the 100m in 10.17 (+2.3) albeit wind assisted. “We have had an extended build up to this season and so I have only just started competing. I hope to get much faster,” said Dreyer.
Competing in separate heats Lesotho’s Mosito Lehata improved his 100m and 200m national records. He won his heats with times of 10.53 and 20.93 respectively. He improves on the 10.62 and 20.97 efforts run at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India last October.
Lehaa is somewhat unsatisfied with his performance. “I am capable of running much faster. I only wish the organisers can place me against faster opponents,” Lehata lamented.
Other notable performances came from Khotso Mokoena (8.17) in the Long Jump, Cheyne Rahme (5.43) in the Pole Vault and Caster Semenya (2:01.77) in the 800m.
Mark Ouma for the IAAF
