Olympic silver medallist Sunette Viljoen will be the woman to beat when she lines up in the Lausanne Diamond League meeting in Switzerland on Thursday night.
Viljoen grabbed the silver medal with a 64.92m effort in her very first attempt at the Rio Olympics a week ago, and was in fact in the lead for three rounds.
But the largely unknown 21-year-old Croatian Sara Kolak – who won bronze at the European Championships this year with a throw of 63.50m – pulled out a new national record of 66.18m in the fourth round to take the lead, and she never relinquished it as Viljoen was unable to produce another big distance, as three no-throws in her last four attempts scuppered any chance of a comeback.
The South African champion, though, was delighted to have gone two steps further than at the 2012 London Olympics, when she ended fourth after coming into the competition as the undoubted favourite.
But while the 32-year-old won’t have to contend with the Olympic champion in Lausanne as Kolak has not entered the 41st Athletissima event, Viljoen won’t have an easy time of it.
World record holder Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic, Olympic finalists Maria Andrejczyk of Poland (fourth) and Australian Kathryn Mitchell (sixth) and Diamond League javelin leader Madara Palameika of Latvia will be her main rivals, with the event set to start at 7.05pm SA time.
Viljoen will hope to put her Twitter spat with Sascoc and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula behind her after complaints of late payments and lack of support in the past.
She stated on Thursday that the governing body has acted faster this time around in dishing out promised rewards from the Rio Olympics. “I would like to confirm that I have received the first part of my payment from Sascoc. I thank them for the quick response this time,” said Viljoen, who is set to receive a total of R270 000 (and an extra R50 000 for her coach) for winning a silver medal.
Viljoen is the only South African athlete participating in Lausanne, but there are a number of Olympic champions and medallists on show, such as 1 500m world champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya up against Rio gold medallist Matthew Centrowitz of the USA in the 1 000m, American women’s 100m hurdles world record holder Kendra Harrison and 400m hurdles Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad.
Double Olympic sprint winner Elaine Thompson will also line up in the 100m in Lausanne, while American LaShawn Merritt – who won bronze in Rio – will be the favourite in the 400m in the absence of South African world record holder Wayde van Niekerk.
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