Ruswahl Samaai is a sure bet for Team South Africa’s long jump team for the Rio Olympics, but who will be the two other athletes alongside him?
Samaai, the South African and African champion, has a personal best distance of 8.38m, which he jumped again this year at a Diamond League meeting in Rabat after first jumping the distance at the SA championships in Stellenbosch last year.
Samaai actually produced a jump of 8.40m to win the African title in Durban in late June, but the distance won’t go into the record books as it was wind-assisted (2.9m/s).
But apart from the Paarl jumper, there are three others vying for the two remaining spots in the long jump group. Former world junior champion Luvo Manyonga is making his way back to the top after a few years out of the action due to a battle with recreational drugs, and he claimed the silver medal behind Samaai at the African Champs with an 8.23m jump.
He seems to be getting close to his best, and seems to be the favourite for the second spot.
Stefan Brits, who hails from the Western Cape and attended Paul Roos Gymnasium, is a top athlete at Florida State University in the US, where he is ranked No 1 in the collegiate system with a personal best of 8.22m.
Brits, who is busy studying towards a doctorate in chemistry, is third on the South African long jump rankings for 2016.
But things could still change in the next seven days. There is another top SA jumper, who was ranked second in the world last year, who is trying to make a late bid for Rio.
Zarck Visser jumped an incredible 8.41m exactly a year ago to the day in Bad Langensalza, Germany, which saw him at joint-No 2 on the world list with Britain’s Greg Rutherford and behind American Jeff Henderson.
But University of Johannesburg athlete Visser sustained a stress fracture in his leg last year and was out until June, when he made his return to the long jump pit at a local meet in Pretoria.
He continued his comeback by winning at the Flanders Cup in Lokeren, Belgium on Sunday with a leap of 7.81m. It was well off the Olympic qualifying mark of 8.16m – although he has already qualified with his 8.41m from last year, he needs to prove to Sascoc that his current form is close to his best to push for that third spot behind Samaai and Manyonga for Rio.
There are others such as Dylan Cotter and even veteran Khotso Mokoena who have qualified for the Olympics as well, so Visser will have to pull off a big one in the next week to be assured of making it to Brazil.
In the men’s 400m hurdles, Le Roux Hamman continued his good form of recent weeks with another victory in Lokeren in a time of 49.61. Hamman seems to have the edge over Cornel Fredericks, who has yet to run the qualifying time of 49.40 this year.
Hamman is third on the SA list with 49.24, behind LJ van Zyl (48.67) and Lindsay Hanekom (49.03). So, just like Visser, it will be all up to Fredericks in the next seven days to pull out a quick time, with his last race in Sollentuna, Sweden last week yielding a disappointing time of 49.94, with Hamman running a 49.44 last Wednesday in Finland.
Johan Cronjé is also battling to get going in the 1 500m ahead of Rio, as he clocked a 3:42.41 in Lokeren on Sunday.
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