Charles Devantay from Switzerland and Derrick Mokaleng from South Africa compete in men's 400 meters qualification round during the IAAF World U20 Championships at the Zawisza Stadium on July 20, 2016 in Bydgoszcz, Poland. (Photo by Adam Nurkiewicz/Getty Images for IAAF)
South African athletes continued to stake a small claim on the global indoor track and field circuit at the weekend, with another two national records falling in the United States.
Distance runner Dom Scott-Efurd grabbed fourth place in the women’s 1 500m race at the World Indoor Tour meeting in Boston on Saturday night, charging across the line in 4:07.25 to strip more than three seconds off her own SA mark of 4:10.90 which she had set in New York last year.
It was her second SA record of the season, after bettering her 3 000m standard a week earlier, and the fifth national indoor mark to be broken in less than nine days.
On Friday night, in Lubbock, 20-year-old sprinter Derrick Mokaleng produced a superb performance by clocking 45.76 over the 400m distance at a collegiate meeting.
He ripped 0.49 off his own SA mark which he set last month, becoming the first SA athlete to dip under 46 seconds on an indoor track.
Other records which have fallen this month include Luvo Manyonga’s 8.32m long jump leap and Carina Horn’s 7.10 performance in the 60m sprint.
While Scott-Efurd, Horn and Mokaleng will not compete at the upcoming Commonwealth Games, all three athletes could be included alongside Manyonga in the SA team for the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham next month.
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