Johannesburg - Four of South Africa’s top track athletes finished their final races before the Rio Olympic Games on an encouraging note at the London Diamond League meeting over the weekend.
Female one-lap hurdler Wenda Nel led the charge with a season’s best and third best time of her career, winning a bronze medal on Friday night.Nel finished third in 54.47s, behind winner American Dalilah Muhammad in 53.90s and Denmark’s Sara Petersen in second place with 54.33s.
“I made myself believe that I was running the semi-finals at the Olympics and that I had to run the near perfect race to go through to the finals,” said Nel, a Tuks-HPC sponsored athlete.
“I was psyched up to make a race of it right until the end and I now know I can handle the pressure."
Nel seems to be hitting her straps at the right time with her season’s best among the top-10 in the world.Men’s 400m hurdles record-holder LJ van Zyl had an equally positive outing in London clocking his second fastest time this year for a fourth-place finish.
He dipped below 49 seconds for the second time this season, clocking 48.92s.
Former world champion Kerron Clement of the US won the race in 48.40 - the third fastest time this season.Puerto Rico’s Javier Culson was second (48.63) and Turkey’s Yasmani Copello (48.70) third.
“I'm satisfied with the way my race played out. I still need to work on being faster over the last hurdle,” Van Zyl said.
“There are one or two other little hiccups in my technique that I need to fix to be at my best in Rio.”
Distance ace Stephen Mokoka could not sustain his effort to stay with the leading group led by Great Britain’s Mo Farah, who won in a world leading time of 12:59.29.Mokoka still managed to post a season’s best 13:23.66 which should give him some confidence for the Games.S
outh African female 100m record-holder Carina Horn made a good start to the meet, reaching the final with a time of 11.15s. She could not repeat the performance finishing eighth in 11.22s, Ivorian sprinter Marie-Josee Ta Lou winning in 10.96s.
Meanwhile, South Africa bowed out of the IAAF World Junior Championships in Poland with three silver medals.
Gift Leotlela won the only track silverware with javelin throwers Jo-Ané van Dyk and Johan Grobler finishing second in the men’s and women’s events.
Rio-bound Leotlela finished second in the men’s 200m final in 20.59s after he narrowly missed out on a medal in the 100m. He finished fourth in the short sprint in 10.28s, and missed Akani Simbine’s national junior record of 10.19s by 0.01s during the semi-finals.
Van Dyk launched a personal best heave of 57.32m for her silver medal with Poland’s Klaudia Maruszewska edging her out for the title with her throw of 57.59m.
Grobler rounded off South Africa’s performance in Poland producing a silver-medal winning throw and personal best effort of 80.59m.
His early throw was dwarfed by Neeraj Chopra of India’s world junior record heave of 86.48m for the title.
The Star