Rome - South African athletics enjoyed one of its better moments at an IAAF Golden League meeting in the Olympic Stadium on Friday when three athletes won their events while two more finished second with outstanding performances.
High jumpers Hestrie Cloete, the current world champion, Jacques Freitag, the world's highest jumper in 2002 and 800m star Mbulaeni Mulaudzi all scored fine victories against most of the world's best in their events.
Freitag kept his best for the last moment when he cleared the crossbar at 2.35m to record the second best jump of his career and also the best height in the world this year. It also surpassed the ASA qualifying mark for Paris by 4cm.
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He first succeeded at 2.31m, then clinched matters with a height of 2.33m and while Mark Boswell of Canada failed at 2.33m, the tall Tuks athlete had the bar raised to 2.35m which he cleared with his first attempt.
'It was fantastic' "I was so tired then, after such a long evening that I decided to call it a day," he told his coach Jonathan Greyvenstein.
"It was fantastic and felt like a 2.48m jump. I am ready now and can't wait to have my next outing at the end of the month in Germany."
Cloete cleared two metres for the second time in four days and showed that she would not easily be dethroned as world champion in Paris next month.
All the main contenders such as Inha Babakova and Kajsa Bergqvist, to mention only two, could not match the tenacity and determination of the South African housewife.
Hot on their heels, Llewellyn Herbert clocked the fastest 400m hurdles of the year by any South African with a time 48.50 sec in second place behind world champion Felix Sanchez while Hezekiel Sepeng showed his serious intentions to try to impress the South African selectors to include him in the team for the forthcoming World Championships with an excellent second place in the 800m, clocking 1min 44.21sec.
Cloete cleared two metres
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