While the national mixed 4x400m relay team did well to reach the final, sprinter Gift Leotlela was the star performer for the SA team on day one of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Saturday.
In the opening round of the men’s 100m sprint, national champion Leotlela and SA record holder Akani Simbine both won their heats.
Leotlela clocked 9.87 seconds, setting a personal best and setting the fastest time of the first round, and Simbine stopped the clock in 10.02, with both athletes booking their places in the semifinals to be held on Sunday.
“I had a good start and went through my phases correctly,” said Leotlela, who took 0.07 off his four-year-old personal best of 9.94.
“My coach (Thabo Matebedi) just wants me to execute every round, and we know the (fast) times are there because we’ve been training really well, and it came in the first round.
“This gives me a lot of confidence, but my expectations are not sky high right now. We’re still keeping it low, focusing on ourselves and focusing on the next race, and then we’ll see.”
Retshidisitswe Mlenga settled for seventh position in his 100m heat in 10.42 and he was eliminated ahead of the penultimate round.
Mixed relay team finish sixth
Meanwhile, after breaking the African record in the first-round heats, the national mixed 4x400m relay team went on to finish sixth in the final on day one of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Saturday.
In the early session, Gardeo Isaacs, Miranda Coetzee, Leendert Koekemoer and Zeney van der Walt combined well to take third place in their heat in 3:11.16, shattering the continental mark of 3:11.88 set by Kenya in Nairobi in June last year.
Returning to the track for the final in the late session, there was one change to the team, with Shirley Nekhubui replacing Coetzee, and the quartet clocked 3:11.89 for sixth place.
The United States won gold in 3:08.80, equalling the championship record.
Other results
In other events, national record holder Jessica Groenewald finished 34th in the women’s 35km walk in 3:16:03.
Aiden Smith was 26th overall in the qualifying round of the men’s shot put with a best throw of 19.32m, and Chris van Niekerk was 30th with a heave of 18.81m.
Danielle Nolte took 34th position in the women’s long jump qualifying round with a 5.79m leap.
Schedule of SA athletes competing on day two (Sunday, 14 September):
Early session
2.35am – 1 500m men, heats (Tshepo Tshite, Ryan Mphahlele)
4.28am – 100m hurdles women, heats (Marione Fourie)
Late session
11.35am – 400m men, heats (Zakithi Nene, Lythe Pillay)
11.40am – high jump men, qualification (Brian Raats)
12.25pm – 400m women, heats (Shirley Nekhubui, Miranda Coetzee)
1.43pm – 100m men, semifinals (Akani Simbine, Gift Leotlela)
2.30pm – 10 000m men, final (Adriaan Wildschutt)
3.20pm – 100m men, final (Simbine, Leotlela)
* Featured image of Gift Leotlela by Nic Bothma/Matrix Images/Athletics South Africa
