Promising South African sprinter, Clarence Munyai, took a step further in establishing himself as the next big name in African sprints, smashing South Africa’s 22-year old 200m junior record at the Gauteng North league meet last weekend, clocking an impressive 20.10s
The 19-year old first set a Personal Best (PB) of 10.20s in the 100m, coming very close to matching Akani Simbine’s National Junior Record (NJR) of 10.19s which he missed by just 0.01s. However he got another record and came back stronger two hours later to surpass Riaan Drempers’ 200m South African record of 20.16s which incidentally has been an African Junior record since 1995.
Those outstanding performances earned him 2nd place finishes in both races, as Simbine won both events with record breaking performances in 9.93s and 19.95s respectively, to prevent an upset from an inspired Munyai.
Although these times are yet to be ratified by the IAAF, Munyai’s achievements at the meet cannot go unnoticed, considering his previous PB’s were 10.28s and 20.36s respectively, with his new 200m time also giving him an automatic qualification to the 2017 World Championships in London.
Also, it shows the level of improvement the youngster has had since his fourth place finish in the 200m at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Poland, and not going past the first round at the summer Olympics where he clocked 20.66s.
This performance will also boost his confidence ahead of the African Junior Championships in Algeria, where he’ll be aiming for his first Continental medals in both events.
