Cape Town - World Championship bronze medallist Anaso Jobodwana and South African joint-100m record holder Henricho Bruintjies will spearhead the national team at the World Indoor Championships in March.
Jobodwana broke the South African 200m record with a time of 19.87sec in romping home to third place in the World Athletics Championships in Beijing in August last year, behind champion Usain Bolt in 19.55 and Justin Gatlin in 19.74.
He will look to push for the 60m title at the IAAF World Indoor Championships taking place in Portland, Oregon in the United States from March 17-20.
The 23-year-old from the Eastern Cape will be familiar with conditions in the US as he spent a number of years on a scholarship at Jackson State University in Mississippi, and last year moved his training base to Phoenix, Arizona.
Jobodwana will be joined in the 60m sprint event by Bruintjies, who surpassed Simon Magakwe’s SA 100m mark of 9.98 with a run of 9.97 at a meet in Switzerland last July to become only the third South African to dip under 10 seconds, behind Magakwe and Akani Simbine, who also recorded a 9.97 just four days after Bruintjies in Gwangju, South Korea.
Athletics South Africa also chose a strong long-jump contingent when they a
announced their team on Tuesday, with Ruswahl Samaai and Zarck Visser included.
Visser has a personal best of 8.41m, which came in Bad Langensalza in Germany in July 2015, which is just 9cm off Khotso Mokoena’s national record of 8.50m. Samaai isn’t far behind, his PB of 8.38m recorded in Stellenbosch last April.
ASA will also be sending a 4x400m team to Portland, consisting of Ofentse Mogawane, Shaun de Jager, Thapelo Phora, Jon Seeliger and Sonwabiso Skhosana in the 11-strong group.
@IndyCapeSport
South African Team
60m: Henricho Bruintjies, Anaso Jobodwana. 60m Hurdles: Antonio Alkana. Long Jump: Zarck Visser, Ruswahl Samaai. Heptathlon: Willem Coertzen. 4x400m: Ofentse Mogawane, Jon Seeliger, Thapelo Phora, Shaun de Jager, Sonwabiso Skhosana. Coach: Jaun Strydom. Team Manager: Kobus Steyn.