SA athletes qualify for Beijing
2008-07-06 09:09
Johannesburg - With the announcement of the athletics team to the Olympic Games at the end of next week, a few South African athletes who are not 100% certain of their trip to China, produced a mixed bag at the 26th annual international Grand Prix athletics meeting in Madrid, Spain on Saturday night.
The inclusion of Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (800m) and Juan van Deventer (1500m) had not been in doubt but good performances were anxiously awaited by hurdlers Alwyn Myburgh and Ter de Villiers, the javelin thrower, Justine Robbeson and also Rene Kalmer who ran the race of her life in the 1500m, finishing second and within the qualifying time for Beijing. She clocked 4 min 06.71 sec to better her personal best, the IAAF A requirement of 4 min 7 sec. and booked her seat on the plane to China.
Mulaudzi was simply at his brilliant best winning in 1 min 43.64 sec., only 0.03 sec slower than his best this year. He ran behind the pacesetter from the start till about 600m when he took the lead.
Ran well
He passed 400m in an ideal 50.43 sec and showed his strength over the final 200m. He was challenged by Abraham Chepkirwock of Uganda in the final straight but he held him off in style.
Van Deventer also ran very well with a strong finish in fourth position with a good time of 3 min 37.42 sec. Deresse Mekonnen (Ethiopia) won in 3 min 33.99 sec while Iryna Lishchynska of Ukraine won the women's 1500m a few metres ahead of Kalmer in 4 min 05.94 sec.
Myburgh, 2004 Olympic finalist, who had not been very active this year and made only his second appearance since early March, recorded an impressive win in the 400 metres hurdles in 48.99 sec. It was equal to his best of 2008 and the third time out of five appearances that he had bettered the Olympic qualifying mark of 49.20 sec. It was also much better than his time of 49.99 sec in Poland on Tuesday.
Things did not go as well with Ter de Villiers, his teammate and South Africa's fastest intermediate hurdler (48.71 sec) of the year - he is 10th fastest in the world - although he also showed a great improvement on his disappointing showing at the same Polish meeting when he was completely out of touch with a mark of 50.72 and a sixth place. He finished fourth and lowered his best to a more respectable 49.46 sec. It was his best time since winning his first race of the European season in Kassel a month ago.
South African record holder and champion in the javelin, Justine Robbeson, who had been injured and out of action for over three months, made a welcome return with a fine throw of 59.27m and second place behind world record holder, Osleidys Menendez of Cuba who clinched the contest with a good 63.84m. The distance was Robbeson's fourth best of 2008.
- SAPA