Cape Town - She ran a new personal best in the 100m late last month, and on Tuesday night, South African champion Alyssa Conley repeated the feat in the 200m in Lucerne, Switzerland.
After winning the 100m B final earlier in the evening in a good time of 11.36 – although behind her PB of 11.23 she produced in May – Conley decided to enter the 200m as well at the Stadion Allmend.
The Johannesburg born-and-bred sprinter has told Independent Media previously that she prefers the 200m, and is set to contest that event at the African Championships in Durban later this month.
Conley was quick out of the blocks on Tuesday and powered into the lead on the bend, but a strong headwind of -1.4m/s in chilly conditions may have hampered here as German Gina Lückenkemper caught up with the South African in the last 60 metres to win in 22.91.
Conley just missed out on a sub-23 second time, but her 23.00 beat her previous best of 23.01, which she ran at the SA championships in Stellenbosch in April. In the men’s 100m, SA champion Henricho Bruintjies was in the starting list, but wasn’t recorded in any of the heat or final results.
Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut, who is the world leader this year with a blistering time of 9.86, continued his upward curve in terms of victories when he secured another win in 10.08. Running into a headwind of -0.6m/s, Vicaut held off Ivorian Ben Youssef Meité (10.26) and British duo James Dasaolu and Richard Kilty (both 10.31).
The three South African hurdles athletes all had a tough night in the cold and windy weather in Switzerland. National 110m hurdles champion Antonio Alkana didn’t have the best of nights as he was slow out of the blocks, and faded to joint-fourth in a rather pedestrian 13.55, well below his personal best of 13.28 run in the Rabat Diamond League three weeks ago.
Cornel Fredericks had high hopes of finally running an Olympic qualifying time of 49.40 in the 400m hurdles, but couldn’t get there due to the conditions and had to settle for third in the B race in 50.15.
Wenda Nel battled in the women’s event too, ending third as well in 56.07. Long jumper Maryke Brits had to contend with headwinds of 1.7m/s and wasn’t able to go beyond six metres, as she produced a best jump of 5.93m in her last round after having twice reached 5.83m to end in fifth position.
In the men’s shot put, SA champion Orazio Cremona came second in a three-man field in 18.68m, with Brazilian Darlan Romani winning in 20.36m. Meanwhile, at the Stanislas Meeting in Nancy, France on Tuesday night, Johan Cronjé began his build-up to the Olympics with a third place in the 1 500m.
His time of 3:37.49 saw him finish behind Moroccan winner Fouad El Kaam (3:36.15, an Olympic qualifying time) and Ethiopian Mekonnen Gebremedhin (3:36.43). [email protected]
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Independent Media