He didn’t quite reach the sub-20 second mark, but Wayde van Niekerk still ran his fastest time on home soil to grab the 200m gold medal at the African Championships in Durban on Sunday.
The current 400m world champion was hoping to beat his personal best of 19.94 in the shorter distance at the Kings Park Athletics Stadium – and perhaps challenge Anaso Jobodwana’s SA record of 19.87 – but said afterwards that he had some “tightness” that affected his performance
And it was evident during the race as well. After a good start out of the blocks, Van Niekerk almost held himself back a bit as he approached the bend. With Gambian Adama Jammeh staying in touch, Van Niekerk had to put his foot down on the home straight and sped away from the field.
But the 23-year-old just missed out on a sub-20 second time, crossing the line in 20.02. It was one one-hundredths of a second quicker than his semi-final effort on Saturday, and was his quickest time in this country and the fastest by any South African on home soil.
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity. I struggled a bit today with some tightness. I got the gold medal for South Africa,” Van Niekerk said in a post-race TV interview.
“I would like to run that time (sub-20) some day, but like I said, I felt a bit tight today and took it as it came. I felt quite good when I came out of the bend, and I tried opening up again. But things didn’t go my way again.
“I need to work on my speed and a bit of endurance, so it’s back to the drawing board now. I’m running in Monaco (Diamond League on July 15) next in preparing for Rio. Thank you to everyone that’s been supporting me.”
Caster Semenya didn’t have much competition either in the women’s 800m final, and took matters into her own hands by running well in front of the field from the start. And despite having won the 1 500m title on Saturday, Semenya clocked a superb time of 1:58.20, her third-fastest 800m time in 2016 after she twice ran 1:56.64 in Diamond League meetings.
“I’m quite overwhelmed. The performance was fantastic. Like I said, I’m just doing it for my people,” Semenya said. “I had to give it my best. Obviously I still have a 4x400m relay to run later. I’m quite happy, and obviously the coach is dancing, wherever he is!”
And she didn’t disappoint in the relay either, as she anchored the SA team which also included Jeanelle Griesel, Wenda Nel and Justine Palframan to a new national and championship record of 3:28.49. It may be enough to qualify for the Rio Olympics, depending on what other countries produce before the mid-July cut-off.
But it wasn’t only Van Niekerk and Semenya who stood out for Team SA on Sunday. Wenda Nel made a strong start and kept up her speed throughout the race to win gold in the 400m hurdles.
Nel has steadily improved her times as the season has gone on, and did well to break 55 seconds once more to win in 54.86. It wasn’t far off her season’s best of 54.61, so she is looking on track for the Rio Olympics.
“I’m ecstatic. Nice race, I felt in control, different stride pattern, but I felt good,” Nel said afterwards. “Yesterday (in the heats) I had fewer strides, but today I stuck to my old plan and it worked just as well.”
Jean-Marie Senekal (57.85) finished just outside the medals in fourth, with Youth Olympic champion Gezelle Magerman sixth in 59.08.
There was more gold in the men’s javelin, with Philmar van Rensburg emulating Sunette Viljoen’s success in the women’s event on Saturday with 76.04m winning throw on Sunday.
In the women’s 200m, SA champion Alyssa Conley will be delighted after finally breaking through the 23-second barrier. She went toe-to-toe with Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou in the absence of another world-class Ivorian in Murielle Ahouré.
Ta Lou sped into the lead over the first 100m, but Conley worked hard to come back into the contention for the gold. The gap was too much to make up, though, but Conley produced a new personal best of 22.84, with Ta Lou winning in 22.81. The second South African, Justine Palframan, ended fourth in 23.22.
South African record holder Elroy Gelant made a gallant effort and stayed in the lead pack in the men’s 5 000m, but was unable to get past Kenyan Douglas Kipserem (13:13.35) in the last few hundred metres to finish second in 13:15.13.
Other South African individual medal winners were Lebogang Shange in the men’s 20km walk (bronze, 1:21.41) and Patience Ntshingila (women’s triple jump bronze in 13.24m).
The men’s 400m relay team didn’t have Van Niekerk in their line-up, but did well to clinch a bronze medal in 3:04.73 with a team of Jon Seeliger, Shaun de Jager, Ofentse Mogawane and LJ van Zyl.
South Africa topped the medal standings with 33 (16 gold, 9 silver, 8 bronze).
@IndyCapeSport