No Simbine, Van Niekerk, but rising stars ready to shine at Grand Prix

Sprint stars Akani Simbine and Wayde van Niekerk will be missing from the line-ups, while Caster Semenya has been forced to sit out due to new international gender rules, but some rising stars will be eager to steal the show in their absence at the ASA Grand Prix track and field meeting in Pretoria on Wednesday night.

A handful of junior athletes will be hungry to snatch the opportunity and showcase their immense talent.

Here are some of the names to look out for at Tuks Athletics Stadium.

Benjamin Richardson (100m)

To be clear, Richardson doesn’t line up as the favourite, but anyone else in the field will be naive to ignore him.

All eyes will be on Kenyan athlete Ferdinand Omanyala, the African record holder who has become a regular competitor on SA soil, but Richardson is a bomb waiting to explode.

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A two-time World U-20 Championships medallist, Richardson finished second behind SA record holder Simbine at the recent national championships in Potchefstroom, and the 19-year-old rocket has nothing to lose.

Omanyala is a class athlete and while Simbine’s absence might give him more confidence, just one step out of line from the Kenyan will open the door for Richardson to shine, and the youngster will be pushing him all the way to the line.

Viwe Jingqi (100m)

Jingqi stole the show during the 2022 domestic season, shattering the long-standing national youth and junior records.

She has had a slow start to the 2023 campaign after reportedly undergoing appendix surgery, but she will be ready to tear up the the track like a starving beast.

Having only recently turned 18, Jingqi has the world at her feet, and though she hasn’t had a chance to race yet this year, she will be eager to dethrone SA champion Carina Horn.

We can’t write off Horn, and based on form she retains her position as the pre-race favourite, but the 34-year-old SA record holder should be nervous when she goes into the blocks.

If Horn isn’t shaking when the gun goes, she might get burned because Jingqi is a firecracker waiting to pop.

Asande Mthembu (long jump)

The men’s long jump has been one of South Africa’s best disciplines over the last decade, but with Ruswahl Samaai struggling to find his best form and Luvo Manyonga lost in the madness, it looks like it’s Mthembu’s time to shine.

The 18-year-old prospect faces a field which features four other men who have cleared the eight-metre mark, further enhancing SA’s tremendous potential in the event, but his competition are quite frankly not as good as they look on paper.

Cheswill Johnson (who will also run the 100m sprint) can’t seem to find any real focus, youth prodigy Temoso Masikane is probably too young to expect much from him at senior level, Karabo Satekge had one good jump but hasn’t done much since, and Zarck Visser (without any disrespect) is beyond his best.

It should be a thrilling contest, but if Mthembu can keep his head together against a packed field, he’s going to take a massive leap forward in his promising career and prove he has become the man to beat.