Take to Germiston Stadium to witness great athleticism
Battle lines drew at 2019 Sizwe Medical Fund and 3SixtyLife ASA Senior Track and Field and Combined Events Championships.
Germiston Stadium is currently hosting star athletes thanks to the Sizwe Medical Fund and 3SixtyLife Athletics South Africa (ASA) Senior Track and Field and Combined Events Championships.
Locals can visit the stadium to witness a number of head-to-head competitions that are sure to make athletics fans salivate.
Events that will get South African athletics fans excited about the championships will include:
• 100m men:
With no Akani Simbine in the mix, the battle for the national 100m title will come down to four likely athletes, Simon Magakwe, Henricho Bruintjies, Thando Roto and Emile Erasmus.
Magakwe was the first South African to break 10 seconds in 2014 when he ran 9.98 seconds in Tshwane.
He moved from Rustenburg to the Cape and is now being coached by Paul Gorries, World Junior 200m Champion in 2000.
Magakwe opened his season with 10.06 seconds in Parow and is looking in ominous form.
Bruintjies comes into the race with favourite status.
The 2016 SA 100m champion may not have broken the 10-second mark since his 9.97 seconds in 2015, but he has certainly earned his favourite status.
A member of the African Championships gold medal 4x100m relay team, Bruintjies, won the silver medal in the 100m at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 behind Simbine and was a member of the silver medal 4x100m relay team who set a national record of 38.24 seconds.
Roto can never be ignored.
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The powerful 23-year-old boasts a personal best of 9.95 seconds, but has been injury prone.
A fit Roto though, is a dangerous protagonist.
With his bullet start, he puts immense pressure on the rest of the field if they have to play catch up.
Erasmus has been threatening a big break-through for years and is expected to break the 10-second mark sooner rather than later.
On his day, he is a threat to anyone.
• 200m men:
This may be the race of the championships as Simbine, a 19.95-second man, takes on the SA record holder, Clarence Munyai.
Simbine has proven time and again he has what it takes to rise to the occasion, winning the African 100m title, the Commonwealth Games 100m title, has the most sub 10-second clockings by a South African and holds the SA 100m record.
He faces the incredibly talented Munyai who shook the sprinting fraternity when he took the SA 200m record down to 19.69 seconds in the semi-finals of the 2018 version of the championships.
Munyai has a tendency to tense up when the ‘big guns’ are out and the showdown between him and Simbine will be of great interest to the athletics fraternity.
• Long jump men:
This is one of the most eagerly anticipated competitions of the championships.
The incomparable and precocious talent that is Luvo Manyonga, the hard working, never say die, Ruswahl Samaai and Zarck Visser, are the leading long jumpers in South Africa.
Manyonga is a big draw card of the sport and his energetic and carefree approach to long jump has won him the adoration of the South African public.
Not to mention his world title in 2017 and Olympic silver in 2016.
Samaai is a fierce competitor who cannot be discounted in the battle of the pit.
Samaai has twice won the Africa long jump title, bronze at the World Championships in 2017 and bronze at the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
His 8.49m best is a clear indication of how good he is.
Visser is known for his flamboyance in the long jump.
Already he has equalled his best performance in the long jump with an 8.41m leap in Germiston in March.
Visser has battled with injury, but seems to be coming back to his sharpness and the battle between the three will be a big highlight of the championships.
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• 400m hurdles men:
This will be one of the most open competitions over the three days.
Lindsay Hanekom, Sokwakhana ‘Socks’ Zazini and Cornel Fredericks are but three of the names to look out for over the weekend.
Hanekom will be out to defend his title and has already gone under 50 seconds this season, with his 49.64-second win in Mangaung last Saturday.
Fredericks is now training in Mangaung with Ans Botha, coach of Wayde van Niekerk.
Since the death of his former coach, Bruce Longden, weeks before the 2012 Olympics, the multiple SA champion has struggled to find a coach that suits him.
A fit and motivated Fredericks is a dangerous contender, his 2014 Africa Championships, Commonwealth Games and Continental Cup titles are proof of how good he is.
Zazini is only 18 years old, but is already a double world champion, winning the u-17 title in 2017 and the u-18 title in 2018.
How he fares against his more senior counterparts will be telling.
Either way, the men’s 400m hurdles will once again be an event that delivers fireworks.
• 400m hurdles women:
Wenda Nel and the young Zeney van der Walt are the two big names here.
Van der Walt skipped her favourite event, the 400m hurdles at the SA Junior Championships in March in preference of the 400m flat, where she ran her best performance of 53.74 seconds (since improved to 53.34 seconds).
A world u-18 and u-20 champion, van der Walt will have her work cut out for her though as Nel is still the out and out favourite to win the title.
Nel is a two-time African Champion and boasts a best of 54.37-second run in Beijing at the World Championships in 2015 where she finished seventh.
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