Successful appeal hands SA sprint relay team chance to qualify for final

The South African men’s 4x100m relay team was thrown a dramatic lifeline late on Saturday night at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. That’s after a successful appeal for being impeded in their heat earlier in the evening. By Karien Jonckheere

First-leg runner Shaun Maswanganyi was bumped out of position by Italy’s 2020 Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs at the crucial first baton changeover, leaving Team SA’s hopes in tatters as they couldn’t finish the race. But the successful appeal has reopened the door. The sprinters will line up again in a timed relay on Sunday morning at 10.33am local time with one last shot to snatch a place in the final.

According to a World Athletics update: “If the South African team runs 38.34 or better (the 8th placed time qualified for the final) they will become the 9th team in the final and will run in lane 1. This will not affect the 8 teams already qualified.”

It means the same quartet of Maswanganyi, Sinesipho Dambile, Bradley Nkoana and Akani Simbine must regroup overnight and summon their very best, once more from the same lane six.

Meanwhile, Jo-Ané du Plessis finished just off the podium in fourth place in the women’s javelin final after a best effort of 63.06m. She admitted afterwards that the prospect of the final had seemed a daunting one after qualifying in a lowly 10th spot on Friday.

“When I woke up this morning, I was feeling like David against Goliath, so I’m happy. It’s not a medal but for me it’s like a gold medal, just showing up and still doing my best,” she said.

There were mixed fortunes for SA’s other relay teams in action on Saturday. The men’s 4x400m quartet of Gardeo Isaacs, Udeme Okon, Leendert Koekemoer and Lythe Pillay sailed to victory in their heat in convincing fashion, crossing the line in 2 minutes 58.81 seconds.

“My team did the job for me. I wanted to finish strong,” said Lythe, who ran the anchor leg. “I’ve felt what it’s like when you relax too much when you’re in the lead so I thought let me just go and whoever wants to catch me must fight to catch me.

“Our team is strong, we’re healthy, we’re hungry and we’re ready for the final tomorrow.”

The women’s 4x400m team of Shirley Nehkubui, Marlie Viljoen, Hannah van Niekerk and Zenéy van der Walt finished seventh in their heat in 3:28.14 and did not advance. 

Earlier on Saturday, Wayne Snyman was relieved to cross the line in the 20km race walk, but his 43rd-place finish in 1 hour 30.12 seconds was far from his target. The 40-year-old schoolteacher, who has retired and returned to the sport more than once, faced a difficult road to these championships – and an even harder race on the day.

“I started terribly. The first 9km was incredibly hard, I couldn’t breathe at all. I had to stop to vomit twice,” he admitted afterwards. “And I think after about nine and a half or 10, I actually started to get comfortable. Then I actually started racing, but then in a 20km, it’s far too late but I just couldn’t stop, I had to finish.”

South Africa also endured disappointment in the field events, with none of the three shot putters – Miné de Klerk (24th), Ashley Erasmus (30th) and Colette Uys (32nd) – advancing past qualification. Victor Hogan also missed out in the discus after managing 61.51m to place 24th overall.

Athletics South Africa Grand Prix Brings the Heat to Pilditch!

Prudence Sekgodiso and Marioné Fourie both produced promising performances to boost their confidence levels ahead of jetting off to the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China next week.

Competing at the first ASA Grand Prix meet of the season at the Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria, Fourie blazed to the fastest season-opener of her career, winning the 100m hurdles in a speedy time of 12.77 seconds.

“12.7 to begin with for the 100m hurdles and a world lead, I’m very excited,” said an elated Marioné afterwards.

“This gives me a lot of confidence because we didn’t know where I was standing in training so having this fastest season’s opener shows that we are ready for next week.”

Prudence looked to have plenty in the tank as she cruised to victory in the 800m. The Olympic finalist slotted in behind training partner Oratile Nowe of Botswana for much of the race before taking the lead on the back straight in the final lap, eventually reaching the finish in a time of 1:59.01. Oratile was second in a new national record for Botswana of 1:59.46.

“The girls were slowing down so I had no choice but to pass them… I’m glad that I maintained that sub-two minutes. It shows that there’s something big coming looking towards the World Championships coming up next week,” said Prudence afterwards.

“I’m actually shocked because for the past two weeks I’ve been training for the 1500. I’ve been doing long stuff at training yet I ran sub-two minutes. I don’t know how I did it but thanks to God, I just have the natural speed in me.”

Later in the evening, it was a teenage sprint sensation who stole the show when he defeated Kenya’s African record holder Ferdinand Omanyala in the men’s 100m.

Karabo Letebele stormed home in a time of 10.19 seconds – the fastest 100m time by a junior athlete in the world this year – to take the win. Emile Erasmus was second by a few thousandths of a second with Ferdinand relegated to third place in 10.22.

“I didn’t expect to beat him [Ferdinand]. I thought he was going to run a 9.-something so I just told myself to execute my own race, go through my phases and I’ll be fine,” said the 18-year-old from Vanderbijlpark who is planning to take up a scholarship to study business management in the USA later this year.

“This has given me more confidence knowing that I have what it takes, especially in my age group. I’m going against the likes of [Olympic silver medallist] Bayanda [Walaza] so I’m just happy to see that my hard work pays off and I have what it takes to be number one.”

Meanwhile, there were two South African records set on Wednesday. Leandri Holtzhausen was first up in the women’s hammer throw, bettering her own mark set four weeks ago with a distance of 67.95m.

“I definitely think I can get close to 70m,” she said afterwards. “I really feel good, my training has been going really well, so it’s just a matter of time.”