JOHANNESBURG - Watch out London, Sunette Viljoen is not done with you. The Olympic silver medallist is ready to exact her “revenge” on the British capital after qualifying for the IAAF World Championships set to be held in the city in August.
The Rio Olympic runner-up opened her season with a massive throw of 62.82 metres to book her place for the global showpiece at the same venue where she narrowly missed out on a medal at the 2012 Games.
“I’m very happy with that, I’ve put in a lot of hard work and it is all coming together now, so it is really good to qualify for the worlds at my first meeting,” Viljoen said.
“I was very motivated after Rio to see all the support of the people of South Africa and what my Olympic medal had meant to the country, it just gave me more motivation for my training.”
Viljoen was resolute in her aim to finally banish the memory of the London Olympics where she finished in fourth place in the javelin final.
“I am really looking forward to going back to London where my biggest disappointment was in the London Olympic stadium,” she said. “That has been the motivation behind my training, to go back there, to turn that disappointment around and into something positive and really beautiful. There is also no more special place to win a world championship medal.”
Olympic women’s 800m champion Caster Semenya also opened her season on a good note, clocking a personal best in a rare
3000m race.
Using the race as a distance training session, Semenya kicked over the final 200m with Kesa Molotsane grittily hanging on for second place.
Semenya crossed the line in nine minutes, 36.29 seconds (9:36.29).
“The distance is a bit long for me, I’m used to running under two minutes on the track then going home; this was part of my training, focusing more on the mileage because I am more than a month behind on my schedule,” Semenya said.
Short sprint sensation Akani Simbine won the 200m, beating Botswana one-lap ace Isaac Makwala with South Africa junior record holder Clarence Munyai crossing the line in third place.
Simbine posted a time of 20.32 seconds.
“It felt very easy, I thought I was getting sick on Monday so I told myself I was still going to run and do just enough to win,” Simbine said.
Meanwhile, world bronze medallist LJ van Zyl suffered a rare defeat against fellow Olympian Le Roux Hamman in his opening 400m hurdles race of the season.
Hamman crossed the line in a time of 49.70 with Van Zyl finishing second.