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.
"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 |
Okkert Brits did not have the best of competitions although he recorded a joint seventh place behind Romain Mesnil of France with a jump of 5.62m.
The Frenchman won at a height of 5.92m for the best performance of the year.
Of the other South Africans, Alwyn Myburgh finished eighth in the 400m hurdles with a time of 49.27sec, Sherwin Vries clinched 5th place in the 200m with 20.72sec while javelin thrower Hardus Pienaar improved by 4m on his effort of a week ago to end the competition in 10th place with a distance 75.44m.
Robert Oosthuizen and Raldu Potgieter, two young South African javelin throwers, were the toast of the South African team at the IAAF World Youth Athletics Championships at Sherbrooke, Canada, on Friday night when they won the silver and bronze medals respectively with world class performances.
Oosthuizen set a new South African under-18 record of 81.07m while Potgieter also produced a personal best distance of 75.56m. Their medals were South Africa's first at the meeting.
The 16-year-old Oosthuizen led the competition until the sixth and final round when Julio Cesar de Oliveira of Brazil grabbed gold with a monstrous winning throw of 81.16m. At that stage the Malmesbury schoolboy had one chance left and he really fought back in style although his super effort fell 9cm short of winning gold.
It was an excellent performance and it earned him the standing applause of the appreciative crowd.
Marli Knoetze, one of two other SA athletes in the finals, did well to finish seventh in the discus with a fine throw of 44.78m while Regan Julius could not repeat his performance of 7.23m in the qualifying round and had to settle for 11th place with a jump of 6.73m.
In the 400m hurdles South Africa's representatives, Wouter le Roux and Johann Hanekom, also kept the SA flag flying when both qualified for the final.
Le Roux, the national youth champion, won his semi-final heat in 51.85sec while Hanekom booked his place in the final eight with a third place and a time of 52.14sec. - Sapa
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