Phalula eager to shine at Open Champs

Phalula is one of only a few notable athletes in the provisional starting lists for the SA Open Championships in Potchefstroom on Friday and Saturday, which coincide with the start of the European track and field season.

“I’m running the 800m and the 5000m in Potch but my focus will be on the 800m,” Phalula said on Thursday.

“I want to qualify for the Commonwealth Games in the 800m event.”

Phalula has had perhaps the best season of her lengthy career, grabbing two medals at the SA Senior Championships in Pretoria last month and securing bronze at the national 10km championships in Bloemfontein in February.

The 30-year-old athlete from Soweto has also gone unbeaten in the first two legs of the Spar Women’s Challenge 10km series and won the prestigious Two Oceans half-marathon title in Cape Town last month.

If she hopes to qualify for the Glasgow Games in July, however, Phalula will need to be ranked among the top five in the Commonwealth in the highly competitive two-lap event.

She set her career record of 2:02.94 in Port Elizabeth more than eight years ago.

“Depending how fast the race is this weekend I’ll try my best to run close to my fastest time. But we’ll see how it goes. It’s not my last chance to qualify because I’ll be going to Europe later this season.”

Wenda Nel, who clocked an impressive time of 54.92 seconds to win the women’s 400m hurdles title at the national championships in Pretoria last month, will turn out in the flat 400m event in Potchefstroom.

Veteran Chris Harmse, who won his 19th hammer throw crown in Pretoria, will compete in his specialist event this weekend.

Meanwhile, the Southern Region Junior Championships will be held alongside the two-day open event.

The 41-member SA junior squad will compete against teams from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe.

– Sapa