Sepeng, Mulaudzi in fine form

2004-08-02 11:17

Pretoria - South African champion Hezekiel Sepeng and world indoor champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi - both Olympic medal contenders - get together in the 800m on Friday night in Zurich for the first time on European soil this year to feel out their opposition for the two-lap showpiece in Athens.

Except for the odd niggle and running nose, there are only glowing reports at the Pretoria University training camp as the SA Olympic team undergo final preparations for their departure to Athens on Tuesday.

There is lively interest in the buildups of South Africa's two 800m dynamos in the Weltklasse meeting at Zurich which will provide a fairly accurate indicator of form in the run up to the Olympics, especially after Mulaudzi's third-place in 1min 45,90sec at Crystal Palace in London last Friday night where he beat Algerian world champion Djabir Said Guerni.

Mulaudzi, a terrier-like fighter in a race, is sharpening up after recovering from glandular fever and a foot injury that kept him out of most of the European circuit and he is itching for a return of his strong finish after losing the national title to Sepeng in Durban in March.

"Both of them are on a tightrope to peak at the right time for the Olympics,"said SA's track and field manager Wilfred Daniels after the Olympic Day 10km fun run at Tukkies on Sunday. "These are exciting times for the team and I've never felt the spirit so positive in my years of involvement with the track and field athletes."

Stone last

Daniels said that chances are they will come up against other Olympic medal contenders Yuriy Borzakovskiy and Wilson Kipketer.

Llewellyn Herbert, the bronze medal winner in the 400 hurdles at the Sydney Olympics, said that he was well on the way to recovery from a recent bout of sickness that saw him fall back from second fastest in the world this year behind Felix Sanchez, to stone last at a meeting in Paris St Denis a fortnight ago.

"I'll travel to Athens with the Olympic team on Tuesday then I move on to Zurich," said Herbert. "I've also had to get over a touch of flu, but I'm feeling strong. My health is returning and that's the important thing."

Sepeng, Mulaudzi, Herbert, world high jump champion Hestrie Cloete and Frantz Kruger, the bronze medal winner in the discus at the Sydney Olympics, will be in action at the Zurich meeting.

Daniels also had good news about the recover rates from injury of pole-vaulter Okkert Brits, 400m hurdler Alwyn Myburgh and men's world high jump champion Jacques Freitag.

"Okkert was training on the runway here in Pretoria and he was showing good form," said Daniels of the mercurial Commonwealth Games champion who had a recent setback with a hamstring problem.

"He underwent a strenuous fitness test under the supervision of the medical team and they report that he is at least six days ahead of his anticipated recovery rate. He has returned to Stellenbosch with his coach Jopie Loots."

- SAPA