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Brits pushed out of medals
10/07/2008 22:10 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Tazmin Brits, the 2007 world youth javelin champion was the pick of the SA team on the third day of the 12th World Junior Athletics
Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland on Thursday, although she failed to finish among the medals..
Brits, the second youngest finalist, threw a distance of 56.12m - the third best of her career.
After three rounds she was still in third place but then she was passed by two competitors.
The winner, Vira Rebryk of Ukraine, was the star of the meeting to date with a new world junior record of 63.01m. She was followed by two Chinese athletes who finished 2nd and 4th and Tatyana Jeleca (Serbia) in third place with 58.77m.
Brits improved from 55.34m to 56.12m in her final round but this did not affect the final result. Seventeen-year-old Brits will still be a junior in 2010.
Another 17-year-old, pole-vaulter Cheyne Rahme, was one of the athletes who qualified for Saturday's final. He made sure of his place when he succeeded at 5.10m with his first attempt. He also had earlier successful attempts at 4.70. 4.90 and 5.00m.
The only other SA athlete in a final, Dumisane Hlaselo, was the world's
second fastest 1500m junior of the year on view but he could do no better
than 10th in 3min 51.71sec, about 13sec slower than the new SA
record he set in March at Stellenbosch.
The race was a tactical affair and although Hlaselo led the field after 800m in an almost pedestrian 2min 09.60sec, the pace was far too slow and he could not respond when various speedy African runners sped past him.
High standard
Imad Touil of Algeria won in 3:47.40, followed by James Magul of
Kenya, and Demma Daba of Ethiopia hot on his heels.
Living up to the high standard of South Africans contesting the 400m hurdles at global meetings, Cornell Fredericks and PC Beneke both reached Friday's final.
Fredericks won the third semi-final in 51.11 - third fastest of the
finalists - while Beneke went through as best of the two fastest losers.
The final will include two each from the United States and South Africa,
with the others representing Cuba, Kenya, Israel and Germany. The two
Americans, Jeshua Anderson (49.90) and Johnny Dutch (50.40) recorded faster times in winning the other heats.
Nombulelo Mkenku, the Free State sprinter who did so well in the All African Games last year, is clearly not in the same shape this year, failing to progress in the 200m, as she had done in the 100m.
She survived the first round with a time of 24.11 sec but in the semi-final later in the day she had to be satisfied with 24.29 sec and a sixth place which did not earn her a her place in
the final. Her team-mate, Alyssa Conley, was eliminated in the morning
heats after clocking 24.44 and finishing fourth.
With the exception of Rahme and Mkenku the morning session did not produce much joy for the SA team. Patrick Vosloo (200m in 21.93 and 5th in his heat) and the triple two jumpers Boipelo Motlhathlego (15.32m) and Riaan Arends (15.01m) failed to finish among the top twelve finalists.
- SAPA
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