World 400m champion Wayde van Niekerk will be the headline act when he lines up in front of his home crowd at the ASA Open Championships in Bloemfontein over the next two days.
Van Niekerk is fresh off winning the rare 100-200m double at the SA Students Championships in Polokwane where he again dipped below the Olympic qualifying times in both events.
“The last time I had an opportunity to do that (race for the double) was back in my junior days, so it is nice to go back to my roots and where I started off,” Van Niekerk said.
“It is a good feeling to know I can still do good times and compete against South Africa’s best.
“It gives me a good build-up to the upcoming season, and I know I still have a lot of hard work to do.”
In Bloemfontein he will be racing in his specialist one-lap sprint at the same venue where he clocked his first sub-10 second 100m dash when he posted a time of 9.98 seconds in March.
“I am just trying to stay healthy, if I am in good shape, I will try my best to give the guys a good show,” Van Niekerk said.
“Whatever comes out of my body, I am happy, I mean it is still very early knowing I still have a long season ahead of me. At this moment it is just about getting into shape.”
Olympic champion Kirani James is in fine fettle this early in the season with a world leading 400m time of 44.08 seconds.
Van Niekerk has so only featured in three 400m races at the SA Track and Field Championships in Stellenbosch last month where he posted a season’s best of 44.98 which is currently the fifth fastest in the world.
The 23-year-old said although there was no pressure to emanate James in running as fast this early in the season, the performances of the leading sprinters motivated each other.
“It is athletics, we are out there doing our best, everyone wants to be in the best shape as possible, and to be the fastest guy on the day when it comes to the Olympics,” Van Niekerk said.
“Whatever route you take to get yourself a gold medal at the Olympics, I think we should respect that, and it motivates the rest of us to pull up our socks, and try and do our best as well.”
Constantly flirting with Olympic qualification, men’s 400m hurdler Lindsay Hanekom will take another stab at adding his name to the South African team.
Hanekom edged closer to the Olympic mark in Polokwane over the weekend when he raced to a new PB of 49.47 seconds missing the qualifying time by seven one hundredths of a second.
Olympic long jump silver medallist Khotso Mokoena will also make an appearance in Bloemfontein where he would hope to at least jump further than the qualifying distance in the triple jump.
Meanwhile, some of the country’s top athletics talent will today line-up at the curtain raiser for this year’s Diamond League meeting in Doha, with Caster Semenya leading the charge.
While six individual athletes including World javelin bronze medallist Sunette Viljoen will open their international campaigns, a South African 4x400m relay team will also be attempting to qualify for the Rio Olympics in August.
Wenda Nel (women’s 400m hurdles), Antonio Alkana (men’s 110m Hurdles), Dumisane Hlaselo (men’s 1500m), and Victor Hogan (men’s discus throw) will also be action.
The 4x400m relay team will consist of Shaun de Jager, Thapelo Phora, Pieter Conradie and Jon Seeliger with Phemelo Matlhabe included as cover.– The Star