Akani Simbine further displayed that his early season form is no fluke, defeating Wayde Van Niekerk on Friday to win the men’s 100m title in a time of 9.95s at the ongoing South African Championships in Potchefstroom.
In a race that saw 200m world silver medallist Anaso Jobodwana withdraw, there were other strong contenders with as many as five of the finalists having run a sub 10s before.
Simbine who clocked the fastest time in the heats in 10.06s and going on to run 9.94s in the semis, kept up the momentum in the final to shake off the challenge of Niekerk who finished 2nd in 10.04s same time as Thando Roto who was 3rd.
.@AkaniSimbine wins SA 100m title in 9.95 seconds. #SASeniors pic.twitter.com/dmwGJeth8t
— Ockert de Villiers (@ockertde) April 21, 2017
Understandably Van Niekerk is a quarter-miler who only recently made know his intentions to compete in both the 200m and the 400m at the World Championships in London, however you cannot underrate him in the 100m considering that he boasts of a Personal Best of 9.98s in that distance.
shout out to @AkaniSimbine @WaydeDreamer for bringing the vibe back to track Super shout out to @thando_roto though.🔥🔥🔥🔥
— Anaso Jobodwana (@_ambitious_jay) April 21, 2017
Meanwhile in the women’s 100m, Alyssa Conley won the title with a time of 11.41s. Tebogo Mamatu finished 2nd in 11.44s while Nabeela Parker came in 3rd in 11.56s.
.@A_CSpeedstar retains her SA 100m with a time of 11.43 seconds. #SASeniors pic.twitter.com/PlhbdH24qH
— Ockert de Villiers (@ockertde) April 21, 2017
In the women’s 400m Hurdles, Wenda Nel won the title after racing to a time of 55.16s with Anneri Moolman 2nd in 58.37s, and Zeny Van Der Walt 3rd in 58.90s. The win sees Nel claim a historic 7th SA title in the event.
However the men’s 400m Hurdles provided a shock as favourite, LJ Van Zyl was beaten to 2nd in 49.52s with Leroux Hamman winning in 49.35s. Constant Pretorius finished 3rd in 49.83s .
In the field events, Olympic silver medallist Sunette Viljoen set the bar higher as she won her 12th National women’s Javelin title. Viljoen was in a world of her own, landing the spear at a mark of 63.49m, with her closest challenger, Jo-ane Van Dyk finishing 2nd with a mark of 52.72m and Megan Wilke 3rd with 48.98m.
Day two of the SA championships will continue on Saturday with more actions expected in other events like the 200m and 400m, with Caster Semenya having qualified for the women’s 400m final after winning her heat in 54.05s. In fact Semenya will be competing in two finals, having also won her 800m heat in 2:08.06
