Sprinters to spare ASA’s blushes?

It will once again be up to the athletes to save Athletics SA's (ASA) blushes as this week's African Athletics Championships in Durban will be the last realistic opportunity for the nation's relay teams to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games. Photo: WU HONG

It will once again be up to the athletes to save Athletics SA's (ASA) blushes as this week's African Athletics Championships in Durban will be the last realistic opportunity for the nation's relay teams to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games. Photo: WU HONG

Published Jun 20, 2016

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It will once again be up to the athletes to save Athletics SA’s (ASA) blushes as this week’s African Athletics Championships in Durban will be the last realistic opportunity for the nation’s relay teams to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games.

Relay teams need to be ranked among the top 16 in the world, which is determined by the aggregate of their two fastest times.

The relays at the five-day continental track and field event will be contested over heats and finals which effectively leaves South Africa with only two opportunities to qualify.

South African sprinting is in its strongest position yet with 10 sprinters having qualified for the Rio Games – six men and four women.

Boasting with two sprinters with sub-10 second times the men’s 4x100m relay team is considered a strong medal prospect.

National record holder Akani Simbine will spearhead the charge with his personal best of 9.96 seconds while Henricho Bruintjies with a PB of 9.97s will add the extra oomph.

The rest of the squad includes Youth Commonwealth Games Champion Gift Leotlela (10.20s), Emile Erasmus (10.21s), and Thando Roto (10.27s).

The sprinters will have little time to practice their changeovers with some of the athletes only arriving today (Tuesday).

Hennie Kriel, who will be the team’s sprint coach along with former national speedster Paul Gorries, said he was confident the team would be able make the cut.

“I’ve had two athletes in the team that improved the national record at the Commonwealth Games two years ago and they just practiced the day before and yet they broke the record,” Kriel said.

“It is not as if we are working with raw, inexperienced athletes, we obviously want to do well in the relay but we can’t sacrifice the individual events.”

The quartet of Simon Magakwe, Simbine, Ncinci Titi and Bruintjies’ clocked a new South African record of 38.35 seconds at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The two fastest times by South African relay teams is World Student bronze medal-winning quartet's time of 39.44s and a time of 39.88s posted by the TuksSport High School team earlier this year.

For a realistic chance of qualifying a team for the Games, they will have to post two sub-39 second times in Durban.

“To run a 38-second time we definitely need Akani and Henricho but if we have to we can save them during the heats,” Kriel said.

“We have enough quality, and if we have decent changeovers there is no reason why we can’t run under 39 seconds.”

The women’s 4x100m team is also starting to take shape with joint-national record holder Carina Horn and rising star Alyssa Conley the two top sprinters in the squad.

Junior sensation Tamzin Thomas, who missed the Olympic qualifying time by 0.05s with a time of 11.37s over the weekend and Tebogo Mamathu, only 0.08s short of the standard will make up the rest of the women’s team.

The women’s 4x400m team also has some serious star quality with Caster Semenya as anchor boasting with a personal best of 50.74s.

Tsholofelo Thipe, who qualified for the Games over the one-lap sprint, and 400m hurdles ace Wenda Nel are also included in the team while World Student 400m champion Palframan is listed a reserve. - Independent Media

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