Kotoso Mokoena leaping to the South African title in Stellenbosch (© Mark Ouma)
Stellenbosch, South AfricaSouth African Kotoso Mokoena prevailed in a duel with Senegal’s Badji Kaba Ndiss on day one at the Yellow Pages South Africa Senior Championships in Stellenbosch, South Africa on Friday (13).
The quality and intensity of the competition in the preliminaries of several track events strongly suggest that many athletes could qualify for the World Championships on the final day of the competition.
Mokena pushed in men’s Long Jump
Mokena took to the long jump with a firm conviction he would reclaim the title he surrendered last year to the now injured Keenan Watson. A fourth round attempt of 8.21m, albeit wind assisted secured his primary objective. He was pushed all the way during the competition by the lanky Ndiss who posted a legal jump of 8.10m for his first competition of the calendar year.
“I no longer take winning the national title for granted after last year’s experience,” says Mokoena. “Since I relocated my base from Potchefstroom to Tshwane (formerly Pretoria), I have reverted back to my former coach Elna de Beer now that we can work together more easily. We are trying some new techniques. This year I plan on improving the national record (8.39m) I set in 2006,” Mokoena revealed.
14th consecutive Hammer Throw title for Harmse
Three-time Africa champion Chris Harmse achieved a landmark, winning the national title for the 14th consecutive year. What had him all chuffed up was his fifth round winning throw of 74.78m. Not only was it his best result this year, it is also inside the World Championships B qualifying standard.
“It was important for me to make the B qualifying standard for the World Championships (in Berlin). This year I do not want to miss the event since the heats are on a Saturday and the finals on a Monday,” says Harmse.
A deeply religious athlete Harmse does not compete on Sunday. Consequently, he skips any event that requires him to compete on that day. “I have paced my preparations for Berlin in such a way that in July I should achieve the more stringent A qualifying standard (77.50) while competing against stronger opponents on the European summer circuit,” Harmse explained.
Elsewhere...
Stephen Mokoka lived up to his ambition of winning the national 10,000m title. He is the only South African this year to cover the distance in less than 29 minutes. He looks beyond his winning time of 28:52.22.
“At this stage of the season my focus is to hold my own against the Ethiopians, Kenyans and Ugandans at the World Cross country Championships in Amman (Jordan) in a fortnight. This race was about assessing my fitness level,” says Mokoka.
Preliminary round 100m times of 10.31 and 10.38 by Leigh Julius and Kagiso Kumbane respectively, indicates that some sprinters are likely to achieve the Berlin A standard qualifier of 10.21 in Saturday’s final. Other promising times came from 1500m runner Juan van Deventer (3:38.38), women’s 400m defending champions Tsholofel Thipe (52.95) and Kenyan 400m hurdler Julius Bungei (51.24).
Mark Ouma for the IAAF
