Antonio Alkana and Sunette Viljoen were the heroes for South African athletics on Saturday when they grabbed gold medals at the African Championships in Durban.
On the penultimate day of action at the Kings Park Athletics Stadium, superstars Wayde van Niekerk and Caster Semenya continued on their merry way by qualifying for the 200m and 800m finals respectively on Sunday.
But 110m hurdles expert Alkana, from the Bellville Athletics Club, surged to victory in 13.43 seconds – a new championship record – to clinch the host country’s gold of day four of the championships. The SA champion made a great start out of the blocks and kept increasing his lead as he never hit a single hurdle to win by some distance from Nigeria’s Tyron Akins in second (13.74), with Morocco’s Mohamed Koussi third in 13.94.
“I’m quite happy with my performance. I needed to execute, and the start was vital. I didn’t want to struggle in the middle of the race, and I came here to run a clean race,” Alkana said in a post-race TV interview.
Last year’s world championship bronze medallist Viljoen had a much easier time of it in the women’s javelin on Saturday. She was the only competitor to throw beyond 60 metres as she warmed up for the Rio Olympics with a good distance of 64.08m. Compatriot Jo-Ane van Dyk, 18, is the African junior champion and did well to grab the silver in 56.22m.
There was an upset of some sort in the men’s hammer throw, where veteran Chris Harmse was expected to grab another gold medal for South Africa.
Instead, Egyptian Ahmed Ibrahim produced a strong throw of 68.92m to push Harmse into second place (67.67m), with Tshepang Makhethe (65.54m) claiming the bronze medal.
Triple jumper Khotso Mokoena has battled to get going this season, but will be pleased with his efforts on Saturday as he leapt to 16.77m – a new season’s best – to secure a bronze medal. It was still some way off his personal best of 17.35m he jumped in 2014, but was short of the Olympic qualifying mark of 16.85m.
The final day of competition on Sunday will see Semenya and Van Niekerk in action in what will be the highlight of the competition for the partisan Durban crowd. Semenya went through to the women’s 800m final with a comfortable 2:02.01 win in her heat on Saturday, while Van Niekerk clocked a quick 20.03 – the fastest time by a South African on home soil – in the 200m semi-finals.
The 400m world champion will be joined in the shorter distance on Sunday by teenager Clarence Munyai, who ran 20.84 to finish second in his semi-final.
In the women’s 200m, SA champion Alyssa Conley looked in good shape to run 23.02 in her semi-final, just 0.02 off her personal best of 23 seconds flat. She will be determined to break the 23-second barrier in Sunday’s final before starting her final preparations for the Olympics.
Maties athlete Justine Palframan, the 400m World Student Games champion, is concentrating on the shorter sprint and won her semi-final in 23.37 to advance to the final.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, world championship finalist Wenda Nel cruised to a 55.33 to go through to Sunday’s final, along with youngsters Gezelle Magerman and Jean-Marie Senekal.
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